- American is furloughing 175 pilots, in addition to the nearly 1,900 pilots already there.
- Japan Airlines (JAL) filed for bankruptcy this week (to no one’s surprise). Of course, the battle between American and Delta (and therefore, oneworld and SkyTeam, continues).
- The US Airways A320 that landed on the Hudson last year (registration N106US), is now up for auction.
- Jon Ostrower reports that LAN has swapped some 787 delivery slots with ANA, enabling the former to get some 787s sooner.
- Air France has some PR issues this week when it adjusted its policy for the larger passengers out there. They actually made the policy more favorable, but unfortunately the media didn’t see it that way.
Monthly Archive for January, 2010Page 2 of 4
Well, earnings season has started this week, with results from American, Continental, and Southwest and more on the way next week. To be honest, I haven’t had the time to give the earnings releases the time they deserve. I’m hoping that over the weekend I can look over the SEC filings and listen to a few conference calls.
But I did want to point out something that really stood out in Southwest’s numbers – the airline is doing a fantastic job managing capacity. ASMs were down 7.7% year-over-year in the fourth quarter as Southwest cut many unprofitable routes. And Southwest was able to use that extra capacity to enter new markets that present new revenue opportunities – New York, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Boston were all added without Southwest growing its fleet. And despite the capacity cut, Southwest increased traffic (as measured by RPMs) 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Those numbers caused a big increase in load factor, on the order of 9.5 points to 77.3%.
And that should also explain Southwest’s favorable revenue numbers.
Yield is calculated by dividing passenger revenues by total RPMs, which show what passengers pay per passenger mile. Southwest’s yield decreased 6.4% to 14.22 cents. PRASM is like yield, except it brings capacity into the mix. One could divide passenger revenues by total ASMs, or multiply yield by load factor.
For the fourth quarter of 2008, Southwest’s yield was 15.19 cents, and load factor was 67.8%, giving us a PRASM number of 10.30 cents. In the fourth quarter of 2009, yield was 14.22 cents. With a load factor of 77.3%, that gives us a PRASM number of 10.99 cents – a 6.7% increase.
Now, just for the sake of argument, let’s say Southwest’s load factor in the fourth quarters of 2008 and 2009 were the same at 67.8%. If that was the case, Southwest’s PRASM for Q4 2009 would have been 9.64 cents, a 6.4% decrease.
So kudos to Southwest for really optimizing its schedule.
Hawaiian Airlines currently has an all-Boeing fleet, with 717s used for interisland service and 767-300s utilized for transoceanic flying. But that will change in April when the carrier’s first of three leased A330-200s arrives. The other two aircraft will be placed into service in May and November. The aircraft arriving in April and May will be used for Honolulu-Los Angeles service.
After taking delivery of the leased aircraft, Hawaiian will being accepting deliveries of owned A332s in 2012. Hawaiian has ordered six of these aircraft, and six A350-800s to begin arriving in 2017.
Hawaiian just announced that final assembly of the first A330 has begun, and included in the news release is an image of the aircraft under construction in Toulouse, which is a treat because pictures from inside the Airbus factory are pretty hard to come by.
I’m looking forward to seeing the inside when it’s finished. Hawaiian says that “a high-resolution LCD touch screen monitor installed in each seatback will allow customers to choose from a wide selection of movies and video programs, audio channels and video games,” which would be a big improvement from its current offerings.
Yesterday, Air France unveiled its new short-haul seat. Basically, the airline is taking the same route as other airlines and going with a slim seat. Check it out:
One downside of slim seats is that they can be a bit on the hard side, and manufacturer Recaro recommends that they not be used on flights more than four hours long. As a result, these seats will only be installed on a total of 37 A319s, A320s, and A321 that are currently in the all-economy “Metropolitan” configuration. These aircraft are used on short domestic hops.
