I saw this post from Gulliver noting that Emirates has decided to remove all paper from the seatback pockets of its A380 to save weight, and I couldn’t stop laughing. It seems to me that if the airline was really that concerned about fuel burn, it could probably do without the onboard showers for First Class passengers.

The plane has 489 seats, and this moves apparently saves 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) per seat. So that means they’ll save about 2,100 pounds per plane. In case you were wondering, the plane weighs just over 1.2 million pounds at its max takeoff weight, so this isn’t much. But that being said, it will save something, and every little bit counts.

Now, I understand that they’re planning on offering all that paper content on the video screen instead, so it does make sense, but I still can’t get past the whole shower thing. In case you missed it, Emirates will be offering showers for First Class passengers. It is said that the airline will have to bring 1 tonne of water for this purpose, and guess what? One tonne is 2,200 pounds. That’s effectively the weight of all those paper products that are being removed.

So, if you’ve crammed yourself into coach and your seatback video doesn’t work, you can take comfort in the fact that at least First Class passengers can shower onboard. Or not.

Ever get the feeling US Airways is a sinking ship that’s throwing off as much weight as it can to stay afloat? This week we’ve seen the airline drop inflight entertainment on domestic flights and ditch all the onboard equipment. They’re also getting rid of ovens in the coach galleys. Yep, that means they’re really, honestly, trying to get as much weight off the plane as they can to save gas. But it’s not just on the plane. They’re also getting rid of ticket jackets. I always thought that ads made those profitable, but I guess not.

You might think that I’d be flinging a Cranky Jackass award for this move, but actually, I’m not. Surprisingly, I have to give them credit here for actually following the strategy they’ve laid out, right or wrong. This is the strategy that was outlined for us at media day back in March. In their eyes, all that matters is price and schedule as long as the appearance is clean, the flights are on time, and it’s convenient. They’ve held their own when it comes to on-time performance, and I think they’ve been cleaning up their planes (though I haven’t flown them in quite some time).

In other words, though many people bemoan the direction the airline is taking, US Airways is actually delivering on its promises. With that in mind, I started thinking about what they’re going to spring on us next. No matter what it is, there’s a very good chance people will hate it, but at least it’s not false advertising.

Here is my list of the top 5 ways I’d expect to see US Airways increase revenues next, in no particular order. And no, this isn’t a joke or some snarky post about “gee, what could the airlines possibly charge us for next.” There have been far more than enough of those floating around.

• Overhead Bin Ads - Ah come on, they’ve already done tray table ads, so why not just go to the overhead bins as well? It’s worse, yes, because you can’t actually hide those from sight, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they could make some decent money off of it. And that means it could actually happen, even if it does somewhat degrade the “appearance.”




• Charge for Advanced Seat Assignments - I know, this is a little late to the game with Spirit already setting the bar, but why not jump on the bandwagon? If someone is really going to choose you because of price and schedule, then advanced seating assignment fees won’t really alter the decision, right?




• Remove Window Shades - This takes a page out of the Ryanair playbook. No window shades = less weight and fewer things that can break. Ryanair also doesn’t do seatback pockets, but there’s too much money in the magazine and Skymall to take that away. Would US Airways actually do this? I’m not sure what the savings would really be, but if they are real, then I don’t see why not.




• Sell Products Onboard - They already pimp their credit cards, so why not follow the Skybus model and start selling products, like duty free in the international world? True, that would technically add weight to the plane, so it would have to generate good revenue to make sense, but they might think it’s worth a shot.




• Charge for First Class Upgrades - I’ve saved the most controversial for last. If you think there have been objections to the latest round of changes, just wait until something like this happens. All hell will break loose. I’d argue that free First Class upgrades are by far the most important reason someone desires elite status with the airline. But, would people walk away if they had to pay $25 for the privilege on a domestic flight? It’s a risky move, and it would absolutely piss off the elites, but at some point they may consider it for the revenue it would raise.

Some of these are pretty risky moves, but with fuel where it is right now, I’m sure everything is in play. Would any of these moves stop me from flying the airline? Nah, not more than anything they’ve already done. (I haven’t flown them in almost 18 months, or at least that’s what my Dividend Miles expiration notice tells me.) The reality is that they’re right about a lot. Price and schedule do matter most in the domestic world, and they rarely if ever have a price or schedule advantage from my home in the LA area.

The airline has made it clear that it is racing to the bottom when it comes to amenities being included in the fare. At some point, passengers will revolt, that is, if they actually have a better option to choose. With all the legacy airlines following similar paths, there aren’t many options left for someone who wants to protest. But one of these moves will cross the line, and passengers will start to defect. Until that happens, you can expect to see airlines continuing to push the envelope on what they’re willing to try to reach profitability.

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.

