Joe Sharkey At Large

I’m glad Rick Seaney at FareCompare.com is keeping such close track on these interminable air-fare hikes. When I go to book a ticket these days, that $350 fare I was expecting suddenly has turned into a $600 fare, such as one I just booked to Atlanta. Here’s the latest report from Rick, who has been doing a tremendous job keeping track of these fares:

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By Rick Seaney

United Airlines 4^th Airfare Increase in a Row – Up to $50 Roundtrip!

Friday, March 14, 2008 9:15am CDT

Last night in the 8:00pm EDT U.S. domestic airfare distribution United Airlines raised airline ticket prices between $4 and $50 roundtrip for the bulk of its route system.

This attempted airfare hike is the 4th consecutive weekly increase and marks the 8th attempted increase in 2008 – five of the previous seven attempted increases in 2008 where “successful”.

This increase attempt breaks the pattern this year’s numerous $10 “every week or so” increase attempts — by increasing airfares up to $50 roundtrip for the longest distance routes and providing 6 different price increase levels based loosely on distance.

This United increase is “loosely” based on route distance (with several notable exceptions) and is laddered as follows (leisure, 14 days advance purchase or more, business, less than 14 days advance purchase):

• $4 roundtrip increase – 300 leisure city pairs, 700 business city pairs
• $8 roundtrip increase – 1,500 leisure city pairs, 3,800 business city pairs
• $10,$11,$12 roundtrip increase – 3,900 leisure city pairs, 5,800 business city pairs
• $20 roundtrip increase – 200 leisure city pairs, 180 business city pairs
• $30 roundtrip increase – 5,000 leisure city pairs, 6,200 business city pairs
• $50,$52 roundtrip increase – 2,500 leisure city pairs, 3,800 business city pairs

The total city pairs with an increase are approximately 20,000.

United has thrown down the gauntlet for this particular increase – a change of this magnitude across such a wide range cities, with different increase amounts ostensibly based on market competition (or lack thereof) and distance is a massive undertaking. Legacy airline matching may take some time as they try to absorb the intricacies of this complex airfare hike.

A quick check of the United Airlines hub city Denver shows this laddered increase on dozens of city pairs, even on overlapping Southwest Airline markets.

I have been closely following airfares for almost 5 years and this past 6 months (culminating with this latest increase) have been so volatile on the increase side that I don’t have any historical information to compare it against – I have been predicting air travel consumers are in for a wild ride on airline ticket prices this year and I think we just reached the top of the highest point on this rollercoaster…

Case in point, in the midst of the increase there is a sale in place started by Southwest which is getting selective matching, so those that are very flexible can still grab some of the cheapest air travel deals we have had in the past year.

Other notable increases occurred on U.S./Canadian markets of $22 roundtrip by several legacy and smaller airlines (initiated by Air Canada).”

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Here here is the way it’s seen today in a report by Tom Parsons, the CEO of BestFares.com:

“United And Continental Airlines Attempt To Raise Airfares Up To $50 Roundtrip

Arlington, TX — March 14, 2008 - On the evening of March 13, 2008, United Airlines raised both their leisure and business airfares by $30 roundtrip on flights up to 1,500 airmiles and a whopping $50 roundtrip on domestic flights over 1,500 airmiles. Continental Airlines matched this increase today.

“If this airfare hike sticks, it will be up to 250% higher than any other fuel surcharge or airfare increase we have seen since December 18, 2007,” says Tom Parsons, CEO and founder of Bestfares.com, an interline website that tracks airfare changes and travel industry trends. “We have seen United raise airfares once this year for $30 roundtrip, but that attempt was rolled back,” adds Parsons.

It should also be noted that since December 18, 2007, the major airlines had already successfully raised both leisure and business airfares by $70 roundtrip by either raising airfares or fuel surcharges. If this increase is matched by American, Delta, Northwest and US Airways, travelers flying over 1,500 airmiles on non-competitive routes will be paying as much as $120 roundtrip more on the same routes in less than three short months.

Listed below are the airfare hikes and fuel surcharge increases the major airlines have made since December 18, 2007.

(1) Week of December 20, 2007: Major airlines raise fuel surcharges on leisure and Business Class fares from $10 roundtrip to $20 roundtrip. Total increase since December 18, 2007, $10 roundtrip.

