Dress comfortably but not slovenly.  Too many people travel in sweats and sweatshirts and then wonder why they aren’t taken seriously.  If you want to be taken seriously when you have a problem, don’t look like you just got out of bed. 

That doesn’t mean you have to wear a suit.  Wear comfortable but attractive clothes that imply you are person who means business.  Jeans are OK but not jeans with holes for instance.  Wear a comfortable pair of shoes but not sneakers or a sweater not a sweatshirt.  Going someplace that requires a dressier look?  Try wearing your sportcoat or jacket while traveling which will save room in your luggage and make you look professional at the same time.  Women should not wear pajama bottoms and men should not wear t-shirts.

Layer your clothing with a nice shirt, comfortable sweater and a jacket.  Getting a blanket on an airplane is unlikely these days but if you have layered your clothing, it becomes easier to adjust to the temperatures on airplanes.   Believe it or not, pilots control the temperature on most airplanes and they may well be unaware of how cold or warm it is in the cabin.  Flight attendants will often ask them to raise the temperature in the cabin so that people will feel drowsy  on flights they expect to be problematic.   Yet, if it is the first flight of the day leaving from a very cold destination it could take as much as half of the flight to warm the cabin to a comfortable temperature. 

Keep your clothing loose and of natural fibers such as cottons and wools.  You’ll feel less constricted and confined as you sit in that economy seat.  If you have to wear a winter jacket and it has zippered pockets, use them to carry the things you might take in a small bag such as a small snack or an MP3 player or gloves. 

If you do experience trouble at an airport, the right clothing can help a lot.  By dressing well, gate agents are more likely to take you seriously when there is a problem.  Agents are humans too and they will tend to respect those who are dressed respectfully and they will tend to ignore those who are dressed carelessly.   The bottom line is that if you are comfortable enough for a long airplane trip, you’ll be comfortable enough for an extended airport wait. 

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Every year I have someone in my circle of friends and family decry how risky it is to check baggage and everyone has an unsubstantiated story of lost luggage.  While it is true that luggage can get lost, it happens far less often than is ever portrayed.  I have been traveling by airline since I was 2 years old and my luggage was “lost” twice.  At one point in my life, I traveled more as a teenager than most seasoned road warriors of today.  Statistically, you are very unlikely to have a misplaced bag and if you do experience lost luggage, it generally can be available in as little as 6 hours. 

Some time ago, I wrote this POST about luggage.  It is a collection of strategies to mitigate against lost luggage.  Read it and practice it and you’ll be in a far better position to experience a happy holiday trip.  Because of baggage fees on most airlines, many recommend shipping your gifts rather than checking a bag.  In some respects, I agree.  However, it may be *cheaper* to take a bag along with gifts one way.

Many people have nesting suitcases.  Take a large one with your gifts and pay the fee to carry all your gifts.  Pack your clothes in the smaller one.  Once you get to your destination, hand your gifts out and pack your clothes suitcase inside the larger one and then check that back to home on your return trip.  You can also use a softside duffle bag that you can compress to fit inside your clothes suitcase for your return.   If you travel with someone else, see if you can pack one suitcase to check, one bag to carry *both* of your carry-on items and use one other small bag to carry gifts as a carry on. 

If you are carrying gifts, it is best to leave them unwrapped.  The TSA may well want to look at the item, especially if it is an electronic gift and you don’t want that gift wrap messed up do you?  Do yourself a favor and put them in your luggage in a manner that lets the TSA look at them and put them back neatly.  Use a TSA luggage lock as recommended in this post.  Such a lock allows the TSA to open your baggage, do their search and relock your luggage.  Most theft actually occurs while the airline is handling your bags, not the TSA.  A TSA lock keeps people honest.  Let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to just move to a bag without a lock than it is to defeat yours where you might be spotted.

Identify your luggage.  Put tags on the inside and outside of the bag.  If you’re using one of the Ubiquitous Black Roll On suitcases, mark it with a colorful strap of some kind so you *know* it is your bag coming into the baggage claim and so others know it is *not* their bag.  

Best of all, if you know you’ll be checking your bag, get to the airport a bit earlier than usual so that the bag(s) have time to move through the system and to the aircraft.   If you must connect to another flight in another city, try to schedule those connection with 1 1/2 hour of connection time or more.  That gives you some lee way to make a flight if you are late and it lets your bags make that same flight if you are late.   Isn’t it better to spend an hour in the airport reading than it is to have to return to an airport to claim a lost bag a day later?

