Cranky on the Web (October 21 – 25)

Cranky Analysis: Southwest’s Rising Fares Have Benefited Competitors Big and Small – PlaneBusiness Banter – $Subscription Required$
In this month’s PlaneBusiness column, I take a look at Southwest’s fares over the last decade. They have gone up A LOT, even when you include ancillaries for the other airlines.

Single Engine Airplanes are Safe…as Long as the Engine Doesn’t Fail –Conde Nast Daily Traveler
Mokulele landed an airplane on a highway in Maui, and that brought up the question of whether or not single engine operations are safe. (Yes.)

In the Trenches: Trusting Your People – Intuit Small Business Blog
My vacation in Maui was much more relaxing this year since I had a solid team behind me, keeping me from needing to do much work while I was gone.

Why U.S. Airlines Can’t Make Flights to Tokyo’s Best Airport Work – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
Another Haneda flight has failed with American canceling its flight from JFK. Why can’t US airlines make Haneda flights work?

Brett

5 responses to “Cranky on the Web (October 21 – 25)”

Bob Slinner

Oct 26, 2013

Most connecting flights from Haneda are to domestic destinations while most international connections are via Narita.

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Ron

Oct 26, 2013

I had been wondering for a while why there were no overnight West Coast–Japan flights, since timing is ideal — leave late at night (can connect from anywhere in the U.S.) and arrive in Japan early in the morning. I understand part of the problem was that flights couldn’t land in Narita very early (see Cranky’s reply to my comment on his post from 2010-02-05). Now with Haneda I see there is a single overnight flight from LAX, operated by ANA, but Delta from LAX and JAL from SFO are evening flights, arriving very late. I wonder if it wouldn’t make sense for them (or United from SFO) to have an overnight flight. Is there a problem turning the plane fast enough to leave before 7:00 (not an issue for the Japanese carriers)? Or is the return, leaving Tokyo before 7:00 and arriving in the U.S. around midnight, just too miserable?

One could even imagine the following schedule for a US carrier: afternoon LAX/SFO to NRT, ferry to HND, late evening return to LAX/SFO (arriving afternoon); coupled with overnight LAX/SFO to HND, ferry to NRT, midday return to LAX/SFO (arrive early in the morning). Or is this too crazy?

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1. CF
  
  Oct 28, 2013
  
  Ron – ANA has much more leverage than any US carrier because they can flow aircraft beyond Haneda without any trouble. So that flight from LA that arrives Haneda at 5a works well. That airplane can go on to one of several different destinations in Japan and the rest of Asia. But if a US carrier did it, it would have to then keep the airplane there all day and not fly out until the late evening. It’s not worth it. If they wanted to turn it around leaving just before the 7a curfew, that would mean the airplane would land in LA around 1a. That’s just not a good schedule for most people and would break all possible connections in LA.
  
  Ferry flights do not work very well at all. Too expensive and difficult to crew.
  
  Reply
David SF eastbay

Oct 26, 2013

People worry about single engine planes but don’t think about how many times their single engine car fails. And since there must be more single engines flying around then multi engines aircraft, it’s not like it’s a problem that happens all the time.

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David SF eastbay

Oct 26, 2013

HND from the states seems to be arriving there with no connections but flying out of HND and to/from the US gateway connections don’t see to be no problems.

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