787 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.

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: 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?

Bio and Interests: Robert Buckman

Robert Buckman — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:43:22 -0400

Some people are trendsetters. I'm a trend-fretter.

I'm an airline futurist, i.e., someone who studies, forecasts, and yes,
frets about where the industry is headed. In fact, in my role as
director of airline distribution strategy for Amadeus in North America,
I am constantly analyzing trends that will define tomorrow.