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Remember, the holidays have this nasty habit of scheduling themselvs at a time of year when weather is a major factor in air travel.  Now, if you’re flying from the northeast to the northern midwest, you don’t have many options.  But many of us do.

If you are traveling transcontinental or ir you are traveling in a way that requires transiting through a hub, consider very carefully your choice in hubs.  I have written about this before but its worth covering again. 

Let’s say you’re traveling from Albuquerque to Richmond Virginia.  You know you’ll have to transit at least one hub but which is the better choice?  Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Atlanta, DFW, Houston, Charlotte, Cleveland and Cincinatti are all choices.   Now, many people choose the cheapest and fastest routing for such a trip but the real question during the holidays is this:  do you want cheap and fast or reasonable and certain?

You could safely eliminate Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinatti and Chicago from the list of good choices.  All are subject to severe weather and most have a bad reputation for operating in severe weather (the exception really being Denver.)   Now, routing through one of those cities might be cheaper, but, is it really?  If you were stuck in Chicago with a flight cancellation, how much would you have paid to avoid that problem?  $50?  $100? 

And is time really of the essence or is getting to your destination with as little potential for trouble more important.  In most cases, I’m sure most of us would accept a slightly longer travel time in exchange for being much more certain of our arrivals.

Better hubs to search would be DFW (very rarely affected by weather), Houston (same as DFW) and to a lesser degree Atlanta and Charlotte.  Atlanta is always congested and while not subject to a lot of weather problems, it is a hub heavily impacted by operations at other Atlantic seaboard airports.  Charlotte is a minor hub but one that can be impacted by winter weather although not often.

Most likely, you could book through DFW or Houston for the same price (possibly less) and have a very high degree of likelihood in getting where you are going on time or reliably at the least.  No airport is totally safe and no airline is completely certain.  No connection is free of weather related problems either. 

Even if you were flying from Portland, Oregon to Virginia, your best bet is still via those southern hubs.   Yes, the flight may well take 1 to 2 hours longer but how does that stack up against the potential of being stranded for 5 to 8 hours or even days because you went through Detroit?  In most cases, that flight path would take no more than the same time to transit and sometimes less than it would routing through a northern hub.   The listed times might be shorter but the *real* times are often the same or better. 

Furthermore, it is far better transit a warm hub feeling secure about your flight and in no hurry to catch your next flight than it is to bet that Minneapolis will be snow free and you’ll save 1 to 2 hours on your travel.  It’s just not worth the hassle to you or the people you are visiting.

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In honor of the holiday season approaching, I thought I would start offering a series of tips on how to cope with holiday travel.  No doubt, some will be well known but I also hope to offer a better strategy than often supplied.

First, boarding passes and check-ins don’t have to be a battle.  Or, at the least, there are strategies to win the battle instead of limping onto an airplane with the pain of defeat.   Most everyone knows they check-in and get their boarding pass with most airlines online.  But having a strategy is important.

First, find where you should check-in and print your boarding pass from a couple of days before your travel.  This is sometimes buried inside the website and if you find yourself unable to locate it at midnight on Tuesday night for a Wednesday departure for Thanksgiving, you’ll be sorry.  Find it ahead of time and if you can’t, then you have time to call and get directed to it.  Oh and make sure you have ink in your printer. 

Second, plan your airport check-in.  In other words, know your airport and know where you *can* go for check-in.  If you have baggage to check and there are long lines inside at the ticket counters, consider a bag check at a check-in kiosk.  If that looks extremely busy, consider going outside and having a Skycap check your bag.  This may cost you $2 per bag plus a gratuity per bag but if you’re just checking a couple of bags and it costs your a few dollars, isn’t that better than sweating things out inside the air terminal?

There may be multiple areas to check bags at certain airports.  For instance, DFW airport has numerous check in areas for several airlines such as American Airlines.  Often all you have to do is go down about 8 gates, check in and walk back to your actual gate area.  A quick check in / bag check combined with a light walk is far more preferable to long lines and crowd, no? 

This same strategy will work for going through security.  Some airports funnel everyone into a central area.  If this is the case, show up extra EXTRA early.  This kind of setup will often be overwhelmed and can’t be relieved easily.  Still other airports make it possible to go through security at a variety of points.  Know where security is and how to transit through it.  It can save time and aggravation.

