Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Leaked United Airlines Confidential Corporate Sales Stats (Someone’s in Deep Trouble)

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Jan 13 2019

Apple is by far United’s biggest corporate account. They spend $150 million with the airline. Focusing on California-specific accounts the biggest are Facebook, Roche, and Google which spend ‘over $34 million’ and then Deloitte, McKinsey, PwC, Cisco, Oracle and Applied Materials in the $12 million to $17 million range.

Apple’s spending on San Francisco – Shanghai though is shocking, even accounting for all of the manufacturing done in China — one quarter of total company spend, 50 business class seats a day. That’s presumably 25 business seats in each direction.

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At Least 200 American Airlines Regional Jets Will Get Seat Power This Year

by Gary Leff

american eagle plane
Jan 12 2019

Over the last couple of years American Airlines has been aggressively adding seat power and satellite internet to their fleet. They’ve made a strategic decision not to offer seat back video on demand the way that Delta does. Since customers need to use their own devices for entertainment, they need to power those devices.

And with the mainline fleet well underway for these modifications, the airline is now in the process of add seat power to two-cabin regional jets — Embraer ERJ-175s, Bombardier CR7s and CR9s.

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Air Zimbabwe Is Shutting Down For Several Days Because They Have No Planes That Can Fly

by Gary Leff

Jan 12 2019

Air Zimbabwe is shutting down for several days because they have no aircraft suitable to operate.

On December 30 their Boeing 737-200 went out of service. It reportedly needs 45 days of maintenance, though may not return to the fleet. Their only other aircraft, a Boeing 767-200, needs maintenance that’s expected to take several days.

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American Airlines Will Introduce Premium Economy Awards This Month

by Gary Leff

airline seat
Jan 11 2019

American Airlines should be close to introducing premium economy awards. They’ve retrofitted much of their widebody fleet of Boeing 777s, 787-9s, and now some 787-8s to offer a premium economy cabin. However they have not had an option to redeem premium economy seats for miles.

I expect to see premium economy awards introduced this month, at least that’s what’s been confirmed to me by two well-placed sources at American.

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EVA Air Business Class Has a New Soft Product That Really Is Like First Class

by Gary Leff

Carmona Red RIMOWA amenities kit
Jan 11 2019

My own take on world’s second best business class is Star Alliance member EVA Air based in Taipei. They should be on everyone’s radar because they also frequently have very good award availability from their US gateways and offer good connectivity into Asia.

Already they offer great seats — reverse herringbone that’s similar to what Cathay Pacific has — but they take things a step beyond with pajamas, pre-order meals, great champagne, and quality amenity kits. And their service is top notch.

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Etihad Laying Off Pilots

by Gary Leff

airplane docked
Jan 10 2019

Worldwide there’s a significant pilot shortage in commercial aviation. However at Etihad, where the airline has been scaling back from an expansive growth posture, they believe they have too many pilots.

According to an internal memo Etihad will be laying off some of their excess pilots this month.

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Air France Killing Low Fare Carrier-Within-a-Carrier Joon and Millennials Everywhere Rejoice

by Gary Leff

airline promo ad people on plane
Jan 10 2019

It’s been a year since Air France started service under the ‘Joon’ brand. A separate airline with lower labor costs is one thing – and Joon had lower flight attendant costs, but not lower pilot costs. It’s hard enough to pull that off without really being a separate company. Just ask United, Delta, US Airways, and Continental about the airline within an airline experiment.

Pretending that the Air France low cost carrier without low costs was really a different brand for millennials was just silly. It was created by consultants who think millennial means “no money, doesn’t care about comfort, and is into marketing buzz.”

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