Monthly Archive for March, 2009

American To Expand Wi-Fi

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 31, 2009
in American
. 0 Comments

If I recall correctly, American was the first U.S. carrier to start offering inflight Wi-Fi, but the service was only available on 767-200s flying on certain routes from JFK. Today the airline announced that it will be expanding the service to its MD-80 and 737-800 fleets, and 150 MD-80s will have the equipment installed by the end of the year.

The pricing has changed a bit as well. It’s still $12.95 for flights over three hours and $9.95 for shorter flights, but users wishing to access the internet with their smartphones will only have to pay $7.95, no matter what the duration of the flight.

As I’ve written earlier, this is one of my favorite ways for an airline to seek out additional revenue, as a new service that provides value is added, compared to things like bag fees, when something that was free is taken away.

Really, APA?

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 31, 2009
in Random
. 2 Comments

Last week, the Allied Pilots Association, the group that represents American Airlines pilots, sent out a press release supporting Rep. Oberstar’s quest against airline alliances and anti-trust immunity. Such an opinion from a pilot’s union isn’t unexpected at all, but I have to take exception with this:

“It is gratifying to have a lawmaker of Rep. Oberstar’s influence weighing in on these issues, given their critical importance to our national security, as well as to hundreds of thousands of airline workers and the traveling public,” [APA President Captain Lloyd] Hill said. (Emphasis mine.)

Really? How is anti-trust immunity a threat to national security? I completely understand the union’s position, but playing the “national security” card just seems irresponsible to me.

The Delta 764 In SkyTeam Colors!

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 30, 2009
in Skyteam
. 0 Comments

Finally, after a long wait, the world can now see the Delta 767-400, registered N844MH, in a SkyTeam livery. Click here for a set of pictures courtesy of a N701DN on Twitter. It’s really great that SkyTeam is finally following Star and making member airlines advertise the alliance on their aircraft. I think the livery looks great!

Hartford Loses its European Link

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 30, 2009
in Delta and Northwest
. 0 Comments

The inaugural BDL-AMS flight. Photo courtesy of Dan Vincent.

The Hartford Courant reported Saturday that the city would lose its one direct European flight, which was a Northwest flight to Amsterdam served with a 757. Northwest dropped the route in October, but said it would be coming back in the summer. Well, Delta says that’s no longer the case. The annoying part for airport management is that they put aside $500,000 to help advertise the route, and had already started spending it.

Things haven’t been that great for Hartford, either. Delta cut the direct flight to Los Angeles, and I think service to Indianapolis is going away soon. Frontier and Midwest have left the airport as well.

I had really hoped that the route would succeed for selfish reasons. Even though I knew such a scenario would be unlikely, I hoped that this route would work out and maybe Norhtwest or another carrier would think that it would work if litle old PVD got a European flight as well.

Anyway, travelers in New England are now stuck with flying out of Boston or JFK if they want to fly internationally without a domestic plane change.

Sunday Video #18

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 29, 2009
in Sunday Video
. 1 Comment

One of my biggest regrets as an airplane nerd is never being able to fly into Kai Tak, which had one of the most incredible approaches in the world.. Unfortunately, the airport closed when I was about eight years old. So, here’s a great video from the cockpit of the approach.

YouTube Preview Image

Well, at least there’s Flight Simulator. I really should go out and buy FlyTampa’s version of Kai Tak. You can see some incredible screenshots here.

Saturday Links #38

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 28, 2009
in Saturday Links
. 0 Comments
  1. According to Online Travel Review, some rabbis are complaining that El Al shows movies.
  2. WSJ reports that falling oil supplies could lead to higher prices.
  3. AirTran and its pilots union have traded press releases over the suspension of one pilot.
  4. American Eagle is furloughing 75 pilots.
  5. Randy Babbitt, former ALPA president, has been selected by Pres. Obama as the next head of the FAA.
  6. US Airways media day was this week, and Evan Sparks has some great coverage about what was said about government regulation.
  7. TWU Local 555 and Southwest have now ratified a new three-year contract, which includes pay increases and medical benefits for retirees.

Adding Insult to Injury: AirTran’s Deal With Ryan Braun

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 27, 2009
in AirTran and Midwest
. 2 Comments

This morning it was reported that AirTran has inked a deal with Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun to appear in AirTran advertisements and make appearances for the airline. This is in addition to AirTran’s other advertising at Miller Park. The ironic part? Midwest is still the team’s official airline.

Southwest to Get LGA Slots and Some International Ramblings

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 27, 2009
in Southwest
. 1 Comment

Yesterday, an Indianapolis bankruptcy court approved Southwest’s bid to acquire ATA’s 14 slots at New York’s LaGuardia airport, reports the Dallas Morning News (via FlyerTalk). The airline will start off with one gate (B2) at the airport. Southwest still hasn’t announced when or where it will start flying, but most speculation I’ve heard is that they would like to start flying sometime this summer. Southwest’s next schedule extension is slated for April 14, and I wouldn’t be surprised if LGA flights would be available for purchase by that time. As for where Southwest will start flying, my top choices are MDW, BNA, and BWI (in that order).

