Archive for July, 2009

Southwest wants to buy Frontier

Posted by admin on July 30, 2009

In a pretty surprising announcement today, Southwest Airlines has said that they’ve submitted a proposal to purchase Denver-based Frontier Airlines, which is still under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Southwest will bid for the airline in a bankruptcy auction next month, along with Republic, which said last month that it would bid for Frontier. There aren’t [...]

Big changes in store at Aeroflot

Posted by admin on July 29, 2009

Big changes are happening over at Aeroflot – a new CEO, no more Russian jets, better in-flight service, and a plan for a slimmer company (as well as slimmer flight attendants). And if you have a complaint, simply email the CEO himself.
By the end of this year, all of the airline’s Tupolev Tu-154s – previously [...]

Sydney-Los Angeles game of chicken continues

Posted by admin on July 28, 2009

If you’re a passenger thinking about flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, things can’t get much better. If you’re one of the four airlines that fly that route, things can’t get much worse. Earlier this month Delta became the fourth airline to fly between the two cities, joining Virgin-backed startup V Australia, which had entered [...]

BA loses $2.3 million a day as OpenSkies cuts back

Posted by admin on July 27, 2009

Dow Jones is reporting that British Airways is burning through £1.4 million, or $2.3 million, a day, according to the airline’s CFO, Keith Williams. Williams said in February that the airline was losing £2.7 million of cash a day, which is almost $4.5 million, so I guess that’s an improvement. But William is also warning [...]

How to make money from Ryanair

Posted by admin on July 27, 2009

The Times recently shared a clever way to take back the money that you might have lost with Ryanair’s £5 online check-in fee. A cup of coffee on board sets you back either £3 or €3, so you can pay for your coffee with either currency and ask for your change back in either currency. [...]

Wi-fi and the future of inflight entertainment

Posted by admin on July 24, 2009

US Airways announced yesterday that it will become the latest airline to offer in-flight wi-fi, starting next year. It’ll be provided by Aircell’s Gogo Inflight system and only available on the airline’s A321 fleet for now, but Gogo is already present on the entire fleets of Virgin America and AirTran. United, American and Delta are [...]

What’s next for JetAmerica?

Posted by admin on July 23, 2009

It’s been a week since much discussed startup JetAmerica announced that it was shutting down operations, blaming difficulties with securing slots at Newark. Still, there’s the possibility that the airline could always start up again. From a Florida Today article:
The airline’s chairman vowed to return to service this fall, however, with Melbourne [Florida]’s airport serving [...]

A Manhattan airport in Central Park? Not really

Posted by admin on July 21, 2009

Today’s epic airline prank is brought to you by The Manhattan Airport Foundation, which wants to bulldoze Central Park and put up an airport in its place. Yes, you must be thinking that this is a joke, and yes, you’re right.
Beyond the sheer implausibility of razing Central Park to make way for an airport, let’s [...]

El Al’s new "low cost economy" experiment

Posted by admin on July 21, 2009

Capitalizing on the willingness of travelers to pay more for a (theoretically) better passenger experience, a lot of airlines have added “premium economy” products over the last several years, with Air France, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and United Airlines among them. And on other end of things, a lot of airlines have also launched (and [...]

Sears Tower Skydeck – video

Posted by stephen on July 20, 2009

Embedded video from CNN Video