American Airlines Dominates U.S. Summer Travel – United Leads Across The Atlantic

by Gary Leff

Jul 09 2024

Data from Aviation analytics company Cirium shows that American Airlines offers the most seats of any airline this summer. Using schedule data for this month, they edge out Southwest Airlines as the largest carrier by the measure. Both American and Southwest have a heavily domestic-focused network, and don’t fly their seats as far as United Airlines (or Delta).

Overall domestic scheduled seats are up 6% year-over-year despite aircraft delivery delays, especially by Boeing. Seats are up 7.8% across the Atlantic this month with Delta just a hair’s breadth behind United Airlines.

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FAA Keeps Screwing Up The Slot Process At D.C.’s National Airport – After Congress Handed Them An Ugly Mess

by Gary Leff

Jul 09 2024

The best proposals here are for new routes – from Alaska (San Diego), American (San Antonio), and Spirit (San Jose). Breeze says if they were eligible they’d fly somewhere like Boise, Reno, or Albuquerque which are at least places that lack service today. But because Congress got involved micro-managing this based on lobbying on the one hand, and their own political interest on the other, it’s not clear who the FAA can even legally consider for the slots.

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Most SLH Hotels Now Available Using Hilton Points

by Gary Leff

Jul 09 2024

Nearly 400 SLH hotels are now online with the Hilton Honors partnership, so that you earn in the Hilton program on paid rates and can redeem your points for stays at their portfolio of luxury hotels. This gives Hilton a huge edge in luxury redemptions – making their points more alluring, even if not super high value.

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Southwest Airlines Nightmare: Plummeting Revenue And CEO’s Job at Risk, Activist Investor Plans Takeover

by Gary Leff

Jul 09 2024

If there was doubt change at the airline was necessary, there’d be a role for Elliott Capital. If Elliott Capital had a vision for how to fix things, there might be as well. Here they just make the case that change is necessary, and ask for their people to be put in charge saying they’ll figure out what the plan is later.

So when they say they’ll “move expeditiously to give shareholders a direct say on the necessary leadership changes” they’re planning a proxy fight, putting their board members in place. But towards what end, besides firing current board members they replace as well as the CEO? The problem here is the lack of a solution!

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United Airlines 757 Loses Tire Taking Off From LAX, Passengers Brace For Emergency Landing

by Gary Leff

united plane docked
Jul 08 2024

United Airlines flight 1001 from Los Angeles to Denver lost a tire during takeoff this morning at around 7:15 a.m. Pacific time. The pilot reportedly announced what happened to passengers on board as they continued their flight to Denver as planned. Flight attendants ran everyone through brace procedures, prior to making an emergency landing.

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Olympics Under Threat: Paris Airport Strikes To Cause Travel Havoc As Workers Demand Bonuses To Show Up

by Gary Leff

Jul 08 2024

Surprising absolutely no one, Paris airport worker unions have announced a strike to begin days before the Summer Olympics there. Starting July 17, these strikes come in advance of the July 26 Olympics start date, and demand an “Olympics bonus” for all workers from the government-controlled company that operates both Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports.

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