Archives: May 2008

The Huge Importance of Hubs

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 28

The headlines are awash today in reports about the city pairs American Airlines is cutting as it reduces capacity. Boston to San Diego, Chicago to Buenos Aires and Honolulu, JFK...

Yeesh, Calm Down About the Bags

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 22

The blogoshere erupted quickly after American Airlines went where no one else had dared to tread and imposed a $15 charge to check a bag. No doubt, this represents a...

American’s Desperate Move to Shrink

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 21

American Airlines is chopping capacity by as much as 12% in the fourth quarter, eliminating at least 80 older planes and trimming jobs in a major bow to the...

Uh Oh: Airlines' Premium Traffic Falls

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 20

As if oil just a whisper under $130 isn’t enough to make an airline executive cry, another stroke of bad news emerged that is potentially even more worrisome. Premium...

Miles for Charitable Giving

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 20

Can a good deed be bribed? The answer may be yes. United Airlines said today that it will offer 500 miles for any donation of $50 or more to the...

Mileage Plus or Mileage Minus?

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 15

No more 500-mile minimums on United as of July 1. Chalk up this change in Mileage Plus to further penny-pinching, given that those unflown miles from Denver to Aspen...

Foreign ownership of airlines?

Posted by: Dean Foust on May 13

Reuters has a story based on a speech by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Transportation Affairs John Byerly (right), who says that the U.S. will propose relaxing global...

Hertz by the hour? Only in Europe...

Posted by: Dean Foust on May 13

Wouldn't you love to be able to rent a car for only a half-day -- so that for those quick business trips you could get a car for a fraction...

Air Traffic: Off Only 1% This Summer?

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 13

U.S. airlines are predicting a small dip in the number of passengers this summer, 211.5 million, down from 214.2 million last year. I am not certain I buy this figure,...

Airfares: Is a Consumer Pushback Coming?

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 08

The latest airfare fuel surcharge, $20 from Delta, may well be another that sticks. American, Continental and United have matched as of late on May 8, according to the blogger-guru...

A Funding Jolt for DayJet

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 07

The largest air shuttle operator, DayJet Corp., laid off nearly half its 260 employees this week as it was unable to secure $40 million to expand to a fleet...

Delta's $50 Lure

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 01

The JFK-West Coast Wars may be even more heated than we suspected. Delta dropped an e-mail in my inbox this evening with a somewhat novel promotion: a $50 American Express...

Continental Needs to Think Bigger

Posted by: Justin Bachman on May 01

The aviation world is geared up this week about alliance talks Continental is having with American and British Airways. Ostensibly, this would lead to Continental’s departure from the SkyTeam alliance...

Me on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" show

Posted by: Dean Foust on May 01

The folks at NPR's national call-in show, Talk of the Nation, hosted by Neal Conan, asked me to come on again recently to talk about airline consolidation, and the...