Global financial distress

[HUGE AL]

The US Dollar is clobbering the Pound at the moment. It was all but 2 to 1 a while ago, it's down to 1.68 this morning. We buy a fair bit of equipment in USD.

I noticed the same thing with the Canadian Dollar today. Just a few weeks ago, it was trading US$1:CAD$1. Now we're at US$1:CAD$1.26 -- making HUGE AL much happier.

I have student loans to pay back in USD. But I'm glad I left a little bit of money back in my US bank account...should tide over my payments for the next year or so.

This got me thinking about how Savage25's FFP's always tank when he joins the program...since he is now out of the USD, does this mean the Americans are in for a nice uptick?

[phaleesy]

This got me thinking about how Savage25's FFP's always tank when he joins the program...since he is now out of the USD, does this mean the Americans are in for a nice uptick?

I think we have to ship Savage25 back to the States or Singapore. I get paid in £ and I am a very unhappy bunny at the moment.

[singaporu_kooku]

AUD has been sliding down like nobody's business. I have a trip to Japan coming up soon and the Australia dollar has been losing ground with the Yen. 4 months ago, 1 AUD = 98 yen, this morning it's 1 AUD = 55 yen!! That's 43% drop.. Sigh...

I need to start begging for money in the Japanese streets. Their yen is the hottest currency at the moment.

[HUGE AL]

Their yen is the hottest currency at the moment.

Yup, they've already had their recession. The USD has slid since I was there just a couple weeks ago...

[YK@HKG]

AUD has been sliding down like nobody's business. I have a trip to Japan coming up soon and the Australia dollar has been losing ground with the Yen. 4 months ago, 1 AUD = 98 yen, this morning it's 1 AUD = 55 yen!! That's 43% drop.. Sigh...

I need to start begging for money in the Japanese streets. Their yen is the hottest currency at the moment.

The rate at which AUD (and NZD) is going right now is scarry....they have depreciated over 40% since 3 mths ago .

[Savage25]

This got me thinking about how Savage25's FFP's always tank when he joins the program...since he is now out of the USD, does this mean the Americans are in for a nice uptick?

Just got more bad news today - new travel policy requires all international travel to go to CFO's office for approval. I predict BA will sing bye bye to their planned LCY-JFK nonstop next year.

[dcflyer]

" Austria’s bank exposure to emerging markets is equal to 85pc of GDP – with a heavy concentration in Hungary, Ukraine, and Serbia – all now queuing up (with Belarus) for rescue packages from the International Monetary Fund.

Exposure is 50pc of GDP for Switzerland, 25pc for Sweden, 24pc for the UK, and 23pc for Spain. The US figure is just 4pc. America is the staid old lady in this drama.

Amazingly, Spanish banks alone have lent $316bn to Latin America, almost twice the lending by all US banks combined ($172bn) to what was once the US backyard. Hence the growing doubts about the health of Spain’s financial system – already under stress from its own property crash – as Argentina spirals towards another default, and Brazil’s currency, bonds and stocks all go into freefall.

Broadly speaking, the US and Japan sat out the emerging market credit boom. The lending spree has been a European play – often using dollar balance sheets, adding another ugly twist as global “deleveraging” causes the dollar to rocket. Nowhere has this been more extreme than in the ex-Soviet bloc.

The region has borrowed $1.6 trillion in dollars, euros, and Swiss francs. A few dare-devil homeowners in Hungary and Latvia took out mortgages in Japanese yen. They have just suffered a 40pc rise in their debt since July. Nobody warned them what happens when the Japanese carry trade goes into brutal reverse, as it does when the cycle turns. . . ."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/c...-meltdown.html

Truly a global financial crisis

[Kiwi]

The rate at which AUD (and NZD) is going right now is scarry....they have depreciated over 40% since 3 mths ago .

Tell me about it. A number of credit card charges from my recent trip are slow to come through and exchange rate has dropped another few % just in the short time since then.

Fortunately I have many tickets paid already, but soaring cost of accommodation and other expenses is causing a problem and ticketing next year is looking fugly.

[Kiwi]

Good idea unless the content of the basket is made up by Zimbabwe-Dollars and North Korean Won

Zimbabwe has massive problems. Latest inflation rates are 5.8 million % per month, 10.2 quadrillion % per annum

Latest exchange rate 250 billion Zimbabwe dollars = 1 USD (note on 1 August it was revalued by 10 billion to 1 to loosely 1:1)

[singaporu_kooku]

Zimbabwe has massive problems. Latest inflation rates are 5.8 million % per month, 10.2 quadrillion % per annum

I wonder if the government has trouble calculating how many zero's in quadrillions coz I do..

[Kiwi]

I wonder if the government has trouble calculating how many zero's in quadrillions coz I do..

The official exchange rate is about 550 ZWD to USD, but no one can exchange at that rate. Zimbabwe government agencies have long given up measuring inflation rates.

[MAN Flyer]

Asia Pacific Airlines face gloomy outlook, says industry group

KUALA LUMPUR : Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region face a tough future as the global financial crisis bites deeper, an industry group warned Wednesday after passenger and cargo traffic fell sharply in September.

Andrew Herdman, director-general of the Kuala Lumpur-based Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), said airlines will suffer a decline in revenue caused by the global slowdown.

"We are braced for a very rough ride over the next few months as the global economic slowdown begins to bite hard," he said in a statement.

Herdman said AAPA members had reported sharply lower passenger and cargo traffic volumes in September, with international passenger numbers declining 6.6 percent to 11.0 million compared to the same month last year.

International air cargo traffic fell 9.0 percent.

The AAPA had witnessed a sharp deterioration in the operating environment in the past few months, Herdman said, adding: "Air cargo demand slumped in the summer and is still falling, even though this is normally the peak shipping season."

He said rapidly weakening consumer confidence affecting markets across the world would hurt air travel.

For the first nine months of the year, the AAPA's passenger traffic grew by just 1.6 percent from a year ago while cargo traffic contracted 1.6 percent.

Herdman said lower oil prices "will not compensate for the expected revenue shortfall."

He added: "Airlines will continue to take all possible steps to stay afloat, including reviewing capacity adjustments and making sure that fares remain competitive to attract incremental business."

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...386271/1/.html

My bolding. I don't think they spoke to SQ before releasing this!.

[StarG]

Just received an e-mail from SQ corporate department removing restrictions on lowest Business fares (C & J) - previously these are not bookable on SQ318/322.
Have a feeling this has something to do with declining (projected) loads in Business Class for these flights.

[quik!]

Was on SQ318 last night, load factor was poor. Everyone had an empty seat beside. Also many many empty 4-in-a-rows. First time seeing this...looks like the global financial distress is really affecting load factor.

[scooby5]

I've heard Cathay's Business Class is down about 25-30% these days, as well as first but some flights out there are still ridiculously full. I flew Frankfurt-Bangkok last Sunday and the whole flight was full with the exception of a couple of seats in First.

It seems to be that if people don't cut cost by flying Economy then they do so by changing airline, and with SQ virtually being the most expensive in J they could get hurt from both sides.