- The Boeing 747 turned 40 this week.
- In addition to slashing fares out of CVG, Delta is now offering bonus miles for some markets.
- Cranky attended the V Australia launch and interviewed their CEO.
- So…what’s up with the 787 and lightning?
- WestJet released its fourth quarter results.
- Virgin America has launched its Boston service. The press release has a video of Richard Branson in drag – does that count as NSFW?
- Go read Gray Roberge’s new travel blog. It’s hilarious. Seriously. Why are you still reading this and not on Gray’s blog?
Monthly Archive for February, 2009Page 3 of 4
It’s never good to wake up and see news of an accident. After 10 last night, a Colgan Q400, flight 3407, crashed while on approcah to Buffalo. As it stands now, it appears 49 people have died: 44 passengers, 4 crew, and 1 person on the ground. Evan Sparks reports that this is the first commercial aviation accident since 2006. Details on the crash are still very sparse. This article has some good information, as well as link to the ATC audio.
I was very concerned when I read the headlines this morning as a good friend of mine is a Colgan flight attendant. Luckily, he is fine. But all that means is that someone else lost a good friend.
Very sad.
EDIT: Usually I don’t like speculation after a crash, but I found this post on Miles O’Brien’s blog (via Twitter), which is very interesting and of a much better quality than the speculation one will often find in the mainstream media.
The previously announced and discussed new bonus from United for on-time performance is being given out. The DOT won’t be releasing its January statistics for a few weeks, but United said in a press release that it “expects to lead all network carriers in January for on-time performance.” As a result, all frontline employees will receive a $100 bonus.
This is good. Is $100 a heck of a lot of money? No, but it ties pay to performance, and it shows that management is willing to reward good work. Hopefully this will help the airline improve employeee relations.
I was never a fan of Midwest’s “save the cookie” campaign and thought the airline should just accept AirTran’s takeover bid. But, they ddin’t, and now the airline is just a shell of what it once was after replacing many of its 717s with Republic E170s. Now, because of that move, Midwest pilots are angry and want federal mediators to get involved with contract negotiations.
Meanwhile, AirTran is going along on its merry way and expanding service in Milwaukee. The May 21 schedule adds eleven nonstops and four new cities: Branson, Denver, Minneapolis, and St. Louis (though Denver is seasonal). To add insult to injury, the airline also signed a sponsorship agreement with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Midwest should have accepted AirTran’s deal, but now it’s getting what it asked for – fierce competition.
Yesterday, Southwest officially launched its test of inflight Wi-Fi for customers. N901WN was the first to be tested, and according to the thread on FlyerTalk, it appears that N902WN is equipped as well. Speeds seem to be pretty good, one Southwest emloyee said on the same thread that they were able to watch a video on Hulu without any issues. Even CEO Gary Kelly has tested the service, and e-mailed the company’s Executive Planning Committee:
“Y’all are my first email from SWA Wifi. It’s awesome! Speed is good. Customers obviously luv it.”
Southwest is also working with Yahoo to make a homepage for the service, which looks pretty handy. It will display the flight’s progress and act as a portal for information about destinations, which could open up some good advertising opportunities. It would be cool if the restaurants the homepage mentioned are affiliated with Rapid Rewards Dining.
One of the best advantages of Row 44′s satellite service is that it can be used anywhere, while Aircell’s service (I think) only works around the ground as it uses towers. Unless Southwest decides to dramatically change its route map, though, this feature doesn’t make a huge difference.
But I also think this is very big for Southwest. Since the airline currently does not have any inflight entertainment, the Wi-Fi service can help fill the void. While there’s no seat power, Southwest’s addition of plenty of power outlets in its boarding areas should be very helpful.
Southwest says that there will be a total of four aircraft with the service by early next month. During the testing phase, Wi-Fi will be free, and I’ve yet to see what prices will look like. Row 44′s service, however, does need final FCC approval to get going.
A good video of one test was uploaded on Southwest’s blog. Curbcrusher from FlyerTalk also noticed something – it was uploaded back in January, so it appears employees have been testing the service for awhile.
I won’t be flying Southwest until May. Maybe I’ll get lucky?
As promised, here are some more stats. Overall, the industry did well in terms of on-time performance, and the system was 76% on-time, an increase of 2.60 points. Most of the airlines’ performance improved, and most decreases were less than one point. Hawaiian’s on-time performance dropped 3.3 points, but it was from 93.3 to 90.0 percent on-time.
