Archive: May, 2010
Tom Belden
Here's another reminder why you keep your seatbelt buckled while in your seat on an airplane. Ten people, nine passengers and a crew member, were injured when a United 777 enroute from London to Los Angeles hit severe turbulence. The flight landed in Montreal, the injured taken off for treatment and the plane taken out of service. Read a little more here.
Tom Belden
The most recent news about the cabin crew strike against British Airways is not good. Read about it in the UK media here.
Tom Belden
That headline up top should suggest to you that this is only one of many similar posts. I plan to throw as much news and commentary on airline mergers onto this blog as I can find. If you find enlightening information you want to share on airline mergers and industry consolidation, please use the handy comment form at the end of every post.
First up today: Analyst Bob McAdoo of Avondale Partners commented in a note to investors on what US Airways would bring to a marriage to American Airlines. Guess what? The contribution of the PHL hub would, he thinks, add more trans-atlantic connecting traffic to American's than it's going to get from its much-vaunted codeshare with Japan Airlines. You may need a glossary of terms to understand the report: He uses stock symbols for airlines, as in LCC for US Airways (the rest you can figure out). Here's what McAdoo says:
"U.S. East Coast/European capacity offered by the AMR/British Airways/Iberia oneworld alliance is 50% of the CAL/UAUA/LCC/Lufthansa Star alliance and is 60% of the DAL/NWA/Air France/KLM SkyTeam alliance. The city-pair connections served by oneworld, off the East Coast, comprise an even smaller percentage. If alliances exist, among other reasons, to offer seamless travel from anywhere in the U.S. to anywhere in Europe, oneworld is clearly deficient.
Tom Belden
Flight attendants and American Airlines management are waiting on the National Mediation Board to determine what they do next in long-running talks about a new contract. The company wants to keep talking; the attendants' union wants for the NMB to declare an impasse and allow a 30-day cooling off period to start, after which the union could strike. Read more about it here.
UPDATE: The original story, in the Dallas Morning News, drew reaction from analyst Michael Derchin. I didn't read the original the way he did but I'm a journalist and he's an analyst, so that's that. In the menatime, here's another post from the News' Web site with his comments.
Tom Belden
Here's the latest information on how the cabin-crew strike at British Airways will affect the two daily roundtrips the airline normally operates between PHL and its London Heathrow hub.
Tom Belden
Among the goals of this blog and its more limited sister, the Winging It column, is to supply information to anyone who wishes to read about all sides of controversial issues. The big issue right now is airline consolidation and whether the traditional lords of the U.S. industry, the legacy carriers that existed prior to deregulation in 1978, will eventually become three mega-carriers. Almost daily, someone or some group weighs in with an opinion about the wisdom of this trend, which should be of great interest to PHL fliers because US Airways is among the legacy carriers.
I intend to post as many articles and essays on consolidation as I can find. Today I'm posting here a link to an "expert blog-Transportation" maintained by National Journal, one of the most respected policy publications I know of. Politicians, consultants, ex-airline CEO Robert Crandall, current US Airways CEO Doug Parker, Business Travel Coaltiion chairman Kevin Mitchell and numerous others, for and against the United-Continental deal, have posts or articles quoting them
For those who want to read all opinions all the time on this topic, I sugest you bookmark this blog and return to it once a week or so as long as the consolidation issue continues to be in the news.
Tom Belden
UPDATE: The opening of a new airport has been a rare occurrence in this country for decades. Just as rare is Southwest Airlines reason for starting service to the latest addition to its route map. The two came together yesterday at Panama City, Fla., where the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport opened with service by Southwest and Delta Air Lines (Delta previously flew to a smaller local airport). Southwest was lured to the airport by a deal with The St. Joe Co., a massive real estate developer that donated 4,000 acres of land for the airport.
Southwest decided to start flights to four cities (Baltimore, Houston, Nashville and Orlando) from the airport after St. Joe agreed to cover operating losses for three years. That kind of offer to airlines to start service to a city isn't unusal at all. Smaller airports in our region, in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have helped airlines financially as a way for them to offer some service, anything, to help as the major carriers cut back flights. Many cities have tried to do the same to lure Southwest, but this is the first time the discounter has accepted one of the offers. Read more about Southwest's rationale in this Dallas Morning News story.
UPDATE: For PHL fliers to reach the "Redneck Riviera" as locals sometimes call it, with its miles of spectacular white-sand beaches, you will have to go to BWI for nonstops, or connect through Atlanta on Delta, or through Nashville or Orlando on Southwest. So far, the big BP oil spill in the gulf hasn't affected the region's beaches, according to a message I received Monday afternoon from a local p.r. agency.
Tom Belden
The air fare-tracking Web site farecompare.com analyed for USA Today how fare surcharges have crept into airline pricing for "peak travel days," which it turns out are almost all days this summer.Read the details here ...
Tom Belden
The people who manage multi-million-dollar business travel programs for corporations with European operations have a problem they've never faced before: How do you run the programs when volcanic ash has added an unprecedented level of unpredictability to the equation. The Winging It column today reports on the managers' worries expressed at a conference in Chicago last week. Read it all here ....
Tom Belden
British Airways could be hit with another strike by cabin crew within the next few hours. If you're scheduled to fly to the UK any time soon, read on here.
