Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines President Robert Isom first tells a group of employees in Philadelphia that they need to do it all, but when it comes down to it he says run on time.
The aviation world has been rocked by coronavirus, as demand for travel shrinks. Businesses are telling employees not to fly. Discretionary trips are being cancelled. And there’s tremendous uncertainty over the future.
While U.S. airlines have been healthy and better-positioned to handle what is so far a less extreme hit to their business as carriers in China, Hong Kong, and South Korea they’re certainly scrambling to figure out what’s next. United has been proactive communicating with employees, first with a note over the weekend and now with another message outlining drastic steps they’re taking to reduce costs given reductions in revenue.
In making the announcement of the renewed codeshare with Qatar Airways this past week American said that “the issues [of subsidies] had been addressed” between the two airlines. That’s bullocks, the U.S. airlines failed completely in their effort to get meaningful government action against their Gulf rivals.
On Wednesday American Airlines CEO Doug Parker spoke to employees at an internal town hall, a recording of which was shared with View From The Wing. There he explained the carrier’s change of heart.
A 56 year old man flew on Delta from Amsterdam to Atlanta on February 22. He had connected from Milan, Italy. A few days after the flight he showed symptoms of coronavirus. Other passengers on board aren’t being informed.
Airline lobbyists are trying to curtail the power of the Department of Transportation to engage in consumer protection. They want to be regulated just like other industries, with definitions employed by the Federal Trade Commission. But this ignores how other industries are regulated by the states and consumers through the courts, which the airlines are frequently excused from by the Airline Deregulation Act.
Instead of replacing all of their domestic first class meals at once, as they’ve had in the past, American Airlines has been replacing a few items at a time on a rolling basis.
The airline has introduced four new entrees and two salads.
Samoa is requiring all passengers entering the country or transiting through it to undergo medical screening three days prior to travel to the country. The government is also enforcing reductions in international air service.
Meanwhile Micronesia banned travelers from any country where there was a confirmed coronavirus case.
Southeast Asian low cost carrier AirAsia has been a success (except for their restaurant chain). AirAsiaX, the long haul version of the airline, has struggled.
The airline had plenty of empty seats even before coronavirus, so they’re selling a one year all you can fly pass for 499 MYR (about US$118) offering “Australia, Japan, India and more.”
Delta has announced new routes and flights out of Seattle showing that they aren’t going to take American’s re-invigorated partnership with Alaska Airlines lying down.
Competition is good, and has been great for Seattle residents since Delta and Alaska began their breakup and Delta built up their own hub at the Pacific Northwest airport. Delta will grow their Seattle service to 190 peak daily departures to 56 destinations for summer 2020, with new service coming beyond that as well.
Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal has 280,000 frequent flyer members in the U.S. market, growing at about 12,000 members per month, and now serves 9 North American cities with 81 weekly flights. They’re even launching Boston to the Azores in June. And they acknowledge that their Miles & Go program “hasn’t been as relevant as it should be.” They aim to change that.
They are offering status matches up to their top elite tier, mileage on sale for less than 9/10ths of a cent apiece, 25% discounts on award redemption, and miles just for joining the program and referring others to join as well.
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 »
