Anyone who follows this industry is well aware of labor problems at many US and European airlines.  There have been at least three major strikes I can think of in the last month in Europe (BA, Lufthansa and Olympic).  American Airlines seems to have had almost its entire operations labor force at the negotiating table for the past 4 years and not a one of them seem to be acting like a deal is soon to be had with several threatening to ask for release from negotiations to begin a 30 day cooling period and one (the TWU) who has asked for such a release. 

Even Southwest Airlines has had a couple of snags in the past year with its pilots union and their TWU local.   Delta’s flight attendants are making noise about trying to unionize again and this time they may have the votes for it when you consider that Northwest’s flight attendants were rabidly unionized.  Frontier employees haven’t rebelled yet but I kind of wonder if that isn’t closer to happening than many realize given Republic Airways’ direction.

US Airways has problems with its pilots’ unions not being able to get along well enough to come to a consensus on whether or not the sun rose in the east.  I do wonder how long it will be before we see the unions at United Airlines begin to overheat much like American Airlines’ already are. 

Sure, there are some airlines who are managing to get along with their operations employees pretty well.  That includes Southwest Airlines, Continental and even Frontier (for the moment.)  However, a pretty vast number of airline employees seem to be simmering just before the boil over point and I’ve begun to wonder if there doesn’t need to be a better industry solution to collective bargaining than what they’ve got now.  With the way things seem to be headed, particularly at legacy airlines but certainly not limited to them, there could be a truly momumental perfect storm of labor actions in the US. 

I won’t argue who is paid well, paid poorly or over-paid.  I certainly won’t argue who is or isn’t over worked either.  Frankly, if you think being an airline employee in operations is a cush job, you really don’t have visibility into just what those jobs entail and just how many hours a day they consume.  But if there is this much job dis-satisfaction among these ranks, clearly change is called for and I really don’t think this is all about money.

I think this is about job satisfaction.  Yes, the union leadership (such as it is and that ain’t much) expresses the grievances in monetary terms but I really don’t think it’s all about the paycheck.  I think it’s about feeling job satisfaction and feeling some meaningful reward from the job which, yes, includes salary levels.  For airlines, I think this about a need to have greater flexibilty and ways to improve productivity that aren’t constrained by decades old rules. 

Who is going to find a better way in this system which is largely based on 1930’s law and habits?  I really wonder if there is any industry leadership who has the ability to find a better way.

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There have been some interesting comments in the news today made by Continental’s new CEO, Jeff Smisek.   First, he seems the switch in alliances as a very good thing for Continental but it is way too early for us to see that as anything other than justification for the switch.  It was notable that he referred to being in the SkyTeam partnership as problematic since they felt Delta was trying to kill them.  I’m not sure Delta was trying to kill them but I don’t think Delta saw them as adding value probably. 

Another comment is one I’ve been waiting for from an airline.  Mr. Smisek says Continental will cancel flights before risking fines under the new rules for 3 hour delays.  I’ve been waiting for an airline to make that statement publicly because the rule is about to go into effect but also because the winter weather this year has been atrocious for northeastern airline operations.  No airline likes new rules.  No airline ever embraced a rule that punished its violators with fines.  Even the most progressive of airlines hate change.  But airlines have been relatively quiet for the past 2 months of winter and that made me wonder if I was ever going to hear threats of cancellations.

Well, to my surprise, it was Continental that finally stepped up to the plate.  The thing is, if one looks at what winter did to airline operations so far this eyar, any flights that got cancelled would have had to be cancelled anyway.  There might have been a handful that could have gotten off if given 4 hours instead of 3 but it would have literally been a handful.  What has been notable is just how quickly and quietly the airlines recovered their operations after each event.  No outraged passengers were found on the news complaining either. 

The airlines were all negatively impacted by the storms and all lost a significant amount of revenue because of that.  It was unavoidable and it wasn’t because of the 3 hour rule looming in front of them.  That’s how the airline business rolls sometimes.

The final notable comment is comes from Continental reiterating that it may be open to a merger in the future.  They don’t see the Delta/Northwest merger as being in the books as a success yet and I agree.  They do, however, believe that if that merger does prove successful, it points to what Continental needs to consider in the future.  I don’t see this happening any time soon at all.  The truth is, Delta got the best partner available in the US.  The next 2 candidates come with a lot of baggage that isn’t easily solved by even in the best managers in the industry:  United and US Airways. 

