Joe Sharkey At Large

We have commenced upon another slippery slope.

Delta said it will ding customers $25 for frequent flier award tickets in North America and $50 for international award tickets starting Aug. 15. Delta calls it a “fuel surcharge.”

Here’s Delta’s press release announcing the new charges for formerly free tickets. Note that it is headlined “Delta Continues to Adjust to Unprecedented Fuel Costs with Addition of Fuel Surcharge on SkyMiles Award Ticket Travel.”

On June 12, US Airways made a similar announcement about charging $50 ($100 internationally) for award tickets.

The headline on its press release was: “US Airways Accelerates Business Model Transformation.”

Hmmmm. “Continues to Adjust…with Addition” … “Accelerates Business Model…” All these forward-sounding words!

Let me ask a question: Who the hell do these airlines think they’re kidding? Why do they find it impossible to simply come out and say what they’re doing in a straightforward manner?

I can’t tell you the number of business travelers I have heard from lately who say: I wish the airlines would cut the crap, raise their fares to whatever it takes to stay in business, and stop nickel-and-diming us and insulting our intelligence. The leisure travel market is about to shrink substantially, and it’s probably a really, really bad time to keep pissing off business travelers.

Hey airlines: Continue to adjust. To this.

###

Is that other shoe dropping?

United Airlines says it is killing a few international flights in the fall, including San Francisco-Taipei and Chicago-Mexico City, and reducing its Chicago-Tokyo flights to one a day from two.

Northwest Airlines, as noted here yesterday, also cut a few international routes, citing fuel costs and (uh-oh) sagging demand.

Most domestic network airlines are heavily invested in international travel, even as they slash domestic capacity. The thinking has been that international markets will hold up.

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

###

The Department of Transportation denied Virgin America’s strange request to be allowed to withhold from public disclosure the financial and operating data that airlines are required to submit to the government.

Competing airlines objected strongly to Virgin America’s request to be able to conceal its balance sheet, cash-flow position, and a list of other data, including traffic and passenger origin-destination information. Virgin America had asserted that public release of the data would cause “substantial competitive harm.”

Virgin America began flying last August to good reviews, but it has not been clear whether the start-up carrier’s load factors, especially in coach, were holding up.

Here’s a copy of the Transportation Department’s denial, issued late this afternoon, of Virgin America’s request:

dot-virgin-america.pdf

###

Uh oh.

The major domestic airlines — more heavily invested than ever in international routes at the expense of domestic capacity — have been extremely worried that international traffic might begin to sag as oil prices keep rising.

Is the other shoe dropping? This afternoon, Northwest said it was canceling two transatlantic flights and suspending another in its joint venture with KLM, a division of Air France-KLM.

“Decreased customer demand” was one of two reasons cited.

Here’s the announcement, which I guarantee you received serious attention at Delta and among other major airlines that have bet the farm on international travel:

EAGAN, Minn.– Northwest Airlines, with its trans-Atlantic joint venture partner KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, today announced a seasonal suspension of flights between Minneapolis/St. Paul-Paris and cancellation of flights between Detroit-Dusseldorf and Hartford-Amsterdam – effective October 1, 2008.

With oil reaching a record-breaking $140 a barrel today, the reductions come in response to soaring fuel costs and decreased customer demand. Customers with advance bookings for these flights will be offered alternate NWA or SkyTeam alliance flight re-accommodations.

Selective frequency reductions and aircraft type changes may also be implemented on additional trans-Atlantic flights, depending on oil prices and ongoing customer demand.

Seasonal Suspension

Minneapolis/St. Paul – Paris

Flights will resume between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Paris on March 28, 2009.

Cancellations

Detroit – Dusseldorf

Hartford – Amsterdam

###

More details today from American Airlines on the fourth-quarter capacity and route reductions that will leave the carrier with about 12 percent fewer domestic seats this fall that last.

American says it will eliminate all of its service, flown by American Eagle, in Albany, N.Y., Providence, R.I., and Harrisburg, Pa. It will also reduce service at LaGuardia, and in Chicago, Dallas and St. Louis.

Here’s the announcement from American:

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines and its regional affiliate, American Eagle, today announced additional details of their capacity reductions for the fourth quarter of 2008. The reductions are in line with American’s previously announced (May 21) plans of cutting fourth quarter domestic capacity by 11 to 12 percent and regional affiliate capacity by 10 to 11 percent versus fourth quarter 2007 levels. The changes are being instituted to reduce costs and create a more sustainable supply-and-demand balance in today’s high fuel-cost environment.

Today’s announced reductions involve additional schedule changes taking effect in November. Previously announced (May 27) reductions will take effect in September.

