Stuff: April 2008 Archives

When is a new union not a new union? When it’s a limited liability corporation, privately owned, operated and funded. That’s how the America West Airlines Pilots Protective Alliance describes itself, and it’s careful not to use the word represent when it talks about what it will do for the pilots of the former America West Airlines.
The awappaxyzwgq was formed in response to last week’s victory by an upstart group to protect pilots on US Airways. US Airways and America West merged in late 2005. The two pilot groups have been in contention since then over seniority, and a new union, the US Airline Pilots Association, dubbed the usawakjpotqt, last week won an election to represent all of the pilots of the merged carrier.

We’re back. Did you miss us? (“Yes, Dave, with every bullet.”) Seriously, the last week has been a full one for airline reporters, what with American downsizing at least temporarily and Delta and Northwest agreeing to combine their losses. Here’s a link to a piece or two on the major events.

This is no joke. It may have been April Fool’s day, but we here at Airline Business and indeed at the entire Flight family are a serious lot. Talking with podcaster Addison Schonland of IAG and Flight’s Kieran Daly, we went over some serious issues such as the imminent collapse of Alitalia buyout talks, the sad death of Aloha Airlines and the Heathrow meltdown. As the lost and misdirected bags piled up in BA’s new, shiny, splendid LHR T5 (‘The Crystal Palace of the Twenty-First Century’), just one element of humor seemed to emerge: British Airways, that paragon of efficiency, was turning to a firm in Italy, a country not known for its cultural emphasis on coloring only between the lines, to sort out the lost bags. This from a nation where the post office once chartered special trains to carry undelivered mail around the country until it decided if it would try to deliver the cards and letters. You can hear Kieran, Addison, and LF (Left Field) chat here.