Technology: The Great Airline Shakeup Continues

Robert Buckman — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:19:23 -0400

Did you ever tell yourself you were going to watch a sunset, then close
your eyes for a moment, only to open them again and find out that you
missed it, that the sun had set, and that the whole landscape looked
different.

Well, the sun is setting on a whole lot of airlines these days, and
the landscape from where I sit happening so fast that it's hard to keep
track of who's flying where.

Route reductions and airline failures mean that anyone who flies
frequently is finding it tougher to keep their scorecard up to date.

Is Dreamliner Delay a Blessing in Disguise?

Robert Buckman — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:40:33 -0400

The network carriers and Boeing engineers have the same nightmare,
which is further delays in delivery of the fuel-efficient 787.

Of course, those delays have come to pass, and at the worst possible time.
For if the big carriers ever needed a new airliner to bail them out of
the current fuel-driven cash crisis, it would be now.

Technology: Googling Your Travel

Robert Buckman — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:45:59 -0400

Dominant in virtually everything it seems to touch, Google plans to
expand its travel division by launching more travel pages or even a
full-fledged travel channel, Catherine Holahan reports in BusinessWeek.

As anyone who remembers the Mr. Potter character in "It's a Wonderful
Life" realizes, opportunities abound in a down market, and right now,
according to Holahan, "the U.S. travel industry is facing a terrible
year."

Technology: Airline Industry Basically Bankrupt?

Robert Buckman — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:34:04 -0400

George Mason University's Kenneth Button, a professor of public policy, calls an airline basically "a bus with wings."

In the same Travel Weekly article in which Button makes that assertion, he also points out that
the airlines have a razor-thin operating margin of just 0.4 percent vs.
6 percent for other industries.

Technology: Fees, Fuel, and Survival

Robert Buckman — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:37:09 -0400

Terry Trippler is absolutely "right on" in his quote in a recent edition of USA Today in which he says "This isn't nickel-and-diming. It's survival."

Trippler is talking about the American Airlines $15 first-checked-bag fee.

I think flyers are starting to recognize that right now, moves like this one, controversial as it is, are about survival. This fee isn't about getting extra revenue, but about getting operational revenue.

Technology: The New Normal?

Robert Buckman — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:19:04 -0400

You've got to ask yourself what the world is coming to when you've got to pony up $15 for your first checked bag.

Technology: Watch the Skies

Robert Buckman — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:39:59 -0400

In the Howard Hawks sci-fi classic about a UFO that lands in the open skies of the North Pole, reporter Ned "Scotty" Scott warns the audience, "Watch the skies, everywhere!"

Open Skies of another sort is under greater scrutiny than ever as a consequence of the recent agreement between the European Union and the U.S. that takes effect March 30. The agreement is a catalyst for change in the way airlines do business and where they do business.

Technology: Share the Air

Robert Buckman — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:01:29 -0400

I have to admit I wasn't aware the extent to which commercial air traffic shares the sky with military air traffic — and how long ago those lanes in the sky were laid out. But Scott McCartney, a pilot himself, knows all about it.

What is amazing is how much of a difference it made when two air corridors were opened in military airspace for the Thanksgiving holiday.

At first I thought the big question would be, Can we do that sort of sharing more regularly?

Technology: Free Market Flying

Robert Buckman — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:04:41 -0500

Technology: A Dream Deferred

Robert Buckman — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:33:33 -0500