Ok, as requested (by at least one person), here are the rest of my notes from US Airways Media Day. I could try to make it all nice and pretty, but nah I’ll just try to make them legible and let you do the rest. These were taken in order during all the talks. I’ll only include the things I didn’t write about a couple days ago.

Overview from Doug Parker and Scott Kirby

• As of a couple of weeks ago, fuel was expected to cost $800m more this year. Fuel has now gone much higher, so that number will be worse if it holds.
• They’re going to test a new in-seat inflight entertainment system on one domestic plane this year. That may or may involve internet access, but they aren’t sure.

Schedule Planning/Fleet with Andrew Nocella

• The domestic network will either be flat or shrink a little. All the growth will be internationally.
• This year, there will be 10 767s and 9 A330-300s in the fleet, no change from last year. Next year, they’ll add the first 6 of the smaller and longer range A330-200s followed by 6 in 2010 and 5 in 2011.
• If demand starts going down or fuel gets to be too pricey, they have the flexibility to dump the 767s if they want.
• Between now and 2011, they expect to add 14 new flights to 9 new European cities.
• New destinations will be served from Philly, and they make a note to include the Middle East as being a possibility.
• Phoenix may get flights to Europe and/or Asia, but it probably won’t be until 2010 at the earliest.
• Charlotte flights to London and Frankfurt do well, and they will likely add flights from Charlotte to destinations already served from Philly. They are also looking at South America from Charlotte and have already applied for Bogotá. (my note: They just lost out yesterday and didn’t get awarded Bogotá.)
• They’re still trying to figure out how to serve Beijing. The plan was to use A340s, but they have yet to find any that they can get their hands on (cheaply, I would assume). They can serve the route with A330-200s, but they’d rather not.
• Vegas may get some international flights, but it’s not a focus.
• 737s will be gone by 2011. Only 18 757s will be kept, all for Transatlantic flying. So, you’ll see Airbus narrowbodies and Embraer 190s on domestic flights (plus Express carriers).
• They’d like to get rid of as many 50 seaters as they can

Envoy Enhancements with Kevin Jackson and Sherri Shamblin

• US Airways surveyed 636 Envoy customers who traveled in Feb 2007. 60% of them paid, so these were people they wanted feedback from.
• US Airways ranked slightly above American, Delta, and Northwest and slightly below United. Air France, Continental, Lufthansa, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic finished higher (unsurprisingly, I’d say).
• The number one most important factor was that “Flight attendants treat you like a valued customer.” Second was “Meal Quality.” That’s where the airline has been focusing.

Philly Hub with Suzanne Boda

• This year, they’ll be working to improve checkpoint staffing and improve international re-check of bags
• By next summer, they’ll have 3 to 6 new intl gates, bigger checkpoints at B and C, and improved airport signage
• By 2010, the F (Express) terminal will be redesigned and they will have inline baggage screening.
• In the long term they want 16 new gates (inclusive of the previous 3 to 6)
• They’d had 56 straight days without a transatlantic cancellation in Philly - over 1100 flights.

Finance with Derek Kerr

• $300m being spent this year on improving the airline.
• 30% of costs are fuel, 26% labor, and 13% aircraft/airport rents
• Every $1 increase in the price of a barrel of oil, annual costs go up $37m for the airline.
• It costs $31m per day to run the airline (at previously lower fuel levels, I assume).
• Combine $3b in cash with no major debt payments until 2014, and they’re ready to weather a poor economy if need be.

Government Relations with C.A. Howlett (Yes, he’s still there)

• Trying to get government to allow airlines to convert Washington/National flights from inside the 1,250 mile perimeter to outside
• Also trying to convince the government to let them trade 2 slots from inside the perimeter for one outside (as long as the new flight is on an aircraft smaller than a 757). This will help increase the size of aircraft and reduce the number of flights at LaGuardia. To use a 757, they’d need to trade another slot. If that happens, look for long haul flying out of LGA very quickly.
• Very concerned about all the states trying to enact different passenger rights legislations. It will be really hard to comply without a common standard.

JetBlue lovers rejoice! In addition to their existing service, you can now fly JetBlue to hundreds of new destinations all across the US. When you get to the airport, it may look like you’re flying Continental on the outside, but it’ll be all JetBlue on the inside. Um, ok not really. What the heck am I talking about?

Continental announced yesterday that they’d begin equipping their domestic fleet with the same live television that JetBlue has. In addition, they’re going to roll out the somewhat-lame-but-still-useful-for-somebody Yahoo/Blackberry Email/IM service that JetBlue is testing on one aircraft right now. Ok, maybe this isn’t JetBlue, but it’s pretty close, and in some ways even better, as you can see below.

You won’t have JetBlue legroom, and you will have to pay $6 to watch TV (free in First Class), but you will get the best onboard product of any network carrier in the US. And yes, Continental will still serve you a meal on the long hauls. Take that, JetBlue.

