Alliance Panel at the Phoenix Aviation Symposium
The alliances discussion was one of the more interesting panels, I thought. The talk centered around why and even if alliances are worthwhile.

Modernizing the Fleet: Phoenix Aviation Symposium
So when is the right time to buy new airplanes? Credit is hard to come by and people are waiting for new technology. When will that happen?

Aircraft Manufacturers, Regulators Fight Over the Environment
A discussion on the environment turned heated as everyone tried to discuss the best way to make things better. Unsurprisingly, there was no consensus.

The Importance of American’s Wi-fi Announcement
American’s decision to expand wireless internet to most of its domestic fleet is a very important one for the US airline industry. And that’s good news for travelers.

JetBlue’s President and COO Russ Chew Talks About the Airline’s Transformation
I didn’t just sit down with JetBlue CEO Dave Barger last week. I also spoke with Russ Chew to talk about the airline’s internal transformation.

Just as California likes to bump up the car tax to plug its budget holes, the UK has a soft spot for taxing the heck out of air travel. The Air Passenger Duty (APD) has only been at its current rate for a couple years, but apparently it’s time to increase it again. Just what we need is more taxation on air travel to help further destroy the already declining demand for air travel.

In coach, the tax is currently between £10 and £40 depending upon distance traveled. This will now go up to £11 to £55 in November 2009 and then spike again in November 2010 to £12 to £85. Other classes of service will pay double. Originally, the UK had discussed the idea of making the tax on a per plane basis instead of per passenger to encourage the use of larger planes, but that was ditched in favor of a simple and painful increase.

Just think about the magnitude of this increase. In 2010 it will cost you £85 for a flight over 6,000 miles. As of today, that’s about $130 for this one measly tax. Fortunately, The Global Traveller found that the distance for the tax will be based on the distance from London to the capital of each country. If this is true, then it’s good news for much of the US. The distance from London to Washington is around 3,650 miles so that means that travelers between the UK and US would pay £45 in coach and £90 up front next November. That would go up to £60 in coach and £120 up front the following year. If it was based on actual flying distance, anything west of Chicago and south of Charlotte would be in a higher bracket.

You may remember that the UK likes to position this as an environmental tax to help fight air pollution. Well, I’m sure it’ll thrill you to know that the UK puts none of these revenues to support environmental projects, and even if they did, the amount of revenue collected is far more than the “cost” of carbon. This appears to be the UK’s way to juice some extra revenue without considering the impact on air travel itself.

I know this isn’t entirely about the traveler experience, but I thought it would be a very interesting way to close the week nonetheless. I had the chance to speak with British Airways’ Head of Environment, Jonathon Counsell, yesterday. We spoke about a new program they’ve launched in cooperation with Rolls-Royce that will enable alternative fuels to be tested using engines on BA aircraft.

Basically, they’re inviting fuel suppliers to bring alternative fuels that are scalable and won’t have a negative impact on food, land, or water. Once they’ve got those narrowed down, they’ll run ground tests on the fuel and then eventually air tests as well. BA has always been very accessible, and I gladly took the chance to speak with them about this initiative. Read below for our discussion.

Cranky: What sort of interest have you seen from fuel suppliers to date?

Jonathon: We’ve had an ongoing debate with major fuel companies, so pretty much all the majors are interested. Three or four additional companies have approached us as well. We’re drawing up a short list of up to about a dozen companies.

Cranky: Other airlines, notably Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand, have run tests of biofuels recently. Would either of those fuels be eligible for testing in this program or do they not meet the criteria that you have set forth?

Jonathon: We’re not being overly prescriptive in terms of a particular fuel. It has to be what we call a drop-in fuel, meaning it has to work with existing technology. It has to be able to power the engines without modifying them, and it must work with existing supply technology. Also, it can’t compete with food, land or water supplies. I believe the Virgin fuel may not qualify because it competed for food crops. Apart from that, we’re not going to overspecify. We’ve intentionally called it alternative fuel instead of biofuel because it will be difficult for biofuel to meet those conditions because of the conflict with food or rainforest devastation. That being said, we’re not ruling out biofuel.

