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.
6 comments on “Cranky on the Web (June 7-11)”
Sorry for commenting here instead of BNET, but I just don’t want to go through the hassle of registering (I’d rather peck on my iPad keyboard for two extra minutes to complain about it here :) )
Anyway, did you really miss that greatest innovation of all times for economy cabins — mood lighting? Ok, jokes aside, I consider extra leg room (Economy Plus or Stretch) the one innovation in economy that I care most about, more so that live TV (I can bring my own IFE, but I can’t bring extra legroom). Ironically, one of the network carriers (UA) seems to be the innovator here. And For that reason alone I’ll always pick UA over Virgin on routes they compete.
Ah yes, mood lighting. How could I miss that!?!
As for legroom, I’m not sure if I’d call it an innovation, but you’re right, it is something different that attracts customers. Still, Economy Plus has been around just about as long as Live TV, right?
David Cush, does he even have that right? Traditional carriers cant innovate?
They’ve been doing it for decades. Who commuterized their systems years ago? Who made the paper ticket disappear? Kiosk stations? Who introduced self check-in? Frequent flyer programs? Email alerts?
Fact is, you dont innovate, you disappear. And, there’s a long history of small, national carriers just like Virgin who didnt make it.
I think his point is that they haven’t innovated much lately. Sure, the computerized systems and frequent flier programs came from what today is considered a legacy carrier. But that was 30+ years ago. At the time, they were the up and coming rock stars while the dinosaurs died off. What have the legacies done lately to innovate? Not much. Sure, there’s been some things with automation, but I don’t think there have been any game changers lately.
His comment was: Innovation
Cush noted that there hasn’t been much innovation in the last 20 years and that’s primarily because of high oil prices and lack of profits.
Ah yes, VX is showing the legacy carriers! So far they’ve burnt through more cash than just about any startup in history, launched a reality TV show that critics can’t find enough thumbs to pan, leased out part of their fleet to another carrier to run charters to East Upchuck, had their Twittering a$$ handed to them by the stodgy legacy carriers, and launched MCO and YYZ. Wait scratch that last one. MCO is on indefinite hold and YYZ is likely to be a disaster. All we’ve learned is that the “uninnovative” legacy carriers have been doing fairly well, even though VX is optimistic about being about as “profitable” as AA. Sadly Mr Cush, airlines don’t run on social networking, but if they did I’m sure VX would be doing great!