Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for September 2020.

This May Be The Worst Note Any Passenger Has Ever Given To A Flight Attendant

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2020

An American Airlines flight attendant received a note from a passenger last this week that may be about the worst thing I’ve ever read. The woman who wrote the note had been asked to wear her mask over her nose.

The passenger apparently complied – but later decided to share what she thought of the flight attendant, who had simply asked her to follow airline policy, which was agreed to as a condition of flying. The note contained words that may haunt this passenger for a very long time.

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Airlines That Block Middle Seats Are Furloughing Fewer Employees

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2020

Delta, Southwest, Alaska and JetBlue all limit the number of seats they’ll sell on a flight to varying degrees, promoting some on board social distancing. United, American, Spirit, and Allegiant do not.

Contra journalist Seth Kaplan, there’s no clear connection between blocking middle seats and a need to furlough airline employees. If anything there’s an effect in the opposite direction.

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Thai Airways Opens Restaurant So You Can Eat Plane Food On The Ground

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2020

Back in June Thai Airways, unable to transport many passengers, pivoted into the prepared meals space offering food pre-orders for pickup at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports. Now they’ve taken their culinary aspirations and grown that into a new airport cafe.

The new restaurant just opened yesterday, and is decorated with real airplane seats, model airplanes, and “even an airstair at the entrance that would (probably) make you miss boarding their iconic purple planes.”

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One Airline Thinks Covid-19 Is The Perfect Time To Start Flying Boeing 747s Domestically

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2020

Barry Michaels has been trying to start an airline for at least 28 years. First under the name Family Airlines, and then Avatar Airlines, he’s had an idea to fly Boeing 747s between leisure destinations. He went to prison for tax and securities fraud raising money for the venture. The DOT insisted he give up control of the project.

Now he’s got a new pitch to investors: that now is the perfect time to start a new airline, because used 747s for domestic routes can be acquired cheap, and look at all those furloughed employees!

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Mother Of Two Banned From Airline After Taking A Walk On The Wing After Landing

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2020

On August 31, Ukraine International Airlines flight 6212 from Antalya, Turkey to Kyiv, Ukraine touched down at Boryspil International Airport like any other flight on any other day. But it wasn’t any other flight, because a passenger – an “over-heated mum” – decided she needed to cool off from the warm flight, so she “decided to stroll along a plane’s wing” and has now been banned from the airline.

She opened the emergency exit and took a walk outside on the Boeing 737’s wing shortly after landing, in order to “get some air.”

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Life Hack: This Life-Sized Boarding Pass Will Never Get Lost

by Gary Leff

Sep 02 2020

While it’s nothing like injecting your boarding pass into your hand with an NFC chip, a user on TikTok offers a ‘life hack’ on how you’ll never lose your boarding pass: print it on five feet worth of paper.

But what about environmental concerns? I think this must be some kind of Woke Daily Double because you’re not just flying you’re wasting paper, too.

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Internal Memo: United Airlines To Furlough 16,370 Staff In October

by Gary Leff

united-plane
Sep 02 2020

Airlines are much smaller today than they were a year ago. They expect to continue to be smaller even a year from now and perhaps even two years from now. So they need fewer people on staff.

United, which was the first and most vocal about the need to shed staff, is now out with their layoff plans and they’re looking at shedding 16,370 staff come October, according to an internal memo:

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The Case For A Second Airline Bailout

by Gary Leff

Sep 02 2020

While I’ve been vocally against airline bailouts, one of my main frustration is that proponents have couched their support in terms of ‘the workers’ even though much of the money goes to the airlines themselves and protects investors and creditors. There’s been very little honest attempt to make the true case for payroll support grants.

So let me at least lay out what seems to be the strongest argument against my own position. It comes down to a bet that we’ll be past the virus in April 2021, that airlines won’t invest enough in their businesses to be ready to grow in the meantime, and that the country benefits most from having airline capacity.

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