Unbeatable Southwest may have been beaten, sort of. The carrier has been top dog in Ohio’s capital city, Columbus, for a long time, 
but the new pup in town, Skybus, has edged out the low-fares king at the city’s Port Columbus airport. In January, Skybus had 19.5% of the Columbians using the airport, while Southwest had 19.1% of the 588,000 people using the airport that month. That was the busiest January in the airport’s 78-year history, said David Whitaker, vice president of business development and communications. Skybus started up in May 2007, and has boosted traffic at other airports as well.
Continue reading Edging out Southwest by a fraction of a point.
US Airways has 
broke silence on a possible merger with Northwest Airlines, telling employees that the Atlanta-based carrier has yet to “arrive at a potential transaction that meets all of our principles” for a merger or combination. The employee memo is the first communication 
from either Delta or Northwest Airlines since the two carriers (sort of) acknowledged merger discussions. Delta chief executive Richard Anderson (right) and president and chief financial officer Ed Bastian said in their internal memo that they would not enter into a deal unless the combined carrier was be called Delta and be headquartered in Atlanta. Although these principles are similar to those stated earlier by the airline, executives at the airline have been silent for a week, as have officials of the Air Line Pilots 
of flyers called them the ‘redeye’ instead of that alluring trademarked name. This original effort by Eastern was not enough to keep the airline alive, but some carriers today are in fact trying the redeye approach. It's always been part of the 
Here in Washington, people with causes are allowed to speak for however long they wish if they’re Members of Congress, and others sometimes are also given a soapbox from which to pour out their beliefs. Left Field was fortunate the other day to be given a soapbox by the International Aviation 
found a few other JetBlue kind of towns that are nowhere near the holy waters of the Hudson River. Since the beginning of this year, JetBlue, conceived and born within sound of both of new York’s big airports, JFK and LaGuardia, has made moves to boost two micro or minihubs pretty far west of Broadway. It 
the formal permission to fly it will need, and the filing it made with the US Transportation 
into the North Atlantic 
‘Father of his Country’ Washington and Abraham ‘Preserver of the Union’ Lincoln. It’s a big day this year as these same United States prepare to electtheir next president. One of the people who wants very much to become the forty-fourth president 
public attention as her race against Barack Obama, the Illinois senator who is leading Mrs. Clinton (right) just now. Both are eagerly courting the blue-collar and union vote, and both are seeking to reassure working Americans that they would protect their jobs against the ravages of corporate bosses and other capitalist predations. Indeed, Obama has expressed 
finally found a useful use. They’ve rolled out a virtual assistant they call 
in the country. The city is typical of many smaller of US cities: too small for a lot of main-line service, but enough of a business centre that people want and need to travel to and from it. Spartanburg happens to be a centre for the US chemicals industry, and BMW, a truck-maker, and Michelin all have factories in the area; it’s a banking centre as well. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (yes, there is such a thing, and they work hard) 
“There’s no need to drive to another airport because we brought new low fares to Greenville-Spartanburg, SC. We've lowered fares to lots of your favorite destinations, so there’s no reason to travel to another city to get a great low fare" What airport might Upstaters drive to? 
industry. But Milton, who heads up the airline’s parent company, ACE Holdings, may have one more big deal to do. 
Milton 
stricter 
dietary regimes, it’s sometime’s a challenge. The same challenge applies when you're on a long trip and develop a yen for comfort food, the kind of concoction grandma (yours perhaps, certainly not mine) might make. Well, if you're from New York or fly through New York, there’s a new New York company that tries to satisfy even the most orthodox of tastes: Kosher Vending 
Of the four at JFK, two will specialize in a treat that most people like regardless of faith: Nathan’s 
Blakey ended her term last September, may not get the job to keep. After two hours of generally hostile questioning by senators, two members of the 
floor for a vote. 
frequent-flyer points just for booking on the airline’s own website instead of taking their business to a walk-in agency or an online travel agency or ‘OTA’. That is ending. 
sunset or rain after clouds, the reaction was predictable and the mention of two small denomination coins - nickels and dimes – was inevitable after United Airlines 
You can ignore him or respond, both at your own peril. Because this blog is entirely a personal perspective based on about 20 years of reporting about airlines, you’ll probably want to respond, even if it’s just to point out 
that two decades of reporting does not necessarily make for wisdom. We do however remember both the good old days (to the right) and the bad old days. One thing we like to do is offer links, often to stories or reports about the subject at hand; if you have a link you want to suggest, send it along. Most of the topics that get out into Left Field will be airline strategies and tactics, often raised by the question, 'what were they thinking?' And of course some are raised by the profound admisssion, 'Oh, I see. I didn't understand.'
and became an airline reporter. In that order. There’s an artist’s misimpression above and to the left and a picture of how I think of myself above, also above and left.
Recent Comments