Continental Airlines gets all the credit in the world for their announcement yesterday that they will not continue their merger talks with United Airlines, instead they will persue some sort of vague alliance involving American Airlines and British Airways.  Until that’s a done deal, it’s not really worth speculating about (you can find that elsewhere), [...]

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 [...]

(Thanks, as always, View from the Wing):
Northwest Airlines is offering $50 cash back when you use PayPal to buy a ticket of $250 or more for travel between April 1 and June 14.  Tickets must be purchased by March 27th.

American Airlines launched service between Flint and LaGuardia last August and, surprise surprise, shortly thereafter Northwest announced the same flights.  Incredible!  As you are probably thinking, Northwest didn’t want that route, they just didn’t want anyone encroaching on their lucrative New York to Detroit market (Flint is about an hour north of Detroit).   Well, if [...]

The NY Times is reporting that Delta and Northwest are close to announcing a merger, an announcement of which will supposedly be shortly followed by Continental and United joining forces.
You’ll read plenty of commentary about these mergers elsewhere, so you don’t need me to analyze the minutia, but let me say this:  if you thought [...]

(Thanks to View from the Wing)
US Airways  is really sticking it to the man — and, in this case, you’re the man:  The airline has eliminated 500 mile frequent flyer minimums for short flights so you now only earn actual miles flown.  If you’re flying a bunch of connections on US Airways, you’ll be wasting [...]