Category Archives for Airlines.
New aircraft are coming, but they’re farther off than they’ve been promised. And electric air taxis just got even farther off still, thanks to the U.S. federal government. In fact these planes are looking at delays of years. Some manufacturers may not have the financing to get through certification in the current market environment.
When Frontier Airlines raised its offer to buy Spirit Airlines and gave the Spirit Airlines board cover to again endorse a merger between the two airlines (walking away from a much bigger offer from JetBlue that faces greater anti-trust scrutiny) it seemed like game over. The new offer even got the endorsement from two independent proxy advisory firms.
JetBlue isn’t done though. They’ve come out with a new, increased offer in advance of Thursday’s Spirit Airlines shareholders meeting, a last ditch effort.
Airlines lost billions of dollars during the pandemic. But their leaders shed costs, in many cases by downsizing staff and brought in government subsidies (designed to keep them from shedding staff). It was a test of leadership, and CEOs were rewarded handsomely for the task.
It’s a wet hot American summer of flying through delays, cancellations, and long lines at airports. It may be a comfort to know that airline CEOs were well paid bringing it to us.
We need more competition and we need more capacity, at airlines and in airspace. Hand waving that ‘the government should do something’ isn’t enough without specifying what the government should do. But, as Erin Andrews demonstrates, there’s a felt need out there for ‘something’ to be done.
Frontier Airlines increased its offer by $2 per share to acquire Spirit, and the Spirit Airlines board unanimously recommends it over JetBlue’s more lucrative – but regulatorily more risky – offer. That’s still less than the closing price of Spirit Airlines stock on Friday.
Airlines scrupulously avoided speaking out on abortion after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked – despite taking positions on issues like voting reform, affirmative action, and gun control.
However now that the Court’s decision has been published, Alaska Airlines has become the first U.S. carrier to put out a statement.
The strange thing is that American Airlines had bundled fares a decade ago – and US Airways management eliminated the idea after taking over the airline. Now they’re bringing it back.
American Airlines pilots union spokesman Dennjs Tajer went on CNBC Squawk Box and made a number of claims against the airline. Some of them are true – like American not keeping pilots current during the pandemic despite receiving government subsidies in order to do so – and then there’s this claim: that the federal government is advising employees not to book travel on American.
On Tuesday Dominican low cost carrier Red Air had a landing gear collapse on arrival in Miami. The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 operating flight L5-203 from Santo Domingo with 126 people on board “came to a stand still off the runway with a fire developing at the right hand wing, where a fuel spill occurred.” Three people were hospitalized from minor injuries during the evacuation.
One of the more common pet peeves among American Airlines business class passengers is the tendency for flight attendants to collect headphones an hour or more prior to arrival.
On an overnight flight this means that announcements about headphones are disturbing passengers who may still be trying to sleep. And it means that passengers can’t continue to use the headphones for the remainder of their flight.
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 »
