Category Archives for Airlines.
Elliott said from the beginning that they were interested in Southwest’s “Unlevered Balance Sheet.” They saw a company that could load up on debt. That can fund share buy backs.
Now here’s Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan during the airline’s earnings call last week.
On Wednesday, February 5 a taxiing Japan Airlines aircraft collided with a stationary Delta Air Lines plane in Seattle.
At approximately 10:17 a.m. Pacific time, multiple departments responded to an incident on a taxi lane between the S Concourse and the south airport maintenance hangars. The Japan Airlines Boeing 787 struck the tail section of a parked Delta Boeing 737 operating as flight 1921 to Puerto Vallarta.
Trips between New York and Boston aren’t what they used to be, and JetBlue isn’t as strong in the corporate market in New York or as strong in D.C. as Delta. It doesn’t surprise me that this is outside of their current strategy, but it’s still a shocking route to lose, though one they probably wouldn’t want to operate with an aircraft larger their Embraer E190s.
There are more law enforcement agencies on premises at a major international airport than anywhere else. There’s TSA, local police, DEA, Customs and Border Protection, FBI and that’s just to name a few.
Yet people can just walk into the arrivals level of an airport, walk up to baggage claim, and pick up bags belonging to anyone that they wish – and walk right out.
What remains most striking to me here is that in trying to get more card spend, more vacation package bookings, and more ticket spend, they aren’t giving customers any carrot in the process – just a stick.
Air Canada is testing a new ‘on demand’ amenity kit, and the products are from Byredo which is a fantastic brand. Most flights are still using the Acqua di Parma offering which I find to be quite sparse – there’s just not a lot to the current kit – but the items in this new offering are reportedly high quality.
Regular readers know that I’m skeptical of government regulation, but the reason eludes many of you since I have great concern for consumer issues. The reason is regulatory capture. Rules usually benefit large businesses, rather than tilting the playing field against them.
U.S. airlines are required to spend tens of millions of dollars in dubious carbon offsets each year under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. What happens if the Trump administration stops enforcing this requirement?
On Thursday, American Airlines flight 835 from Tampa to Philadelphia went out without working water. According to a passenger on the flight, a gate agent announced that everyone should use the airport restrooms prior to boarding the scheduled 2 hour 41 minute trip.
In the fall, I was first to report that Southwest Airlines would end onboard service earlier, and make passengers stow their laptops earlier. This means less time where service is available on board, and as a result Southwest is cutting drink service entirely on some flights.
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 »