While US Airways technically isn’t the most on-time airline, it made a huge increase in on-time performance, from 68.7 % to 80.1%, an increase of 11.4 points, or as the press release states, 16.5%, which I find very impressive. While I’m not a fan of US Airways’ addition of fees, delivering consistent performance should make customers happy. Anyway, here’s a chart of the changes.
The DOT released on-time statistics for December, and some of the resulting news items have been a bit confusing. Hawaiian put out a press release with the headline “Hawaiian is Nation’s Most On-Time Airline for 5th Straight Year,” while a US Airways news release is titled “US Airways Ranked Number One On-Time Airline for 2008,” and while Southwest did not issue a press release, there’s a post on Sky Talk with the title “Southwest Tops On-Time Performance in 2008.”
So, of those three airlines, who was the best? Technically all three news items are correct, as the criteria used for each are a bit different.
Hawaiian did have the best performance with an on-time rating of 90%, but obviously the airline flies a very different network than the other domestic carriers. Then the next-highest was Southwest, with an 80.5% on-time rating. Meanwhile, US Airways was right behind with a rating of 80.1%. US Airways stated in its press release that it went from “sixth to first in on-time performance among the six largest hub-and-spoke carriers.” Is that exactly a claim for first? I think it’s a bit of a stretch considering how big Southwest is, but US Airways should be commended for its strong improvement in this area.
For some reason, the webpage with the DOT report seems to be down for me, but later I’ll have some more stats.
I’m a big supporter of airline alliances. I think they provide lots of benefits for travelers, especially in terms of loyalty programs. But, apparently Rep. Oberstar wants to investigate them because they’re anti-competitive. This investigation can affect the plans of Oneworld to get anti-trust immunity, and of Continental to join the Star Alliance.
After talking to Steve Orr (site here), Oberstar’s example about flights from New York JFK to Paris don’t make sense, as that makes it sound that he is excluding Newark but including Orly, which doesn’t make much sense. Also, two of those six carriers were probably Pan Am and TWA. I doubt those carrier’s bankruptcies were caused by any alliances. Orr also mentioned to me that since 1990, many more cities have gotten transatlantic service.
But the examples on market share are a bit fuzzy, too. Does he just mean nonstop flights, or is he including connecting service? The latter accounts for competition between the alliances. I don’t have to fly to Paris nonstop. I can change in London or Frankfurt if I so desire.
My main concern is where does this stop? Why is it bad for Star carriers to have most of the service to Frankfurt from Chicago but fine that Aer Lingus is the only airline to fly to Shannon from Chicago? Does nonstop competition need to exist on every route? Do we need to resurrect the CAB, too?
Meanwhile, Oberstar’s statements on high fares at alliance hubs is almost laughable, simply because a hub that Northwest defends vehemently has given Oberstar’s state more air service than it demands on its own. For some more information on Northwest and Oberstar, I highly recommend this post on Swelblog. (By the way, doesn’t it seem a tad bit ironic that this investigation is starting after Delta has agreed to keep jobs in Minneapolis?)
The Hudson Crossing blog makes some great points about this issue. Namely, anti-trust immunity has been highly beneficial to Oberstar’s state of Minnesota, as the codeshare between KLM and Northwest has been very successful. The blog makes another good point about Oberstar’s previous example: “We don’t need six carriers operating from JFK to Paris. If JFK to Paris is so lucrative, any airline could start flying it tomorrow.”
Oberstar calls anti-trust immunity a “de facto merger.” Good. That’s what it should do, considering countries like the United States have antiquated, protectionist foreign ownership rules. Alliances are the best way to get around them. Instead of going on a witch hunt about anti-trust immunity, Rep. Oberstar should focus on ways to increase the amount of foreign capital that can flow into other airlines.
Here’s one of my favorite airline ads, courtesy of Virgin Atlantic.
- JetBlue pilots have voted to not be unionized.
- Flight Global has a good article about Porter’s future growth. I’ve always liked that airline, and I hope to fly them one day.
- After fighting the DOT, Virgin America finally released their (not so great) financial results. Brett Snyder has a good review of them here and here.
- Evan Sparks goes over the parts of the stimulus bill for aviation.
- FleetBuzz Editorial provides an update from Boeing about the 747-8 program.
- The first set of winglets has been installed on a 757-300. (Via @Flightblogger).
- Flight Global has an interesting video of an ATR making trials at London City.
- This year Oneworld is celebrating its 10-year anniversary, and the member airlines are getting some aircraft painted in a special livery to help celebrate. (Via @Flightblogger)
- Here’s a nice walkthrough of the new V Australia cabin. (Via JetPhotos Forums).
- Meanwhile, the new airline is partnering with…Alaska? Cranky has the details.
Latest Comments