(2) Week of January 7, 2008: Major airlines raise leisure and Business Class airfares by $10 roundtrip. Fuel surcharges still remain at $20 roundtrip. Total increase since December 18, 2007, $20 roundtrip.

(3) Weekend of January 24, 2008: Major airlines double fuel surcharges on leisure and Business Class airfares from $20 to $40 roundtrip. Total increase since December 18, 2007, $40 roundtrip.

(4) Weekend of February 22, 2008: Major airlines raise airfares on both leisure and Business Class airfares $10 roundtrip. $40 fuel surcharge still in place. Total increase since December 18, 2007, $50 roundtrip.

(5) Weekend of February 29, 2008: Major airlines raise leisure and Business Class airfares $10 roundtrip. Total increase since December 18, 2007, $60 roundtrip.

(6) Weekend of March 7, 2008: Major airlines raise fuel surcharges from $40 to $50 roundtrip. Total airfare increase with airfare hikes and fuel surcharges since December 18, 2007, $70 roundtrip.

Please note that this hike might not stick unless matched by AA, Delta, Northwest and U.S. Airways.
(7) March 14, 2008: United & Continental Airlines raise airfares by $30 – $50 roundtrip. Total airfare increase with airfare hikes and fuel surcharges since December 18, 2007, $100 for flights up to 1500 miles, $120 for flights over 1,500 miles.

“Now that the price of crude oil has gone as high as $111 per barrel this week, we do expect the airlines to pass this higher fuel cost on to the traveling public,” states Parsons. “If there is any fact here, air travelers will be paying much more than they did last summer, especially in markets where the legacy airlines do not have to compete with low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Spirit, Virgin America and Frontier.”

As fuel prices continue to rise, non-competitive markets will continue to take the brunt of future airfare and fuel surcharge hikes. The biggest opportunities for low-cost travel are to those travelers who have the option of flying on low cost carriers, or on those routes where the legacy carriers have to match those fares to remain competitive. Those travelers still have the “Freedom To Fly” for less, for example, coast to coast for as little as $198 roundtrip.

“For those who are planning travel for the upcoming busy summer travel season, the airlines are going to have to keep addressing the reality of higher and higher fuel prices and the general public is going to have to face the fact that they are going to have to spend more if they want to continue to travel by air. If you thought you’d be able to travel this year for less than, or even the same price, as last year, well you better get rid of those thoughts because they’re not based in reality,” adds Parsons . (” )

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For those of you who may still be following the Brazil-crash story, a news break: A Brazilian federal judge today reversed himself and ruled that the two American pilots charged in the Sept. 29, 2006, mid-air collision over the Amazon can give their testimony in the U.S., according to Joel Weiss, one of the attorneys involved in the complex and anguishing case.

I have let my separate Brazil blog lapse in recent months. I’m planning on getting it back up to date soon.

Just as background, Brazilian authorities insisted for over a year that the two pilots of the Legacy 600 private jet that collided at 37,000 feet with a Brazilian 737 (killing all 154 on the 737) be required to return to Brazil for the trial, which is ongoing.

Famously, Brazilian authorities had rushed to “criminalize” the accident and scapegoat the Americans during the emotional uproar following the collision. I was one of the surviving passengers.

As I have reported since practically day one, the disaster was put in place by Brazilian air traffic controllers who had placed both aircraft at the same altitude on the same path, in an area over the Amazon notorious for poor radio and radar communications. Also contributing was the apparent failure of an avionics device that was linked to the anti-collision alarm on the private jet.

Seven of us on the private jet, including the two pilots, Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, somehow walked away alive after an emergency landing in the Amazon. The four other passengers and I were detained and interrogated for several days, but the two pilots were held in Brazil for two months until a judge ordered their release in December 2006.

The day of their release, the Brazilian authorities cobbled together criminal charges of failing to ensure the safety of Brazil’s troubled skies. The charges carry prison terms upon conviction.

However, there is no extradition treaty between the U.S. and Brazil on those charges — and the two pilots understandably were hesitant to return to Brazil, where the clamor for their conviction had been strong even as it became abundantly clear that air-traffic control failures caused the disaster.