I think we’ll see Continental exploit its membership in the Star Alliance and grow itself organically rather than by merger.  There is one company that, if I were Continental, I would be interested in buying.  Alaska Airlines.  The problem is, if they make a move on Alaska, it will become a bidding war between AA, Delta and Continental.   Maybe United even enter into that fight.  Continental doesn’t have the war chest to win that fight.  Not right now.  If they do recover and re-start their growth and if Delta’s merger doesn’t prove as successful as it hopes, they would have a chance.  Even at that, I think AA would fight very, very hard to win that battle just to keep Continental off the west coast.

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Allegiant Airlines is adding 6 Boeing 757 aircraft to its fleet for Hawaiian operations with 2 starting in the near future and the remaining aircraft being added in 2011 and 2012.   Some are surprised by this development but it should hardly come as a surprise since it does fit their business model nicely.

First and foremost, Allegiant is a leisure airline flying point to point operations from smaller towns to leisure destinations.  While they’re not big on even having focus cities, they do have them and they aren’t allergic to concentrating flights into something that makes a profit.  Allegiant also likes proven aircraft that have a relatively low cost to purchase and a low cost to operate.  The 757 fits that model just fine. 

Certainly these flights will depart west coast cities but unlike many, I suspect it will be 2 or 3 larger markets and probably from major airports.  I suspect that the LA area, the San Francisco area and Seattle (Bellingham) will be the “gateway” cities for these flights.  It won’t be Phoenix, Las Vegas or even Salt Lake City because while they’re nominally in range, there would be issues with hot and high operations in the summertime that would possibly weight restrict these flights.  No, it’ll be departure cities that are low, relatively cool and with nice thick humid air. 

My guess is that they’ll start in the LA area where Allegiant is already sending quite a few flights and probably it’ll begin with 2 frequencies a day to Hawaii from there.  Perhaps one to Honolulu and one to Maui.  That will allow them to become accustomed to operating the flights (probably 1 round trip per day per aircraft) and at the same time support the aircraft with staff and mechanics. 

Next up likely will be Bellingham (just take a look at how many destinations Allegiant flies from Bellingham already for those penny pinching Canandians) and then perhaps from SF/Oakland. 

Supposedly these are one airline aircraft with Rolls Royce engines so support and maintenance should be no problem and I’ll bet that heavy maintenance gets done by AA just as that happens for their MD-80 aircraft now.  Some may wonder why not the 767 but I think Allegiant remains interested in keeping their aircraft full and properly utilized.  The 757 should result in high load factors, slightly lower operating costs than the 767 and it is an aircraft they can potentially use for flights within the continental US should they wish to.

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I found THIS little nugget today announcing that Airtran will hold its annual shareholder meeting in Milwaukee on May 18th this year.  At first glance, I might accuse Airtran of just pandering to the Milwaukee market.  On further reflection, this is a bit more than just pandering.  It’s too much effort for just pandering.  It strikes me more as respect quite honestly. 

I’m sure most see this as a shot aimed at Midwest Airlines since Midwest is considered Milwaukee’s home town airline.  But I’m not sure it is aimed at Midwest so much as it might be aimed at both Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, Delta and United.  There just isn’t any brand for Midwest even in Milwaukee anymore and to think it might still exist is to not give enough credit to those who live in Milwaukee.  They aren’t fools, they can read newspapers and they’re just as smart as any other market. 

But Milwaukee is a loyal city and I think Airtran is making the right moves in Milwaukee.  Rather than just showing to offer a good fare, they’re investing in the city and I suspect that Milwaukee will respond to that.  That’s why I think this move is aimed much more at Southwest, American and, yes, even United and Delta.  AA, Delta and United all serve Milwaukee primarily through their nearby hubs and have never shown much respect for Milwaukee as a market.  At least not until Airtran and Southwest showed up. 

Southwest is the newest airline to arrive but Milwaukee has courted them for years without success.   Southwest didn’t pay too close attention to Milwaukee until Airtran did.  Only Airtran showed up, grew their presence in the market and now is respecting the city by making it a focus city, an employee domicile and now their shareholder meeting site.  This all is very smart on the part of Airtran and it will get noticed.

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or lack thereof.

Lufthansa is reporting a 152 million Euro loss for 2009 compared to a 1.3 billion Euro profit in 2008.  No doubt that declining markets in Europe can account for a good portion of this reversal in fortunes particularly considering that the decline in Europe lagged behind that of the United States (and is likely to lag behind the US in recover too.)