If you aren’t a frequent flyer member of the airline you are traveling on, become one and get the phone number that the offer for reservations.  If you arrive to check in and find your flight delayed or cancelled, that phone number could make it much easier to reach a reservations agent.  Write it down and put it in your wallet or, better yet, program it in your cell phone. 

Get someone to drop you off or pick you up at the airport.  Traffic is always murderous but parking is even more murderous.  Arrange for the person dropping you off or picking you up to have access to flight tracking (FlightAware.com or FlightStats.com are both good) so they know when they have to leave.  Make sure you have exchanged cell phone numbers.  If you can’t get someone to do this for you, consider leaving a bit earlier and taking public transportation where possible.  It sounds bad but it can be much easier to navigate and much more reliable for arriving at the airport on time.

Most important, get some sleep the night before you travel.  This is always the time when people stay up late packing.  You really can avoid that problem.  Pack early, get to sleep early (even if your flight leave in the afternoon or evening of the next day) because starting the day off with rest always keeps you calmer in the face of challenges. 

Eat.  Eat something good for breakfast (again, even if you’re leaving much later in the day) and eat prior to getting on the airplane.  Avoid sugar or massive carbohydrates.  Try to have some protein such as a hamburger and avoid alchohol.   A hamburger will keep your temper more under control than, say, a candy bar and a cup of coffee. 

The central point is to leave early, know where you are going, have a back up plan and have enough information about your airline and the airport to deal with a problem.  Leave time for yourself to accomplish the tasks of check-in and if you have a chance to save sometime, even if it costs a bit of money, take it.  You may need that time later.

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No doubt many airports have been working hard to improve their services and offerings over the past 10 years and certainly the improvements are impressive when compared to the state of things in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.   Where there was often nothing, you now find restaurants, shops and even accommodations for cell phones and laptops.  Free wireless is starting to become popular at some airports (Hello Denver and Shame on You DFW) and you can definitely find  a Starbucks at most major airports.  If not Starbucks, at least a decent cup of coffee.

But air travel changed during those improvements.  When these changes began to be planned, people accompanying passengers could actually go through security and stay with their friends right up to the gate.   Airlines served something called a “meal” and it was often hot.  Beverages were free and it was usually possible to find an inexpensive flight without traveling before 6am in the morning. 

Not anymore.  One of the biggest challenges in picking someone up at most airports is that there is quite literally no place to loiter while waiting.  One hour or curbside parking has been eliminated from anyplace in close proximity of the air terminals.  Go visit a baggage claim area these days and see how that is working out.  There are few seats and because it is often the most ignored area of an airport, it is cramped and far away from other airport services. 

Since airlines now insist on passengers arriving earlier for their flights  and because those same airlines can have a lot of trouble keeping a schedule, people have to arrive at the airport earlier and find themselves staying in the terminal longer.  But what about those who have friends they would prefer to visit with longer?  There are no comfortable areas to do so any longer and certainly no restaurants accessible landside.  What if they smoke?  It is highly inconvenient to walk from their gate back outside to have a cigarette and return.  Yet, those people get *real* cranky when they’re forced to sit gateside for hours waiting for an airplane to turn up and unable to enjoy a cigarette.

Airports actually need new solutions for these logistical changes.  They need cell phone holding areas on their property where people can park short term and wait in their car for a phone call asking them to pick up their arriving friends and family.  Sure, some airports do have this but they are often located in a poor section of the airport and they are poorly advertised or signed for their purpose. 

A few concessions such as newsstands and restaurants on the landside area would be good too.  Certainly most of those concessions should be on the airside of a terminal but having just a few locations landside would provide a huge service for all.  I once had to spend 5.5 hours in a vacant hallway at Philadelphia waiting for someone to drive from Tennessee to pick me up because there were simply no places to go and wait quietly.  Oh, I did walk nearly a mile to a hotel to have a meal and I did clean up in their restrooms but it took some time and effort to find that option too. 

