Archive for the ‘3’ Category

Editorial: Glenn’s gotta go at United

Posted by admin on August 26, 2009

There has been a lot of stuff out there written about United Airlines, and most of it isn’t positive. We’re all familiar with the United Breaks Guitars video (the second of three is out on YouTube, by the way), and the infamous “Untied” complaint website has been a thorn in the airline’s side for many [...]

Baltia Air Lines, the 20 year old startup

Posted by admin on August 19, 2009

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a press release that said that a New York-based startup, Baltia Air Lines, had signed a letter of intent to purchase a Boeing 747. Who the heck is Baltia? I did a little research (mostly in the form of 10-Q filings with the SEC) and turned up some [...]

Southwest lands in Boston

Posted by admin on August 18, 2009

I had known that Southwest Airlines was going to start service from Boston for a while, but it wasn’t until my good friend Dan at Things in the Sky talked more about it that I started thinking about how I could go and see it happen. Dan kindly sent a last-minute email to the wonderful [...]

US Airways and Delta work out a trade

Posted by admin on August 12, 2009

Some interesting news today – US Airways has announced that it is going to swap slots with Delta and get some international routes from them as well. Under the terms of the deal, which is still pending regulatory approval, US Airways gains 42 pairs of slots at Washington’s Reagan Airport and will be able to [...]

United’s wheel of fortune

Posted by admin on August 10, 2009

I didn’t know about this until it was pointed out to me yesterday (thanks to @derekwhit and @melissaiscool on Twitter), but it seems that for the last couple of months, United Airlines has set up a ’spin the wheel’ setup at key airports. More after these pictures from FlyerTalk:Apparently, you can spin the wheel and [...]

JAL loses $1 billion in second quarter

Posted by admin on August 7, 2009

You thought Delta’s second quarter loss of $257 million was bad? Or even American’s $390 million loss during the same time? Even perennial money-loser Alitalia’s financial performance pales in comparison to Japan Airlines’ whopping $1 billion loss between the months of April to June, which is larger than the amount it lost for all [...]

Lufthansa’s rainy day fund

Posted by admin on August 5, 2009

Never mind Lufthansa’s current financial difficulties, which I wrote about yesterday – the German carrier is intent on keeping clouds out of the picture with its new “sunshine guarantee”. If you’re on vacation and your day’s a washout, don’t worry – Lufthansa will give you 20 euros (approx. $30) for each rainy day of your [...]

Lufthansa allowed to purchase Austrian

Posted by admin on August 4, 2009

German carrier Lufthansa recently got the go-ahead from the EU Commission to purchase Austrian Airlines, but maybe it will have reason to re-think its decision in a few months. After all, Austrian recently reported a 78.5 million Euro ($113 million) loss between April and June, and has lost 166.6 million Euros ($239.8 million) for the [...]

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 [...]