American is reducing flights at most of its principal operations. This announcement, combined with the previously announced round of schedule reductions, means American will close its operations entirely at three of its airports, while Eagle will close five of its airports, out of a combined total of 250 airports for both. The airports/cities being closed are:

–American: Oakland, Calif. (previously announced); London Stansted (previously announced); and Barranquilla, Colombia

–American Eagle: Albany, N.Y.; Providence, R.I.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Samana, Dominican Republic (previously announced); and San Luis Obispo, Calif. American Eagle will also close its maintenance base in San Luis Obispo.

American plans to reduce its departures in Chicago by 28 flights with American Eagle reducing 34 departures. In St. Louis, American will reduce departures by 8 flights with American Eagle and AmericanConnection reducing 35 departures. American will reduce 19 departures at Dallas/Fort Worth along with 23 American Eagle flight reductions.

The company also has decided to eliminate five AA flights and 37 American Eagle jet departures at LaGuardia Airport. In addition to the expected cost savings, these changes, coupled with appropriate government action, could allow the airport to operate with less chronic disruption and improve customer experience at one of the nation’s most congested airports.

“Today, the dependability and delay issues that exist at LaGuardia have reached a crisis point and have a daily negative impact on the overall customer service and performance for every airline with flights at LaGuardia,” said Bob Reding, American’s Executive Vice President – Operations.

Historical data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics on operational performance at LaGuardia highlights the issues. During the last five years, for example, delays at LaGuardia have increased 50 percent and now occur on one out of every four departures, with these delays averaging more than one hour. In large part, these delays are attributable to Air Traffic Control’s inability to handle the scheduled service levels.

Likewise, inbound delays have increased by 55 percent and occur on four out of every 10 arrivals, on average delaying arrivals by 60 minutes. In addition, cancellations at the airport now average over 5 percent, an increase of more than 50 percent.

American has called for the FAA and the Department of Transportation to reduce the number of operations allowed at LaGuardia by 20 percent – or approximately 15 operations per hour until FAA airspace redesign efforts, ATC modernization, and other steps increase the level at which LaGuardia can operate reliably.

“As airport utilization increases, on-time arrival performance at any airport declines,” Reding said. “The decline is particularly evident as airport utilization exceeds 80 percent. LaGuardia is scheduled at over 100 percent and has the worst dependability in the nation. With the retirement of American’s five operations per hour at LaGuardia, the DOT will be able to achieve more than one-third of the objective, and will be well on its way to providing a real solution to the operational problems plaguing LaGuardia today.”

American and American Eagle regret the potential impact these schedule changes will have on its people. The company is in the process of determining the overall impact on its employees, and it is the company’s intent to offer voluntary programs before moving to involuntary separations.

###

Above: The Reverends Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson at the reception area, the first sight you beyond the Gates of Hell. (The ocean background is, of course, a cruel mirage.)

###

The national disgrace that is modern thoroughbred racing continues without much further media disruption, now that the … uh, unpleasantries that marked the Kentucky Derby are forgotten.

Yesterday, two more horses were killed after injuries in separate races at Churchill Downs, site of the Derby. The sportswriters, waiting for the next tray of shrimp to be brought to the press box buffet, like to say that such horses are “euthanized,” as if a kindness had been bestowed upon them.

The Courier-Journal newspaper in Louisville doesn’t give much play to these things, but at least it does cover them when they occur literally on the home turf.

The term the sportswriters like to use for “horses killed for sport” is “fatal breakdowns.”

So far this year during the 41 days of the spring meet, six horses have been killed at Churchill Downs, which is by no means the only race track where these atrocities occur regularly. Last year, during 73 days of racing, 17 horses were killed at Churchill Downs, and in 2006 (during 78 racing days), 18 horses suffered these “fatal breakdowns,” as the Courier-Journal says.

That’s just one race track. And that also tells you almost nothing about what goes on at the track when the crowds are not watching in thoroughbred racing, the so-called sport of champions.

The Associated Press, in a recent survey, found that U.S. thoroughbred tracks averaged more than three horse deaths a day last year and reported 5,000 deaths since 2003 — and that’s based on incomplete numbers, since some tracks didn’t cooperate.

The excellent AP story reporting on that survey last week was widely ignored by the media, incidentally.

Nothing wrong with racing a soundly bred, full-grown horse under humane circumstances, as I have said. None of those modifiers apply to modern thoroughbred racing.

Horses love to run like hell, to a degree. If you ask me a quarter-mile is a good distance to gallop a horse. But then I’m a fan of quarter-horses, called that because after a quarter-mile or so of rip-ass galloping, they’re likely to give you a look that essentially says, “If you want to keep running flat-out like this, Bucko, get the hell off my back and run along yourself, then.”

