A new executive team for the merged airlines Continental and United Airlines has been announced.  We already knew that Glenn Tilton was moving up to non-executive Chairman and Jeff Smisek would be CEO.  However, now we officially know the fate of John Tague.  His position of President is going to Jeff Smisek. 

John Tague is largely credited for the operational turnaround at United and appears to have done a great job while there.  I think it is a shame to see him going away and I do hope another airline out there scoops him up. 

You know, someone like American Airlines who could use a little Tagueness. 

Also going away is Kathryn Mikells, current United Airlines CFO and also somone who has gotten a lot of credit for getting United’s financial house in order. 

Frankly, it bothers me to see the two shining stars of United leaving.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
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One thing coming out of the 2nd Quarter financials from several airlines is, once again, just how much baggage fees are adding to revenues and, more importantly, profit.  United President John Tague is expecting that this kind of ancillary fee could soon be adding a billion dollars more to revenue and that is from its current levels of $350 to $400 million.

Like them or not, those numbers are hard to ignore. 

It does make me wonder how Southwest Airlines will continue to defend its no baggage fees approach going forward.  Load factors on airlines are at astonishingly high levels and that means that Southwest isn’t necessarily siphoning off customers from airlines with those fees.

Filed under: Airline Fees, Airline News by ajax
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