Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Thai Airways Opens Restaurant So You Can Eat Plane Food On The Ground

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2020

Back in June Thai Airways, unable to transport many passengers, pivoted into the prepared meals space offering food pre-orders for pickup at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports. Now they’ve taken their culinary aspirations and grown that into a new airport cafe.

The new restaurant just opened yesterday, and is decorated with real airplane seats, model airplanes, and “even an airstair at the entrance that would (probably) make you miss boarding their iconic purple planes.”

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One Airline Thinks Covid-19 Is The Perfect Time To Start Flying Boeing 747s Domestically

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2020

Barry Michaels has been trying to start an airline for at least 28 years. First under the name Family Airlines, and then Avatar Airlines, he’s had an idea to fly Boeing 747s between leisure destinations. He went to prison for tax and securities fraud raising money for the venture. The DOT insisted he give up control of the project.

Now he’s got a new pitch to investors: that now is the perfect time to start a new airline, because used 747s for domestic routes can be acquired cheap, and look at all those furloughed employees!

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Internal Memo: United Airlines To Furlough 16,370 Staff In October

by Gary Leff

united-plane
Sep 02 2020

Airlines are much smaller today than they were a year ago. They expect to continue to be smaller even a year from now and perhaps even two years from now. So they need fewer people on staff.

United, which was the first and most vocal about the need to shed staff, is now out with their layoff plans and they’re looking at shedding 16,370 staff come October, according to an internal memo:

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The Case For A Second Airline Bailout

by Gary Leff

Sep 02 2020

While I’ve been vocally against airline bailouts, one of my main frustration is that proponents have couched their support in terms of ‘the workers’ even though much of the money goes to the airlines themselves and protects investors and creditors. There’s been very little honest attempt to make the true case for payroll support grants.

So let me at least lay out what seems to be the strongest argument against my own position. It comes down to a bet that we’ll be past the virus in April 2021, that airlines won’t invest enough in their businesses to be ready to grow in the meantime, and that the country benefits most from having airline capacity.

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American’s Flight Attendants Union Fiddles While Rome Burns

by Gary Leff

Sep 02 2020

The American Airlines flight attendants union, Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), is exceptionally weak. They’ve been dysfunctional for years. I’ve written in the past about efforts by the larger Association of Flight Attendants, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America and AFL-CIO, to get their nose in under the tent.

Reading through the mid-August minutes of the APFA’s Executive Committee meeting I was initially struck by just three things.

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Delta Copies United’s Elimination Of Change Fees, Doesn’t Go As Far As American

by Gary Leff

Aug 31 2020

It isn’t often that Delta copies United but, like American, they’re also going to waive change fees. All three of course are copying Southwest Airlines – which doesn’t charge baggage fees either.

While Delta’s announcement was rushed out because of United’s move, they’ve actually been considering doing this for some time. They were talking about rethinking change fees at the beginning of 2020.

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American Airlines CEO Still Thinks Buying Back Stock Was A Good Idea

by Gary Leff

depressed businessman leaning his head below a bad stock market chart
Aug 31 2020

After taking over at American Airlines, management spent $12.4 billion buying back stock over a six year period at an average price of $39.76 per share. Now they’re facing over $40 billion in debt and looking for a second government bailout this year.

At an internal Crew News session at the end of last week, a pilot asked the airline’s CEO Doug Parker if the airline is able to claw its way back, whether he’d change the way the airline is run – paying down debt instead of buying stock?

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