On the other hand, I was once on an endurance-trained Arabian mare in Houston that willingly galloped in a small pack for three miles — and when I say “willingly,” I inferred that from the horse’s disinclination to drop down to a nice sensible trot after two miles, despite my desperate pleading.

###

I’m glad to see the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, taking aim at elements of the sorry legacy of the U.S. Transportation Department and the F.A.A. for its dereliction of duty in managing the nation’s air-traffic control system.

This week, the ATA president, James C. May, testified before the House Committee on Transportation on the need to increase capacity and reduce congestion in New York-area airspace. ATA denounced the Department of Transportation (DOT) congestion pricing and slot auction proposals that would ration capacity. The DOT, said the airline trade group, needs to “to stop talking ideology and experiments, and start leaving a legacy that will help, not hurt, this country.”

“Instead of moving forward with capacity enhancements and airspace redesign using every available resource with all deliberate speed, the DOT is pushing congestion pricing and slot auctions – completely unproven textbook experiments that no one in the aviation world has used successfully,” May said. “DOT seems intent on leaving a legacy of failed, but extremely costly, experiments that do nothing to reduce congestion and flight delays in New York or anywhere else.”

Ouch. And it’s about time the airlines started hammering the DOT for its manifest failures in air traffic control modernization – marked by breathtaking cost overruns and delays, by betting the farm on questionable technology that still won’t be in place for years, and by consistently coming up with lame publicity stunts like those risible borrowed-from-the-military sky lanes at Thanksgiving.

The ATA is supported by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in opposing the DOT proposals on congestion pricing and slot auctions.

The ATA, obviously, represents the interests of the commercial airline industry. Its position here is strictly in regard to slot auctions and air-capacity reductions, incidentally. Others, including low-cost airlines and foreign airlines that might want to buy those auctioned slots, might well disagree.

May’s testimony (transcript here) is worth a read for anyone who wants to keep up with the dynamics of the air-space allocation issues, and where the major airlines stand.

###

Two items tonight illustrate the growing upstairs-downstairs separation in air transportation:

NetJets’ $1.9 Billion Order for New Gulfstreams

The business-jet leader NetJets said it will significantly expand its fleet of large-cabin Gulfstream G450s and Gulfstream G550s. In deal Gulfstream valued at $1.9 billion, NetJets will acquire 40 new Gulfstream jets - four Gulfstream G450s and four Gulfstream G550s to be delivered each year from 2012 through 2016.

NetJets has over 90% of the long-range cabin fractional-share market and is the largest operator of Gulfstream aircraft. NetJets’ worldwide Gulfstream fleet currently totals 110 — with 21 Gulfstream G550/V; 55 Gulfstream G450/400/IV-SP and 34 Gulfstream G200s.

***

Boeing, Airbus Order Books ‘At Risk’

Analysts estimate that 25-30% of the commercial aircraft backlog at Boeing and Airbus could be at risk as high fuel prices continue to batter airlines, Aviation Week reports in an article by Joseph C. Anselmo online today at http://aviationweek.com/aw/ and in Aviation Week & Space Technology’s June 23 issue.Many undercapitalized startups in Asia and Europe have overly aggressive growth plans that could cause the airlines to cancel or defer orders, Aviation Week reports. Robert Stallard, a director at Macquarie Capital, said, “The question that has yet to be answered is not whether there will be a downturn, but how bad it will be.”

The article suggests two possible outcomes: the optimistic view that “Boeing and Airbus can afford to lose orders and still make it to the industry’s next up-cycle with minimal pain;” and the more negative answer “that a steep change in global energy demand has created a permanent era of high prices and sent the airline industry into uncharted territory.”

###

My driver’s license now says “Arizona” on it, which gives me even more cause to protest — once again — this continuing use of the word “cowboy” as a pejorative.

It’s bad enough when they call George Bush a cowboy and mean it as an insult. It’s a well known fact, as I have pointed out before, that the current president is not only unable to ride a horse, but is actively afraid of them. See how much W’s demeanor puts you in mind of that of an actual cowboy, at least according to ol’ Gene Autry, as quoted here in the Cowboy Code blog.

Now we have Arizona’s own Sen. John McCain deriding the alleged “cowboy diplomacy” of Sen. Barack Obama. (Link via the breathless Drudge, who is not a cowboy, neither, despite his hat.)

Read Gene Autry’s famed “Cowboy Code” and you’ll see there’s no reason for any sensible person to take offense at being called one.

In fairness, Sen. McCain, a former Navy bomber pilot, lives near spiritually chi-chi Sedona, Arizona, in an 8,300-square-foot house that the media hilariously refers to as “rustic,” on 6.6 acres that the media equally hilariously refers to as a “ranch.”

Sen. McCain is married to a rich beer distributor — which, come to think of it, is a naval aviator’s dream, not to mention a cowboy’s.

###