Tips to minimize the impact of a flight cancellation – The Detroit News
With the 3 hour ground delay rule likely causing an increase in cancellations, the Detroit News looked at what people should do. They came to Cranky Concierge for advice.

Virgin America’s First Quarter Loss Means More Work Ahead for Troubled Airline – BNET
The first quarter numbers are in, and once again, it’s a loss.

Subsidy reservations: Kansas taxpayers support airlines in Wichita, but KCI complains of turbulence – Kansas City Star
It’s an interesting situation in Wichita these days when it comes to airline subsidies, and the Kansas City Star dug in on the subject.

Facebook Fan Numbers Aren’t Nearly as Important as Airports May Think – BNET
There’s a lot of hype about Facebook and Twitter, but it shouldn’t be a race to collect fans. It’s all about how to deal with them.

Random Expansion: Virgin America Is Going to Regret Its New Flights to Mexico – BNET
My take on Virgin America’s move into Mexico. Wanna guess how I feel?

Open Skies Turns to Trains to Help Fill Airplanes – BNET
Open Skies has no feed on either end of its network, so it’s looking at trains. I like it.

Google Acquires ITA Software, and the Likes of Kayak and Bing Cry a Little – BNET
Personally, I think the acquisition of ITA by Google could be just awesome. But there are definitely going to be some unhappy campers.

Horizon Air Backs Out of California and Into a Box of Its Own Making – BNET
Horizon has made some big schedule changes this past week, and it shows they’re in a corner, trying to figure out what to do to make things work.

Airline Passenger Bumping in U.S. May Be Highest Since 2001 – Bloomberg
I don’t think this is a big story, but I was quoted regarding the mechanics of overbooking.

Re-Regulation Talk Heats Up, and Airlines Should Think About Supporting It – BNET
Here’s a fun, controversial one. It’s mostly tongue-in-cheek, but the way things are going, the airlines should think about this one.

Virgin America Teams with Klout to Give Freebies to Social Media Stars – BNET
I like what Virgin America is doing here to target social media influencers. Smart move.

Regional Airline Association Annual Convention Video
The videos are up from the RAA convention, and here’s my intro speech (about 5 minutes):

If you’d like to know the Tweet that I talk about not responding to, it’s right here.

You can also see part of the panel discussion with Benet Wilson and Mary Kirby here.

Spirit Airlines Loves That You Hate Their Ads (and They Should) – BNET
Every time Spirit launches a tacky sale, they’re counting on the media to pick it up and give them free ads. They do, every time.

Virgin Atlantic Says U.S. Authorities Held Passengers on Diverted Plane – Bloomberg
Bloomberg has picked up the Virgin Atlantic ground delay story, and they asked me to comment.

Virgin Atlantic’s Three Hour Tarmac Delay Whips Up Irrational Anger – BNET
Another long delay and another reaction that doesn’t make sense. *sigh*

Delta + AirElite Charter Operation = Corporate Bigwig Airlines – BNET
Delta’s looking to combine corporate charter with commercial ops. Good stuff.

Airline satisfaction at three-year high – Marketplace
JD Power came out with its annual survey results. You know how I feel about these things, but I’m always willing to comment.

Airports Council International – North America Marcom Conference
Thanks are due to Addison over at IAG for filming about 7 minutes of our panel this week at the ACI conference.

Why Airlines Need to Focus on Winning the War of Words on Congestion -BNET
April was a great month for on time performance, but it shows something about why airlines should be more aggressive at talking about congestion.

May Air Traffic Shows Early Signs of a Strong Summer as Unions Start to Ramp Up Campaigns – BNET
May traffic numbers are in, and they are very strong. It’s going to be a good summer, and that means unions will start ramping up campaigns for raises.

US Airways: How Not to Cope With Bickering Pilots After a Merger – BNET
US Airways east pilots are claiming victory in the latest battle with the west, but this is a temporary victory that’s likely to simply drag the process on longer and complicate the whole situation.

Virgin America CEO: Why Traditional Carriers Can’t Innovate – BNET
At the ACI conference in San Diego this week, David Cush gave the keynote, and while I agree with some of what he said, I disagree with other points.

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.

It’s apparently Canada week here on the blog since this is my second post about that frozen country up north. This time, it’s about Virgin America’s entry into Toronto. They announced they wanted to go into Toronto back in March, and now that they have finalized the regulatory issues, they’ll start service in June. I’m still not a fan of this plan.

It’ll be morning flights to and from San Francisco with evening flights (a redeye heading east) to and from LA. Virgin America is launching with the “stellar” deal of $212 each way from LAX and $222 from San Francisco. Wait, that’s not stellar at all. Double that up for the roundtrip and add tax and you’re right around $500 a ticket. It’s actually $487.73 from LA, 19% of which is tax. Yikes. Here’s the breakdown:

And you thought domestic tickets were overtaxed. So how does a low cost carrier succeed in Canada? Well, it’s not by offering low fares, that’s for sure. This sale fare is actually more expensive than the lowest fares in the LA market right now. And they aren’t looking to offer cheap deals for last minute travel either. Their lowest fare for travel with less than a week’s advance purchase is right around $2,000 roundtrip. That’s lower than Air Canada but significantly more than American in LA.

I suppose the plan is to compete on product, though Air Canada offers a pretty strong product of its own. The corporate guys are likely bound to either Air Canada/United or American, so they’ll be looking at the small business guys who aren’t being super cool with their teleconferencing software.

I like the longer distance in this market and the fact that it’s business-based, but it’s hard to make good money in a market with such high taxes and a decent level of competition.