On the airside, newsstands still fill a need but those places also struggle to provide the kind of goods that more and more people want prior to boarding an aircraft.  If I were 7-11, I would template a convenience store for airports and get myself into the business of being an airport convenience store rather than a newsstands that sells some water, juice and candy.   Fast food restaurants should look into packaging their food differently so that it can be carried on to an airplane conveniently.   Instead of using combination meals conceived for the rest fo the world, they should look into packaging combination meals that make sense for an airplane or a lobby seat. 

Don’t like smokers?  Fine, that’s your right.  However, more than 35% of the adult world does smoke and while you shouldn’t be expected to endure smoke if you don’t want to, it would be a good service to accomodate those who do want to enjoy a cigarette.  Provide a small, enclosed smoking area and be done with the problems that come from people who’ve spent hours without nicotine. 

Create a kiosk system of small vendors of things like hot dogs or coffee in the baggage claim area.  Those areas are crammed with people now who are waiting long stretches of times for arrivals and they’ll enjoy the opportunity to buy a snack or beverage while waiting.  Find a way to provide more seats in these areas and offer better information on arrivals.   The more you facilitate these pick ups, the smoother things will go in these areas. 

Airline service has had to change and while some airports have done better at accommodating those fundamental changes in the industry, most have neglected those needs in a bad way.  It is time to close that disconnect.

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If Southwest gains those ATA slots and they do fly them all in and out of La Guardia, this does send an interesting message to those employees who are presently upset over the announcements of codeshares with both WestJet and Volaris.

You see, the big argument made for those codeshares was that it allowed Southwest to concentrate on its business model but enjoy the expanded business that those two airlines offered to Canada and Mexico.   It was an argument about focus and direction with the Southwest business model.  The employees, some of them at least and most important the pilots, have argued that with near zero growth planned for Southwest, these are routes (the international routes) that Southwest could fly with their own people and metal.

It’s an argument that I can see some truth in.   The flying remains a natural for Southwest.  After all, flying to either Canada or Mexico is not flying overseas.  Mostly it is flying to cities across a border in a manner that is quite consistent with the existing model.  While neither country would necessarily permit Southwest to build a network inside their country, there are plenty of provisions already in existence to fly to destinations in both countries. 

Southwest is perfectly capable of operating a website or websites that serve those countries as well.  Labor costs can’t be an issue because, frankly, they could literally outsource those functions to their two new codeshare partners.  WestJet knows how to turnaround a 737 and while Volaris owns A320 aircraft, they also know how to turnaround an airplane. 

Flying to either country does not require ETOPS aircraft and it doesn’t even necessarily mean overnighting aircraft and/or flight crew in either country.  Flights to either country can be “turns” that see no aircraft left overnight.   However, even if you did want to overnight staff in those countries, it isn’t logistically difficult.  Hotels are in abundance and all your staff need are passports.  Language really isn’t a problem either.  Oddly enough, Southwest flight crew speak English, a perfectly acceptable language for Canada, and I’ll bet that Southwest has plenty of crew capable of speaking Spanish already. 

Now La Guardia Airport does present some challenges that are contrary to the Southwest model.  It is a congested, expensive, weather affected airport with high labor costs and high costs to overnight aircraft.  I would wager that it is quite possibly MORE difficult to operate into and out of La Guardia than, say, Vancouver or Toronto or Monterrey or Gaudalajara.  

It also puts Southwest into one of the most competitive markets in the United States and while it does give them access to the business traveler, it does so in a major market where business travelers often expect and even demand creature comforts that Southwest doesn’t offer.   If you have the chance to fly 7 round trips to NYC, what cities do you connect NYC to?  This is mere speculation but I would guess that flights to Chicago’s Midway Airport are a given.  Possibly a flight to either Baltimore or Orlando or Houston or even Philadelphia.   I would actually bet heavily on Chicago, Baltimore, Orlando and Houston.  But even if it was Chicago only, you have, at best, 7 frequencies.  On that route, you would probably need a minimum of 7 frequencies. 

There is something that is unrevealed in this plan.  Certainly Southwest could boost frequencies by obtaining more slots in the future.  Maybe.  But that is historically difficult in a slot controlled airport and a market that rarely sees significant contraction in flight quantities.  It is even more difficult when you are entering a market that major legacy airlines will defend to the death.  No one has any incentive to cooperate with Southwest in making gate space or other facilities available. 

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And, no, I don’t mean Islip on Long Island.  Southwest plans to purchase the operating certificate of ATA Airlines, now in liquidation, and ATA’s 14 slots to operate at New York’s La Guardia Airport.  Even with Southwest’s reputation for surprising the industry, this is a pretty stunning surprise.

