Today we’ve got an interesting Ask Cranky question from a curious reader . . .

Hey Cranky,

I read your column regularly and had a question you might be able to answer. What does an airline do to make up the capacity when a plane crashes? How do they operate minus a plane that would otherwise be zooming around earth full of people? With the spate of crashes lately I was curious how they plug the hole so to speak.

Cheers!
Robert

That’s a great question, and it’s one that a lot of people probably don’t think about. There are, of course a lot of factors involved in determining what happens to a schedule. First and foremost, it depends how much the fleet is scheduled before the accident. Larger airlines have spare aircraft in the fleet, so they can usually fill the hole, so to speak, fairly easily. Smaller airlines would have more trouble. I decided to turn to a couple airlines to see what they had to say about it.

First up, I asked Southwest. Now, you may not think of Southwest when it comes to losing an airplane, because they have a pretty clean record. You probably will remember, however, the 737 that ran off the runway in Burbank a few years back or of course, the one that ran off the runway at Chicago/Midway in the snow. Those airplanes weren’t about to re-enter service quickly, so this is an issue that affects more than just those who suffer through a catastrophic accident.

According to Southwest . . .

We generally have enough slack in our schedule to cover routes via aircraft swaps. Otherwise, a lease on an aircraft may be extended or an aircraft that may have been previously available for a charter could be reassigned. With over 530 aircraft in our fleet, there are a lot of options.

I also asked US Airways, which had the now-famous water landing of an A320 back in January. That plane also wasn’t about to return to service anytime soon. US Airways told me . . .

The short answer is there was enough slack in the system as we had already reduced capacity YOY for Jan. vs. 08 and were in the process of reducing system capacity even further (for 09 over 08).

So, like most airlines, they’ve been cutting back significantly so there is more fleet flexibility. You can see how for some airlines, it would be such an easy task. For smaller airlines, however, it would be much harder to cover the existing schedule. That means they would either have to cut back or look to lease in a new airplane to help plug the holes.

It was only a matter of time until global carriers started following in their US counterparts’ shoes, right? As airlines around the world continue to bleed, we’re seeing them start to cut back. Today we’ll take a look at British Airways and ANA as examples of what’s going on.

I feel bad for BA. These guys had done a really solid job of focusing on the long haul premium business traveler in the last decade, and now it’s that segment that is hurting the most. All those rich bankers are flying less and less, and that has hurt badly. BA is feeling the pain more than most, so now they’ve started to make cuts.

Some of these cuts are surprising. For example, they will no longer serve meals in coach on flights of less than 2 1/2 hours that go after 10a. It’s not the cut that’s surprising but rather the fact that they still served a meal on a flight that short. And it’s not like BA is eliminating food completely – they’ll still hand out “snack bites” or biscuits. If you fly before 10a, you’ll still get breakfast, and premium cabin passengers will still get food.

But there are cuts on long haul flying as well, and that’s where decisions start to get a little more difficult to make. In the back of the bus, you’ll no longer get bottles of water. You’ll just get the dreaded “cuplet” instead. That’s annoying since you can’t put a cuplet in the seatback pocket, but it’s hardly the end of the world. Economy passengers will also now have to pay to bring a second checked bag (starting in October). The first bag will still be free . . . for now.

In the front cabin, the only change that I see so far is that the second meal (breakfast) on long haul flights will be shrunk. Apparently, a full third of those meals go uneaten, so they’re just going to cut back on it. As someone who usually plows through those meals, that is a slight annoyance but nothing more.

On the other side of the world, ANA is doing some of its own cutting in Japan. Newspapers and magazines will no longer be offered in coach and there will be a fee for using the services of reservation agents. They will also start selling food, lounge access, etc to economy class passengers in order to raise revenues.

Are any of these cuts going to make a huge difference? No, but I’m sure the slippery slope argument will be thrown out there by many. For us jaded Americans, these cuts are nothing new. We’re far further along in this evolution, but just because it has worked in the American market doesn’t mean it will work elsewhere. Still, I would expect to see more of this to come.

It’s been way too long since my last Alitalia post, hasn’t it? It’s actually been pretty quiet over there as the new management team tries to figure out how to make something of nothing. There’s no question they still have a long way to go after posting their latest results.

For the first half of 2009, the new management team turned in a stellar $385 million loss. That’s right. By “stellar,” I mean “absolutely terrible.” That was 6 percent worse than predicted. But the good news is that $300 million of that loss came in the first quarter. That means they lost less than $100 million in Q2. Should we be congratulating them for that? Sheesh.

Load factors have been dreadful. In the first quarter, it was 51 percent but in the second quarter it rose to 65 percent. It’s amazing how good a number like 65 percent looks when it follows 51 percent. It’s still terrible.

The airline is expecting a 72 percent load factor this month, but that is still below where it should be. We’re talking about Italy in July – every tourist on earth is heading there as we speak and yet they can’t even fill three quarters of their seats? Yikes.

Oh Alitalia, how I’ve missed you.