It hasn’t yet been determined how the judge’s questions will be posed to Joe and Jan, who have already been interrogated repeatedly. The Brazilian judge can travel to the U.S. for the proceeding — but it’s more likely the questions will be posed in writing, at a time period that’s still several months away. In the U.S.

At the time of the crash, Joe and Jan were employed by ExcelAire, the Long Island jet charter company that had just purchased the new $27 million Legacy jet on the day it crashed. Joe still is; Jan took a new job with a commercial airline. Both pilots were and are deeply concerned about the ramifications of any conviction in Brazil, as they would then technically become fugitives, subject to arrest in many other countries.

Aviation authorities and pilots groups around the world condemned the Brazilian rush to criminalize and politicize the accident. My sense is that emotions have cooled and perhaps the Brazilian justice system will dispose of this tragic matter with reason and with a sense of duty to the cause of aviation safety everywhere, which depends on honest investigations of accidents.

The Open Skies agreement between the U.S. and the E.U. was designed to create new competitive opportunities for flying between U.S. cities and European cities. And it will, in time.

On the other hand, American Airlines is moving its last flight from Gatwick to Heathrow, obviously as an anti-competitive trust against both Continental and British Airways. Continental recently paid an amazing $209 million to acquire for four Heathrow slots, as part of its plan to start service between Heathrow and New York under the Open Skies provision that allows Continental to begin flying from London’s main airport.

Both Willie Walsh, the British Airways chief executive, and Richard Branson, the Virgin Atlantic founder and honcho, have been grumbling quite loudly with complaints that the first phase of Open Skies gives a competitive edge to U.S. carriers and that the second phase, due to kick in next year, had better well give European carriers more freedom to acquire U.S. carriers outright or to operate more freely within U.S. cities.

An airline brawl is shaping up over the Atlantic. Usually that’s good news, at least temporarily, for customers. It’s gonna get noisy and ugly fast. Anyway, this is the announcement from American Airline

“FORT WORTH, Texas — American Airlines will move three of its London flights from Gatwick Airport to Heathrow Airport in the coming weeks as part of the “Open Skies” agreement between the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (EU) which takes effect March 30.American previously announced that it will move one of its two daily round-trips between Dallas/Fort Worth and London Gatwick, as well as its daily round-trip between Raleigh/Durham and Gatwick, to London Heathrow Airport on March 30.

In addition, American will be moving its second daily round trip between DFW and Gatwick to Heathrow on April 13. American recently obtained additional take-off and landing slots at Heathrow to make that move possible. This will result in the closure of American’s Gatwick operations after 26 years of service. All of American’s employees at Gatwick have been offered jobs at the airline’s other London locations.

“We want to strengthen our competitive position within the new ‘Open Skies’ regime, so it makes sense to focus our efforts in London at Heathrow,” said Henry Joyner, American’s Senior Vice President – Planning. “These changes do not impact the total number of American flights to and from London. We’ll operate up to 18 daily departures to Heathrow this summer from seven U.S. airports.”

American’s London Heathrow gateway cities in the U.S. will be: New York (JFK), Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, and Raleigh/Durham.

In addition, while not directly related to the new “Open Skies” agreement, American will continue to serve London Stansted Airport from New York’s JFK Airport. [My note: That flight flight, added in October, was a competitive thrust against Eos Airlines, the all-business-class carrier that began flying between New York and Stansted in late 2005]

American will add a second daily Stansted round trip beginning Aug. 1. …

The new “Open Skies” agreement also allows airlines to add new cities within Europe to codeshare relationships with other airlines. Effective April 13 American intends to add 12 new destinations by expanding its existing codeshare agreement with Spain’s Iberia Airlines, one of its oneworld Alliance partners. Among the 12 new destinations are Valencia, Seville, Gran Canaria, Brussels, and Lisbon. American flies nonstop between its Miami hub and Madrid, where passengers will be able to easily connect to the new destinations.“

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—Re: Man arrested for running on runway at Heathrow. If he was flapping his arms, my guess is he was just desperately trying to depart on time.

—Just saying: Can the news media please stop prominently referring to that poor soul of a 22-year-old prostitute, the one who brought down the august Client 9, as being from a “broken home?” What the hell kind of a pinch-face Pius XII-era term is that? All reporters, editors or publishers who print or broadcast it ought to be able to swear that they come from a home unaffected by divorce.

