For those in New York, I’ll be on Channel 7 (WABC) today at around 530 chatting about the airline industry.

Former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall and I DO have something in common:  we both think the idea of airlines merging in this environment to be nutty.  In an op-ed in the NY Times, Crandall bashes the proposed (and rumored) mergers writing, “The case for mergers is unpersuasive. Mergers will not lower fuel prices. They [...]

British newspaper The Guardian has a report (via USA Today) saying that Continental’s 757s flying trans-Atlantic routes have “run low on fuel” on 96 occasions last year (Continental flies more 757s trans-Atlantic than anyone else).  They suggest that these planes are not meant to fly such distances and that the five-fold increase in “minimum [...]

You’ll read about this elsewhere, but United just raised their ticket change fee on domestic flights to $150 from $100.  Expect other majors to follow.  Remember that JetBlue only charges $40 for a change, and Southwest doesn’t charge anything.

Eos Airlines announced that they’ve secured another $50 million in funding meaning:
a) They’ve blown through about $200 million
b) They won’t be going out of business this summer as I had previously thought
Their press release says that they’ll be profitable next year, but every financial press release they’ve ever put out suggests they’ll be profitable the [...]

A passenger was removed from a United Airlines from from JFK to San Francisco after he refused to sit down prior to takeoff because he was praying.  The man (who, for the sake of full disclosure, though the religion doesn’t really matter here, was Jewish) was standing up and praying and would not sit down [...]

A reporter for the Columbus Dispatch knew that Skybus was going to shut down the carrier hours before it actually happened but chose to hold the information back until the airline made the announcement at 9:30pm that evening.  The reporter even flew on one of the last flights to Fort Lauderdale so that she could [...]

US Airways announced its Choice Seats program where passengers can pay $5 to get an aisle or window seat in the first few rows of coach.
But that is nothing compared to the changes US Airways’ CEO say are coming down the ol’ pike.   You can read Douglas Parker’s note to his employees here, but [...]

OK, I lied.  I have a few more notes on the merger.  Today I wanted to mention what I call the Fallacy of the Larger Route Map.  One of the key benefits that Delta is mentioning in the merger talk is that there is little overlap in the Delta and Northwest route maps.  This would [...]

A DC-9 crashed in Congo today, landing in a crowded residential neighborhood in Goma.  Several people have survived, but there is no indication of how many people were on board the aircraft to begin with.  The plane was registered to a private company, not a commercial airline.
Congo has a miserable air safety record, but I [...]