Posted by Seth on October 31, 2009 under News | 
It is hardly a surprise to hear that ALPA, the union representing the pilots that overflew Minneapolis last week on a flight from San Diego, has issued a release defending the pilots. After all, that is one of the main roles that the union serves. What is (mildly) surprising, however, is just how bad the release is.
For starters, they say this:
"To date, all crew statements related to this case have been voluntary," said Lee Moak, chairman of the Delta branch. "We are disappointed that these voluntary statements are being used without regard for the breach of trust and confidence their use will cause." Taking disciplinary action against the crew, Moak said, could cause pilots to question the integrity of voluntary safety programs. "The continued viability of these programs themselves will be placed at risk. That will, in turn, cause irreparable harm to the safety of our nation’s aviation system," Moak said.
OK…the statements made were voluntary. But they’re still pretty damning.
"In any aircraft incident, there is always more to the story than first appears in the press," he added. "We do not condone the abandonment of due process that will result from a rush to judgment; instead we implore all interested parties to move with deliberate and unemotional professionalism as the events surrounding this incident are investigated." At no time during the incident were the passengers, crew or aircraft in danger, the union said.
The facts that can be seen thus far are that the pilots stopped paying attention to ATC and to their route. Even without knowing what they were actually doing in the cockpit, we know that they were not actually paying attention the way they are supposed to. Otherwise they wouldn’t have missed the airport. It is quite hard to believe that the plane was never in any danger. After all, if they aren’t paying enough attention to know where they are how can we believe that they are paying attention to other things, like fuel gauges or other alert systems? Maybe there is more to the situation than first reported. But when final approach looks like this the pilots definitely did something wrong.
Seriously, these guys screwed up. I don’t really care why so much. They made a huge mistake and did, in some ways, put the safety of their passengers at risk. That is inexcusable. I don’t expect the union to stand by silently while their members are under attack, but they should avoid pretending that everything that happened was acceptable. It was far from it.
Posted by Seth on October 30, 2009 under News |
Air France took delivery of their first Airbus A380 this morning with an inaugural flight from Hamburg to Paris. The carrier is the first European operator of the type and the fourth globally. The promo photos certainly make it look pretty, but there are some scary realities that come with it. The plane is expected to begin transatlantic operations at the end of November on the New York – Paris route.
The Air France configuration is, by about 15%, the most densely packed of the seating layouts seen to date. Sure, it could be worse – Emirates has suggested an all-coach configuration for some regional flights – but this is the most packed the plane has shown up thus far. And despite claims that Premium Economy is the best money maker for airlines Air France has chosen to not add that cabin of service to the plane. It is hard to tell if that is a comment on the value of that cabin on flights or something else, but it is an interesting development, especially considering that they already have a similar product, Alize, on several of their aircraft.
Either way it is always nice to see new planes entering service. One of these days I’ll manage to fly on one of the A380s. And next week I get to visit the assembly line and see where they’re made!
(Photo from FlightGlobal/TwitPic)
Posted by Seth on October 29, 2009 under News |
jetBlue, already the largest carrier at Boston’s Logan airport, announced today that they are looking to expand that lead in a big way. The New York City-based carrier is adding about 20 flights to their schedule in Boston, expecting a total of 78 daily flights to be operating by summer 2010. Only one new destination in the mix – a once-weekly flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica – but a whole slew of cities will be seeing additional frequencies. Among them:
- Two additional daily flights to Chicago/O’Hare (for a total of three)
- Two additional daily flights to Raleigh/Durham (for a total of three)
- One additional daily flight to Baltimore/Washington (for a total of five)
- One additional daily flight to Charlotte (for a total of three)
- One additional daily flight to Denver (for a total of two)
- One additional daily flight to Fort Lauderdale (for a total of four)
- One additional daily flight to San Diego (for a total of two)
- One additional daily flight to San Francisco (for a total of two)
- One additional daily flight to Washington/Dulles (for a total of seven)
- Four additional weekly flights to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (for a total of one daily)
- One weekly flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica (for a total of one weekly) (a)
- And more to come!
