- Evan Sparks shares his insights on the issue of antitrust immunity for alliances. (For some reason I missed this one last week.)
- The IATA says that the government should invest more money into aviation.
- FleetBuzz editorial claims the Airbus delivery figures are a “smokescreen.” Interesting stuff.
- The director of T.F. Green in Rhode Island (my home airport) provides his thoughts about Southwest going to Boston.
- Both Hawaiian and Republic released their financial results this week.
- Meanwhile, Brett Snyder analyzes Frontier’s results.
Monthly Archive for February, 2009Page 2 of 4
Thanks to everyone who played the first game. We had three winners: Brett Snyder, Courtney Miller, and Martin Rottler.
- What airline does the phrase “flying meatball” make you think of?
The phrase is a reference to Continental’s old livery. - How can one tell if a US Airways A320-family aircraft (delivered before the merger) came from America West or US Airways?
One way to check is the registration. America West birds have registratoins that end in AW, while US Airways has a few. In addition, America West aircraft have IAE engines while US Airways aircraft have CFM engines. - Which carrier uses “Rhapsody in Blue” as its theme song?
United. - Why would an airline want to make its 757s look more like Tu-204s? (Hint: There can be a couple answers to this one, but they all involve one thing.)
The 757 looks a lot like the Tu-204 in general, but they look even more similar when blended winglets are added to save fuel. Court suggested that “it’s a ploy by the communists to take over the airline industry one 757 at a time.” - Why does it make sense that Republic Airlines uses “Brickyard” as its callsign?
Republic is based in Indianapolis, home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (and the Indy 500), also known as the Brickyard.
Yesterday evening, Southwest announced it would begin service to Boston’s Logan airport this fall. According to this Boston Globe article, there will only be 8-12 daily departures. Southwest seems to be following this conservative approach for most of its new airports, which are all larger – MSP, LGA, SFO, and IAD. Interestingly, in a poll here about the next city, Boston only beat “other” as the airline’s next destination.
No routes have been announced yet, but that makes the speculation more fun! I think Southwest will launch service to Baltimore and Midway, and maybe Nashville, Phoenix or Las Vegas. I doubt Florida will be one of the destinations – other carriers have those routes covered fairly well and I don’t think they would provide very high yields for Southwest.
On another note – could Boston provide a good codeshare opportunity? Air Canada has a good number of flights to Toronto and Montreal, and I’m sure WestJet would like a piece of the action. Meanwhile, it could act as a transfer point for any potential European carrier.
For years, Southwest has used Providence (PVD) and Manchester (MHT) as alternatives to Logan. Will this new service hurt those two cities? Yes and no.
PVD and MHT have lost much of their viability as alternatives to Logan, as AirTran and JetBlue have brought down fares there, so less passengers are willing to make the drive to the other airports. Meanwhile, Southwest is taking a conservative approach and will have only 8-12 departures from Logan.
This looks a lot like how Southwest acted in the Bay Area – enter SFO with a modest operation while maintaining a good amount of service at OAK and SJC. If service stays the same, both PVD and MHT will have much more Southwest service – PVD has 31 departures, and MHT has 27. Most likely Southwest wants to take traffic from current carriers at Logan and not their own service. But PVD and MHT will be affected to some extent, I think. This new service will probably mean less growth in these markets.
That being said, this announcement affects each airport in a different way. This new announcement doesn’t look great for Manchester, as it means less people will come from the northern suburbs. Meanwhile, the growth of Portland (PWM) means that less will come from the north. PVD is a bit better suited in this area as it still has a good amount of local traffic and also receives passengers from the eastern half of Connecticut (especially the portions near I-95). These passengers obviously won’t be driving farther to Logan when Providence in closer. The announcement might negatively affect the potential usage of the train station currently under construction (after a slew of delays) at PVD, which will provide a direct rail link to Boston with MBTA commuter rail service. In addition, I had always (selfishly) hoped that PVD would act as a connection point for any potential international codeshare – I think this announcement hurts those possibilities.
But, could Southwest’s entrance be good for PVD and MHT? Depending on the markets Southwest serves, it could make for, as one of my friends put it, a “yield bloodbath” for some markets out of Boston. It might encourage some carriers to enhance service at PVD and MHT to increase yields where they can. Who knows. Anything is possible.
it will also be interesting to see how the airport management of PVD and MHT respond. Both airports would not like to see Southwest service decline. To help prevent it from happening, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try to lower usage fees to encourage Southwest to keep its service. It would be wise for the airports to advertise their advantages to Logan, such as not having to deal with Boston traffic and lower parking rates.
Anyway, for a thrilling and slightly out-of-date analysis of the New England market, click here.
(Note: Apologies for getting a bit long-winded in this one. I just like writing when my home aiport (PVD) is involved. 
)
Rumor has it Southwest will announce service to Boston tonight, which makes sense, as I believe that Southwest is doing one of its annual “Message to the Field” events tonight.
Anyway, let’s see what happens.