—Note No. 2 on the same subject that everybody in New York can’t stop talking about: What exactly does $5,000 get you, anyway? (“Royally screwed,” someone told me). Anyway, that’s the question every male I know has been asking. There was a time when dinner and a couple of rum and cokes and being really nice and funny and … well, never mind, that was back when Kennedy was running around the White House pool with hookers. Who knew?

—Note No. 3: This one is serious. The 22-year-old hooker that everyone is being so gleeful about is a Jersey girl. “A Jersey tomato,” as some of the snickering louts in the media have put it. If I were still a city editor, I’d send a couple of smart reporters out on this story: That filthy dung-hill of a town, Atlantic City, has now lured two generations of poor, messed-up girls from South Jersey and the Jersey Shore into all levels of prostitution — hotel high-end and motel low-end. My hunch is that the former Ashley Youmans, later known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre (accent on the “e,” godhelpus), was one of them.

[Top: Client 9, with his Patriotic Flag Pin and his "Ain't-enough-Xanax-in-the-world-to-get-me-through-this-day" poor spouse, cruelly placed on display]

[Bottom: The Scene of the Crime]

Oh man, does the New York Times have a corker of an exclusive today.

Whoo-eee — and this one just gets worse, for “Client 9″ and others. We are now re-entering Theater of the Absurd-land in New York politics … which has disgraced itself. Again! (To quote Yeats in another context.)

I remember that the former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller inconveniently croaked while IN THE ACT of having sex with a woman other than Mrs. Rockefeller, though he was not paying cash, per se. I don’t think Nelson actually ever paid cash. And of course he wasn’t on the taxpayer payroll at the time.

Whatever: The next in line to become governor of New York, after “Client 9″ quits, is the lieutenant governor, who is legally blind (o.k. there — who needs to see what is going on in Albany? Trust me, I’ve spent time there. And the new guy will undoubtedly have more vision than his predecessor (s).

[Update March 14 -- On the other hand, maybe I'm too rash in crediting the new governor with the potential for vision, Albany being Albany. See Paterson's amazing response to a discrimination lawsuit cited in this little beauty from the Daily News.]

Next in line after Paterson: State Senator Joe Bruno, who is under F.B.I. investigation on unrelated matters.

You really, truly cannot make this stuff up.

Myself, I want to see “Client 9″ Spitzer’s expense accounts for those business trips to Washington.

A while ago, the crooked Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards said the only way he could lose an election was “if they found me in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.”

New York ain’t Louisiana, and I don’t even think Louisiana is Louisiana anymore.

Spitzer is talking the usual pious palaver about redemption and –gag me now — failing to meet his personal high standards. I’m sure some staff flunky, and more than a few of the usual therapy-whores in the media, are desperately thumbing through their D.S.M. IV (r)’s looking for excuses.

Meanwhile, Spitzer disgraced himself further by dragging out his unfortunate (though very rich) wife as a prop to stand beside him — very much as that ass-hat former governor of New Jersey, McGreevey, did to his own wife when he got caught in a gay sex-extortion scandal.

Can a man possibly insult his wife any more than that? What sort of a man would even ask? I mean, how does that conversation even begin?

Spitzer says he is not resigning, of course. Like all chiselers he’s hoping for a lucky break. He’ll be out by tonight, is my bet.

And Client 9: Why don’t you lose the flag-pin lapel display? Nobody’s saluting, Skippy.

By the way, what kind of an anxious day do you suppose Clients 1 through 8, and 10 through whatever, are having?

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Let’s leave aside for the moment the issues of the poor way many airlines treat passengers who are stuck in stranded planes, and the airlines’ willfully dishonest reporting of stats on delays, diversions, cancellations and strandings.

The delays crisis is worsening. Michael Boyd of the Boyd Group has a useful primer (warning: it’s lengthy) on why. Here it is.

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Flight Delays and Cancellations Mount (Cont’d)

Airlines are scrambling today to assemble crews and airplanes in the right places after an unholy mess yesterday caused by rain and wind and, of course, a system chronically stretched so tight that there is no slack for disruptions.

Here’s how it toted up at 3 key airports yesterday, according to FlightStats.com:

Atlanta: Overall ontime arrival rate: 22 percent. Number of cancellations: 287. Number of arriving flights delayed: 835. Number of those arrival delays that exceeded 45 minutes: 609.