All this expansion comes in the face of some competition showing up at Logan, specifically in the form of Southwest. Actually they seem do be doing it in order to directly challenge the folks from Dallas. Noted Robin Hayes, Chief Commercial Officer for JetBlue, “JetBlue has a great fare and 78 great flights for you in Boston — that’s no small peanuts!” The “peanuts” reference seems to be a repeated reference at Southwest, with jetBlue differentiating themselves by providing up to 6 snack choices on flights, not just peanuts. A similar comment was made when jetBlue joined the Boston – Baltimore fray just a couple months ago.
It is worth noting that jetBlue has no additional aircraft deliveries scheduled for at least the next 15 months. That means that all these additions will have to come from a combination of increased utilization and cuts from existing routes. No real idea yet on which flights are potential losers, but it seems likely that a few frequencies will disappear elsewhere on the schedule to accommodate this.
Between New York and Boston jetBlue has done a pretty impressive job of establishing their presence in the markets. Combine that with the fact that they are actually making money these days and things are looking might fine for them right now.
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Posted by Seth on October 28, 2009 under News |
Calling it a “Strategic Plan to Strengthen Core Network,” US Airways announced a series of cuts today that will significantly change the way the airline operates. They are dropping several destinations and closing a few crew bases. As part of these changes they expect to remove about 1,000 employee positions.
On the Domestic US service front the most significant change comes with the cuts as Las Vegas. US Air will be reducing service there to 36 daily departures in the next 3 months. As recently as April 2007 the airline operated 131 daily departures. In April 2008 that number dropped to about 100. Today they’re at 64 and in February only 36. They’ve apparently decided that there is no more money to be made in Las Vegas so they’re cutting to the bone. The Las Vegas hub used to be a cornerstone of the America West network. It has fallen mighty far mighty quickly under the US Air brand name.
On the international service front the cuts are equally dramatic. US Air never was a big player in the trans-Atlantic market but they’re basically giving up completely now. They’re cutting service between Philadelphia and Birmingham, UK; London-Gatwick; Milan;Shannon, Ireland and Stockholm, Sweden. In addition they are formally returning the slots for the Philadelphia-Beijing service that the DOT awarded them and which were never actually operated.
With these cuts there are now a few wide-body aircraft sitting around with nothing to do. US Air announced just over a month ago their intention to refit their long-haul aircraft with a new premium cabin. One has to wonder now if those plans are still going forward, especially if they no longer will be operating the routes where the premium cabin can generate the revenue to justify the costs of that seating layout.
The one bit of good news coming out of the announcement is that the Shuttle service amongst New York’s LaGuardia, Boston and Washington’s National airports will remain in place. The Boston-New York route will be switching over to the Embrear E190 aircraft, as will Boston-Philadelphia service.
These cuts are huge. Just a few weeks ago there were discussions going on about how well US Air seems to have weathered the storm and how they might turn the corner back to profit. Apparently that simply isn’t in the cards and these drastic cuts are necessary. It does explain a bit why CEO Doug Parker looked so glum during the press conference yesterday announcing Continental Airlines joining Star Alliance. This sort of thing would weigh on my mind, too.
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Posted by Seth on October 27, 2009 under News |
The show is over now and it was, for the most part, a show. It was fun to see representatives from all the airlines – both executives and flight attendants – up there to welcome Continental to Star Alliance and it was interesting to listen to the questions and answers.
Among the bits I found interesting, questions were posed by folks from the NJ Star Ledger, Bloomberg, and news outlets based in Guam, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Trinidad & Tobago and Switzerland. Quite a mix there. The questions were typical of such an event – mostly about how the change will affect and benefit whichever region was represented by the person asking the question. The answers were fun, too. Among them:
- “Everyone here flies. Sometimes in coach. What does everyone in coach want? An upgrade to first class. That is what Continental just got with our move to Star Alliance.” – Jeff Smisek, CO President and COO. That’s a pretty big swing at SkyTeam there.
- “We don’t really compete too much with Continental in New York and what is good for Star Alliance is good for US Airways.” US CEO Doug Parker, looking very uncomfortable on stage when asked about the future that US has in the alliance.
- The Japanese partners along with open skies coming to Japan are “robust opportunities” for Continental in the Asian markets. CO CEO Larry Kellner on potential expansion from Guam.
