Aero-politics: July 2008 Archives

Michael E. Levine, a pioneer of airline deregulation, had a few very interesting obiter dicta in a talk he gave the other day to Washington's International Aviation Club. He suggested a segregation, a bifurcation as it were, of air travel between leisure travel and business-oriented travel may emerge from the US crisis - as is the case in Europe, with two networks coexisting. Levine asked more questions than he answered because (a) he knows he doesn't have the answers, and (b) that's what economists do, anyway. You can read his speech by going to the Club's website.

But here are some fascinating bits: Now, though, "as prices go up, price-sensitive travelers are leaving the system. Flights are consolidated into larger aircraft to get CASM down to where RASM has a prayer of covering it. As aircraft size rises and total passenger volume falls, the system shrinks. As the system shrinks, it become less attractive to convenience-oriented travelers and they resist paying more for less....Where will it end? ...Will leisure transportation continue to be produced jointly with business transportation?"

This is not Left Field. This is a woman named Martha MacCallum, who co-hosts a show on Fox News television called the Live Desk, and she and fellow blond Trace Gallagher had Left Field on the other day. Because Live Desk is a steady stream of talking heads, they don't archive it, but Left Field was talking about how bad things are for the airlines in general and about the airport in Las Vegas, city of sin, sand and 'gaming'.

Seems the city fathers and mothers there want to renovate and expand Terminal Three at McCarran International, but at the last minute, Southwest Airlines decided that the development would cost just too much. Southwest has long led the industry in keeping a cap on airport expenses, but Las Vegas is unique in its appeal domestically and internationally. We're sorry you can't see the debate, but trust us, it was profound, insightful and full of wisdom.

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.

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.