Things in the Sky

Usually I don’t write a regular post on Saturdays, and that will continue. But I decided that from now on Saturdays I’ll be posting links to items I found interesting but didn’t write posts about.

1. Jon Heckman reports that US Airways is eliminating domesitc IFE, and Brett Snyder at Cranky Flier speculates what the airline could do next to try to boost revenue.
2. Aviation.com has a good article explaining that due to recent changes, frequent flier credit cards might not be best idea anymore and a regular cashback card could work better. I never thought of this before, but it’s a good point and something the airlines should worry about – credit cards provide good extra revenue.
3. The DOT released a proposal that, if approved, will allow airports to charge higher landing fees at peak times.
4. Embraer predicts that there isn’t much of a 50-seat market in the United States anymore, and a good number (at least 250) of this size of aircraft will be removed from service.
5. Meanwhile, Boeing says there is a demand for 29,400 new aircraft through 2027, worth about $3.2 trillion in orders. The company also predicts high demand in the single-aisle market. (And they repeatedly push back development of the 737 replacement because?)

I hope you enjoy the weekend reading material.

Anyways we have an exciting week ahead of us as the Farnborough Air Show begins, and it will be interesting to see what news there will be from the manufacturers, and more importatntly, what aircraft will be ordered by what airlines. Personally, I’m watching to see what will happen with the 747-8 Intercontinental (the passenger version). There are only 26 orders of the type, six of which are for BBJs and the remaining 20 are from Lufthansa.