Operating into NYC’s La Guardia Airport is contrary to Southwest’s operating model in every sense.  The airport is congested, expensive to operate in and certainly does not offer an opportunity to perform the famous 30 Minute Turn.   The airport (like all airports in NYC) is subject to weather both in the winter and summer and that certainly doesn’t mean on time departures and arrivals.

I actually can’t help but wonder if this is part of a greater plan that may or may not involve a new or existing partner for Southwest Airlines.   Perhaps these NYC slots will be used for limited flights by Southwest to other focus cities as well as offering WestJet and Volaris a chance to connect with Southwest in a huge market. 

There has to be more to this idea than just Southwest wanting to operate directly into NYC.  Look for further developments in this area and don’t even be surprised if it involves a European partner airline as well.

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The current economic climate doesn’t speak well for airlines who depend upon business travelers to meet their expenses on a flight.  For the past several years, airlines have been introducing airline seating that specifically caters to the business traveler and, quite frankly, a product that meets or exceeds anything that represented First Class even in the 1990’s. 

The airlines are always faced with a difficult set of priorities to balance.  On the one hand, catering to the business traveler is essential because they do pay for a good portion of each flight and they must compete for those travelers very aggressively.  On the other hand, filling those last 100+ economy seats is also essential because that is the difference between profit and loss.   Typically, an airline will woo the business traveler with comfort and the economy flyer with price.  In order to compete on price, that means reducing your costs per seat to the lowest possible and offering a ticket price that bests anyone else on a route.

Or does it?  In the late 1990’s, American Airlines began a program of more space in coach.  MD-80 aircraft were reconfigured to offer as much as 34″ of seat pitch and as someone who was flying a great deal at that time, I can confirm that it made a huge amount of difference.   Unfortunately, the post September 11th terrorist disaster forced American to reconsider its configuration and the aircraft were reconfigured back to a 31/32″ pitch.   But how many seats did that gain them?  Only about 9 seats.

The one thing airlines never seem to try to differentiate themselves on is seating.  While some airlines have tried an economy plus seating (offering about 34″ to 36″ of seat pitch), no one really advertises the advantage of more seat room.  It is never heavily marketed like many other airline qualities.   That is a lost opportunity.   I do not believe people would necessarily choose a flight on an airline on the basis of only price if they were fully aware of a more comfortable option at a minor extra cost.   Airlines such as United Airlines often only take the opportunity to tell a customer of these seats after they’ve already made a purchase and only as an upgrade. 

Offering an increased seat pitch and explaining its comfort and, possibly, better position in the aircraft would, I think, be an attractive offer. 

The question is how much extra do you have to price that seat per leg?   I suspect about $20 per flight segment would work.   Possibly as much as $30.  But why not offer it by the hour?  Would you pay $10 / hour for a better seat?  Chances are you would.  However, that upgrade must be presented BEFORE the purchase to be attractive on price and that upgrade must be described in what it offers the customer.  More leg room, a better position in the cabin which makes for easier entry and exit from the aircraft. 

More room does not necessarily have to mean fewer seats either.  I’ve written before about Delta’s adoption of the Thompson Cozy Suite seats on their 767 aircraft.  There are other options as well.  Airtran offers a Recaro aircraft seat on the Boeing 737 aircraft that is unparalleled currently as an economy seat.  Its design offers just a tiny bit more leg room and yet configures easily to the same 31/32″ seat pitch airlines want to use.  It provides a more conventionally thick seat cushion on the bottom and upper half while offering a better contoured lumbar area that while thinner, is much more comfortable and yet offers the passenger behind you that little bit of extra room.

Sicma Aero is concentrating its efforts on a more ergonomic seat but I question that direction because how do you create an ergonomic seat that feels comfortable to both the 5′ tall 100lbs woman and the 6′ 2″ tall, 270lbs man?  It requires adjustability and that quite likely is going to cause trouble both with maintenance and the customer who doesn’t understand how to adjust the seat.

Avio Interiors has taken an approach more like Recaro by offering a seat that is properly cushioned in the right points but sculpted to again offer that small but important extra space for legs. 

