Joe Sharkey At Large

Above: A Hawker 800 jet.

FlightExplorer.com has posted a video of the flight path and weather conditions for the chartered Hawker 800 mid-size business jet that crashed today 60 miles south of Minneapolis, killing 8 passengers.

The plane was flying to a regional airport in southern Minnesota from Atlantic City.

Here is the best report on the crash, on the Web site of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

The passengers worked for Tishman Construction and Revel Entertainment. They were flying to a meeting at Viracon, a glass manufacturer. The plane was chartered by Revel Entertainment, which is building a casino resort in Atlantic City.
Here is a statement from Brad Cole, the president of East Coast Jets, the charter company that operated the flight.

The Hawker 800 can be configured to carry up to 13 passengers, but normally carries 8.

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Tom Parsons, of Bestfares.com, today put out a detailed, depressing survey of soaring international air fares for this fall and winter. Here it is:

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Arlington, TX — Thursday, July 31, 2008 -  “Airfares to Europe this fall and winter will be much higher than just a year ago” – states Tom Parsons, CEO and founder of Bestfares.com.

The primary reason for the increases are the fuel surcharges this year compared to last year. This week, we saw Delta, American, Northwest and United raise their fuel surcharges to most cities in Europe (except in England and Germany) from $330 to $350 roundtrip. “The fuel surcharge to London from midwest and east coast cities is now $302 roundtrip and cities west of Dallas are now a whopping $426 roundtrip” – adds Parsons.

The average airfare to Europe for the fall season (September 1 thru October 29) has risen by 16 percent. Destinations in England, including London, saw the largest increase with average airfares up 31 percent.

Airfares for the winter season (October 30 thru March 25) are seeing an even larger increase over last year. To most destinations, the airfares which include the new higher mandatory fuel surcharges are approximately 30 percent over the same time last year. Airfares to London and other destinations in England have climbed by an average of 53 percent. Airfares from Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco to London are as much as 60% higher than last winter.

“Travelers this fall and winter should brace themselves for these new airfare levels. Many travelers who were planning a trip to Europe may want to rethink their options. This week, we saw many airfares to the Caribbean and Mexico for the fall season up to 80% less than the cost of a ticket to Europe” – states Parsons.

Check out our air charts listed below comparing the fall and winter travel periods of 2007 to 2008. To see new fuel surcharges to other worldwide international destinations, please click here.

They’re wearing me out with this stuff. Take it from Rick Seaney at Farecompare.com:

Tonight at 8:00pm EDT, after almost a month of silence on airfare hikes, Northwest Airlines increased domestic airfares by $80 roundtrip on over 4,000 city pairs for both leisure and business travelers.

While the total number of city pairs increased does not quite reach our threshold of 2/3 of a legacy airlines route system hiked for us to list this as the 22nd attempted hike of 2008, this particular airfare increase is noteworthy in that Northwest has not initiated any of the previous 21 attempted hikes of 2008 and has been habitually last to match the previous 15 successful hikes this year (success defined as all six legacy airlines matching on 2/3 of their respective route systems).

A quick check of Northwest hub cities shows significant airfare increase activity in Detroit with hardly any hike activity in Minneapolis or Memphis.

It will be interesting to see the reaction of the legacy airlines tomorrow to this Northwest “mini-hike”.

Why have we had a one month break in airfare hikes after the torrid pace the first half of the year?

I think there are a couple of reasons, first we have seen the price of oil drop back to the mid $120s/barrel this month at the same time as many of the announced fee hikes have been kicking in with added revenue coupled with sluggish economic news.

The experiment I talked about in previous notes of almost weekly airfare hikes coupled with capacity cuts may be reaching the tipping point as summed up by Gary Kelly (CEO Southwest Airlines) in the most recent Southwest Earnings call (http://seekingalpha.com/article/86920-southwest-airlines-co-q2-2008-earnings-call-transcript?page=4):

“We have some evidence … in the industry with our competitors where they feel like they’ve pushed fares too fast they’ve seen bookings in demand reduced and then they’d had to have the follow-on reaction of reducing flights, fleet, laying off employees and so there is just no pleasant way on the downside there to make that happen.”

We will watch closely tomorrow as the next domestic airfare distributions at 10:00am and 12:30pm EDT occur for any reaction from the other five legacy airlines (American, Continental, Delta, United & US Airways).

The FareCompare.com 2008 Airfare Hike Timeline can be found at the following link:

http://rickseaney.com/timeline-2008-airfare-hike-attempts/

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My method of dealing with telemarketers and similar pests like political pollsters is to say, “Hang on a minute, I know he wants to talk to you,” when one calls and asks for me by name. Then I set the phone down and forget about it till I hear those beep-beep-beeps (which my African gray parrot then imitates).

But comedian Tom Mabe is the Master. Listen to how he pranked a poor telemarketer. It’s a riot.

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Stealing the idea from the long-gone Spy magazine:

Separated at birth? F. Scott Fitzgerald … Arthur Lake as Dagwood in the old “Blondie” movies … Virginia Gov. (and potential Democratic vice presidential candidate) Tim Kaine?

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Uh, somebody want to nudge Delta and tell them oil prices have been dropping this week? The headline on Delta’s announcement today that it is doubling the charge for a second checked bag, to $50, is: “Delta Responds to Record-High Fuel Prices by Increasing Some Domestic and International Baggage Fees.”

Here’s the Delta announcement:***

“ATLANTA – Delta Air Lines today announced increases to some of its domestic and international baggage fees to help offset the 70-80 percent increase in jet fuel prices in the last year. These changes will apply to customers who purchase a ticket on or after July 31, 2008, for travel on or after Aug. 5, 2008.

As fuel costs remain at record levels, Delta believes revising the fee structure for excess bags and specialty items is essential to generate the necessary revenues to offset record fuel costs while continuing to offer these services to customers. Delta continues to offer all customers a complimentary first checked bag for domestic travel and two checked bags for international flights.

Fee changes effective in August include an increase to the service fee to check a second bag for domestic travel from $25 to $50; and fees for specialty items that require special handling such as surfboards or ski equipment will increase on domestic and international flights. First Class, BusinessElite and Medallion customers will continue to be able to check up to three bags at no charge. Customers checking bags on international flights may continue checking a first and second bag at no charge.”

What in the world is going on at Qantas, which has rightfully billed itself as one of the world’s safest airlines, based on its record.

Days after a Qantas 747 made an emergency landing in Manila with a gaping 9-foot hole in its fuselage, another Qantas flight, this one a 737, made an emergency landing today at Adelaide. A wheel-bay door apparently either opened in flight or (more likely) failed to close after takeoff.

Here’s the story from the Herald-Sun in Melbourne.

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Tarmac strandings continue. In New York yesterday, passengers on a Las Vegas-bound Delta flight sat for seven hours on a plane to nowhere, before the flight was canceled.

The New York Daily News has the story today.

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Here’s a video of that harrowing Qantas emergency landing, taken by a passenger who, it seems to me, exercised remarkable news-telling ability from a very constricted perspective, under very tense conditions.

Still no word on what the hell caused the plane to get a gaping, nine-foot-high hole in its fuselage.

The flight, on a 747-400, originated in London with a stop in Hong Kong and was bound for Melbourne, Australia, when the emergency occurred Friday. There were 346 passengers and 19 crew members on board, Qantas said.

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Maybe I’m just extra sensitive to big bangs heard on airplanes, and to fuselages missing sections, but this one really got my attention.

Here’s the BBC story on that Qantas plane that somehow developed this great big hole.

No indication yet of what the hell happened.

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