Airlines (General)

Category Archives for Airlines (General).

New surcharge, United’s theme & auctions, American delisted, AirTran fined, Qantas pilots, Brussels-bound and 2011 profits

In other airline industry news this week… As I expected and not at all surprising, American, Delta, United and US Airways have added a $6 roundtrip surcharge for flights to Europe to offset the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme. United’s 767-300s that fly to Europe hold a total of 183 passengers. If it goes out full…

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2011 was a fantastic travel year… looking forward to 2012

The year is coming to a close and it was a fantastic one for me, especially for travel. I experienced two new airlines – Cathay Pacific and Asiana – and was fortunate enough to fly in First Class on both. I end up redeeming miles pretty quickly after I accrue them, but this next year…

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New A380 & 787 routes, emissions tax threat, hotel rates, airline sales, pilot fatigue, Spirit makes bank and another new all-Business Class airline

In other airline, hotel and travel industry news this week… Thai Airways will take delivery of two Airbus A380s next year and will initially operate their first whale on regional routes, of which Bangkok to Hong Kong is probable. Once they take delivery of their second A380, service to Frankfurt will begin, followed by London…

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Airlines’ ability to steer traffic to lower demand flights through screen bias

I follow the Australian airline industry pretty closely and one of my favorite websites to read every day is Australian Business Traveller. This week a reader asked the question, “Why does (Qantas) not want to sell me SYD-ORD via LAX on the A380?†I plugged in some sample dates on the Australian version of Qantas.com.au…

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Southwest buys jets, American leads oneworld, Cathay opens SFO lounge, Qantas’ woes, FAA certs, theft, fraud and GDSs

In other airline and travel industry news last week… Southwest Airlines placed a monumental order for 208 Boeing 737 aircraft this week that includes 150 of the manufacturer’s newest Max version, making the carrier the official launch customer. The first delivery to Southwest won’t occur until 2017. At list prices, the order value is $19…

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Finding mileage runs without the FareCompare Flyertalk tool

I hate change. This week, two of my favorite airfare searching tools either went away or previous versions were disabled. I’m of course referring to the trusty FareCompare Flyertalk page being taken down and ITA Software’s Classic “Matrix 1†being totally removed. I feel sort of naked without them. The FareCompare site was bar none…

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New routes for American & United, on-time stats, IATA’s 2012 forecast, passenger protection rules, Qantas news and Expedia extends agreement

In other airline, hotel and travel industry news this week… United Airlines announced they will add a segment onto the existing Washington Dulles to Dubai flight and continue to Doha, Qatar beginning May 1, 2012. The news release claims the flights will be operated with United’s International Premium Travel Experience Boeing 777s, but there’s still…

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Was FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt’s resignation the right decision?

As widely reported this week, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt resigned from his post because he made a terrible decision this past Saturday and drove drunk. As head of an agency devoted in part to regulating aviation safety for the nation, stepping down was the obvious and logical decision. Or was it? Before being appointed to…

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New JFK-based airline Baltia to serve five Baltic region cities… will it survive?

Someone I follow on Twitter posted a link today to an informative and actually quite funny look back at startup airlines that failed since airlines were deregulated in 1978 here in the United States. It’s definitely worth a read and brought back some memories since I flew on one of them, Kiwi International Air Lines,…

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Blog update and my interview with Cheapflights.com

First, a couple of blog updates. If you haven’t noticed, you can now subscribe to my posts via email. On the right-hand side near the top underneath the calendar, there’s a spot where you can enter your email address and receive my posts daily. Might be a good idea for some of you who don’t…

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