- “We’ll always win in a competitive front.” Kellner again, this time when asked about the ATIs and JVs.
- “Investment bankers are finally exercising their god-given right to fly in business class again.” Smisek, discussing booking trends and potential economic recovery.
Apparently Continental decided about 5 years ago that they made a mistake in not pursuing ATI/JV opportunities for transatlantic traffic. For some reason, however, they were not able to rectify that and remain in SkyTeam. It is hard to know if the other carriers (DL/NW/KL/AF) simply didn’t want to share or if it was something else. But the good news is that they’ve addressed the issue now.
Lots more to come as news continues to roll in.
Posted by Seth on October 27, 2009 under News |
And it is a beauty. Cruddy screen capture from the webcast going on right now, but it is something.
A nod to Hartmann for actually getting the capture; I couldn’t make it work on my computer.
ETA: Here’s another photo from Continental…
Posted by Seth on October 27, 2009 under News |
As expected, lots of updates hit Continental’s website at midnight CDT this morning, and the Star Alliance details are all over the place. From the hundreds of lounges now accessible for Presidents Club and Star Gold members to an interactive travel reward chart that is actually comprehensive and accurate to many details on upgrades available for travel on other Star Alliance carriers, there is lots of information there to digest.
The Star Alliance upgrades are a nice feature but ridiculously expensive in most cases, charged per segment and require a full-fare (Y or B) ticket to begin with. Not a great value, but it is always nice to have more options.
The reward search online is also quite nice, with more than 10 carriers available immediately. A couple test searches this morning show availability in line with what other Star Alliance carriers are seeing which is quite nice. Of course the three carriers that are delayed in reward integration – Swiss, EgyptAir and Shanghai Airlines – affect me personally (I need a reward on EgyptAir) but I’ll get over it eventually.
The move also means an end to the Continental partnership with Qantas. Hardly a surprise as Continental now has United Airlines and Air New Zealand as partners offering service to Australia. The relationship officially ends on December 17, 2009. Tickets for reward travel after that date will be honored but no new tickets will be issued and no miles will be accrued on revenue tickets.
The lounge access benefit is ridiculously good at this point. There are over 800 lounges available for Star Gold members, a group that now includes Continental Platinum and Gold elites, not just Platinum elites. That’s a lot more lounges for a lot more people. Many of the lounges are now also accessible for Presidents Club members. It might actually be enough to tempt me to join, though with the Star Gold access maybe not.
Partner earning rates were also announced and no major surprises there. The bad news is that the lowest fares on many carriers don’t actually earn miles. Plus most partner carriers will no longer earn bonus miles for elites; only United, US Airways and Lufthansa earn elite bonuses. On the plus side, there are not too many 50% earning fare classes. So it is all or nothing, with plenty of nothing on the cheapest fares. Combined with the new reward chart announced a few weeks ago, rewards are going to be a little more expensive and the miles are a bit harder to earn. That’s not great at all. But the interactive reward chart – more than a year in the works – is accurate and mostly functional (I’ve found one bug). That is a major improvement.
Considering the amount of work required to make the leap from SkyTeam to Star Alliance in a 48-hour span I’m quite impressed at just how much of things are functional. And more will get better over the coming weeks. This change is good on the whole for most OnePass members and Continental customers (with few exceptions). I’m off to book some reward travel now!
Posted by Seth on October 26, 2009 under Dining, Trip Reports |
Coming off another 48 hours in Waikiki I’m finally getting to the point where I don’t hate the place. When the sales come up the flights are a great price for the number of miles earned so it is really hard to resist them. But I’m generally not all that happy in Waikiki. The beach is fake and not particularly soft. Plus it is incredibly crowded and loud. The shopping is the same as many places on the mainland (though more expensive) and the food is mostly chain restaurants that are overpriced and not particularly good. The ones that aren’t chains are just overpriced for the most part. It certainly takes away from my enjoyment of a quick weekend away.
But since I’ve actually done this trip a couple times now I’m starting to find some of the less touristy dining choices. Delicious food at reasonable prices and all right in Waikiki Beach (or very close by). All of them are located towards the Diamond Head end of the beach, a bit out of the fray but not too much so.