JFK: Overall ontime arrival rate: 20 percent. Number of cancellations: 200. Number of arriving flights delayed: 376. Number of those arrival delays that exceeded 45 minutes: 286.

Newark: Overall ontime arrival rate: 22 percent. Number of cancellations: 209. Number of arriving flights delayed: 327. Number of arrival delays that exceeded 45 minutes: 263.

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The F.A.A. says (as dutifully reported here) hey, not to worry! Those two planes that were put into danger in the air near Pittsburgh by a rookie controller had beaucoup distance between them! Hundreds of feet! Besides, anti-collision systems are foolproof!

Dunno, but I seem to recall a pretty harrowing personal experience in an airplane collision 37,000 feet over the Amazon, put in place by an inexperienced Brazilian air traffic controller who had two planes on a direct collision course, while his colleagues failed to notice that they’d had no contact with one plane for 50 minutes in an area known for spotty radio and radar. When the anti-collision warning system also failed, 154 people died — and the seven of us who lived still can’t figure out how we walked away alive.

Now look at the safety violations piling up in the United States. (Hello, Southwest). Look at the increase in reports of runway incursions. Look at the amount of maintenance outsourcing.

Remember that the nation’s air traffic control towers are understaffed, and that all those controllers hired en masse during the Reagan Administration are reaching retirement age. And the F.A.A. has been dragging its feet getting up to staff.

Worry.

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In other news…

Excited Drudge headline of the day: "French women 'are the sexual predators now'...‘

Hey, dude: Chill! You’ve seen Sarkozy trying to stay balanced on his little white pony! Get back to those breathless stories about Prince Harry — he’s the one that looks like the butler, innit? — that absolutely nobody else in the world besides the Queen-obsessed UK Telegraph newspaper cares about.

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You heard it here first…

“SINGAPORE AIRLINES TO LAUNCH FIRST ALL-BUSINESS CLASS FLIGHTS FROM USA TO ASIA

LOS ANGELES, March 4, 2008 – Citing consistently strong demand from business travelers, Singapore Airlines has announced plans to convert its five Airbus A340-500 ultra-long-range aircraft into an all-Business Class configuration on daily flights from New York and Los Angeles, making it the first airline to offer this service over the Pacific. 

The current 2-class, 181 seat, configuration will be replaced with 100 of the airline’s new, award-winning, Business Class seats in a 1-2-1, configuration.  At 30-inches wide, the seats are the largest Business Class offering in the sky. 

Unique to Singapore Airlines’ widebody aircraft, every seat will have direct access to the aisle, and convert to a horizontal flat bed.  The new Business Class seats are the same design as those installed on the Airline’s A380 and B777-300ER fleet.

The implementation will be phased in gradually from mid-May, 2008, on the New York (Newark) to Singapore route, with daily services in the new configuration to New York by the end of June, and Los Angeles by late September 2008.  The program will require each of the five aircraft to be retrofitted in turn.

To manage the retrofit program, the existing daily Los Angeles to Singapore non-stop flight will not operate on Tuesdays between mid-May and late-June.  There will be no change to New York service frequency.

Customers who are currently booked in Executive Economy Class on the A340-500 services, which will be affected by the conversion, will be re-accommodated where possible on existing Singapore Airlines services between Los Angeles, New York and Singapore.

In the future, customers looking to fly Economy Class between Singapore and Los Angeles or New York can book on existing one-stop flights.

In the case of New York, a daily B747-400 three-class flight operates between Singapore and New York’s JFK Airport, while between Singapore and Los Angeles; there is a daily B747-400 three-class flight via Tokyo and a four times weekly B777-200ER two-class flight via Taipei.

—Quote of the day, from a story by Allen Salkin in today’s Times Sunday Styles section about a couple of New York developers who are renovating two crummy Atlantic City off-Boardwalk motel properties into one of those snotty “SoHo House-y” hip hotels:

“Atlantic City is one of the most disgusting places in the world,” said Sean Kalish, a 26-year-old lawyer who visits the casinos to play poker. He was standing in a slender peacoat waiting for the Atlantic City bus at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Wednesday. “It’s like Las Vegas got drunk and slept with South Jersey and this is their bastard child.”

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