Slim seats create more space, and often airlines take advantage of that to increase seating capacity. Air France is doing the same, though not by much. The number of seats won’t change on the A319, while both the A320 and A321 will be getting an extra row. According to Air France, the extra space will provide around 2-3 extra inches of legroom, which is certainly nice from a comfort perspective.
The new seat also doesn’t recline, with Air France instead opting for a “natural 15° recline which provides passengers with optimum comfort and preserves the space and tranquillity of the passenger behind.” So that’s a negative if you like reclining, but a positive if you hate being behind someone who likes reclining. 
One thing I really like about this seat is the separate cup holder on the back of the seat, which is a feature that can be found on some of Air France’s long-haul fleet.
This simple addition is something I wish more airlines would implement, as it allows for better use of the tray table. For example, let’s say I want to use my laptop during the flight, but I’ve already received my drink. There’s really no room for my laptop anywhere else, so the best I could do is awkwardly put my drink cup between my legs, which creates a situation that can only end badly. So, I have to wait for the flight attendants to come through and collect trash. If I’m on an airline that offers Wi-Fi, that could potentially result in a lost sale. Yes, my example is specific, but simply put, the cup holder is a simple addition that makes life easier.
Another perk of slim seats is their lighter weight, and Air France reports that the new seats are about 40% lighter than the ones they are replacing, which saves about 750 kg in weight per aircraft. That certainly helps the fuel bill, as Air France is estimating to save a total of 1,700 tons of fuel each year once the seats are introduced – so the costs of installing the new seats can be recouped with the fuel savings over time.
The seats will start showing up on January 30, according to the Air France news release, and will then be “gradually introduced” into the fleet.
The ATA released its yield data for December, and, frankly, there’s not a whole lot to say other than that we’re seeing improving trends continue. Comparisons made to the same month in the last year continue to improve. Of course, one big reason is because comparisons are now easier as yields were starting to decline a year ago, and the comparisons will only become easier.
But it should be noted that for the first time in months, we have some positive growth. Yields for Atlantic flying were 2.3% higher in December 2009 than for the same month a year ago. Of course, Atlantic yields declined the most in December 2008. But growth is growth.
The twelve-month moving average of yields shows improvement as well. Not surprisingly, there was in increase for the Atlantic. But for other regions the decrease in the moving average was less than the prior month.
So, like past months, we continue to see improvement, and year-over-year comparisons should look pretty good over the next couple of months, if only because they’ll be based of 2009′s crappy numbers.
You can see the data here.
I had been meaning to scan some of my inflight magazine collection all during winter break, and I finally got a chance to get started yesterday, with only a week remaining. Oh well.
I decided to scan the August 1998 issue of US Airways’ magazine, which was entitled Attachéat the time. This issue was chosen because it was first I ever collected – now I have over 200 magazines in my small, but still-growing collection. Fortunately, many of my friends are aware of my dorky hobby and grab me a magazine when they fly. Otherwise, I would have a much smaller collection!
Anyway, here are some of the highlights from that US Airways magazine. It might be hard to read some of them at such a small size, so clicking on the map will link to the larger version on Flickr.
US Airways Domestic
This route map should show why America West was a good fit from a route network perspective – since US Airways had a very small presence in the West, basically linking up the major cities to its hubs. There was some limited US Airways Express service in California, but just over ten years after the merger, most of the PSA network had been dismantled.
What is also very noticeable is the number of stations that have lost mainline service – places like Elmira, New York, Burlington, Vermont, Asheville, North Carolina, and Knoxville, Tennessee. There are plenty of others, and I really think that shows the huge impact that regional carriers have had on the industry.
US Airways Shuttle
US Airways Shuttle was certainly different back in 1998. First of all, it would be a little while before BOS-DCA would be considered a shuttle route. But back then, Shuttle was a bit more independent from the rest of the airline with dedicated aircraft in a special livery. Nowadays, the E190s and A319s used are regular mainline aircraft. Surprisingly, the number of frequencies for BOS-LGA and LGA-DCA are just about the same, though obviously there’s less capacity, especially with the E190s on the BOS-LGA route.