However, their addition of Austrian Airlines and British Midland in 2009 is also highly suspect.  I’ve been suspicious of their multi-brand strategy in Europe for a while and more so now after seeing their financial results.  Adding sub-performing airlines to the portfolio is never a strategy that works in the long run (witness the demise of the original Swiss Airlines in 2001) and Lufthansa has so far not shown much inclination to benefit from harmonizing operations among the various airlines. 

I also suspect that this loss is only the beginning for 2010 since Lufthansa is faced with labor problems and hasn’t made the moves that other European airlines have made to cut costs and re-structure service offerings (a la British Airways.)

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Republic Airways Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Frontier and Midwest as well as 4 other regional airlines, has ordered 40 new Bombardier CSeries CS300 jets with options for another 40 as well. 

The CS300 will seat about 120 people in a mixed class layout and has enough range to fit current Frontier/Midwest needs especially if they select the CS300ER (about 2900 nautical miles range).  It’s an aircraft that really begins to infringe upon B737/A320 territory (especially the A318) and which promises very good efficiency, particularly for the kinds of missions Republic flies. 

These are most certainly for the branded Frontier/Midwest network.  They fit the missions that both of those brands are flying now and compliment the existing A319/A320 Frontier fleet as well as the EJets currently flying for both Frontier and Midwest.  The CSeries 2×3 Economy configuration has the potential offer a better product than many airlines offer with their larger aircraft since a passenger has just a 20% of getting a middle seat versus 33% chance on a 737/A320 aircraft. 

These aircraft will not fly for the regional airlines serving legacy airlines such as Delta, US Airways or United.  The unions for those airlines will never allow that kind of semi-mainliner aircraft fly on behalf of the legacies.  No doubt Republic look to re-allocate some of their EJets such as the E170 back over to such flying and this purchase gives them more flexibility in the future. 

This is  a big order for Republic Airways.  Nominally worth about $3Billion, Republic no doubt got significant discount for being the launch customer of this version (Lufthansa has already ordered the CS100) but it does make me wonder if they can afford the order right now since Republic has spent much of its cash holdings and it remains to be seen if legacy airlines are going to be happy about continuing contracts for regional service with an airline that is now competing with them on a mainline level.  Time will tell since these jets aren’t due to enter service until 2013 and there will likely be some delay added to that rough date.

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It’s been announced that India’s airline, Kingfisher Airlines will be joining the Oneworld alliance, probably in about 18 to 24 months.  While Oneworld and Kingfisher are playing this up big in today’s news, it puzzles me and, frankly, I have some doubt as to whether or not it will actually come about. 

First, Kingfisher hasn’t exactly been the most financially solvent airline in a market with 2 other major competitors (Jet Airways and Air India) nor has it exhibited a very rational strategy on choosing its destinations.  It has a couple of trunk routes from India to London and Singapore, a couple of route to leisure destinations in Asia and a domestic network that is reasonably extensive but not overwhelmingly competitive.

While I’m sure that Kingfisher offers Oneworld partners AA, BA and QANTAS some feed, it doesn’t appear that Kingfisher itself has the resources to make use of the partners in their home countries.  Their fleet is comprised of A330 aircraft and while they’re scheduled for A380s and A350s, not a person around thinks they’ll actually take up the A380 and the A350 is scheduled for deliveries to start in 2014 but it’s unlikely that those will be on time either. 

What also surprises me is that Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines major competitor, already had a good codeshare relationship with American Airlines and QANTAS.  Their equipment and services better aligned with Oneworld so I’m puzzled why we are not hearing about Jet Airways joining Oneworld. 

There certainly is a need for a Oneworld partner in India and with Air India joining Star Alliance, that left Jet Airways and Kingfisher.  My guess is that they couldn’t make a good enough business case for Jet Airways who enjoys good relationships with SkyTeam members too.  However, if I had to pick between the two, Kingfisher wouldn’t be my choice. 

I suppose Kingfisher may work if it wants to be the domestic provider for Oneworld in India.  They do have the domestic network to make that work.  But they will likely become jealous of feeding all that high dollar traffic to AA, BA and QANTAS just to get the domestic traffic in India.  It doesn’t feel equitable.   One thing I’ll say for Oneworld, their partnerships do seem quite equitable for the most part with each partner airline appearing to bring a good strength to the table both domestically and internationally.

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In what is almost certainly a politically motivated move, the country of Iran is requiring that all foreign airlines traveling to and from Iran must show the name of the Persian Gulf as “Persian Gulf” on their moving flight displays instead of “Arabian Gulf” as some apparently do.  Failure to do so may result in aircraft being impounded and flight privileges to Iran being suspended. 

