New and notes from around the interweb:
- Another drunk pilot. The 37 year old working for Delta “discard[ed] an unopened vodka bottle that investigators found in an airport bathroom after he saw that security screening for crews had been stepped up.”
It’s time to find a way for pilots to come forward about their drinking problems and get help that can credibly commit to protecting them from reprisal.
- Airplane seats should face backwards. Multiple carriers have this in business class, I remember when Southwest had it in coach. The last Southwest aircraft with ‘lounge seating’ in the first and last rows was a Boeing 737-200 retired in 2005.
- Qantas is finally profitable flying to London after a string of losses for 10 years. The Perth non-stop means more one-stop connecting opportunities, and they’ve cut back otherwise.
At its peak, Qantas used to fly four 747s a day to London but now flies only an A380 and 787,..Qantas axed its Bangkok-London and Hong Kong-London flights in 2012, leaving Qantas with two London flights via Singapore.
- Cape Air changes its business model, moves beyond short flights in New England
- TSA reversed its ban on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Coke bottles
- Strikes, IT failures, customer unrest: can BA pull out of this nosedive? Alex Cruz isn’t even the problem, IT is centralized and he just carries out Willie Walsh’s orders from the same Waterside headquarters. There’s a reason the former Vueling head now fronts BA.
- Air India will end use of single use plastics October 2. Talk about rearranging deck chairs on the titanic when they weren’t even paying jet fuel bills.
Air India Boeing 777-200LR, Copyright: boarding1now / 123RF Stock Photo - Speed Tape may be the single most misunderstood thing in all of aviation?
CapeAir used to fly Florida routes as well, first as PBA. Here’s a bit of history. They left Florida several years ago.
https://www.sunshineskies.com/capeair.html
the title of this post is a bit overwrought methinks
The linked article says they made 2 billion euros profit last year, moved up the skytrax ranking 12 places this year, plus lots of investment in customer facing things… doesn’t suggest that they need much in the way of saving…. The headline is somewhat dramatic!
BA will be fine. Their biggest problem is having to compete will well established low fare airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet. When you have such competition, it’s hard to compete on service — most pax will choose price. You obviously can’t offer the expensive service you offered in the past, but customers will complain when perks are removed.
The only thing British Airways requires saviour from is the histrionic hyperbole of some self-attested “travel writers.”
Had one o& the worst experiences in years on BA yesterday. They don’t answer the phone, don’t respond to DM and don’t respond to emails. Misconnected me with a 17 hour delay for a simple problem ( caused by their flight CXL) that could have been fixed in five minutes. Can’t trust them anymore.
Until recently, Cape Air flew between Guam and Saipan (I was on their flights).
https://www.saipantribune.com/index.php/united-to-cut-ties-with-cape-air-in-micronesia/
‘Air India will end use of single use plastics October 2. Talk about rearranging deck chairs on the titanic when they weren’t even paying jet fuel bills.”
Gary that’s the winning quote of 2019