The Cranky Flier » Icelandair

Topic of the Week: Icelandair in Denver

CF — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:45:55 +0000

Seems like a funny move – Icelandair will start flying from Denver to Iceland next year. Is this planning gone crazy, or is it a smart effort to capture one stop travelers to Europe from cities with limited nonstop flights?

Cranky on the Web (April 26 – 30)

CF — Sat, 01 May 2010 10:45:44 +0000

Virgin America Earnings: Still Losing Money, But Less than Before – BNET
Fourth quarter earnings are out, and Virgin America . . . well, still lost money. Buy hey, things are better.

Volcanic Surprise: Icelandair Made Crisis Management Look Easy – BNET
Watching Icelandair manage through the crisis was a real treat. They did a great job of flying a flexible operation.

Finnair Doesn’t Want Compensation for Volcano Disruptions – BNET
Here’s a goofy one – Finnair doesn’t want any compensation from the state, but this actually makes sense.

Spurned US Airways Still Bullish on Airline Consolidation – BNET
At Media Day, US Airways Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said that even if United and Continental pair off, he’s still a happy man.

US Airways Exec Explains Government Role for Airlines: Do No Harm – BNET
C.A. Howlett laid out US Airways’ thoughts on the government’s role in this industry.

Random Bits of Info – Endangered Species Edition

CF — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:50:02 +0000

It’s been a long time since I put one of these together, but there were so many, well, random bits of info around that I decided to do it this way today. Unfortunately, most of the news is bad today as some routes and even some airlines becomes endangered species.

It would be nice to have some happier news, but, well, at least I’ve tried to end on a high note at the bottom. Just be glad you aren’t stuck in the ice storms in the middle of the country. (If you are stuck in those storms, well, um, I’ve got nothing.)

Delta’s LAX Hub – Looks like Delta is pulling down some LAX flying. Just after the new year, nonstops to Columbus, Jacksonville, Raleigh/Durham and more disappear. Sure, some of them seem to come back in a few months, but I wouldn’t put money down on that staying put. Interesting that Skybus flies from Columbus and Greensboro to the LA Area. I’m not convinced these are connected, but it could very well be the straw that broke the camel’s back. More likely, Delta’s realizing that LAX isn’t working for them as well as they’d hoped.

United’s Intra-LA Basin Flying – There’s nothing more fun for an airline/LA dork than flying from Ontario or Orange County to LAX. I’ve flown the latter, and it’s a great ride. You depart Orange County to the south and then make a big backwards “S” before landing at LAX shortly after departing. Sadly, those days are numbered as both routes get the axe from United. Those little Brasilias are going to be phased out, and these short hauls had to get the axe first, especially with fuel prices where they are.

Icelandair’s Home in North America – Icelandair may still have their US headquarters outside of Baltimore for now, but as of early January, they will no longer actually FLY to Baltimore. In my college days, my friends and I took a far-too-cheap Spring Break trip from BWI to Glasgow for 3 nights and then Reykjavik for three nights. Why was it cheap? Um. Iceland in March? Exactly. The flights were great, but the hostel that doubled as a homeless shelter left much to be desired. BWI will miss you, Icelandair.

MAXjet – We knew MAXjet was losing a bunch of money, but the recent request to have shares suspended from trading made the situation seem much more dire. Mark over at Upgrade: Travel Better has good coverage of this. Hopefully they’ll keep going . . . I haven’t had a chance to try them yet.

Emirates Across the Pond – Those Dubai runs may be working well for Emirates (check out Towers and Tarmacs’ coverage of the Houston inaugural), but apparently that one run from New York that goes through Hamburg is getting killed. Don’t worry. The few of you who want to go from New York to Hamburg can still fly from Newark on Continental.

See, lots of doom and gloom. Let’s try to end on a happier note. Delta put out their latest in their Planeguage video series, and this is a great one. Every time I get an empty middle on a full flight, it does seem like divine intervention. Though sadly, the first question I had after watching this video was, “How did they get all those wrapped presents past the TSA?!” Enjoy.

Now That’s Flexibility

CF — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 17:29:00 +0000

Airline operations are no simple thing. Almost everyone has had that painful moment sitting in one airport with clear blue skies while being told that the flight is delayed due to weather . . . or crew . . . or maintenance . . . or, well, you get the idea. Though you may like to believe otherwise, the airline really isn’t lying to you. The operations are so complicated and interwoven that one small problem can have impacts far down the line. It’s very difficult to make changes to the entire schedule so that it becomes an orderly change.

That’s why this latest story about Icelandair caught my eye. I have never seen an airline have as much flexibility as these guys had today. Believe it or not, they shifted their entire schedule by a few hours to avoid bad weather.

For those who don’t know, Icelandair is based in Keflavik (Iceland, duh). They have a relatively simple operation as evidenced by their route map.

Customers fly into Keflavik from the US/Canada overnight and arrive in the morning. Then they send the fleet to a variety of European destinations where they promptly turn around and come back to Keflavik in the afternoon. Finally, those planes head out to the US in the evening and start the whole thing over again.

Well, they were faced with a problem today – very high winds of up to 65 knots. That can make it tough to land a plane, especially if it’s a crosswind. So what did they do? They just shifted their schedule to avoid the worst of it.

So last night, they held all the planes in the US/Canada for a few hours longer than normal. Those customers left between midnight and 2a instead of the 4 to 5 hours earlier that normally is the case. Then the European flights were pushed as well to not depart until noon so that they could get all the aircraft in place and get all the connecting passengers to their flights. They will turn around and then end up getting back into the US late into the night.

So that’s great that they can just shift the entire airline like that, but I’m still not sure how they’re going to recover. Those planes arrive in the US way late, so how are they going to get back on schedule in coming days? If you’re flying Icelandair soon, you’ll definitely want to call in advance to find out more.