The correct, United Nations confirmed, name is Persian Gulf but several countries (Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to name a few) on the Arabian peninsula have apparently persisted in calling it the Arabian Gulf. 

And you thought Islamic nations in the middle east were unified.  You can read more from Reuters HERE.

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Alaska Airlines and its sister company, Horizon Airlines have announced a pilot program to introduce electronic boarding passes into their system.

Electronic boarding passes are displayed on a PDA with a bar code that can be scanned at the airport.  Continental began pioneering this technology but Delta and American Airlines have been testing it out at various airports over the past several months as well.  All of the anecdotal reports that I’ve read so far seem to indicate that it has worked well and fairly smoothly with the only comments being that some TSA officers were surprised by seeing one but not unfamiliar with it.

What do you do if you cannot get your PDA to display the boarding pass?  You can always get a paper copy by checking in at the airport as well.   Passengers choosing this option aren’t at risk just because of a problem with their PDA. 

Alaska / Horizon also introduced their new mobile website at:

http://www.flyasqx.com/

If you’ve tried this technology on a recent flight, your comments on it are welcome.

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According to USA Today, QANTAS is eliminating their First Class sections on all but the Airbus A380 aircraft in their fleet.  Going foward, QANTAS will be selling Economy, Economy Plus and Business Class seating.  Certainly this strikes me as pretty smart.  It’s expensive and difficult to chase after first class passengers and those first class passengers are few and far between these days. 

Notably, the airlines that have made their business class sections their top offerings are also the airlines that have captured a great deal of lucrative business traffic.  Business class *is* first class if we’re in 1995.  It’s way better than what we called first class in the late 1970’s / early 1980’s. 

I’ll also point out that one of QANTAS’ best competitors, Air New Zealand has pursued this strategy for years quite successfully.  Continental Airlines has a very loyal group of passengers and has done quite well with it too. 

The number of people who might be upset at there being no First Class offerings on an aircraft can be counted on one hand and certainly don’t offer a very good return on investment when one considers the cost to create the offering on the aircraft and then pursue the customer. 

Why are they keeping First Class on the A380’s?  I suspect its for a couple of reasons.  One, they can probably capture some first class traffic on those “capital” routes.  Two, the product is brand new on the A380s and they likely don’t want to have to go through the expense of refitting those aircraft.  Three, the A380 isn’t exactly demanding more space for business class customers right now anyway.   Will it go away?  Probably but only when a refurbishment of the aircraft is called for.

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American Airlines has pursued a strategy of semi-engagement and delay with most of their employee union groups for several years now.  It wasn’t a completely ineffective strategy for the past few years in that salaries remained the same and with the current economic climate most employee groups haven’t been in the mood to push things.

The problem is, most of those employee groups gave up significant wages to prevent a bankruptcy filing and are now approaching 8 years without a raise.  Now the Flight Attendant’s union and the TWU (representing several groups such as mechanics and bag handlers) are pretty much at the end of their patience.  While the economy hasn’t recovered, nor has the employee’s quality of life.  If anything, I would suspect most employees’ have suffered significant degradation of their quality of life.  Particularly in the past 2 years.

Accordingly, these employees groups have reached a point where there is little to lose from strike.  To the outsider looking in, it would appear that they have their jobs to lose (via bankruptcy and downsizing) but that isn’t necessarily true.  While AA has suffered large losses over the past 2 years, it also holds a great deal of cash.  Those employees are looking at that cash.  What’s more, to expect employees to simply sit without a new contract and, more importantly, some certainty for the future is rather naive at this point.

Both the flight attendants and the TWU have asked that they be released from negotations soon and be allowed to start the first steps towards a strike.  Unfortunately for AA, they’ve got a bit of a good argument for this now.  TWU employees have been negotating since 200 5/2006.  Flight attendants just a tad shorter than that.  It paints the picture that none of these negotiations are going anywhere and the common party to all is AA’s management.  At some point, they will be released from these negotiations to start a 30 day cooling off period.

What’s worse is that AA is faced, potentially, with three very strident labor groups asking for release all about the same time and, at this point, with some justification.  It puts them in a bad position to negotiate with any one group and in a position to not be able to operate at all if any of these groups cooperate with each other.  Ordinarily, I wouldn’t expect them to but this time . . . maybe.

Both airlines and unions need a better way to negotiate.  It is unfair to the employee groups to be stuck in negotiations for more than 1 to 2 years.  It’s bad for the airline to have incentive to maintain the status quo by delaying and it’s bad for parties’ morale.

