Archive for March, 2008
March 24 2008
The pilot on a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Hyderabad, India, spent several hours trying to find a place to land because he was never told that a new airport had opened that day in Hyderabad. Upon approach to Hyderabad’s old airport, he was told that the facility was closed and flew to Delhi to land the aircraft. Delhi’s air traffic control would not let him land, so he continued on to Mumbai.
KLM had never been told that the old facility had been shuttered and, to the pilot’s credit, he was a bit leery about landing at the new airport, as he was never told that there was a new airport (imagine flying into Newark only to be told that Newark is closed and that there is a new Newark airport…see?)
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March 21 2008
A group of Skycaps in Boston are suing American Airlines for the tips they’ve lost since the airline instituted a $2-a-bag fee for curbside check-in. The Skycaps say they used to make about $200 a day in tips (whoa), but that’s been cut back to about $70 a day, as most passengers assume they get to keep the $2 (they don’t). The civil suit says that American is effectively keeping the $2 in tips and they are suing to get the $2-per-back back. I’d be shocked if they win (editor’s note: I have no legal training, and I have no idea whether this case has any merit.)
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March 21 2008
When lowfare carrier go! launched service in Hawaii with $19 fares, many people were saying that in the end it will drive other airlines to bankruptcy while go! would never make any money. Those people were correct. go! has been losing money and, for the 2nd time in 3 years, Aloha Airlines has declared bankruptcy. Aloha mentioned high fuel prices, but really blamed the bankruptcy on go!
The carrier says they hope to keep their 3,500 staff on the payroll, but they will have to seriously cut costs if they hope to be able to compete long-term.
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March 20 2008
One small additional piece of info about JetBlue’s new added-legroom seats: although they’re likely meant to attract business travelers, the seats are not available for sale through travel agents (which is, of course, where many business travelers must purchase their tickets). This is not the fault of JetBlue (it’s the fault of the GDSs, the tools travel agencies use to book tickets); the GDSs are based on antiquated technology that does not allow (for the most part) for airlines to sell added services such as premium seats. Air Canada is (was?) in a pissing match with the GDSs over this very issue — the ability for airlines to sell add-ons through the travel agency channel. In this miserable economic environment a couple of airlines have introduced innovative ways to attract more revenue, and their main technology partner (the GDSs) can’t help them actually sell the new product. But the GDSs have little reason to innovate, as they’ve locked the airlines into long-term distribution deals and the switching costs for travel agencies are very high. Hence, the situation we have now where airlines have saved a bit of money on GDS costs while hindering their ability to generate more revenue.
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March 20 2008
Indonesia’s government has finally stepped in and grounded sketchy carrier Adam Air. An incident where one of their planes skidded off a runway last week was the 3rd incident they’ve had in the past 18 months. The airline’s president said, bizarrely: “We are having an internal problem that could affect our employees’ morale and performance and would have a bad impact on our safety efforts.” Huh?
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March 19 2008
As my mother reads this website, I’ll just say this: A woman is suing American Airlines because the passenger in the seat next to her was doing something to himself that people typically don’t do in public and the resulting aftermath was reminiscent of a scene in There’s Something About Mary. American denies responsibility, though their old slogan “Something Special in the Hair” (or was it Air?) seems fitting…
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March 19 2008
JetBlue confirmed that later this year it will begin to charge extra for seats with additional legroom. Planes will not be reconfigured — the airline will now charge more for the first rows on the aircraft and for exit rows. While this is annoying news for people who have enjoyed business class-like legroom for no added cost, it will benefit business travelers, who have found that those rows are always filled up when they book with little advanced purchase. The carrier hasn’t announced pricing yet, but it’s certainly worth $25 for the extra space.
(Thanks to reader and storyteller extraordinaire Joey-Z for the head’s up.)
UPDATE: JetBlue has announced the details on this: Rows 2-5 and the exit rows on their A320s will cost $10 for short-haul and $20 for long-haul flights. All other rows will have a still generous 34″ of pitch. The exit row on the E190s will also cost $10. $20 for 38″ of pitch (roughly what you get in business class on Continental) is a great deal when flying cross country. The interesting part to me is that their main competitive advantage over Virgin America was that they offered 8 rows where you got 4 more inches of pitch than on VA. Now that advantage is mostly gone (you get an extra 2″ of legroom now). Even so, I’m certain people will gladly pay $20 for the extra room long haul.
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March 19 2008
After the success of Jazeera Airways and Air Arabia, Emirates announced that it will launch a low fare carrier to serve the region. Given the number of expatriot workers in the area, it makes a ton of sense to segment off some of the low fare traffic and allow aircraft to be used on higher yield routes. Assuming the new venture uses Dubai as a hub, it will further fortify the airport as the leading destination in the region, and should give Jazeera and Air Arabia a bit of worry — especially Air Arabia which serves Sharjah airport less than an hour from Dubai.
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March 19 2008
An Air France flight headed to Miami from Charles de Gaulle on Monday sat on the tarmac for, get this, 10 hours on Monday because of a maintenance issue. Oh, and they wouldn’t let the passengers off because deplaning would have taken too long. On the plus side, unlike US-based airlines, passengers were fed and compensated. I’m sure that made them feel much better.
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March 18 2008
How bad is the fuel situation? Delta just announced that it will offer buyouts to 30,000 staff, or roughly half its workforce, and shrink domestic capacity by an additional 5% this year. They hope to layoff about 2,000 people through this program.
This week they’ve already announced that they’re discontinuing service to a number of cities (including Islip, Atlantic City, and Bellingham, WA) that were being served by expensive to operate regional jets (has any aircraft seen its fortunes fall faster than the regional jet? Airlines couldn’t get enough of them in the 90s, but then quickly realized that they were way too expensive to operate…something that frequently-quoted-airline-commentator Michael Boyd has been saying for a while. Bravo).
In any case, this will not be the only airline to significantly shrink their workforces this year. The ugly has only just begun.
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KLM Pilot Flies Around India Searching for Airport