I thought it might be useful/depressing to pass along a quick overview of the horrible/annoying/depressing things we’ve seen happen since the fuel hike:
Northwest/Delta merger (less service + higher fares = unhappy flyers in Minot)
American’s $15 first bag fee
Everyone else’s $25 second bag fee
US Airways removes snacks from domestic flights
American cuts domestic capacity 12% and decimates [...]

In a bit of bad news for my friend Corina (and everyone else who wants to fly to Romania), Delta will end their nonstop JFK-Bucharest service in October as part of a larger set of cutbacks they’ve been announcing. Posters on Airliners suggest that low business class loads are the culprit, and I’d buy [...]

Delta is offering a $50 Amex gift card if you book a flight between JFK and LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Portland and Seattle for travel through the end of June. Take that, JetBlue.
(Reader Tom points out that JetBlue has a similar promotion - book your JetBlue ticket by May 16 for flights until [...]

One interesting note from yesterday’s news about Delta’s earnings:  Their CEO said that the $1 billion in annual revenue and cost synergies fromthe merger are “really conservative.” As they delve further into the merger, they expect that “significantly more [cost/revenue synergy] opportunities” to be found.
Which is to say, “We have no idea what’s going to [...]

Former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall and I DO have something in common:  we both think the idea of airlines merging in this environment to be nutty.  In an op-ed in the NY Times, Crandall bashes the proposed (and rumored) mergers writing, “The case for mergers is unpersuasive. Mergers will not lower fuel prices. They [...]

OK, I lied.  I have a few more notes on the merger.  Today I wanted to mention what I call the Fallacy of the Larger Route Map.  One of the key benefits that Delta is mentioning in the merger talk is that there is little overlap in the Delta and Northwest route maps.  This would [...]

I’m not going to write much about the Delta - Northwest merger because you’ll find plenty about it elsewhere, but there are 2 points I’d like to make:
- This is not a done deal. There will be significant pilot opposition to this, and that should not be discounted.
- In theory - theory - I [...]

You’ll read about this everywhere else, so I just wanted to make sure you saw that Delta and Northwest could announce a merger as soon as Tuesday.  Blah blah blah pilots seniority, blah blah blah consolidation, blah blah blah crazy idea, blah blah blah two wrongs don’t make a multi-billion dollar right.

The modern-day US airline industry, which allowed people to fly all over the country for roughly the same price as a couple of steaks at Morton’s, died last week after a long illness. It was 30 years old.
The cause of death was oil. And irrational pricing. And low fare carriers. And [...]

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 [...]