ANA has announced that will start flying the 787 to the US. First market are Seattle and San Jose. Is that a surprise to you? My guess is that United will pull its Seattle to Tokyo flight, letting ANA fly it with a more appropriate airplane. San Jose, however, is different. American couldn’t make it work with a 777, but the 787 might just be the right size with the right costs to make it viable.

For Fliers, Mixed Impact Seen – Wall Street Journal
The articles have been flying fast and furious this week regarding the United/Continental merger. I was quoted in this one.

United-Continental Merger: A Good Fit (If It Happens), but Cleveland Won’t Like It – BNET
It’s merger time and now it’s time to start picking off the winners and losers. Let’s start here with the cities at risk.

The Mike Siegel Show (radio – MP3 file) – Business Talk Radio Network
I spent more than half an hour talking with Mike Siegel about the proposed Continental/United merger and about Cranky Concierge (starts at the 18 minute mark).

United-Continental Merger: Will Regulators Approve? They Should – BNET
Everyone wants to know if this will get federal approval. It should.

united and continental get married – antibride.com
Writing for a wedding site, I couldn’t resist drawing parallels between a wedding and a merger.

Slot Swap Ruling Demonstrates Hostile Washington Climate for Airlines – BNET
Now that the final order has been issued on the Delta/US Airways slot swap, we might have a window into how things will go for United/Continental.

Why the Volcano Airspace Shutdown Was Actually an Overreaction – BNET
At the Phoenix symposium, I had the chance to hear BA CEO Willie Walsh go on a rant about why the airspace shouldn’t have been closed. I find myself starting to agree.

Why Japan is the Most Interesting Aviation Market in the World – BNET
It’s incredible when you think about all the changes happening in Japan right now. I spoke with ANA’s Director of International and Regulatory Affairs about the challenges ahead.

US Airways Pilots Infighting Grows Worse by the Day – BNET
It appears the US East pilots are tired of fighting the west pilots. Now they’re turning on each other. Unreal.

Airline Capacity Cuts Slow in December, Some Carriers See Growth – BNET
December traffic numbers show some interesting trends.

United Pushes International Presence with Muddled Marketing Message in Denver Fight – BNET
United is heading back to its Independence Air playbook in its fight in Denver.

Boeing’s Loss of 787-3 Orders is Good News – BNET
When is a canceled order a good thing? When it allows Boeing to walk away from the 787-3.

Sean Menke Leaves Frontier Airlines, This Can’t Be Good – BNET
Sean Menke is leaving Frontier and Republic, and that doesn’t bode well for the airline.

It’s certainly interesting to watch the Japanese market these days. JAL is turning in record losses and is effectively sitting on a cliff waiting to jump. Meanwhile, ANA has decided to pour a bunch of money into seriously improving its product. This is some pretty impressive looking stuff. Take a look at the new first class suite.

Pretty awesome-looking, huh? But let’s start with coach since that’s where most of us will end up anyway. Coach seats will have 34 inch pitch, so pretty nice legroom, along with headrests AND footrests. Footrests in coach?! Hooray! They will also have 10.6 inch monitors with full audio/video on demand, iPod connectors, USB ports, and power outlets.

In addition, they’ve decided to lay the cabin out in a 2-4-3 configuration. I personally love this configuration because it gives options to people regardless of the size of the party. And nobody gets stuck in the middle of a section of 5. Granted, it required three different types of seat sets (set of 2, set of 3, and set of 4), so it makes things a little more difficult logistically, but from a customer perspective, I don’t think it can be beat.

ANA is also rolling out a premium economy class with a 2-4-2 configuration with 42 inch pitch. The big selling point here is that there are dividers between seats that can move if you so choose, and the epic armrest struggle is unnecessary since there is a double-wide available. Take a look:

Now let’s get to the fancy stuff. Business Class seats will go fully flat in a 1-2-1 configuration so everybody has an aisle. The seats are set up in a staggered way, so you’ll have your seat with your feet going under a table in the seat in front of you. Take a look at this release for an overview of what I’m talking about. The screen here is 17 inches and the service is upgraded. They’re even taking a page from the Virgin America playbook by allowing customers to order their meals on the touchscreen whenever they feel like eating.

Now let’s get back to that first class suite that they’re calling the First Square. This is also in a 1-2-1 configuration but it afford complete privacy from the outside world, just like on Emirates, Singapore, and the like. The screen is 23 inches (anyone else remember when having a 19 inch tv at home was a big deal?) and it has all the amenities you could imagine.

As if that’s not enough, in Tokyo, they’re introducing Suite Check-in for the fancy pants fliers. You go to a private suite where they check you in, take your bags, and put you through security. They’re also creating Suite Lounges so you can have your own private workspace while you wait. Just unreal stuff.

In the air, the changes will begin rolling out on the 777-300ER aircraft beginning on February 20. This will start on the Tokyo-JFK route every other day and it will go on to the Tokyo-London and Tokyo-Frankfurt routes by the end of 2010. In 2011, it will go on the other US and Europe routes.

Tell me you don’t want to try it. That’s what I thought.

It was only a matter of time until global carriers started following in their US counterparts’ shoes, right? As airlines around the world continue to bleed, we’re seeing them start to cut back. Today we’ll take a look at British Airways and ANA as examples of what’s going on.

I feel bad for BA. These guys had done a really solid job of focusing on the long haul premium business traveler in the last decade, and now it’s that segment that is hurting the most. All those rich bankers are flying less and less, and that has hurt badly. BA is feeling the pain more than most, so now they’ve started to make cuts.

Some of these cuts are surprising. For example, they will no longer serve meals in coach on flights of less than 2 1/2 hours that go after 10a. It’s not the cut that’s surprising but rather the fact that they still served a meal on a flight that short. And it’s not like BA is eliminating food completely – they’ll still hand out “snack bites” or biscuits. If you fly before 10a, you’ll still get breakfast, and premium cabin passengers will still get food.

But there are cuts on long haul flying as well, and that’s where decisions start to get a little more difficult to make. In the back of the bus, you’ll no longer get bottles of water. You’ll just get the dreaded “cuplet” instead. That’s annoying since you can’t put a cuplet in the seatback pocket, but it’s hardly the end of the world. Economy passengers will also now have to pay to bring a second checked bag (starting in October). The first bag will still be free . . . for now.

In the front cabin, the only change that I see so far is that the second meal (breakfast) on long haul flights will be shrunk. Apparently, a full third of those meals go uneaten, so they’re just going to cut back on it. As someone who usually plows through those meals, that is a slight annoyance but nothing more.

On the other side of the world, ANA is doing some of its own cutting in Japan. Newspapers and magazines will no longer be offered in coach and there will be a fee for using the services of reservation agents. They will also start selling food, lounge access, etc to economy class passengers in order to raise revenues.

Are any of these cuts going to make a huge difference? No, but I’m sure the slippery slope argument will be thrown out there by many. For us jaded Americans, these cuts are nothing new. We’re far further along in this evolution, but just because it has worked in the American market doesn’t mean it will work elsewhere. Still, I would expect to see more of this to come.