American Airlines apparently is playing the Ryanair game with both Boeing and Airbus by using a 250 aircraft orders as both a carrot and a stick. And now we know why John Leahy was hinting at Boeing losing a major network carrier.
Make no mistake, this really would be a very big loss for Boeing. The question is whether or not Boeing is taking American seriously in this. Some might be tempted to think it’s a bluff, I do not think it is anything resembling a bluff. The A320NEO is something that American needs more than most network airlines.
Instead, this is a “put up or shut up” move to Boeing and I’ll wager that it won’t be the last. Airlines want to know what Boeing is going to do and waiting very much longer is likely going to result in either more orders for Airbus or renegade orders to Bombardier and Embraer.
And Boeing can’t be just a medium to large aircraft builder. It needs this single aisle market for many reasons and the airlines are dissatisfied with Boeing’s tentative approach to what it plans to offers airlines next. To be fair, even the 737NG is getting a bit long in the tooth and promising incremental improvements isn’t going to satisfy airlines anymore. Much like the new and improved A330 that Airbus tried to sell many years ago didn’t fly either.
When Vision Airlines announced it would start serving small cities and towns with service (primarily) to the Destin, Florida are a while back, I declared it a failed idea from the start. One of you even took issue with my assessment but I could not identify how an airline makes money serving Savannah, GA to Destin, FL with a 737 even if it was weekly service.
The markets they identified and started serving are too close, in most cases, to Destin, FL to make sense for a family to visit via airliner. A family of 4 will drive from Huntsville, Alabama to Destin, not fly. And apparently I was right because Huntsville is also on the kill list.
So are Baton Route, LA; Columbia, SC; and Greenville-Spartanburg, SC. This airline made bad decisions. It has flights from Tampa and Fort Myers to Destin and did not originally did not make it possible for people to automatically connect in Destin to flights elsewhere.
I predict we’ll see other cities cancelled such as Lafayette, Asheville, Shreveport, Little Rock, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Louisville. Ironically, this is an airline that *could* survive if it would serve major markets with non-daily flights to Destin. I don’t think the Atlanta to Destin route is a bad idea. Nor is the Houston to Destin or St. Louis to Destin routes either. Why they haven’t added cities such as DFW, Austin, Nashville, Cincinatti, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis, or Kansas City?
Ultimately, I still predict that this airline will fail and I believe it will do so much sooner than later.
Spirit Airlines is definitely a different airline in this country and often its moves to add fees to its business model causes a lot of fear. In most respects, I’ve actually come to believe that Spirit is a good thing in the airline marketplace rather than bad. I certainly don’t blame them for their business model. If anything, they over-communicate that model and they over-sell their options. That’s fine and they’re doing nothing illegal or even illegitimate.
They’ve just added a $5 fee (starting in November) for printing your boarding pass at the airport. Once again, everyone is overreacting to this. However, this fits within their model and even their typical passenger. Spirit is for leisure passengers who typically *do* have the means and time to print a boarding pass prior to going to an airport.
What scares everyone is the idea that every time Spirit adds a fee, other airlines will follow them. That’s entirely possible when it comes to some fees and I even think the boarding pass printing fee might be one of them for some airlines. However, it will affect few people and it isn’t a burdensome fee that could cause trouble at an airport. Plenty of their fees won’t make with other airlines and that’s good, too. I honestly don’t see a fee developing among network carriers to carry on luggage, for instance.
But it’s good to have an airline press the issues now and then. It’s good to have one around that even puts the pressure on LCC carriers from time to time. I seriously doubt that I will ever fly Spirit Airlines myself. Their idea of seat pitch is daunting at best for someone who is 6′ 2″ with long legs (29″ seat pitch) and the simply don’t fly to destinations I’m interested in. I’ll likely stick to Southwest for my LCC needs and Continental for my network carrier needs.
At some point, there ought *not* to be a law against this stuff. The marketplace *will* settle these issues more often than not. It isn’t worth the stress thinking about them.
US Airways has been the focus of controversy for a few weeks since it banned a young man for inappropriate dress (he wore his pants extremely low with some underwear showing above his pant line which is a Hip Hop style.) We found out that just days earlier, a male cross dresser who was dressed mostly in lingerie was allowed to board another US Airways flight.
Now we see some claiming that US Airways was racially profiling people, sending mixed messages and other politically charged things.
Thing is, I think both should have been banned from flying. An airliner is not a public bus. It’s an environment where 100 or more people sit in close confines for multiple hours. It’s no more appropriate to dress in that manner (on either’s part) for an airliner than it would be for showing up to a court.
I don’t expect people to wear dress clothes. I don’t expect them to be uncomfortable or unable to access their own style. However, both parties should have known their dress was inappropriate for their travel and if they didn’t, shame on them for being clueless. I do expect people to dress somewhat properly for boarding an aircraft. In fact, if airlines would like to start banning pajamas and sweat suits, I would be fine with that, too.
