Anyone else out there seen Lufthansa’s Quick Boarding? I saw it on TravelPost’s blog and I’m not sure how I missed it before.

It appears that at some gates in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin/Tegel, Dusseldorf, Hanover, Hamburg and Bremen (yes, all in Germany), you don’t need one of those fancy gate agents to get you on the plane. Nope. You can just board yourself. I’m told it looks something like this.

Ok, maybe not. But this picture (the original, by the way, is from the excellent New York State Archives) shows that this is not a new idea. Back in 1934, these people were boarding subways exactly the way Lufthansa is now boarding aircraft. So what took airlines so long to do this?

Lots of things. Security probably played a role, as did the fact that you would need a lot of these scattered throughout the airport. I imagine that automation is important too. Just dropping a token isn’t going to ensure people are getting on the right flights.

The way Lufthansa has it set up, you take your boarding pass and scan it in the turnstile. That unlocks it and you can board. Once you’re through the turnstile, it spits out your boarding pass stub for you to keep. If you’re on the waitlist, you can watch a monitor showing who has cleared and gotten themselves a seat. If you’re one of the lucky ones, you can swipe your temporary boarding pass (saying you’re on the list) and it will spit out a new one for you. Nice.

I’m not sure how this works if you check-in online and print your boarding pass. Actually, I’m guessing it doesn’t since it requires a magnetic stripe, but it’s a start.

You can get more info and pictures (real ones) here.

I had a completely different post lined up for today, but really, when news like this breaks, it’s hard to stay away. For those who haven’t yet heard, JetBlue will issue a bunch of new shares to Lufthansa giving them 19% of the company for about $300m. So far, there is no relationship between the two airlines in a commercial sense, but Lufthansa will hold a seat on JetBlue’s board, and after listening to their conference call this morning, it’s clear that they want more.

First thought? Enjoy your bitch-slap, United. Oh sure, that young little hussy JetBlue can’t replace you . . . yet, but Lufthansa is clearly not as faithful to you as you might have hoped. Maybe you shouldn’t have let yourself get so out of shape over the years.

Second thought? This is great for JetBlue. They get a bunch of cash, which is nice, and they get some solid external guidance from a very large, profitable European airline on their board. And yes, there are so many opportunities for cooperation here. Sweet.

Third thought? What exactly is Lufthansa thinking? This is why my brain hurts right now. They’ve already got a very strong presence in the US with both United and US Airways in the Star Alliance. Why not buy into them? Maybe they don’t like where things are going with those guys. But point-to-point JetBlue?

Even at the bare minimum, I think this makes sense. JetBlue’s shares, like those of most other airlines right now, are in the toilet. It’s a nice cheap investment that’s made even cheaper by the exchange rate. So, they have a good investment that also can give them a little presence in NYC with even the most basic of interline agreements, something that Star Alliance doesn’t have.

At most, it could be much bigger. I’m not really worried about US Airways in this equation, because they’ve never been a major Star Alliance player. But Lufthansa and United were founding Star members, lovers, and they share revenue on flights over the North Atlantic.

But let’s say that Lufthansa is sick and tired of United not paying attention to their business. Maybe they aren’t happy with management and they want something different. Hello, JetBlue.

United isn’t going to walk away from Lufthansa, because they have nowhere else to go (unless someone buys them). They need Lufthansa and Star more than the other way around. So, Lufthansa can keep United around while JetBlue has the chance to build up its domestic operation into a strong network. Does that take years? Most definitely. Can Lufthansa wait? Yeah, sure.

But what about international flying? Who cares? Right now, Lufthansa has to split Transatlantic revenues with United. So, they can kick them out and do the flying themselves with JetBlue waiting on the other end to fill up their planes. Remember, now with open skies, Lufthansa can fly from anywhere in Europe to anywhere in the US.

What about Pacific routes? Eh, ANA, Thai, Air China, Air India, Singapore . . . the list goes on and on. There are plenty of carriers on the other side that can take care of that market. So, JetBlue can become a major domestic powerhouse and then auf wiedersehen, United. They would lose US government traffic across the pond (since they have to fly US carriers), but I’m not sure how much business that is for them now.

Am I crazy? Probably. But remember, United has been talking about mergers for a long time. They may go run off with someone else and leave Star Alliance anyway. If Tilton can make enough money for him and his investors, don’t think he won’t do it.

Do I think this is going to happen? Nah, but it’s fun to think about it. We’ll probably see something happen that’s more in between these two extremes where Lufthansa gets to play with everyone. Pretty cool.

No.

Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. It’s once again been a little while since we checked in with our favorite incompetent airline, Alitalia. I hadn’t planned on doing a post on Alitalia today, but I was reading a post in Leif Pettersen’s excellent travel blog Killing Batteries that started out like this:

F*cking Italy!!!
OK, OK… Let’s just calm down and try to discuss this like rational, levelheaded F*CKING ITALY!!!!!

Naturally, that made me think it was time for another post on that airline I love to hate.
So, what IS new with these guys?

Not much. The airline continues to bleed money while others are generating loads of cash. They just continue to be the laughing stock of the European industry. (And let’s remember, they have an airline in Europe called Wizz Air so Alitalia has to be bad to wrest the laughing stock title away.) The government is still trying to sell the airline. After the last privatization attempt failed, they went back to the drawing board. I’m pretty sure what they wrote on the board was, “Must privatize airline” and then decided to try it again. Now, they’ve asked for non-binding declaration of interest from potential suitors. It was supposed to be due on Nov 30, but surprise! We found out yesterday that it slipped until Dec 5. But don’t worry. Italy’s transport minister said it won’t slip into 2008. Uh huh.