Last week, I wrote a post about airline alliances and why I think they should be granted anti-trust immunity. Fortunately, I was able to get the opinion of Jeffrey Ward, an ex-American Airlines executive who now runs the tour company Savvy Navigator. His industry experience provides a much more well-informed opinion than my own. Jeff writes:
AA and its oneworld™ playmate, BA, once again, are seeking antitrust immunity from the regulators. This immunity includes a frequently-overlooked benefit for corporate travel managers and their ability to negotiate a global airline discount with all carriers in the alliance program (usually called the “corporate deal” by the airline sales rep). For example, a US-based company with heavy domestic air travel might be a good candidate for an AA corporate-discount program, but its international volume would be uninteresting (or not enough) to warrant a discount program with QF, CX or JAL. With a oneworld™ corporate contract, the ability of the travel manager to have access to all alliance partners ensures 1) the corporate customer continues to receive a volume discount on all partner carriers regardless of destination, 2) the alliance members are guaranteed that the traffic stays on their metal, and 3) the corporate traveler continues to accumulate mileage in his/her preferred frequent-flier program.
Thanks, Jeff!
I was poking around the US Airways company store website when writing yesterday’s post, and came upon the artiwork sections. I found three prints – “Slick Arrival,” “Arriving in the Phoenix Area,” and “St. Maarten Arrival.” Each of these prints are available for $105.
Is it just me – or do these three pieces look like they’re screenshots from Microsoft Flight Simulator? Just seemed kind of weird to me.
I know this story is a bit old, but I did want to write a post about it. US Airways is now following the lead of JetBlue and has decided to charge $7 for pillows and blankets, or as they call it, the US Airways Power-Nap SackTM. The set includes a blanket, inflatable neck pillow, eye shades, earplugs, and a $10 coupon to SkyMall. According to the carefully-researched, made-in-five-minutes chart below, this is the “sort-of-good” way of adding an extra fee. Yes, US Airways is taking away something that was free, but is adding some value. The airline (as far as I know) did not give out eye shades and earplugs on domestic flights. Plus, travelers actually know where their blankets have been before they have used them.
The Things in the Sky Ultra-Scientific Fee Evaluation Chart v2.5 Beta (TM)
The Bad Way
An airline charges for something that used to be free. The best example is deciding to charge for the first two pieces of checked luggage.
The Sort-of-Good Way
An airline takes away something that used to be free, but adds a higher-value alternative. The US Airways decision on pillows fits this definition. For another example, an airline might take away free food, but will replace it with buy-on-board options that are of a higher quality and more generous in quantity.
The Good Way
An airline begins charging for a new feature or service. Nothing is being taken away, so customers are much less likely to complain. Perhaps the best example is inflight Wi-Fi service.
Anyway…
The sets can be purchased onboard or online at the US Airways Company Store. It should be noted that passengers traveling on trans-Atlantic flights will still receive complimentary pillows and blankets.
Long-time readers are aware of my never-ending quest to come up with increasingly corny post categories. So, I’m starting a monthly trivia game for the beginning of each month (except for this month because…er…I just thought of it). There’s no prize except knowing that you won, unless some benevolent travel company would like to provide prizes in the future.
Anyway, I hope this can be fun. Send entries to dan@danwebb.us by 11:59 PM Eastern on Thursday, February 19.
- What airline does the phrase “flying meatball” make you think of?
- How can one tell if a US Airways A320-family aircraft (delivered before the merger) came from America West or US Airways?
- Which carrier uses “Rhapsody in Blue” as its theme song?
- Why would an airline want to make its 757s look more like Tu-204s? (Hint: There can be a couple answers to this one, but they all involve one thing.)
- Why does it make sense that Republic Airlines uses “Brickyard” as its callsign?
Business jets have gotten a great deal of bad press lately. Remember how the auto CEOs were slammed for flying their private jets to beg for their bailout? The combination of a recession and negative publicity can have a huge effect on business jet orders. (Of course, it’s ironic the politicians are clamoring for companies to act “responsibly” when a reduction in business jet orders will result in a loss of American manufacturing jobs.) Now Cessna has launched a new campaign entitled “Rise” to try to generate some orders. Click here to see its website. (via @MyTransponder) In a press release, Continue reading ‘Cessna’s New Ad Campaign Gets the Job Done’
This week, curbcrusher from FlyerTalk presents another gem from the Southwest Airlines vault. Today we have part of the famous “Malice in Dallas” video. A few years ago, Southwest started using the slogan “Just Plane Smart,” but it turns out another aviation company (Stevens Aviation) had already been using “Plane Smart.” Instead of a lawsuit, the two CEOs, Herb Kelleher and Kurt Herwald decided to use arm wrestling instead, and a huge event was made out of it. In the end, there was some great PR and $15,000 was raised for charity. Herb did lose, but Southwest did receive permission to use the slogan. Anyway, this part of the video is Herb preparing for the fight, which I think is hilarious.
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