Of course, this move isn’t squarely aimed at JetBlue, even though they do have a great deal of overlap in the New York area. At least, JetBlue must not think this is a direct shot at them, because they own the company that’s selling the technology to Continental. They must think that Continental is more focused on continuing in their role as the undisputed leader among network carriers in terms of overall experience. Continental usually wins awards for being the best (though we know how much I hate vague awards like that), and this should only help cement their standing.

The details of this are pretty simple. Unlike Delta, which is only outfitting some of each aircraft type with their live television system, Continental will put it on all next generation 737s (-700, -800, -900) and on the 757-300s. Since the 757-200s are now part of the international fleet, they will not have this product and neither will the 777 and 767 aircraft. That’s good, because this only works over land, so it would be a useless box over water. I believe the overwater fleet is getting audio/video on demand at some point.

Besides the Express fleet, the only ones left out are the 737-300s and -500s. To be fair, that’s a pretty big chunk of the fleet. Airfleets.net says that they have 108 that won’t be outfitted with the new system and 170 that will. Of course, the old generation 737s are used primarily on shorter routes while the next generation ones go on the longer runs, so that makes sense. The good news is that you will be able to look at your aircraft type when you book, and barring a substitution, you’ll know if you get it or not. At least, that’ll be the case by next January. Until then, it’ll be luck of the draw as they work to outfit the entire fleet.Actually, you won’t have to worry about it until a year from now when they start installation.

I assume that the email/IM capabilities will be installed at the same time. It’s unfortunate that they haven’t decided to go with a full internet solution, but that’s what happens when you go with LiveTV. At least it’ll be free.

Really, the worst part of this whole announcement is that Continental doesn’t fly to very many places from LA, so we don’t get much of a chance to try them often. This definitely widens Continental’s lead at the top of the standings from a customer point of view. Nice work.

I know, I know, I’m back early. Actually, I’m still in the UK until tomorrow, but I have some free time and an internet connection, and I just can’t stay away for too long. So I don’t know if I’ll be back on the normal schedule just yet, but that will happen soon. I’ll also have a nice long trip report for you later this week or early the next.

But today I’d like to catch up on something that Delta rolled out last Wednesday: their new seats with in-seat video on the 737-800s.

Now this is the same seat they have on a good chunk of their 757s already. Like the 757 fleet, only some of the 737-800s will actually have the new interior, 28 out of 71 to be precise. And even those 28 won’t be done until May of next year, so it may be hard to find for awhile. And that brings us to the big question . . . how do you make sure you’re getting a plane with the new screens?

Unfortunately, Delta has decided to make it harder for you to figure this out when it comes to the 757. While before they used to have the “752″ code for airplanes with the new interior, it seems that they’ve now stolen that code to show if you’re on an international 757 with the new BusinessElite product or not (no difference in coach). If you’re flying domestically, the aircraft code no longer helps you. Fortunately, the seat maps are still different, even though the code is the same. If you pull up a seat map and coach starts with seats in row 20 and ends at row 45, you’re on an old interior plane. If it goes from row 18 to row 44, you’re on a new interior plane.

For the 737, it’s much easier for now. They’ve assigned the code “73H” for the new interiors and kept “738″ for the old ones. The 73H is supposed to be used for 737-800s with winglets, and they’re also installing winglets on those planes. So, could it happen that there’s a 73H that doesn’t have the new interior? Quite possibly, though I don’t know how they’re handling it internally. Your best bet is to default back to the seat map. On an old interior 737, coach ends with row 32 but on a new one, it ends with row 33. So as long as you see row 33 on the seat map, you’ll be on a plane with the new interiors (unless they swap it later, of course).

Really, the biggest problem here is that you have to go to these great lengths to find out what is going on. Most people either won’t do it or don’t know they can do it, and so I think Delta is bound to have lots of unhappy customers.

Not sure why, but some of my readers don’t seem to like my happy, kudos-filled posts like the Delta one from last week. I guess you’re looking for more CRANKY. With that in mind, I’ll be happy to oblige this morning.

I may like what Delta has been doing online lately, but I really can’t stand their billboard campaign. For months, there’s been this one billboard on Century Blvd, just east of LAX, that has taunted me. I finally snapped a shot of it last week:

Yes, I know. It looks innocent enough. But it isn’t. It’s a great example of Delta overpromising and underdelivering - exactly what an airline should NOT be doing. Let me explain.

As you can see in that picture, Delta is telling customers that flights will go by quickly because you have your own personal entertainment onboard. Yes, there is mice-type telling you that it’s not available on all flights, but nobody can see that. Even if they can see it, they aren’t reading it. All you see is a Delta plane with a cool piece of hardware in the back of it. What’s the chance you’ll get this super-duper system when you fly Delta out of LA? Not good. Take a look below to see the breakdown.