 Thompson Solutions offers both the Cozy Suite as well as a more conventional but ergonomic economy seat.  The key to their offering is a staggered or herringbone style layout that allows airlines a 15″ gain in capacity or greater width and seat pitch.  Since aircraft are generally limited by either their load or the maximum seating they are certificated for, Thompson’s solutions (no pun intended) allow an airline to offer a new seat that is competitively priced, less maintenance intensive and vastly more comfortable than a conventional seat.  The key obstacle here is that airlines are afraid of making the investment and facing customer rejection of a design that is admittedly fairly radical in appearance.  With Delta introducing this on their 767 aircraft, I suspect the airline’s fears will be reduced and there will be a push to find similar solutions for new fleets.

Weber Aircraft, based in the United States, is offering a much more conventional product that, unfortunately, seems pointed towards high density seating without any emphasis of comfort.  Make of that what you will.

While airlines will no doubt seek to maximize their loads on aircraft and match pricing from their competitors, it becomes increasingly obvious that market capture can be based on these new seating options provided that the airlines themselves will actually market their product.  People still want comfort and the success of a la carte pricing indicates that people will still pay for what they want. 

The challenge is in airlines changing their marketing model both on their own websites as well as through popular travel sites.  When a customer can make their choices from an a la carte menu and choices include better, more comfortable seating that is well described, airlines will both differentiate and sell their product better.  Airlines even have the chance to sell such a product as a business offering to companies that do understand the value of taking care of their employees but who have to now measure that against the often 4 times greater cost of a business class seat.

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Using FlightAware.Com, I’ve been able to see some (but I don’t think all) of the government flights from around the world heading to Washington D.C. for the G20 Economic Summit.  So far, I have identified these:

The British Prime Minister on British Airways Flight 001

The Indian Prime Minister on Air India Flight 001

The Argentinian President on Aerolineas Argentinas Flight 1001

The President of the Indonesian Republic on Garuda Indonesian Flight 001

The President of South Korea on Korean Airlines Flight 63

The Prime Minister and his government on Japanese Air Force Flights 1 and 2

The Russian President and his government is on the Russian State Transport Flight 9031 and Russian State Transport Flight 9001.

The Saudi Arabian government is flying in on Saudi Flight 1B

The Chinese government is flying in on Air China Flight 17

The President of Mexico is arrving on Mexican Air Force Flight 001.

No doubt there are others that are not being tracked inbound. The mix of aircraft will include a 777, several 747 aircraft, Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft, a 757, IL 76, IL 62 and IL 96 aircraft from Russia and even a 747-SP (Saudi Arabia).

Filed under: Airline Fleets, Airline News, Airplane Spotting, Trivia by ajax
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The Milwaukee Business Journal reported that Midwest Airlines is being sued for lease payments on two jets and their engines.  Wells Fargo, Inc. is asking for some $82,000 in overdue plane lease payments and Polaris Holding Company, Inc., a GE Capital subsidiary, is asking for $14,000 in lease payments for engines. 

The interesting part of this is that with dollar amounts so low, these two rather large companies felt they had to sue for their money.  Midwest Airlines is backed by TPG, Texas Pacific Group, and other large minority shareholders.   The backers of Midwest Airlines aren’t exactly cash short, even in these economic times.  It makes me think that those two lessors identified something scary in Midwest and decided to get their claims in first.   It is possible that both lessors (financial giants in the credit and leasing industry) are just trying to raise as much cash as possible too.  It still seems suspicious though.

Midwest Airlines remains on my death watch and their prolonged viability is mostly due to vastly reduced fuel prices.

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The Dallas Morning News Aviation Blog is reporting that American Airlines plans to test passenger check in via cellphones and PDAs.  Similar to Continental’s Cellphone / PDA  boarding pass program currently available in several Continental cities now, AA will first test their program in Chicago and then at John Wayne International and Los Angeles International airports next. 

Passengers will be able to receive a 2D barcode that will permit passengers to clear through TSA security and board the aircraft.  The limited availability of this does suggest, however, that passengers will still be printing and carrying paper boarding passes until these systems dominate airports.

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Airtran Airlines has announced that it will begin charging for the 1st bag checked on their flights starting December 5th (2008) and those purchasing tickets on or before November 11th will not have to pay those fees.  In light of the fact that Delta recently announced its intent to implement such a fee, this really comes as no surprise. 