The newspaper article quoted Southwest’s Bob Montgomery as saying that “I think we would like to find a way to acquire more slots,” which I think makes total sense. I can understand Southwest not wanting to launch a large operation at LaGuardia, but I think more than seven roundtrips would be good.

Meanwhile, an article from Airline Business (also via FlyerTalk) has an interesting quote from Southwest’s Richard Sweet:

“Flying with a codeshare partner long-haul is certainly something we’re interested in doing in the long-term,” says Sweet. Asked whether an eventual codeshare deal with a long-haul airline could be a precursor to Southwest one day branching into the long-haul market with its own aircraft, Sweet responds that this would represent “another big move out of our present model and it would involve a different aircraft type, but I’m not saying we wouldn’t do it.” (Emphasis mine)

This is notable because in the past Southwest has said they’re going to focus on all-domestic flying, so this is interesting. One factor that could affect Southwest’s future flying is its employees. If I recall correctly, Southwest’s contract with its pilots has language relating to codeshare, and I believe a new agreement is still in the making. It seems that many Southwest employees were not too pleased with the WestJet and Volaris announcement, so that could mean a change coming for Southwest.

Icelandair Announces Seattle

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 26, 2009
in Alaska and Icelandair
. 0 Comments

Yesterday, Icelandair announced that it will be launching flights to Seattle in Jully, with four flights a week. For me, the route sounded longer than it actually is. According the Great Circle Mapper, the flight is only a bit longer than a New York-London flight. Interestingly, as pointed out on FlyerTalk, the flight arrives in SEA at 5:45, and doesn’t leave again until 4:30, so the airline will have a 757 sitting for almost a day.

I did find one part of the press relese a bit awkwardly-worded, though:

Flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays will connect with Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and London, offering up to 4 hours faster connection times from Seattle to Scandinavia than possible through other European hubs.

Er, what city doesn’t belong? :D

The release also mentions:

Additionally, Icelandair will work in cooperation with Alaska Airlines to provide passengers convenient connections to a host of cities across the West Coast, including San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Anchorage and San Jose.

There aren’t that many details about the partnership, though. It doesn’t seem that one can book a ticket all the way to other West Coast cities on Icelandair’s website, but, maybe in the future one will be able to check his or her bags all the way through. Hopefully more details will be coming soon.

Buy Three, Get One Free on JetBlue

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 25, 2009
in JetBlue
. 0 Comments

JetBlue has announced a new promotion today that is aimed towards short-haul flyers in the Northeast. If one buys three roundtrips on certain cities from either New York or Boston, he or she will receive one free flight. Unlike the current Boston promotion, though, the certificate is only good for one of those city pairs. The terms and conditions list the following pairs:

BOS-JFK, JFK-SYR, IAD-JFK, JFK-ROC, BTV-JFK, JFK-PWM, JFK-RIC, BUF-JFK, JFK-PIT, BOS-BUF, BOS-IAD, JFK-RDU, BOS-RIC, BOS-PIT, CLT-JFK, BOS-RDU, and BOS-CLT

Travel must be booked and completed between today and June 17. You can find all the details here.

Fedex’s Union Tactic

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 25, 2009
in FedEx
. 3 Comments

FedEx issued a new SEC filing last weekend, but I didn’t even notice it until a Wall Street Journal article pointed out an interesting part of it:

In addition, in January 2009, we exercised our option with Boeing to purchase an additional 15 B777F aircraft. Our obligation to purchase these additional aircraft is conditioned upon there being no event that causes FedEx Express or its employees not to be covered by the Railway Labor Act. In January 2009, we also obtained an option to purchase an additional 15 B777F aircraft. Accordingly, we have now agreed, subject to the above contractual condition, to purchase a total of 30 B777F aircraft and hold an option to purchase an additional 15 B777F aircraft.

Apparently, according to the same Wall Street Journal article, FedEx has had a labor advantage over UPS for years. Because FedEx started as an airline, it is covered under the Railway Labor Act, while UPS, which started as a trucking company, falls under the National Labor Relations Act. Apparently the latter law makes it easier to unionize.

I can’t say I support the idea, but it is a great way to play politics, to say the least. Basically, FedEx can say an approval of this bill will hurt Boeing union workers. I wonder if this strategy will change the votes of any representatives from Washington.

While I understand FedEx’s motives here, I dont think this is the best move. In my opinion, it would be better for the company to figure out why employees would want to unionize, and try to deal with those issues first.