New and notes from around the interweb:
- Is Delta delaying flights indefinitely to avoid cancellations? They do have more 10 hour-plus delays than competitors, but not by much, and adding all those in as cancellations doesn’t change that Delta cancels far fewer flights than United and American.
The article suggests Delta isn’t indefinitely delaying flights so that they appear to cancel fewer flights overall, but that’s not really what’s been observed anecdotally and worthy of investigation in my opinion. Delta seems to incur nearly indefinite delays on a handful of days when they’re otherwise looking to report cancel-free days. Still, an interesting look at the data.
I’d also point out that I’ve noticed an increase in quality posts at The Points Guy, though a lot of the interesting stuff I find gets buried.
- How US airlines finally realized the extraordinary capabilities of the Boeing 757
As successful as the 757 was in replacing aging narrow-bodies, it took until the middle of the ’90s for the aircraft to be used substantially on longer-haul markets. During a time of new ETOPS regulations for twin aircraft, the 757 began operating to Hawaii, replacing the traditionally used wide-body aircraft such as the DC-10, L-1011, and 747. This was the first substantial evolution for the aircraft away from its original 727 replacement mission, but not the last.
- British holiday carrier Jet2 billed a disruptive passenger $105,000. However ‘disruptive’ is sort of the definition of a Jet2 passenger, and if you have $105,000 you aren’t flying Jet2.
Jet2 Boeing 737 - Delta is adding Narcan to their inflight medical kits this fall
A man just #overdosed on my @delta flight, needle in arm he passed out in bathroom. The plane didn’t have a #NarcanKit. The paramedics took 10 minutes to arrive. They just carried him out in a body bag 🙏🏾@Delta please practice #harmreduction and get a #NarcanKit on every ✈️
— Lynne Lyman (@lynnelyman) July 14, 2019
- Trains simply aren’t the most effective way to traverse long distances. They’re efficient on routes up to a few hundred miles between large population centers. You get on and off in fixed places that may not be where people want to go, they’re incredibly expensive. Flying is far more efficient over distance, and buses work better between smaller point-to-point markets. Yet the government demands continued billions in subsidies to serve long distance routes and small markets.
- 360 degree drone walkthrough of the new British Airways lounge in San Francisco
@ Gary — What’s with the snide remark about the quality fo TPG articles? When will you go back to only publishing high quality articles on your blog?
I can’t believe Seth Kaplan wrote for TPG. That’s fantastic. He writes Airline Weekly which is part of Skift now.
@Jack – Seth sold Airline Weekly, I don’t *think* he writes for it anymore [Skift unceremoniously killed my complimentary subscription, I just stopped getting it].
@Gene – My comment was not snide at all, I was being totally serious, there’s a lot of bagging on TPG and I was pointing out there’s quite a bit of good stuff going on there lately and there are folks who may be missing it.
As for my blog, I have always written whatever has seemed interesting to me at the time. My only metric is my own interest, which is the only way / reason I still do this on my own after 17 years. There have always been folks who don’t like some/any of the content, that will always be true, and it’s been different people in varying amounts at different times. I’m cool with that.
@ Gary — I do love your blog, but liked it better when I found it more intellectually stimulating. Maybe it’s me.
“Delta seems to incur nearly indefinite delays on a handful of days when they’re otherwise looking to report cancel-free days.” Or cancel free months or whatever suits!
As I’ve reported and commented on, in November 2017, Delta reported a month with zero mainline flight cancellations. In a footnote, however, the self-congratulatory press release also notes:
“Delta operated 16 mainline international flights on a delayed basis during the month via substitute flights using Delta aircraft with an alternate flight number.”
https://news.delta.com/delta-flies-first-no-cancel-november
The only reason I questioned the press release is because I was on one of those supposedly non-cancelled, cancelled international flights. I question the reliability of all airline operational claims when it appears airlines can so easily manipulate the statistics.
@Gene – I guess different folks find different things intellectually stimulating, not sure which content you enjoyed most in the past both hopefully there’s still enough of whatever that was for you to continue to find value here now and again!
Unfortunately, the title of that WSJ on Amtrak is mis-labeled as “Inside Amtrak’s Dying Long Distance Trains,” as it clearly sought to clarify how Amtrak deceptively feeds the mis-conception that nobody rides long distance trains end point to end point, e.g., Chicago-Los Angeles.
In actuality, those long distance trains serve many multi-segment markets en route that have no other transportation options. Indeed, the average miles traveled on long distance trains is equal to air-800 miles. Unlike air, the accommodations turnover an average of 2.5 times en route.
The real waste of funds attributable to Amtrak has never been unmasked due to the lack of external audits which would identify:
1) All state-supported passenger rail under 750 miles is overcharged per Amtrak’s own dubious full cost allocation that defies GAAP by shifting costs from the Northeast Corridor.
2) For those states west and south of the Potomac, unbeknownst to their treasurers, subsidize the Northeast Corridor, which is far from “profitable;” therefore, allowing those states along the Northeast Corridor not to be charged for their twice per hour, bi-directional intercity trains between Boston-Washington (approximately 450 miles).
3) Even the commuter rail lines using the Northeast Corridor did not pay Amtrak for their operation and infrastructure depreciation until ordered by Congress in December, 2015.
Frankly, just as discuss here the dire need for competition to motivate the US3 to get moving, passenger rail must also breakout of the monopoly vise Amtrak holds that prevents open access and franchises to compete head-on with the SOE, or, to open-up new markets.
Unfortunately, we do not benefit from a coherent national transportation policy to smartly direct investments and encourage competition, all at the expense of the public interest.
I agree with your comment on The Points Guy. Much of their written content has shown much improvement. They’re obviously investing much in writing staff.
Their spin-off of “The Points Kardashian” video series is garish and narcissistic. No thanks.
After all these years, I’m still happy to “come home” here. Keep on doing what you do.
There are only a couple of bloggers on Boarding Area that I find interesting, and VFTW is one of them. Keep up the good work, Gary!)
Regarding Jet2: I have flown them frequently since their launch way back when. Their launch service was LBA – AMS, which was perfect as KLM had it as a monopoly service until then (on Fokker 50’s!).
Jet2 is one of the better ULCC’s within Europe. It is perhaps slightly less ULCC vs Easyjet and especially Ryanair, and provides a decent service for a 1-hour flight. Any longer on their slim line seats would be a challenge. I have flown them to AMS, CDG and DUS, and they were absolutely fine.
I am guessing the holiday flights to southern Europe might be a little different in clientele, but don’t judge them by the occasional incident. I don’t think there is any airline anymore that has not had one of these horror stories. What I think is great, is that (a) disruptive passengers are now being held accountable for cost, and (b) that there is such a thing as a lifetime ban. It would be even better if that ban was extended across all ULCC’s in Europe.