Clearly a la carte fees are the new model for air travel and while many can no longer be argued against, this 1st bag checked fee continues to rankle many travelers.  It is akin to charging a cafeteria customer for his tray.  However, since most airlines have adopted this fee, it will be difficult to escape it as a traveler.   I even wonder if Southwest will backtrack on its “no fees” campaign in light of the industry direction.   It will become increasingly difficult for Southwest to remain competitive in many markets by forgoing this revenue opportunity that virtually ever other competitor has adopted. 

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Southwest Airlines has just announced a new codeshare with Mexican airline Volaris (partially owned by billionaire Carlos Slim.)  Like Southwest’s codeshare agreement with WestJet, this allows Southwest to gain access to international markets.  With these agreements with WestJet and Volaris, Southwest gets access to all of North America and gets to work with two airlines that have similar (not the same) operating environments. 

I’m quite certain that these new codeshare routes will, in fact, boost Southwest’s revenues (as well as the revenues of these other participants) and I’m sure both relationships will prove to be rewarding in many ways other than just money.  If one airline could operate throughout North America, it really would look very similar to this codeshare arrangement.  

These two new arrangements for Southwest found me pondering how it could be done better than just a simple codeshare.  One way to further integrate without attempting a merger (something all three airline’s governments are very unlikely to allow) would be operating an interchange. 

An interchange was a fairly common tool in previous decades within the United States.  The idea is that two (or more) airlines operate the same equipment on a route that is shared.  One of the most famous interchanges was when Braniff operated the Concorde from Dallas to Washington D.C. where an Air France or British Airways crew would take over and fly the aircraft across the Atlantic to either London or Paris.  At the time, each time the Concorde arrived in Washington, the aircraft would be “sold” to Braniff who would then hang new ownership papers in the cabin and change the registration temporarily for operation in the United States.  Obviously that kind of inconvenience would not be tolerated today between airlines but there really isn’t a reason for it either.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to see Southwest operate such an interchange with each of their partners.  A Southwest aircraft could be used to fly an international interchange between Canada, Mexico and the United States with only crews changing between focus cities for each airline.   For instance, imagine a B737 flown from Toronto to Chicago by a WestJet crew where a Southwest Airlines crew would take over and fly it from Chicago to Houston.  In Houston, a Volaris crew could take over and fly that same aircraft to Mexico City (Toluca) and then turn it around for a return trip.  

The advantage is that customers never have to leave the aircraft and it would therefore permit a more seemless network for transitioning from one country to another.  The only problem with that scenario is that Volaris has an Airbus A320/A319 fleet and while WestJet flies the 737, they are partial to the 737-800 type instead of the 737-700 aircraft preferred by Southwest.   Nonetheless, it does cause one to think about the possibilities that might exist between the three airlines. 

It also points to other opportunities for other airlines.  Codeshares are good and convenient for airlines but they still require a passenger to travel from one hub to another hub and when it comes to international connections, it does force the passenger to often de-plane, clear customs and transition to another part of an airport to continue on to a destination.  Sometimes that isn’t all that painful but more frequently it is a great inconvenience to the passenger and a barrier that many avoid.

With airline alliances relatively stable now, many could choose to adopt similar (if not the same) types of aircraft and offer trans-global interchanges for both companies and their passengers.  It also would allow them to further standardize their service and even possibly take advantage of fleet flexibility between partners.  For instance, what if QANTAS and American Airlines shared a portion of their 787 fleet and allowed it to “flex” between North America and Australia according to seasonal demands?

I suspect there are many more opportunities to be had from both codeshares and, possibly, a new version of interchanges between airlines. 

Filed under: Airline Fleets, Airline News, Airline Service by ajax
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I receive a weekly (usually) listing of American Airline’s Net SAAver Fares to various domestic destinations.  Since my family lives all across the country, I tend to watch for fares to a lot of places in the dim hope I might spot a chance to go visit someone.  (I haven’t for several years.  Yes, years.)

Suddenly, the fares have dropped like a rock.  When I say “rock” I mean like a large boulder heaved off the side of a cliff.  One fare listing offered me the chance to do a round trip (with restrictions) weekend trip to Raleigh, North Carolina (where I could have BBQ with two very good friends) for just $135. 

Yeah, $135.  That trip was more than double that just a month or so ago. 