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Most everyone is aware of the controversy going on between director Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines.  SWA removed him from a flight stating they believed him to be too big to fit the seat.  Kevin Smith tweeted and blogged about the issue, SWA has responded a number of times with apologies, etc. 

Well, I just read SWA’s Nuts About Southwest Blog post about Kevin Smith HERE.  I have to say that I had decided early on to not report or comment on this because, frankly, my reading of the incident yesterday caused me to believe both were a bit wrong in their actions and responses.  Now, I kind of wonder what’s going on at SWA quite a bit more than I wonder what’s going on with Kevin Smith.

You see, one of the very telling things about Kevin Smith’s tweets and blog posts is that he got names.  Names of captains, flight attendants and gate agents.  Another item of interest to me is that no one disputes that he fit into the seat with armrests down and no seat belt extender.  Yeah, he’s a big guy but he isn’t *that* big of a guy.  He certainly isn’t THIS person.  Any of the photos I’ve seen of him over the past 2 days leads me to believe he’d fit just fine on Southwest’s seats. 

First, the captain wants him off.  Then, it wasn’t the captain but other staff and in order to expedite the flight.  Huh?  This was an Oakland to LA flight.  It’s not that long.  You seriously want to tell me that comfort was the issue for anyone?  Do you really want to say this was in order to expedite the departure of a flight when he was already seated and no one appears to have complained?

I’m not sure if some person or persons are lying at SWA.  I don’t believe that SWA is malicious like this as a corporation.  But someone is either not telling the complete truth or, worse, concealing a hidden reason for these actions. 

Southwest has apologized, yes.  Unfortunately, by engaging in this debate, their apology is a bit hollow this time around.  They should investigate deeper, admit any issues whether they had to do with capriciously applied corporate policy or poor judgement on an individual basis.  To me, it just seems as if there is more to this story than is being told completely.  The odd part is that the story has evolved considerably on SWA’s part and not at all on Kevin Smith’s part.  Stranger still, SWA continues to not refute any facts cited by Kevin Smith.

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Some time ago, US Airways and Delta Airlines came to an agreement to “swap” slots between New York’s La Guardia Airport and Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport.  Delta would get a large number of slots in New York and US Airways would get a smaller but more important number of slots in DC.   Each airline would get to consolidate their power in the city they’ve chosen to be a power player in. 

This required regulator approval from the Department of Transportation and the DOT finally issued their ruling on this.  They were OK with it only if each party sold a number of those slots in the respective markets.  And they preferred that the slots go to “slot needy” airlines (i.e. airlines who have no slots at those airports or who have an extremely limited number of slots.) In other words, the DOT wasn’t completely comfortable with just how consolidated each airline would become in each market. 

Both airlines expressed dismay and offered that they wouldn’t necessarily go through with the deal if those were the conditions.  Both felt that the consumer was losing out on improved benefits in those markets.   Oh, and of course this is the fault of the Obama administration according to some pundits. 

Now, the airlines don’t want to give up those slots to the slot needy because it potentially allows a toehold into two markets that have been very difficult for LCC carriers to find access to.  Southwest Airlines, for instance, only managed entry into the La Guardia market by buying the assets of defunct ATA.   jetBlue would love access to Washington National but there has been no real opportunity there either.  Frankly, both Delta’s and US Airways shuttles between NYC and DC would be pretty threatened by a jetBlue operation running between those two cities and Boston. 

Frankly, I’m glad the DOT put those conditions on this swap.  First of all, no consumer ever benefited from an airline consolidating its position in a market.  The benefits airlines speak of are things like connections to other destinations, through ticketing to other destinations, etc.  The benefits are *not* better prices.  Ask people how American Airlines is doing in Dallas ever since Delta withdrew from the market. 

I don’t mind airlines merging and growing bigger but I do mind airlines carving out domains in certain markets with regulatory approval.  Those markets aren’t monopolies to be granted.  And in those two particular markets, there isn’t exactly a limited number of customers available. 

In fact, in those two markets, LCC carriers have been shut out largely by large, legacy carriers who have “sat” on their slots rather than give them up or sell them.  It is quite literally to their benefit to operate a slot pair with a 40 seat RJ rather than to give the slot up because the introduction of competitive fares from LCC airlines who might get a toehold will literally decimate their yields in those markets. 

