Aero-politics: March 2009 Archives

Our mother always told us that we should be grateful, either for the roof over our head or the vegetables on our plate. She probably would have felt that same way about employment. Too bad she didn't know Tom Horton, the chief financial officer of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. Horton was at the JP Morgan investor conference where people in the audience asked about labor negotiations.
They were especially worried about American and the Allied Pilots Association, where talks have at best been real unfriendly and real slow. Horton responded, "In a world where lots of people are losing their jobs and benefits, and the world looks pretty dark, well I'll just speak for myself, I feel pretty good to have a job."

Southwest began its service to Minneapolis/St. Paul, which may be big but is old news. What is new news is that the airline wasn't just welcomed by mayors, airport officials and others. One of Southwest's largest unions, the Transport Workers Union, ran radio advertisements taking note of the fact that Southwest is both the nation's most unionized and its most profitable airline. TWU represents flight attendants and ground workers on the Dallas-based airline. To listen to the radio spot, click on this link: Transport Workers Union. Also glad to see Southwest in the Twin Cities: folks with sore backs. The airline was giving out free backrubs as a promotion.Gary Kelly, Southwest's chief, was pretty chuffed, as the Brits say, in explaining the new service (above).

So, is he kidding? Or, who (m) does he think he is kidding? He is Michael O'Leary, the head of Ryanair, Europe's largest really cheap carrier. O'Leary went onto BBC to tell a morning 'chat show' that maybe Ryanair would perhaps possibly begin charging its passengers to use the lavatories on board its Boeing 737s. O'Leary had a more or les straight face as he chatted with the a.m. show, but then again he usually does.
While few are taking his potty talk seriously, O'Leary also said the other day that Ryanair would be doing away with check-in counters at all of its airports, a statement that he is still standing by - and which he repeated in the course of the BBC interview. We spoke to a few US and Asian carriers that adhere to the same really low-cost philosophy that Ryanair champions, and we found one that did not outright dismiss the O'Leary counter-culture concept. At Spirit Airlines, the 'ultra low-cost carrier' based near Miami, "we're not laughing at them," says chief marketing officer Barry Biffle.