Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

United Cuts Denied Boarding Compensation By 75%

by Gary Leff

united plane
May 01 2020

United Airlines set the world on first when David Dao was dragged off of a United Express plane and bloodied three years ago. United’s CEO Oscar Munoz apologized… for having to re-accommodate him.

The worldwide outcry was so great that airlines had to revisit their policies for involuntary denied boardings. Now, as United does everything possible to reduce costs, it is scaling back efforts to control the sort of denied boardings that led to David Dao’s being dragged off a plane.

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United Is Planning For Zero Net Passenger Revenue Into 2021

by Gary Leff

united plane
May 01 2020

During this morning’s earnings call, United Airlines President Scott Kirby told investors and journalists that the carrier is “planning for zero net passenger revenue for rest of year and into 2021.”

They hope demand recovers but they have plenty of places to go for cash and are driving down expenses. Come the fall the only place left to go for cuts will be reducing employee headcount. They even talked about taking loans out against the MileagePlus program.

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American Airlines Brings Back Food On Flights Under 4 Hours

by Gary Leff

Apr 30 2020

When American Airlines announced the suspension of most meal service in late March, it made sense. This substantially reduced interactions between customers and flight attendants.

At the time the airline said this suspension would last through April 30. I assumed it would be suspended indefinitely. However it turns out that American is bringing back some catering on flights less than 2200 miles effective May 1. This is available to all passengers in all cabins.

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American Airlines Will Begin Requiring Passengers To Wear Face Masks

by Gary Leff

Apr 30 2020

To show how quickly things are changing – the modern day equivalent of one being as a thousand years and a thousand years one day – it was only Monday that American announced flight attendants would be required to wear masks and that starting May 1 they’d begin to roll out complimentary masks for customers as an option, subject to supply chain and operational constraints.

Indeed it was just six weeks ago that American still disciplined flight attendants who wore masks.

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6 Things I Learned During The American Airlines Earnings Call

by Gary Leff

Apr 30 2020

American Airlines lost over $2.2 billion in the first quarter, even though things didn’t begin to go south until March. They’re pulling in new cash everywhere they can, cutting costs, and expect not to have any difficulty securing not just payroll protection grants from the U.S. treasury but also subsidized loans.

Those financial metrics aren’t what I’m most interested in at this point, nor the $40 billion in debt they could soon be carrying. Those issues are well covered elsewhere. I wanted to highlight 6 other things last may get less play in broader coverage.

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American Airlines Had The AAdvantage Program Appraised, And It’s Worth At Least $30 Billion

by Gary Leff

Apr 30 2020

As part of raising funds on the private market and from the U.S. government, the airline had its unencumbered assets appraised. Parker reported that the value of these assets came back at $10 billion “excluding the AAdvantage program.”

During the airline’s earnings call Parker was pressed on what appraisals found the AAdvantage program to be worth.

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Delta’s Lawyers Tell The Government Air Travel Is Unsafe and Should Be Limited. Say What?

by Gary Leff

Apr 30 2020

Delta lawyers submitted a filing to the Department of Transportation in which they make the case that travel is unsafe and flights should be limited if at all possible.

That’s not the position Delta takes in public or emphasizes with employees. But it’s a convenient argument to make when they’re trying to reduce their service obligations under the federal airline bailout.

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