But keeping competition away and even allowing airlines such as Delta and/or US Airways to consolidate their strength in such markets is tantamout to providing artificial support to airlines who have cost structures that are no longer viable in most of the United States.   I do wonder what the anti-Obama administration pundits have to say about this kind of government support for legacy airlines? 

The truth is, we need to distribute *more* of the wealth in those slot controlled markets, not consolidate it.  We need other airlines encouraged to enter those kinds of markets and provide solid competition on routes that are held in a stranglehold grip by legacy airlines.  That is what will benefit the consumer.

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It’s official, JAL is staying inside Oneworld and the folks at American Airlines can relax on that front.

The only thing that surprises me about this announcement is that it was done this quickly. I thought it would take a month or more for the airline to come around. That said, it was a smart move for two reasons.

First, the last thing JAL needs to be doing right now is agonizing over an alliance. Their problems were not going to be solved by being in the right alliance. They were going to get solved when the executive leadership started focusing on cutting jobs, slashing costs and rationalizing the routes. The new JAL Chairman and new president apparently decided to move that issue of their plates and get on with the real work.

Second, it’s a smart move because there were big anti-trust issues involved with a lashup with SkyTeam and Delta. The US government signaled as much a couple of weeks ago when it told Japanese negotiators for the new open skies treaty that approval for anti-trust agreements already applied for was not a “done deal”. By staying with Oneworld, JAL gets to preserve its alliance infrastructure, benefits from revenue guarantees for the next few years and has the time to focus on restructuring itself rather than wasting their time on fighting an anti-trust battle in the US.

One thing that has become clear from this fight. American Airlines has emerged as the leader of Oneworld. The other major partners, Cathay, QANTAS and British Airways, didn’t really step up in the way you would expect of such a partnership. Yes, this was a fight based in the US but those 3 airlines stood to benefit but didn’t really work terribly hard to win the fight on behalf of AA. Look for AA to become the Oneworld leader and the airline that starts setting the direction for Oneworld for the future.

That could be good or bad. Good because Oneworld really hasn’t had much leadership from any airline to date. However, American Airlines has to set a direction that other airlines want to follow and one that benefits everyone in the alliance. If they don’t take up the leadership reigns, look for Oneworld to melt away in 5 years or less.

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Frontier has announced some new flights recently but there is one that caught my eye for two reasons.  One, I know and use the Newport News / Williamsburg Airport and, two, that’s one strange route.

Now, the Newport News / Williamsburg airport is a secondary airport for the Norfolk area but it is really only convenient to a small portion of Norfolk and those living on the peninsula between Norfolk and Williamsburg.  (Anything much past Williamsburg is more conveniently served by Richmond International Airport (RIC).   

Understand, I think Republic/Frontier clearly saw something to the route because they’re putting an E-190 jet on it first and plan to upgrade it to an A318 later.  However, it puzzles me as to what they saw since there are exactly ZERO non-stop flights between those two areas at present.  Sure, I would imagine there is some connecting traffic via AA and United Airlines through both DFW and ORD but there just can’t be much or one of those two airlines would have something working on that route by now. 

This one just doesn’t make much sense to me.  There are no obvious business ties between the two cities and even the military contractors that have offices in both cities don’t have much business that is shared between the services in those two cities.*   Yes, Norfolk is a big military area but it is primarily a Navy/Marines area where Colorado is primarily Air Force.  Newport News / Williamsburg is a nice airport to fly into if you’re going to that side of Norfolk or anywhere on that side of the bay.  I like it because I visit family in Williamsburg and its just a 15 minute drive from there to the airport compared to nearly an hour to Norfolk (ORF) or an hour or more to Richmond (RIC).  I’m glad for Airtran serving it but while I do see the connection for Airtran, I don’t see it for Frontier. 

There are plenty of connections serving DEN-PHF but they all funnel to flights from Atlanta or Charlotte (Delta/Airtran and US Airways respectively).  Those flights are all on small RJ’s and the fares, frankly, don’t seem to offer a whole lot of yield either.  Prices for a late February flight with a Saturday overnight stay are as low as $205 ranging up to about $240 (for any flight someone would realistically take.)  That doesn’t suggest a lot of yield available. 

I’d love to know what Frontier saw that made it seem such a smart move.

* I work for a major first tier Defense contractor myself based in Richardson, Texas.

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The Dallas Morning News Aviation Biz Blog has THIS STORY on how American Airlines has notified the FAA that they may train management employees to serve as flight attendant crew in the event of a strike.  This move is likely a response to the APFA statement recently stating that they’ll move to ask the NMB (National Mediation Board) to declare an impasse, the first real step towards a strike.  I also consider it a move by AA to rattle its sabers just a little as well.