So which masochists are involved this time around? Italy’s Air One is still in the running. They’ve been the only one to show consistent interest in trying to save this mess. But now, the other two showing interest according to “government officials” are Lufthansa and Air France.

Air France has been rumored for a long time but they’ve really never shown a formal interest. Italian workers would certainly feel at home with the strike-loving French, but they might be frightened away by an airline that actually makes money.

Lufthansa, on the other hand, hasn’t been mentioned very much. This would surely see Alitalia defect into the Star Alliance. Hmm, something about German (Lufthansa), Italian (Alitalia), and Japanese (ANA) interests uniting in an alliance makes me a bit uncomfortable . . . .

Anyway, they keep saying this will be done by Christmas. Who wants to take bets?

Do you love enormous airplanes? How about German airlines? Is this picture way too fuzzy to satisfy your needs?

If you answered yes to these questions, head on over to this website where Lufthansa is having a drawing for one person to take the VIP tour of the A380 when it arrives at JFK on March 19. The same time that plane lands at JFK, Qantas will be sponsoring a flight to LAX, and that is where I’ll be that day.

No flight is included here (don’t get greedy), but you can hobnob with the Airbus and Lufthansa elites if you win. And if you do win, I want pictures.

I know where I’ll be on March 19. Airbus has buckled under the pressure from Qantas and LA World Airports and announced it will bring an A380 to LAX on the same day it brings one to JFK.

The initial announcement said that Airbus would bring the plane to JFK, Dulles, and Chicago/O’Hare on behalf of Lufthansa. Well, Qantas wasn’t too happy about that, and they wanted to see the plane come to their huge LAX operation. Meanwhile, LAX said that Airbus had promised the airport the first visit in the US if they completed the upgrade work necessary to allow the A380 to operate. Well, they did, and now they’re getting their way.

I haven’t seen any details, but with any luck they’ll land on the north runways. I’ll be sitting at In ‘n Out watching if that’s the case.

Head on over to Lufthansa’s website and you’ll find that they’re getting strict with seatbelt use. The blurb from the current info page is as follows:

In the event of unexpected turbulence, injuries are often
the result on board passenger aircraft, whereby this could be prevented in many
cases if passengers kept their seatbelts fastened. For that reason, up to now
Lufthansa has recommended that passengers keep their seatbelts fastened. In the
interest of the safety of its passengers, the airline has now decided to make it
generally compulsory to fasten seatbelts. Passengers will still be allowed to
stand up, for example, to stretch their legs or to visit the toilet, unless
fasten seatbelt signs are switched on. The new regulation also applies to
Lufthansa Regional partners. Incidentally, the aircraft itself is designed to
resist the extra strain resulting from turbulence without any significant
damage.

I’m all for it. If I’m in my seat, I always have my seatbelt fastened. You know those stories about planes hitting severe turbulence and people getting hurt? 99.9% of the time those people didn’t have seatbelts on.

Then again, I suppose you could argue that not requiring seatbelts allows natural selection to run its course . . . .

It’s time once again for the completely irregular segment I like to call random bits of info. There have been a bunch of little airline stories the last few days, so I’m just going to rattle them off here now.

• Hooray for the Brazilian courts! - It was ruled that the two American pilots being held in the Gol accident investigation cannot be held any longer. After some more interrogation and a promise to return when needed, the pilots will be free to go home. At least someone realized the gross injustice going on down there.
• Virgin Blows . . . - At least, that was the gist of the press release announcing the airline’s return to the Windy City (that’s Chicago). A daily flight between London/Heathrow and Chicago/O’Hare begins April 23, 2007. The airline used to fly from Chicago but pulled out afternoon Sept 11, 2001. I’m surprised that they’re going back, because it’s a very competitive market. American, United, and BA all fly it multiple times a day.
• . . . So Does LAWA - In the news of the lame, LA World Airports (LAWA) has announced it will rename Ontario Intl Airport to LA/Ontario Intl Airport and Palmdale to LA/Palmdale Regional Airport. Since apparently nobody knows where Ontario is (Canada?), this is the right thing to do. Actually, the Ontario renaming doesn’t bother me nearly as much as Palmdale. I mean, Palmdale doesn’t even have any flights! Do you think that airlines will start flying there just because of its new name? Lame-o.
• Lufthansa to Kick Airbus in the Nuts - Rumors abound today that Lufthansa is set to be the first major customer for Boeing’s new 747-8 with more range and more seats. This is Boeing’s competitor to the A380, and if a German airline which has traditionally ordered Airbus chooses Boeing here, it’s very bad news for Airbus.
• Does God Hate El Al? - That’s definitely a question being asked these days. Due to a general strike, El Al opted to fly on the Sabbath in order to get people home. Well, the flight to New York had rudder problems and had to return to Tel Aviv, prompting those onboard to say it was the “finger of God” punishing them for flying during the holy day. Um, ok. Now there’s a huge boycott in the works by the ultra-orthodox community, and the airline will probably be forced to sign a document saying they won’t do it again. My question is this . . . if they boycott El Al, who are they going to fly? Everybody else flies on the Sabbath. Good luck with that one.