MetroJet
Ah, MetroJet. Who remembers MetroJet?! Competition with Southwest was hurting US Airways’ Baltimore hub, so the airline decided to take some of its 737-200s, configure them in an all-coach configuration, and paint them in a distinctive red livery. But, like many other airline-within-an airline concepts, US Airways couldn’t bring MetroJet’s costs down low enough to effectively compete. After 9/11, US Airways decided to shut the operation down, and the Baltimore hub was history.
In this route map, MetroJet was still getting started. You can see a more developed one from 2000 here.
US Airways International
Like today, Philadelphia was US Airways’ primary international gateway in 1998. Pittsburgh was the second gateway, and at one time had service to London (Gatwick), Frankfurt, and Paris, though of course that service has been eliminated, and Charlotte has taken over as the second US Airways hub to have transatlantic service.
The Star Alliance was formed in 1997, but US Airways did not join until 2004. Until 2002, its partner was Deutsche BA, which operated a hub out of Munich. The airline was to be acquired by EasyJet, but instead was purchased by another investor and was re-branded as dba in 2003. It was later acquired by Air Berlin and kept its own identity for awhile, but has since been integrated into the airline.
The International Air Transport Association just released its latest data on premium traffic (for November), and there’s really not a whole lot to say as trends haven’t really changed – year over year comparisons continue to improve. And there continues to be positive growth in economy travel. IATA warns, however, that the decline in premium traffic compared to October (6.7% vs. 9.3%) “was entirely due to the slump in business travel at the same time last year.” The trade group also notes that w”there has been a rise in premium travel in recent months…but much of the upturn took place mid-year, since then there has been little further progress once seasonal fluctuations are taken into account.”
IATA estimates a 12% year-over-year decline – that’s not great, but it’s certainly better than past months:
United announced last week that would come back to Anchorage after leaving in 2008. In the past, United flew there year-round with an increase in service during the summer, but in 2007 it said that the city would only be a seasonal destination. A year later, the decision was made to cut all service entirely.
But after a year hiatus, United will come back with the same destinations it had when it left: its Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco hubs. All will have daily service, though Chicago gets an extra frequency on Saturdays. The Saturday-only service to Chicago starts a couple of weeks before the daily flights, and ends a couple of weeks after.
The routes are already flown by other carriers, so for the heck of it, I played around with some online timetables to see the increase in capacity that the new service would be providing:
Anchorage to O’Hare is interesting, as it is a new route for American this summer as well (like United’s, the service is seasonal). One benefit for American’s new service, is that because of their partnership with Alaska, their new Chicago service carries Alaska’s code.
What I found to be very interesting, however, is the new San Francisco service, just from a scheduling perspective. The Denver and Chicago flights are timed pretty close to those of the competitors, but San Francisco is different. Alaska’s current nonstop service takes place overnight, while United’s is during the day. That might just be the best way it fit into the schedule, as it appears one 757 flies ORD-ANC-SFO, while another flies SFO-ANC-ORD. I guess I’m wondering if the different timing will give one airline an advantage over the other.
But Anchorage has certainly been getting some nice boosts in service of late. Awhile back US Airways announced seasonal service to Philadelphia, and last week Continental announced seasonal service to Portland.
The Rick Mercer Report had a hilarious segment on the new security procedures in place for Canadians flying to the United States:
- Can you believe that it’s been a year since US Airways flight 1549 landed on the Hudson River?
- Sean Menke has decided to resign, and I agree with Cranky’s take on this: it can’t be good.
- Alaska just launched a miles promotion for residents of Oregon and five counties in Washington.
- Jon Ostrower has a very well-written post reviewing the first month of flight tests for the 787.
- Mary Kirby provides an update on Southwest’s in-flight Wi-Fi – apparently they still haven’t made a deal with Row 44.
Latest Comments