I could also fly from DAL (Love Field) to ORD (Chicago) for a paltry $120 and I’ve got family in Milwaukee.

If American Airlines is suddenly working this hard to attract customers for weekend flights, something has to have gone wrong with bookings very suddenly.    And if it happened to them, who else is suddenly gulping in fear?

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
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Every now and then you see an airline flying a flight to some very unusual destination.  Two Airtran aircraft were spotted flying to Keflavik, Iceland en route to Europe.  You can see HERE that the aircraft looks as if it departed the Miami area normally and just got lost. 

One reader of FLying Colors is a huge Airtran B737 fan.  Don’t worry.  They sell their aircraft relatively young and buy more.  The fleet will remain the same.

Filed under: Trivia by ajax
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The Seattle Post Intelligencer aviation reporter, James Wallace, is now reporting the possibility that Boeing’s new 787 may not make its first flight until February or March of 2009.  Citing the 57 day long strike just settled by Boeing, the program is now supposed to be under review.  At the beginning of the strike, Boeing’s 787 program manager had stated that it would be a day for day slip until first flight. 

However, late February or early March is not a day for day slip and I think this news begins to reveal that there are indeed other problems on finalizing the 787 for its first flight.  The 787 is now more than a year past its original forecast for first flight and had been definitively scheduled for a 4th quarter first flight this year.  Prior to the strike, that was expected to be some time in the middle of November, 2008. 

The delays to the program really should come as no surprise since this aircraft involves far more innovative engineering than probably any other commercial aircraft designed in the past 40 years including the 747 and A380.    Still, another schedule slip after re-defining the program schedule and including plenty of time for more unanticipated problems begins to reveal that this is in fact a program in trouble.   At this point, it is safe to say that Boeing is likely to experience a great deal of trouble getting the production ramped up to meet demand. 

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
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USA Today’s Today In The Sky Blog is reporting this morning that Delta CEO Richard Anderson and Delta President Ed Bastian have been rewarded handsomely for achieving the Delta / Northwest Merger.  Anderson will receive more than $13 Million in stock awards and Bastian receives just over $5 Million in stock awards.  Both men aren’t fully vested in the compensation until 2011.

While I think it appropriate to compensate two men who obviously worked very hard at making this merger happen, I do think this news comes out at the wrong time and I do think the reward is perhaps premature.  The unions involved in this merger, particularly the IAM, will no doubt bristle at this news despite the fact that Delta / Northwest employees will be receiving stock in the new company.  About 5% for the pilots and 4% for most other employees.  

It would have been better to tie this award to milestones for achieving all of the merger.  First, award some percentage, perhaps 50%, for bringing the two companies under one corporate structure.  Second, set milestones based on the full integration of the company such as pilot seniority lists being fully merged, flight attendant senior lists merged, both sides of the company operating under the same certificate, etc.   There isn’t anything wrong with rewarding accomplishments but I feel this job is only half done at best and there should be some strong incentives to complete the work before granting the prize.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
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The Milwaukee Business Journal is reporting a quote from a pilot at Midwest Airlines that the Boeing 717 Fleet may be completely phased out in 2009.  The speculation is that all of the existing routes will be flown using Embaer 170 aircraft leased from Republic Airlines. 

On the surface, this seems bad.  In reality, I see a gleam of hope for Midwest.  The Embraer 170 seats almost as many people as the 717 but cost much less to operate and its pilots are paid less as well.   It’s actually a comfortable aircraft to fly and it would quite possibly allow Midwest to fly profitably the remaining routes it has. 

Fans of Midwest Airlines’ Signature Service will no doubt be upset about losing access to that hallmark service but the reality is that it isn’t profitable and was probably retained way too long. 

I continue to wonder what Midwest Airlines wants to be in the future.  A small regional airline with no real connections to any other airline?  That really doesn’t strike me as a recipe for financial success.  They do have connections to Northwest Airlines (Delta) but I firmly do not see them becoming a “feeder” or “connection” airline for them.  Delta / Northwest simply have too many successful regional airlines already under their umbrella and, in fact, Ed Bastian, President of Delta, has already said that Delta expects to pare down the number of regional airlines serving Delta.

While I do think Midwest Airlines can make some money flying the E-170, I still don’t think they have a viable long term strategy for success.  They stay on the death watch for now.

Filed under: Airline News, Airline Service, Death Watch by ajax
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