Tom Belden
Federal regulators awarded new route authority yesterday to American, Delt and Hawaiian airlines, to serve Tokyo's close-in Haneda Airport from several US. cities. Find more details here.
Tom Belden
The Federal Aviation Administration and PHL's managers have released formal documentation for the plans they've been contemplating for about four years to try to reduce flight delays by reconstructing the airport's runways and taxiways. The Inquirer's airline reporter Linda Loyd has a full story today about what is in the FAA's $5.2 billion capacity-enhancement plan, found here.
Tom Belden
Rick Seaney, CEO of the farecompare.com Web site for air-price shopping, has a good column published yesterday that expresses disappointment that the suspected Times Square would-be bomber almost escaped the country without being caught sooner at JFK airport.Read the column here.
Tom Belden
What's next, a swarm of locusts? European air travel to Ireland and Scotland has been disrupted again by a new cloud of volcanic ash.Read more here.
Tom Belden
Here's yet another developing story that could affect US Airways, which has its headquarters near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and has a hub there. Fierce debate is going on between those opposed to Arizona's tough new law requiring immigrants to carry status documentation who have called for a travel boycott of the state, and those in the tourism business who say that a boycott will only harm the good, innocent people who work in the industry. Travel Weekly has a full story on the dispute.
Tom Belden
Continental Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek, on the job only a few months, is turning out to be full of quips meant to be humorous or sarcastic that not everyone thinks are funny. Last month, he called the new federal tarmac-delay rules "stupid," without making it clear that it was a six-hour stranding of passengers on a Continental Express flight last summer that contributed significantly to the rules being adopted.
On Monday, Smisek called US Airways the "ugly girl" in United's courtship of a merger partner, won by the "pretty girl," Continetal. He apologized to US Airways CEO Doug Parker, as reported in this AP story. Parker issued a long message to his employees, many of whom, he said, had sent him messages about the insult. The statement was also sent to the media but I don't find it on the US Airways Web site, so here are some relevant portions:
"In fact, we are performing better than Continental on almost all of the important metrics of our business. Financially, we each reported first quarter financial results in the past two weeks, and while we both lost money, we both lost much less than last year. However, US Airways’ rate of improvement was much better than Continental’s driven by both higher revenue growth and better cost control. On an absolute basis, our profit margins are now higher than Continental’s.
Tom Belden
US Airways and Delta Airlnes jointly objected to yesterday's requirements laid out by the U.S. Department of Transportation's for the carriers to be able to swap dozens of slots at two airports. DOT said the airlines would have to hold a blind auction, without knowing the carriers bidding, to give up valuable landing-and-takeoff slots at New York LaGuardia and Washington Reagan National airports.
US Airways and Delta in a joint statement said the ruling could kill the deal. The airlines contended that the ruling went beyond DOT's authority and would be appealed to a federal circuit court, which rules on agency administrative decisions. Were a blind auction to be held, it presumably would include Southwest Airlines, which earlier objected to DOT that it was not one of four low-cost carriers US Airways and Delta chose to sell some of the slots. Southwest now has limited service at LGA because of a shortage of slots.
The trade paper Travel Weekly has more detail in this story.
Tom Belden
US Airways news is breaking out all over and will require several posts this morning.
Most interesting to me is what the National Transportation Safety Board said in a final report on the crash landing of Flight 1549 in January 2009 in the Hudson River after its engines were knocked out by bird strikes after takeoff from NY LaGuardia. US Airways sort of chafed at times in hearing the landing and safe evacuation of all passengers and crew described the media as a 'miracle,' words first used by NY Gov. David Paterson. It was all skill and training of the US Airways crew, or was it?
Turns out the NTSB also thinks there was miraculous aspect, citing numerous "fortuitous circumstances" that enabled everyone to survive, including the 737 being equipped for long over-water flights with large inflatable life rafts, and the fact the landing happened close to emergency rescue services and ferries on both sides of the Hudson. Read more about it here.
Tom Belden
Travel Weekly has a good succint article today about a federal report on the dough airlines hauled in -- $7.8 billion in 2009 -- from ancillary revenue (everything but air fare). Read it here.
Tom Belden
As reported throughout last week, Continental and United were discussing a merger and now they've confirmed that it's happening. For the official announcement,here's the joint news release the two carriers issued. Notice the airlines were working on this long enough to devise a new logo that combines the United name and Continental's tail sylized globe logo.
The detailed AP news story on the deal can be found at this link.