Cranky: Are there any incentives being offered to encourage fuel suppliers to participate? Is there a prize of some sort?

Jonathon:The big incentive is that any company that can supply fuel meeting the criteria will have a massive prize. Every airline around the world will want to buy it.

Cranky: What will you consider to be a successful test? Are there specific levels of fuel economy and emissions that must be reached for you to deem this a success?

Jonathon:We will lay out broad performance criteria. It needs to be commercially viable but we haven’t specified what that means yet.

Cranky: Are there any partners in this study beyond you and Rolls Royce? Have you involved any third party scientific organizations to oversee the data collection and interpretation?

Jonathon: No. Currently it’s just Rolls-Royce and ourselves. There will be a joint assessment between us. We’ll look at whether we need external experts on this or not. Rolls works with a number of universities, and so do we, and we’ll be looking at a number of contacts in the scientific field.

Cranky: You say testing will be complete by March 2009, but how long do you expect it to take before the results are finalized?

Jonathon:Quite shortly afterwards. Testing will start in January and it will take 4 to 6 weeks. Published results will be available shortly after the end of March.

Cranky: Will you be sharing the results of your study publicly?

Jonathon: Yes, we will be making the results public.

Cranky: What sort of response have you had from the community so far?

Jonathon: It’s been a very positive response from the community. We deliberately launched this prior to Farnborough and it’s certainly been a big topic of discussion.

Cranky: Have you spoken to any of your other partners about participating, like American Airlines?

Jonathon: Yes, we’ve had a couple of early conversations with American Airlines and certainly we’ll pick up on those.

So there you have it. It’s an interesting way to put this together. The idea is basically to say, “Hey, you got some good fuel? Come talk to us and we’ll let you test it on one of our engines for free.” I’ll be looking forward to seeing the results.

DOT Rejects Blanket Dormancy Waiver
The DOT has decided to deny the request by seven airlines to allow them to suspend international routes without losing the rights. This could get interesting.

Ramping Up Alternative Propulsion Systems
With fuel prices climbing, engine manufacturers are looking for new ways to reduce fuel burn. At least one concept is almost ready to fly.

Virgin America Appeals DOT Decision with a Vengeance
Unhappy with the DOT’s decision to require public submission of Virgin America’s data, the airline has decided to appeal with fists flying.

Allegiant Leaves Green Bay for Appleton
Allegiant really does practice what it preaches. Green Bay started charging more, so Allegiant packed up and moved 33 miles down the road to Appleton.

The Airlines Attack Oil Speculators
The ATA has gathered US airlines to fight oil speculation. Will it help or just end up making things worse?

Last week, JetBlue announced its new green initiative called “Jetting to Green.” A lot of it appears to be an effort to put together a nice little PR package of things they already do. I wrote about the details over on BNET, but there was one thing that I wanted to point out because it will change the customer experience.

You know those crappy disposable headsets that they used to hand out? The ones that you couldn’t hear anything from even if you pressed them uncomfortably close to your ear? Those are toast. Oh, the airline will still offer the upgraded headsets for $1, but if you don’t have that kind of big money, then you’re on your own. No, this really isn’t much of a loss, but it’s something to keep in mind for your next JetBlue flight (mine happens to be this weekend). A JetBlue spokesman tells me that they went through about 20 million free headsets last year. That’ll be a nice little cost savings for them.

And that’s really about it regarding the whole “green” thing from the customer experience perspective. Oh sure, they talked about not having an inflight magazine to save the environment, but, uh, they’ve never had one. So that’s not a change. Again, it’s mostly just bundling it up for PR purposes, and as I said a couple weeks ago, that’s smart for them to be proactive here. But for you, well, you might be able to win a Prius, but that’s about the only major change you’ll notice.