Category Archives for Airlines.
At this past week’s Crew News employee forum with American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, a pilot asked if there was one thing Parker could change tomorrow about the airline, just getting it done so it’s different, what would it be?
Doug Parker says that American Airlines has been investigating 1 in every 300,000 passengers for an airline ban – about two people per day that they “have to decide if they can ever fly American Airlines or not.” That’s a five-fold increase.
Chief Operating Officer David Seymour shared the plan for what’s next: getting government to crack down on airport alcohol sales.
Brian Znotins, American’s Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning, laid out the airline’s vision for Philadelphia – which is many ways is what is was before the pandemic. Even though American will be able to support more transatlantic flying from New York JFK with their JetBlue partnership, Philadelphia will remain their primary connecting gateway to Europe.
And with smaller and more fuel efficient Airbus A321XLRs coming into the fleet they’ll be able to serve summer seasonal Europe destinations year-round – and more destinations than they’ve served in Europe as well.
This opinion’s key passage makes the exact argument I’ve offered on this site for why CDC authority – on which the TSA mask rule relies – isn’t as broad as the administration claims and upon the mask rule rests.
If an airline’s agents can’t make sense of a policy it is probably too complicated a policy.
On Thursday a husband and wife were booted off of American Airlines flight 3996 from Miami to Cincinnati, a regional jet operated by American’s wholly-owned regional subsidiary Envoy Air.
Apparently the woman’s mask slipped off her nose as she boarded the aircraft. It slipped off a second time while the plane was still on the ground. So a flight attendant insisted that she wear an airline-provided mask instead. Since she refused, the flight attendant said the only other option was to get off the plane. They wouldn’t do that – so all of the passengers on board were deplaned.
From Kabul, refugees were sent to military bases in Qatar and Germany, and from there they’re being flown to Washington Dulles on U.S. airlines paid for charter flights under the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program. Each person is vetted prior to boarding a flight, and then goes through immigration formalities again in the U.S.
But without documents, there’s been huge bureaucratic delays at Washington Dulles with people waiting 8-12 hours to get off of planes. Flight attendants have been told to pack their own water and anticipate harrowing conditions.
Mask rules hinder air travel’s recovery. American’s strength in Latin America is on the southern side of the equation. And the airline needs to think differently to succeed in earning a revenue premium.
One flight I like right now for redemption is American’s Charlotte – Frankfurt service where I’m seeing 4 business class saver awards on a majority of flights in November and for January through March.
What’s useful about this is the connectivity in and out of Charlotte, much of it pairable with this daily Boeing 777-200 flight.
Australia kept the virus at bay through much of the pandemic, but is seeing more spread than at any time in the past 18 months. They’re in lockdown, and behind most of the West in vaccinations. Australians can’t leave the country, and few residents can even enter. The A380 wasn’t supposed to fly again until mid-2023 ‘at the earliest.’
So who had the Qantas A380 returning to Los Angeles in July on their pandemic aviation bingo card?
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 »