At a minimum, I expect people to dress to a standard that would be expected for dining at a better restaurant. By restaurant, I don’t mean the luxury McDonald’s either. Furthermore, I don’t expect airlines to have to drive themselves crazy to administer such a dress code. If someone is inappropriately dressed, give them the opportunity to rectify it, let them travel on another flight, etc. This really isn’t any different than a hygiene issue.
Let me point out that while the inside of an airliner *feels* like a public space, it isn’t. Not quite. It’s no different an area than a restaurant and, yes, we allow restaurants to decide what is minimally accepted in how someone is dressed too.
People don’t own the airliners. Airlines own the airliners. Shame on US Airways for permitting the cross dresser on a flight. That man was dressed wholly inappropriately for man or woman . . . period.
And for those of you who think flying on an airliner is the equivalent of being in your bedroom in your own home, grow up. You know right from wrong and it’s up to you to act like an adult and show that you do.
Two young men who were stuck at DFW airport for several hours decided to spend their time in the American Airlines terminal having fun. Wheel chair races, esclator hijinx and even sneaking a beer from one of the closed restaurants are all a part of their video. Yes, they made a video of the thing. The 2 minute video actually is well produced and edited. View it here:
The DC-9 was, like many airliners designed in the early 1960’s, a bit of a revolution. It was the airliner that allowed airlines to serve smaller markets and small airports just as the BAC 1-11 and even the Sud Aviation Caravelle was.
Today, we would regard the original DC-9-10/20 as unusable in today’s markets but there exists another airline that is servicing the same markets and, remarkably, very similar specifications.
Hint: David Neeleman likes it.
Question: Can you name the airliner and tell which was/is faster?
Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic continue to examine their options when it comes to the sparky British airline that could. Deutsch Bank was hired to find Virgin some opportunities and there has been a great deal of speculation as to what will happen.
Some see Branson’s 51% shareholding a problem for potential partners. Others see Singapore Airlines’ 49% share a problem. I agree that there is a problem.
However, I don’t think the problem is with Branson. Singapore Airlines made an investment and they clearly want to find a return on this investment before considering letting it go. Despite rumours that Singapore wants out, I’ll point out that Singapore’s shareholding has allowed it to control what the Virgin airlines have done in its corner of the world.
Control that has had the Virgin airlines dancing to find a way around the constraints. Singapore is only going to let its investment go if it receives a healthy return on its investment and it doesn’t see another airline gaining the upper hand against it.
Virgin Atlantic needs some partnerships. There is no question of that. It’s unlikely that any one large airline will engage in such a partnership because it may well go against the interests of another partner airline.
A better strategy would be for Virgin to start exploring partnerships with relatively non-aligned airlines that fit strategically into Virgin’s network(s). What’s more, Virgin needs to align itself more with the daughter airlines that exist around the world (Virgin Australia and Virgin America, for instance.)
The brand is strong and Branson is a good leader for that brand. Moreover, he is not naive to the airline world. You don’t own a major airline for 20+ years and succeed by being stupid. Other airlines need to look past Branson’s theatrics and embrace the experienced aviation leader behind them.
The competitive spirit that Airbus engages in, particularly at air shows, always both impresses me and kind of repulses me. I admire the gusto in which they present themselves and the entreprenurial spirit with which they approach their brand management with. I dislike the bravado and somewhat cheap order tactics as well.
After this Paris Airshow, a few things occur to me when it comes to Airbus.
First, it is time to stop behaving like a teenager in this rivalry that exists with Boeing. Despite all the bravado, what we know is that both aircraft manufacturers pretty much compete evenly in the marketplace. Some years Airbus delivers more aircraft or sells more orders, other years it is Boeing that does so. The bravado always seems a little distasteful when you consider how Airbus got where it was and, at the same time, I’m glad for Airbus’ presence because it’s clear that it does motivate Boeing to do better.
That said, I also think Airbus is a bit reactive when it comes to competing. I don’t always sense that they’re defending the right things in the marketplace but, rather, defending their image against all comers. Reacting isn’t always good. Take the Bombardier CSeries vs Airbus A319NEO scenario that is unfolding. Airbus COO John Leahy has actually come out and called for Bombardier to cancel the airplane. Airbus has pitted its A319NEO against the CS300 as the better aircraft and I’d like to point something out. It’s a mainliner by any definition and one based on a design that is 20+ years old. Boeing/McDonnel Douglas pitted the 717 against the Embraer 170/190 and got its hat handed to them.
Picking your fights is an art. Some do it well, some don’t. Boeing has done pretty good until recently although I think the influx of McDonnel Douglas execs hurt them. McDonnel Douglas execs never could decide when to fight so ended up hardly ever fighting. Airbus execus fight like bulldogs even when someone just happens to walk nearby.
Airbus needs to understand that it isn’t going to compete everywhere all of the time. Fighting off Bombardier and Embraer just expends money on low return investments.
That said, Airbus also just racked up 700+ firm orders for the A320NEO and, that, my friends, is very healthy competition. Say what you want (like it doesn’t include any US network carriers or Boeing customers), they put it up there in 6 months and they did it much like Boeing did the 787 orders.
This is what you politely call a tap on the head for Boeing.
