Category Archives for Airlines.
At the beginning of February I wrote that American Airlines has 3 corporate goals, and two of them are weird. What stood out was the carrier’s goal to “passionately drive efficiencies.”
He presented the company’s goals to ‘come out ahead’ of competitors in front of investors at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference.
American Airlines failed to build a mockup of its new domestic interior, and that’s how obvious mistakes were made. In CEO Doug Parker’s telling, they cared about squeezing seats onto the plane not what it was like to sit in those seats or for employees to work the new configuration.
That’s changing for upcoming retrofits and new products like the Airbus A321XLR and Boeing 787-9 new interior.
American Airlines shared its plans for integrating with JetBlue, building back its Philadelphia hub, and whether or not their new flight to India will actually take off at a meeting with employees last week, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing.
Here are 6 insights into the American Airlines strategy for recovery that came out of this session.
Brian Znotins, Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning at American Airlines, offered “When people ask me as a network planner ‘what’s my favorite airplane?’ it’s the cheapest.” And he reported that if the price is right they’ll buy planes.
Americans may be on the verge of receiving $1400 in Biden Bucks, but U.S. commercial airlines are getting $14 billion – including $3 billion for American Airlines. And according to the CEO of American, who has spent much of the last year working Capitol Hill, Republicans were ready to break ranks with their party to ensure that subsidies would flow to the airline industry.
In fact, from Parker’s telling at an internal meeting with employees, the Republican Party may not have tried to remove these subsidies because it would have caused some of their members to defect and create bipartisan support for part of the legislation.
Gol, the American Airlines partner in Brazil, says it is changing the schedule of every one of its flights in April and customers have to rebook.
The E.U. and others are working on the idea of a vaccination passport (or ‘certificate’ for those who find the nomenclature more palatable). 62% of Americans even believe vaccination should be required for air travel.
An airline boarding process video has gone viral – it’s been viewed nearly 4 million times on TikTok and been reposted several times on Instagram. The reason the video has drawn so much attention is because it’s a boarding process most people have never seen before. It’s socially distanced and orderly, and it involves moving blue lights projected on the ground that seem to force passengers to behave the way they’re supposed to.
At the beginning of February American Airlines sent out 13,000 WARN Act notices letting employees know they might be furloughed at the beginning of April. At the same time American was preparing to provide widespread across-the-board raises to management.
View From The Wing has learned that American provided Level 5 (manager) employees and above. A third taxpayer bailout stopped the furloughs, but taxpayers will now be picking up the tab for raises.
I’ve flown Etihad’s First Apartment almost as much as Cathay Pacific first class over the years. It’s been my favorite use of American AAdvantage miles, and of course Etihad is both an American Express and Citibank transfer partner.
It’s been my go-to for trips to the Maldives (5 of my last 6 were on Etihad). I’ve visited the Mideast many times, alternating between Etihad and Emirates. And I’ve even chosen Middle East stops enroute to Australia because First Apartment redemptions for both long haul segments made the journey so easy. So the end of this spectacular product really hits home.
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 »
