This Week on BNET (Oct 20 – 24)

AirTran, BNET, Fares, Fuel, LAX - Los Angeles, Safety/Security, United, US Airways

“Airport Security in America is a Sham . . .”
Effective security may be unpleasant, but it’s worthwhile and important. Is what we have today effective? What else can airlines be doing?

Mayor Villaraigosa’s Misguided Strategy for LA Airports
LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is as it again. He continues to push his regionalization strategy despite its terrible flaws. See why this won’t work.

Oil Prices Go Down but Fees Do Not
Oil is coming down, but fares and fees are staying put or even rising. What started out as a response to high fuel is here to stay at least for some airlines.

Another Good Reason Why Republic is Flying for Mokulele
Mokulele is Flying Again
Mokulele had to shut down this week when the FAA found it hadn’t completed some training. They’re back up and running now, but it’s probably a good thing that Republic will be flying for these guys.

AirTran Now Selling Upgrades On the Aircraft
AirTran will let you upgrade yourself once you’re actually onboard the aircraft. This makes a lot of sense. Have you ever seen the legroom on an AirTran 717 in coach?

Details on United’s Fuel Hedges
United gave us details of its future fuel hedges, and it doesn’t look pretty. That is, of course, the risk you take when you play in a volatile market.

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2 comments on “This Week on BNET (Oct 20 – 24)

  1. Re: Mayor Villaraigosa’s Misguided Strategy for LA Airports

    Cranky, I agree with your comments against regionalization in L.A. However, the separation of long-haul and short-haul does seem to work in at least one place — Tokyo. Do you have insight why this policy is right for that market?

  2. Ron – Good question. So let’s look at it.

    In Japan, Haneda is the ideal airport in terms of proximity to Tokyo but it’s full so they moved most international flights (with limited domestic operations) to Narita. Replace Haneda with LAX and Narita with Palmdale and you’ve got what LA wanted to do originally. But there are huge problems with this idea.

    First and foremost, there are not rapid transportation options. You can get from Narita to Tokyo in 60 minutes via rail. There are no decent public transportation options from Palmdale to LA. A car will get you downtown in about an hour and a quarter assuming no traffic (yeah, right).

    But that idea hasn’t been pushed lately. Villaraigosa said in this speech that he wants to keep intl long haul flights at LAX and move smaller connections out to Palmdale. This is the exact opposite of what they do in Tokyo, where the shorter flights are kept at the close in airport. If you moved flights to San Francisco to Palmdale, it would start to be quicker to drive. International flights don’t have those options.

    But it’s also important to note that connecting between Narita and Haneda is not an easy task and doesn’t happen often. Were all flights operating out of Haneda, I would imagine that Tokyo could support even more flights if they so desired because all traffic flows through one place.

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