Left Field

They shouldn't have been surprised and they weren't. The flight attendants at American Airlines have been bracing for word that there would be some layoffs or furloughs after the carrier announced a reduction in flights and in the fleet for later this year. When word come of a looming 900 layoffs, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants was ready, sort of, and Frank Bastien, its national communications coordinator, said that he was very glad indeed that company had decide on a "Voluntary Bridge to Retirement" program. When the RIF starts sometime in this quarter, flight attendants who are 50 years or older and who have at least 15 years of seniority will be offered a one-time severance payment of $15,000 if they give up recall rights. They do get some medical and free flying rights.

Continue reading "American builds a Bridge for furloughed FAs" »

It's not the bag. It's the laptop. That's the lesson despite the great rejoicing at word that the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration that guards the nation's airports, was prepped to approve new carry-on bags for laptop computers. If you use these new designs, you don't have to take your machine out of the bag, put it in a separate tray and then repack it. The New York Times' Joe Sharkey actually broke the news with brief interview with the TSA's chief, Kip Hawley, in which the Kipster said it would allow new bags as soon as they come on the market. The reason why you have to take your computer out of its bag is that most people have so much other stuff in there - cords, mouse, mice, modem, q-tips, combs, etc., etc. - that the x-ray machine can't get clear view of the laptop and its guts and so the screener can't tell if it's really a laptop.

The TSA issued a request for statements of interest in March asking bag makers if they could come up with a new design, and several said that they would offer a new bag that either a stand-alone protective sleeve or a fold-down sleeve that would contain the laptop itself. Targus, a major producer of bags, is planning to offer one this autumn, as is Pathfinder Luggage.

Continue reading "At the airport checkpoint, is it the bag or the laptop?" »

This is good to know. The Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, aka Atlanta, is a gun-free zone. Yes, it is a fact: you may not bring a gun or concealed weapon into the airport. Well, you couldn't anyway, at least not past the security gates, but airport manager Ben DeCosta came out and held a press conference "to make it 'crystal clear' to the public that concealed weapons are not allowed at the world's busiest airport. Unless you are traveling with your weapon properly secured in your checked baggage in accordance with FAA and TSA regulations, (unless) you're a sworn federal, state, or local law enforcement officer or armored security personnel, you are not allowed to carry weapons on airport property." This would seem routine and straightforward, but Atlanta is in Georgia, and Georgia is in the Deep South.

Continue reading "At the airport, kiss-kiss, bang-bang? Atlanta acts on guns" »

Our friend Kevin Mitchell has spent the week warning of an end to service at many airports as the fuel crisis continues. He's even set up a website, savemyairport.com. Kevin testified the other day before the House Small Business Committee hearing that was probing how the airline crisis is hurting businesses everywhere such as travel agencies, hotels and others. But Mitchell's warnings have drawn a response; our friend Jay Campbell, in a post on his blog The Beat, questioned "BTC's hyperbole," a entry in which he quote several folks including yours truly.

But one of the most interesting responses comes from our friend (isn't it good to have so many friends?) Kristie van Auken, the Akron/Canton airport's indefatigable (that means tireless) communicator. Kristie, who has her own blog, says that Mitchell listed her airport as one of about 150 that are threatened by cutbacks.

Continue reading "Some Cassandra: Dire airport forecasts draw response" »

Out of the garage and CRASH...Southwest proudly rolled out some schedule change the other day, the results of a major upgrade of its "Garage-O-Mizer" scheduling software.  It's called that because an employee developed it at home on his own time. As the blog Nuts About Southwest explains, "He had cracked the problem on his own and produced the solution himself, over Christmas break, on his home PC-metaphorically, in his garage.  He had done what was actually thought to be mathematically and technologically impossible at the time.  THE "GARAGE-O-MIZER" WAS BORN," writes Bill Owen, Southwest's schedule development lead planner explains.

But now, Owen explains, "The November 2008 schedule marks the debut of a new schedule optimizer, the new 'Global Optimizer' - one that takes all of our schedule rules and preferences and actually picks the one schedule that scores the absolute highest based on the in-put parameters we supply. Thousands of criteria are considered..".

Continue reading "Southwest moves schedules out of the garage" »

Yes, it does seem like an airline cuts flights, routes or employees every day. That's because they do. And probably should. The latest comes from American Airlines, which said earlier it would do some deep slashing. Now they've detailed their plans, and they include ending all service to not one, not two, but three state capitals. They're Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) at the right, Providence (Rhode Island), and Albany (New York). And it doesn't stop there. American and its Eagle unit are cutting out pretty much all O'Hare service to the Gulf Coast, that Katrina-ravaged region where Eagle had just begun building up in the last year.

Continue reading "Capital cuts at American, Eagle" »

The US airline industry just isn't worth a great deal. Look at the market cap of the US network carriers and compare it with just about any other segment of the world industry, and you'll see what we mean. Or least you'll see what Mark Schulte of Taurus Corporate Finance Group means. The US network carriers - Alaska, US Airways, Continental, Northwest, American, Delta, and United- are worth about $7 billion, based on valuations in mid-June, while the low-cost sector is worth about $11.6 billion, he says.

Combine them, and you're still not worth as much as the European network carriers ($26.5 billion) or the Asian network carriers ($26.2 billion). But all these estimates of what an airline group is worth fade when compared with the two big package and express carriers, FedEx and UPS. FedEx comes in at just under $25 billion, but (drum roll) consider UPS. Schulte says it's got a market cap of about $67.6 billion. (At the left above is our idea of a market cap, ideal for wearing on a rainy day when you're going to market.)

Continue reading "US airlines and their tiny market cap" »