- Me B-B-Q
808.926.9717
Great Korean BBQ shop with breakfast, lunch and dinner every day but Sunday. Meat, rice and a side range from $6-12 and is way more than enough food even after a long day of surfing or diving.
- Morio’s Sushi
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| Mmmm…brains. Enjoying sweet shrimp at Morio’s. |
808.741.5121
Housed in a natural foods market, at night Morio’s transforms into one of the better sushi shops along Waikiki Beach. Morio works the sushi bar himself while a couple of waiters scurry around the small kitchen to help serve guests at the 5 tables on the adjoining patio. There are only about 8 seats at the counter and getting one can be tough – especially on a Saturday night. Morio’s regulars are loyal and keep coming back, with good reason. When in doubt, ask Morio for a recommendation. It is sure to please.
Morio’s is also a BYOB shop and there are at least three convenience stores on the block. More than one guest headed back out mid-meal for more as the drinks kept flowing. Some of the regulars were even sharing their stash with the staff. Watching a guy move his hands that quickly with such sharp knives is one thing. Watching him do it after he chugs a beer is whole different level of amazing.
- Rainbow Drive-In
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| Eggs over a giant mound of fried rice for breakfast at Rainbow. Huge portions at great prices. |
808.737.0177
I certainly didn’t discover this place – it has been around for over 40 years – but it is top notch. Located just far enough off the beach (about a mile) to keep the casual observers away, the grub is top notch. Breakfast is served until 10:30am and lunch/dinner after that. Huge plate lunch helpings for around $7 each. Hard to go wrong at that point.
View Local Waikiki Dining in a larger map
Posted by Seth on October 24, 2009 under News |
As of 11:59pm PDT tonight, with the departure of Continental flight #767 from Seattle to Houston, Continental and Copa will officially be out of SkyTeam. On Tuesday they’ll officially join Star Alliance. In the meantime, a major airline out of a global alliance. There aren’t too many of those.
This is a huge plus for Continental and its customers. There are many more carriers and options available to them with the new alliance. And it is a bit of a hit for SkyTeam, though they don’t lose too many destinations served with the loss, just frequencies and connection options.
It is going to be a fun week of news and announcements as the details of the new Star Alliance move are finally announced. I can’t wait!
Posted by Seth on October 24, 2009 under Uncategorized |
This week’s flights had me reading Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. The book examines the various ways in which cadavers have been used throughout history to help forward medicine, engineering and a few other disciplines as well. With a background as a travel writer Roach has a certain travelogue style of writing, one that intersperses narrative with random personal asides and insight. When dead bodies get involved that becomes interesting, as she intertwines stories of watching her parents pass away and also some of the fun bits about the smells and sights she experiences as she works with various groups to get a feel for how the human body behaves after death in the various states it may find itself – evidence, medical school training tool, crash test dummy and more.
The tales of cadaver use in medical school training – gross anatomy courses – are somewhat interesting. The students bond with their cadavers somewhat and many actually hold funerals for them at the end of the semester. But this isn’t the most interesting thing that Roach explores in terms of how bodies are used in science. Want to learn about grave diggers from the 18th century and how some mysteriously fresh cadavers seemed to appear regularly at certain doctors’ offices? A couple chapters of the book cover that.
But the best part – in my mind – is the section on the folks who research dead bodies for the sake of forensic science. A group of researchers in Knoxville, Tennessee seem to have cornered the market on this aspect of forensic science and they quite a facility. They literally take cadaver bodies out into woods and “prepare” them as though they were being dumped by murderers. Wrapped in plastic bags or carpets or just hidden under piles of leaves, the bodies are left to decompose. They are inspected frequently to document the effects of time on the bodies. This data is then used in homicide investigations to help pinpoint time of death well after liver temperature becomes irrelevant.
The author spends a bit of the book discussing the crash of TWA 800 with Dennis Shanahan, an expert in injury analysis. He can look at the patterns of injuries from an event and glean from them the likely cause. Most of his work is with insurance companies and reviewing injuries of the living who are making specious claims. But he has also worked on analyzing the deceased following airplane crashes. Things like mapping seat assignments to burn patterns or fragmentation within the bodies to determine where exactly an explosion came from on the plane. The analysis is rather interesting and certainly entertaining. Most heartening is that Shanahan doesn’t believe that there is a prefect seat on the plane for surviving a crash.
