Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

American Airlines Group Told Pilots To Delay Covid-19 Vaccination, Just Keep Flying

by Gary Leff

Mar 25 2021

Piedmont Airlines, an American Eagle carrier owned by American Airlines, told pilots they needed to wait to get vaccinated against Covid-19 because of increasing passenger demand for flights. Airlines argued that huge federal subsidies were necessary ‘to be ready’ for flying to return. Even at the absolute peak of flying days demand has been off at least 30% compared to before the pandemic. Yet despite subsidies, while airlines have pocketed the cash and paid employees as well, they haven’t kept those employees trained and ready to fly. So American’s subsidiary told pilots to delay vaccinations in order to work. In the memo sent last Wednesday, Piedmont Airlines Chief Pilot John Pursell told the regional carrier’s 500 pilots, “Piedmont will be unable to release any additional pilots for COVID vaccination for the weekend of March 19-21…

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A Lesson About Cost Controls That Airline Executives Need To Learn From Bob Crandall

by Gary Leff

crandall
Mar 24 2021

What Crandall intuitively understands is that passenger airlines are a low margin business (outside of areas where government limits competition). As a result it’s crucial to guard against cost disease and expense creep. He used sometimes apocryphal stories to make his point about attention to detail to keep costs low without noticeably sacrificing quality.

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Why Long Haul Low Cost Carriers Fail

by Gary Leff

Mar 24 2021

French long haul low cost airline French Bee plans to outfit two new Airbus A350s they’ll take delivery of this year with 488 seats, about 50% more seats than most airlines put on the plane. This plan is likely to fail. Here’s why low cost carriers work on short flights, but fail when trying to fly long haul.

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Here’s Why You Don’t Want To Book Airline Tickets Through Online Agents Like Expedia

by Gary Leff

expedia bags
Mar 23 2021

Most people use sites like Expedia or Kayak to compare options because they don’t start off knowing they want to fly American Airlines or United. They find the schedule and price they’re looking for, and then book what looks best.

While it can be useful for the average consumer to search flights with Expedia or the like, it’s not actually a good idea to buy travel from them unless they are able to construct complicated itineraries at a lower price than booking directly. These two tweets show why.

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When There’s Enough Vaccine For Everyone, Air Travel Mask Rules Should End

by Gary Leff

Mar 22 2021

Masks made sense on planes when, together with HEPA air filtration and downward air flow, they reduced the risk of catching Covid-19 on a plane.

Now vaccines are available. We’re going to have challenges keeping people masked up once they’ve been vaccinated. The rule needs to stay in place now, when most Americans haven’t had a chance to become vaccinated yet. It’s tough to know who has been vaccinated and who hasn’t been.

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The CEO Of American Airlines Explains Why Back-To-Front Boarding Doesn’t Work

by Gary Leff

american airlines lounge
Mar 21 2021

You can’t split up families. And back-to-front leads to bunching as well. And since those don’t work out as well in practice as in theory, their regular boarding process stands.

This is why airlines all tinker with their process from time to time and never stop tinkering, because they’re never been able to do much to improve – with few exceptions.

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United Airlines CEO Says He’s Wanted To Eliminate Change Fees Since 1998

by Gary Leff

united plane
Mar 21 2021

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby shared that in 1998 he was a Vice President at America West and a single conversation changed his view about change fees, and he’s wanted to eliminate them ever since. It took until August 2020 to do it and then American, Delta, Alaska and JetBlue all followed.

The interesting part of the story isn’t the golf game that game him the epiphany, it’s why it took 22 years for this change to happen.

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Does United Airlines Have The Answer To Improving Flight Attendant Service?

by Gary Leff

Mar 21 2021

At most U.S. airlines if a flight attendant provides great service it’s because of their own inner drive. It’s not because of any training program or incentives that the company has set up.

One of the most frustrating thing I hear from cabin crew all the time is about the small percentage of their colleagues who are slackers, who perform poorly and do as little work as possible (increasing the workload for everyone else). This is frustrating because there’s usually very little consequence. And seeing poor performers do just as well as those who provide exemplary service is demoralizing.

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