The airline did this once before in 1993 in anticipation of a strike by flight crew and while that strike ended somewhat disastrously for both parties and only with the intercession of the President, something did occur to me.  It worked poorly last time for two reasons.

First, AA was unable to fly a full schedule resulting in lots of cancellations as well as congestion on other airlines.   AA made preparations but it really didn’t put its heart into that attempt at strike breaking.  Second, the service component was abysmal.  Employees had been trained to serve in the more important safety roles but not the service roles.

It occurs to me that this time, it could work a lot better.  There is very little service component compared to 1993 for one.  Second, if they managed to keep their planes in the air, this could dramatically dampen labor unrest among the rest of the airline. 

In addition, American’s operations are more diversified now and I  kind of wonder if their operations aren’t modeling just how to combine flights and keep passengers moving for a while.  A strike would still be a disaster for both parties, in my opinion, but I kind of doubt that either party is going to back down.  AA’s flight attendants are notoriously militant and have been kind of spoiling for a strike for over 10 years but I don’t think there are many flight attendants who could withstand a very long strike financially. 

Moreover, AA has pretty good liquidity but that will start disappearing in a large cloud of smoke if there is a strike.  Their liquidity is what has kept financial analysts and investors off their backs.  Lose that liquidity and you’ll be looking at regime change real quick.

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Over the past few days, there have been a number of news stories about the trial that is to begin outside Paris, France against Continental, 2 former Continental employees and 3 French nationals ( an official with France’s civil aviation authoritythe DGAC and 2 former employees of Aerospatiale.)  Any airline enthusiast knows the story of the Concorde crash July 25th, 2000 and the resulting aftermath of modifications, return to flight and then the permanent retirement of the Concorde in 2003.

What is tragic is that the five men and Continental (the corporation) are being tried for involuntary manslaughter and this entire trial bothers me quite a bit.  First, the three Frenchmen being tried strike me as scapegoats put up for trial and the benefit of seeming to be “fair”.  Second, to blame Continental or its employees for this tragedy just seems, well, so very French in attitude.

The two former Aerospatiale employees, Henri Perrier and Jacques Herubel, are both very old men and accused of failing to carry out modifications on Concorde after a series of tire blowouts in the 1970’s revealed design flaws that allowed debris from tires to penetrate the Concorde wings.  There is the story of the Air France Concorde that suffered a blowout on take-off from Dulles airport in the late 1970’s that saw its wing tanks penetrated and it managed to leak tons of jet fuel before returning to land. 

It is true enough that such flaws were known for a long time.  It was a two part problem.  Because Concorde took off at such higher speeds (as fast as 250mph), it was difficult to build a tire for it that would not catastrophically fail in the event of a blow-out.  Mind you, blow outs just happened more often back then too. 

The second problem was the wing.  It was possible for a tire blow out to throw pieces of the tire up against and into the wing of the aircraft where fuel tanks existed.  As you can imagine, it isn’t a good idea to penetrate fuel tanks ever and certainly not next to 2 afterburning engines on take-off.

Over time, the tires got better (but not fixed per se) and Concorde managed to fly successfully for 2 more decades before the tragic crash in France.  A little historical context is necessary to understand everything at play here.

First, Aerospatiale is now a part of EADS/Airbus.  And guess who owns a large chunk of EADS?  Yup, the government of France.  I should also mention that Aerospatiale was formed from the merger of several government owned aerospace companies in 1970 and continued to be owned by the government of France.  Notice that they are not a part of this trial.  

Second, guess who owned Air France in the 1970’s. . . yes, the government of France.   Air France was a government owned entity in a variety of forms until privatization occured in 1999.  However, the French government still owned a majority holding of shares as recently as 2002.  Further, Air France has always been recognized as a national flag carrier in France and even despite privatization, it holds that kind of status throughout the nation even today.  Notice that Air France is not on trial either. 

If someone should be on trial for this tragedy, it should be Aerospatiale/EADS, Air France and, possibly, the DGAC (French civilian aviation authority).   At least from the French perspective.  However, it is much easier to lay blame at three elderly men who are old enough to not have any “patrons” in the government still and therefore leave them unprotected from what by all appearances is a failure on the part of the French government rather than these men.