As of the September schedule, Delta will operate 680 flights per week out of LAX - that’s just above 97 per day on average. Of those 680, a whopping 79 have live tv and games as shown in that billboard. That’s just about 11 flights per day or 12% of the total. Another 3% have personal screens that just show movies in loops and 30% have overhead screens you watch with everyone else. But, if you fly from LA, you are most likely to be on the 55% of flights that have no entertainment at all. Yup, 55% of Delta flights are on regional jets.

So how do you get lucky? Well, you only get live tv and games if you fly to a Delta hub. All 39 weekly flights to JFK have it as do 13 to Atlanta, 12 to Cincinnati, 12 to Salt Lake, and 3 to Guatemala City. (Ok, that last one’s not a hub, but whatever.) And there are an additional 23 weekly flights to Atlanta that have personal screens but not live tv.

What you’ll want to do is look for aircraft type “752″ for live tv or “764″ and “777″ for personal screens with looping movies. I’m actually not even 100% sure on the 764, but that’s what I believe to be the case. Any other flight and you’re out of luck.

I saw this article online yesterday and just had to laugh. When I read the headline - “United to upgrade domestic in-flight video systems” - I got excited for a second. Are they going to install personal screens?!?

No, of course not. I should have known better. This is just a case of United trying to spin what is basically a cost savings measure.

Right now, United (and most other legacy airlines) are stuck in the 80’s. They still have to pop video tapes in to show movies onboard their domestic aircraft. This “upgrade” they’re working on is actually nothing more than getting rid of tapes and replacing them with servers that will digitally store the movies Tivo-style. Why? The article says it “aims to lure more domestic travelers.”

Yeah, right.

What does this mean for you? Well, there may be marginally better quality since it’s digital now. No more scratchy, damaged tapes to worry about. But nothing else changes. You won’t see anything on demand and there won’t be live tv. It’s still a single movie playing on the same screen that you can’t see way up in the aisles. It just means they’ll play them from a hard drive instead of off a tape.

For United, this is a case of spending money up front to reduce costs down the line. It’s not cheap to order a bunch of tapes and send them out to each aircraft a couple times a month. I guess it finally reached the point where the cost of replacing the system became less than the cost of continuing to operate it. So, they’ll get their cost savings and customers won’t get anything new. Nice attempt at some spin, United, but I’m calling you out.

One thing we can take from this is that United is probably not going to be installing personal video anytime soon on domestic aircraft. If they’re spending money on this system, they aren’t going to just pull it out to install an on-demand system soon after. Despite my excitement about the possibility, I’m also realistic. Personal screens are nice, but the cost to install and maintain is very high. It’s going to be hard for United to find a way to make enough money back from customers on domestic flights to offset the cost.

If there’s anything good in this release it’s that they plan on giving their planes deep cleanings more often. Now that has a direct impact on everyone who flies, especially those who ride on the grimy old 737s.

It looks like the time has come for inflight entertainment on turboprops. Thanks to the newly discovered In-flight Entertainment blog for pointing out the link to the press release that also had this picture.

Pretty nice looking for a turboprop, huh? Well, if you go to India, you’ll be able to fly this plane on Kingfisher Airlines. I am a little suspect on this press release’s claim that this is “the world’s first turboprop aircraft facilitating In-flight entertainment system” though.

I know there were plenty of piston engine props back in the day that had inflight entertainment onboard, so maybe by limiting this to turboprops, they can get away with this claim. Anyone know otherwise?

If Virgin America does ever get off the ground, the inflight entertainment system will definitely be pretty cool. I had heard the descriptions, but it doesn’t really come to life until you see it in action. This nearly 5 minute video appears to be made for more of a tech audience, but it gives you some insight into what’s unique about it.

I have to say that there are two things I really like about the system. First is that when you’re watching a movie, you can go to other menus and look at other parts of the system and the movie will be minimized in the corner. On most systems today you have to go away from the movie to do something else, but here you can continue to watch it in the corner.

The other cool thing is the food ordering process. You find the food and drink you want, swipe your credit card, and the flight attendant brings it to you. It definitely speeds up the process of food delivery and keeps the flight attendants from standing in the aisle to process payments.

Of course, you won’t see this on Virgin America unless they actually get approval to fly. So where are they now? Well, a bunch of airlines jointly filed asking the DOT to suspend the proceedings for approval. The DOT told them to shove it. Virgin America filed the required paperwork on January 30 which started a 14 day clock for responses to be filed. So, on February 13, that period ends and we should hear something new around that time.

This thing seems like it could go on forever, but now there’s word that if it doesn’t get approval in 6 months, the investors may pull their money out. I’m sure the other US airlines are going to do whatever they can to extend this process out that far. As I’ve been saying all along, the DOT is really what matters here. All eyes should be focused on them right now.