…I ask Shanahan the question he gets asked at every cocktail party he’s been to in the past twenty years: Are your chances of surviving a crash better near the front or the back? “That depends,” he say patiently, “on what kind of crash it’s going to be.” I rephrase the question. Given his choice of anywhere on the plane, where does he prefer to sit?
“First class.”
At least the guy has some taste when it comes to travel. It is worth noting that in the earlier era of aviation the first class cabin frequently was at the rear of the plane but that was attributable to things like rear boarding entrances and a smoother and quieter ride well behind the engines. He also seems rather realistic about the fact that, while planes could be made even safer than they are today, it probably isn’t worthwhile from a cost perspective, a view that I share.
There are a number of additional chapters about the spiritual and philosophical aspects of medical research. People who want to study crucifixion or be crucified, people attempting head transplants and just how the armed forces justify using cadavers to test the mortality levels of various weapons are all covered.
And it is all quite fascinating to read, even if you aren’t really all that morbid or insane. But having a bit of those in you will help.
Posted by Seth on October 24, 2009 under News |
It is earnings season again for airlines with most reporting their quarterly results this past week. As has been typical for the past several quarters, most airlines are showing up with less money than they had three months ago. In many cases the loses are staggering, though not nearly as bad as a year ago when fuel costs were roughly double today’s prices.
Still, there are a few airlines that showed up reporting profits. In the case of jetBlue the profits were actually a decent size. More importantly, however, is that they were stacked on top of profits from previous quarters. It seems that they’re really doing something right there and the numbers are reflecting that. Unlike other carriers that are shrinking their route maps and capacity, jetBlue is growing. Capacity in 2009 will be roughly level with that of 2008 and will actually be up significantly – about 35% over 2008 – in the Caribbean. Apparently that’s where the money is these days and jetBlue is going after it with great gusto.
One of the numbers that jumped out as I listened to the quarterly earnings report was the ancillary revenue reported per passenger. With the unbundling of services and a shift towards incremental charges for everything from pillows to pets in the cabin the ancillary revenue number is one that can make or break an airline these days. For the past quarter jetBlue reported an average of $17.50 in ancillary revenue per customer enplanement. Not too shabby but lower than expected. Why? Because there are fewer change fees coming in. The advance booking curve is shrinking so it is more likely that customers know when they are going to travel, not just booking early, hoping for the best and changing when the actual date gets closer.
There were a couple other interesting bits that came out of the earnings call. One is that jetBlue still appears to be operating like a feisty startup, not like a staid legacy carrier. They’ve got growth on their mind, with lots of planes scheduled for delivery in 2011 and beyond. And they actually seem a bit excited by the prospect of competition with other carriers. CEO Dave Barger had this to say on the topic:
Where there are competitive skirmishes we’re certainly going to defend our turf.
That sort of attitude definitely explains adding additional frequencies on the new and highly contested Boston – Baltimore route, for example.
And there were a number of “never say never” types of things that the carrier was asked about, including charging for the first checked bag. It is not going to happen now but reading between the lines I wouldn’t be surprised to see it come about shortly after the Sabre system goes live in Q1 2010, along with exceptions for full-fare and other similar things that can only be logistically managed with a complex booking system like Sabre offers.
And the best news of all, at least to me, is that the All You Can Jet promotion was wildly successful – and profitable – for the airline. So much so that they’re quite keen to repeat it in the future. It was actually revenue positive and the marketing buzz was huge. It was, quite simply, “[T]he most successful promotion in our history,” according to Barger. Sign me up for the next round; I’m ready to go!
The facts that can be seen thus far are that the pilots stopped paying attention to ATC and to their route. Even without knowing what they were actually doing in the cockpit, we know that they were not actually paying attention the way they are supposed to. Otherwise they wouldn’t have missed the airport. It is quite hard to believe that the plane was never in any danger. After all, if they aren’t paying enough attention to know where they are how can we believe that they are paying attention to other things, like fuel gauges or other alert systems? Maybe there is more to the situation than first reported. But when final approach looks like this the pilots definitely did something wrong.