I’ll also take note that France has studiously avoided dragging BAe Systems (formerly BAC and the co-builder of Concorde) as they are, wait for it . . . still a first tier vendor to EADS/Airbus although no longer a partner.   No finger was pointed at the UK government for permitting design flaws to continue on for 2 decades and the UK was just as aware as the French.  However, the French have to work with the UK and and business is business.

Frankly, I predict that the French court will likely lay the blame firmly at Continental’s feet and assign some to those 3 elder Frenchmen on trial.

But the real tragedy will be France failing to shine sunlight upon their own behaviour and complicency in this crash and that makes France a less safe place for all concerned. 

Sadly, French arrogance when it comes to this kind of issue still rules today.  When an Air France A-330 was lost over the Atlantic Ocean near the coast of Brazil, the offer of US investigatory assistance was nearly ignored entirely.   That is criminal in itself since the US has the best investigative force for airline crashes in the world.  There is no one who comes close and that is why the US is asked to assist with investigations around the world.  However, the US has the nasty habit of, more often than not, calling a spade a spade.  Something that the French will not tolerate when it comes to their aerospace and aviation industries.

The Continental Airlines employees on trial will not be present.  They will be represented and therefore they run almost no risk of imprisonment no matter what the outcome.  However, I think that makes it just easier to blame them as a face saving gesture.   I suspect that no matter how vigorously Continental Airlines defends itself they will be the ones to pay ultimately.  

The three Frenchmen on trial may suffer some blame, again as a face saving gesture, but I wonder if they’ll take it.  They have no reason to.  An 80 year old man has little to lose in speaking out at what was going on in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s.

If this post seems xenophobic, I can see why that might be the interpretation.  However, I stand by my characterizations of both the French government and the French aerospace industry.   I doubt seriously that anyone who has observed the aerospace industry would disagree with me either.  My characterizations are based on their deeds and those deeds have been many over the past 50 years.

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First, read this newstory HERE and this newstory HERE about a Continental Airlines flight to Bogota, Colombia that was diverted to Jacksonville, FL when someone apparently identified a person the passenger manifest as being on the “no fly” list.

First, how did someone manage to board the aircraft if their name was on the “no fly” list?  That would seem to imply a breakdown either at Continental or the TSA itself.  Just because the TSA seems intent on blowing it at every chance, I’ll speculate it was a problem on the TSA’s end. 

Second, note this paragraph:

The situation was quite scary for the 75 passengers aboard Continental flight 881 in light of the Christmas day attempted bombing of a Detroit flight by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Really?  They were all sitting there terrified?   I think the journalist is engaging in a bit of fantasy here.  I guarantee you that those passengers were kept in the dark about this and the reason given for a diversion wasn’t not “Ladies and Gentlemen, we might have a terrorist on board so please keep your seat belts fastened while we divert the aircraft so this person can be met by the FBI.”  

More than likely, unspecified but routine reasons were given and there was no activity on board other than the loud sighs of passengers being inconvenienced again. 

Shame on the journalists for writing such garbage.

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Several airline journalists and bloggers have posted their reactions to Air New Zealand’s new coach seating that has the possiblity of becoming a kind of 2 or 2.5 person “couch”. 

See The Cranky Flier and Middle Seat Terminal for a look.

I have to say that unlike all the other reactions I’ve read (very positive), I’m wholly unimpressed.  Granted, I wasn’t there to “experience” it but from the photos the seat cushions themselves look awfully thin for true comfort.  Despite the models looking like they’re luxuriating in comfort, that does not look like a comfortable way to relax even on an airplane.  

Yea!  Premium seating got even better for customers of New Zealand.  (I’m being sarcastic)  Economy customers got introduced to 10 across seating on their 777s.  Bleagh.   Economy purchasers can now spend even more money to lounge on something that, frankly, isn’t lie flat and doesn’t really look comfortable at least for taller, bigger or older people.  I’d rather have more seat pitch and, yes, the real economy seating on the 777s will have 33 inches seat pitch (and let’s not get carried away celebrating) but I just don’t see the real advantage to the couch seating.  I wish I did but I don’t. 

What this airline world needs is a better seat for domestic 1 to 4 hour travel with a bit more than 31″ of pitch.   Let’s celebrate and dance when we see that from a mainline carrier in the United States.  Heck, Airtran has a comfortable en0ugh seat that with just 2 more inches of seat pitch, I’d be dancing in celebration of them.  Same for Southwest. 

I want to see some seating innovations for the typical customer actually get implemented.

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CNN is reporting that an Ethiopian airliner carrying 92 people has been reported “down” after disappearing from radar screens about 30 minutes after departure from Beirut.

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