July 25 2008
Southwest’s profitability has been well-publicized, and they’ve had another fine quarter due to them running a fantastic operation, and their oft-discussed fuel hedges. Well done.
Allegiant, which I speak of frequently, also turned a tidy profit and got almost no credit for it. Their management team has built an impressive operation around a tight strategy: fly leisure travelers from tertiary cities a couple of times a week to sun destinations, and upsell everything. And this works. Really well. Their planes were 94% full in June, and 90% full for the quarter. Their non-air revenue per passenger hit almost $28 (JetBlue is about $8). They are basically a seller of travel products (hotels, show tickets, etc) that happen to run an airline. Oh, and they manage to do that flying old MD-80s with no fuel hedges. Incredibly impressive.
(I own a small number of shares in Allegiant…)
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July 25 2008
(Thanks for the heads up, View from the Wing)
Given that it’s almost the weekend, you’ll have time to read this rather long but quite interesting take on what’s happened to the airline industry over the past 10 years (it’s written by an airline employee trying to answer the question why flying has become miserable). There are a few interesting points in there, but I think his final one is worth noting: that the increase in fuel prices will accomplish the same thing as re-regulation — airlines are forced to cut back on marginal routes and increase fares. And that’s exactly what’s happened.
Anyway, it’s good stuff…
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July 25 2008
A Qantas 747 flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne made an emergency landing in Manila after a large hole appeared in the side of the plane (link has photo). Passengers heard a loud bang and heard wind swirling around the plane, but reportedly remained calm as the plane quickly lowered its altitude. No passengers or crew were injured.
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July 24 2008
(Thanks, UpgradeTravelBetter)
I’d like to think it’s thanks to the uproar from consumers (though I’m sure it’s not), Spirit ended its ridiculous $10 “web convenience fee” - essentially a fee for buying a ticket. Whew.
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July 23 2008
This won’t affect many of you, but Malev (Hungary’s flag carrier) announced that it will focus entirely on Europe and eliminate flights to New York and Toronto this fall. The carrier noted that its 767 trans-Atlantic flights cost $49,000 more to operate now compared to last year (with about 200 seats on the flight, they’d have to make up $250 per passenger just to break even. Good luck with that.)
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July 21 2008
A drunk passenger on a First Choice 767 traveling from Gatwick to Cuba forced an unscheduled stop in Bermuda after he tried to open the plane’s door while in flight (uh, pay no attention to the part of the story where they say they were flying at 50,000 feet, an altitude typically seen only by the Concorde and Space Shuttle). While it’s basically impossible to open the cabin door mid-flight, attempting it is generally frowned upon by everybody. The plane had to remain in Bermuda overnight.
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July 21 2008
I’ve been quite supportive of Spirit’s fee-driven low fares. If they want to keep fares very low and charge passengers for everything else, go for it. But I’m going to draw the line here: the airline is now tacking on a $10 “web convenience fee” for booking a roundtrip ticket online. Of course, there are additional fees if you purchase on the phone. So you may be wondering, if Spirit advertises a $59 each-way fare, but it’s going to cost you $64 each way, why can it be advertised as $59? The answer? Um, because those are the rules. It’s nuts, and it’s not fare to consumers.
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July 18 2008
Bollywood film legend Amitabh Bachchan has learned the hard way about British Airways’ miserable record losing bags (it misplaces 23 bags for every 1000 passengers): The actor says that his bags were lost on a recent trip with his family to Toronto, marking the 18th time the airline has lost his luggage. There really isn’t any more to the story, but I thought that was impressive.
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July 18 2008
God knows how much of this story is true, but a woman is suing Continental Airlines after she claims that a flight attendant who was mad at her had authorities detain her upon her arrival in Newark. It seems she “shushed” the flight attendant while she was trying to sleep, and that all hell broke loose after that. The link has the details.
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July 17 2008
Joining the ranks of just about everyone else, Continental has rolled out a few new changes for their OnePass program and you can probably guess that they won’t involve making it easier and cheaper to fly for free.
In short:
- No more holding reservations - you reserve, you purchase. On a plus note, you have 24 hours to cancel.
- Fees to re-deposit miles or change a reward ticket are now $150. Yes, those same fees used to be about $50.
- Want to book a reward ticket less than 21 days in advance? That’ll cost ya $75. For some reason, I find this one the most annoying.
- And Continental’s much beloved upgrade co-pays have increased (you can see the details in the link).
What can ya do? It’s the new reality. Or you can fly Southwest (though good luck getting a free business class ticket to Singapore on Southwest).
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