Category Archives for Airlines.
According to financial markets, the major U.S. airline most likely to wind up in bankruptcy is American, followed by United.
At this point the big airlines talk about how much cash they have to make it through this year. But that’s not the issue. After $58 billion in subsidies allocated to commercial airlines, airlines will make it through 2020. The question is what happens in 2021.
Thai Airways is majority government-owned, and a government panel has recommended that the airline restructure in bankruptcy. The Thai cabinet will consider bankruptcy for the airline on Tuesday.
Thai has lost money every year since 2013, in some of the very best times for the airline industry. It doesn’t just need a cash bridge to survive until the pandemic passes.
Qatar Airways has a really interesting status match opportunity. I flag this because mid- and top-tier elite members of Qatar Airways Privilege Club do not just get American Airlines Admirals Club access even on domestic itineraries, they receive access to American’s Flagship lounges, too (once those re-open of course).
Larry Summers was President Obama’s chief economic advisor, Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary, and President of Harvard University. He’s one of the smartest people on the planet his arguments, both when you agree or disagree, are force to be reckoned with.
Summers explains that by trying to keep all of the airlines alive, you assure that they all have excess capacity and that they’re all unprofitable. That has long-term consequences for the whole economy, “the failure to allow the appropriate economic adjustment is kind of the mistake that Japan made in the 1990s. We need as we realize how long this is going to play to be aware of those risks.”
My dinner parties could use some new recipes featuring “the ingredients, techniques and flavors of” United Polaris on board dining. Don’t tell my wife, she’s a former professional chef. But shouldn’t we all have a ‘seasonal salad’ in our repertoire that is the same every season?
To be among my favorites an ad needs to be more than clever or visually appealing, it needs to be effective and make sense for the brand that’s doing the advertising.
As we come out of the pandemic, and associated recession or depression, there will be empty seats to fill. While on the way down the first and easiest place to cut spending is marketing, we’ll know there’s business to earn and our economy is beginning to recover when we see airline advertising. That means people are ready to fly, and airlines are ready to compete for this business.
The Administration wanted the CDC to do temperature checks at airports. They refused. U.S. airlines have been lobbying for the government to do these checks – they don’t want the responsibility of doing it themselves, even though that would be better for travelers. Now the TSA is preparing to do it at security checkpoints.
This isn’t going to make air travel safer, and it’s going to make the travel experience worse for a long time to come.
Unsurprisingly with so little demand for air travel airlines are doing their best to get workers to take leaves and early retirements. United has a new offer that includes airline elite status and miles.
Ellen Church was a pilot and a nurse. She sought a pilot job with United Airlines (then Boeing Air Transport) but got nowhere. Then she suggested the airline hire traveling nurses, helping to ease the fear of flying people had so early on in aviation.
She was hired in 1930 as head stewardess and she then hired seven other women on a three month trial basis. They formed the ‘original eight’ of what would become flight attendants.
Vietnam, like Taiwan, is so far one of the great COVID-19 success stories. Despite sharing a border with China they have fewer than 300 confirmed cases and not a single reported coronavirus-related death. And they’re going to some extreme lengths to keep it that way.
A Vietnam Airlines pilot from the U.K. is the most critically ill patient with the virus in the country right now.
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 »
