Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines and its flight attendants union were in Washington, D.C. this week for what the Association of Professional Flight Attendants described as ‘last ditch’ talks before a strike. Leaks from the National Mediation Board suggested that if a deal wasn’t reached by early June, flight attendants would be released to strike.
However the week’s negotiations ended, there is no deal – and no declared impasse by the National Mediation Board.
The first officer, who had been handling the controls, accidentally pushed the control column forward and reduced speed, causing the plane to drop from approximately 1,000 feet to just 400 feet above the ocean rapidly – at a rate of over 4,000 feet per minute. Warning alarms sounded due to surface proximity.
This is a crowded market, and having a U.S. connectivity partner only with Alaska is limiting. Taiwanese media is reporting that Starlux is looking to join the oneworld alliance, putting them on stronger footing against their larger Taiwanese long haul rivals.
Avatar Airlines is a startup – some might call it fanfiction – that’s been claiming it’s getting off the ground since 1992. They used to call it Family Airlines. The founder even went to prison for tax and securities fraud in connection with raising money for the venture.
United Airlines is planning to expand its operation of Boeing 737s flying out of Tokyo Narita airport to other destinations in Asia. The world is different, demand is different, and United has unique assets worth trying to deploy – to see if intra-Asia flying from Tokyo works, and if not to fail quickly and pivot.
Aviation analytics company Cirium has released on-time performance data by airline and airport for May.
I’m increasingly worried that American Airlines flight attendants are being led down a bad path for someone else’s agenda.
Turkish Airlines flies to more countries than any other carrier in the world. They already fly to 14 U.S. cities with the recent launch of Denver and Dallas. The airline isn’t coy about expansion plans. Their Chairman gave an interview where he telegraphed their next four U.S. cities: Philadelphia, Charlotte, Orlando, and Minneapolis.
A thread on social media draws out some of the current themes. Bear in mind that online comments will generally skew negative. People are more inclined to post complaints than praise, and the more indifferent won’t post at all.
There weren’t any positive comments posted. Here’s a sampling of what employees shared.
Senator Bernie Sanders and a majority of Senate Democrats may have just given the National Mediation Board the political cover they need to allow a strike.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
