This week’s featured link:
Sabre Agrees to Pilot New Technologies With American Airlines and Other Travel Giants – Skift
Distribution-giant Sabre spent a long, long time fighting against the use of NDC to modernize airline distribution, but under Sean Menke, the company has finally lurched forward and joined the party. That’s a good thing, because it would have been left behind if it continued down its previous self-destructive path. This announcement shows Sabre partnering with the right people to try to make the changes that airlines and agencies have pushed for time and time again. Considering the company’s track record, I won’t believe this until I see it, but for the first time I’m cautiously optimistic. Sabre is a tough company to change, but it feels like there’s progress being made for the better.
Two for the road:
Pittsburgh sues OneJet for $763k+ due to contract breach – ch-aviation
It looks like OneJet’s plan to take advantage of generous airport/city support has run into a snag. OneJet pulled out of most of its Pittsburgh markets (or didn’t start them) before it was allowed to, and now Pittsburgh wants its money back. It gets worse, yesterday the acquisition of Ultimate Jetcharters fell through. This isn’t sounding good at all.
WOW Air seeks investors – iceland monitor
WOW is private, so we don’t know much about its performance… until now. It’s losing money, unsurprisingly, and it needs to raise more. What I’d like to know is whether it makes money during the summer and then loses it all in the winter OR if it just doesn’t make money at any time. It’s hard to know if there’s a sustainable airline buried in there or not without seeing more detail.
5 comments on “3 Links I Love: Sabre Warms to NDC, OneJet and WOW Air Face Trouble”
90-seat Q400 certified!
aviationweek.com/awincommercial/90-seat-q400-approved-bombardier-says-more-orders-coming
WOW Air is facing more and more competition (Norwegian Air Shuttle, etc), but also from Icelandair. Icelandair has moved into some of WOW’s airports (BWI, Cleveland) and is expanding again in the U.S. It will be interesting to see if they make it. They are kind of like the Spirit Airlines of transatlantic service.
Something in the TATL market has to give. As lovely as it is that the economy fares for 10 months of the year are gloriously low there is no way it is sustainable. Primeria don’t have a chance and soon enough one of WoW Icelandair or Norweigan will cease to exist in their current form.
What? A low cost Icelandic airline isn’t profitable? I’m shocked — simply shocked. :)
You don’t have to be the world’s leading travel expert to understand that there’s an Icelandic travel bubble, especially when it comes to air service. I’ve visited the country. I like it. It’s also too expensive and over-touristed. The levels of traffic growth isn’t sustainable. And the idea of Keflavik serving as a mega profitable transatlantic hub makes the idea of Kansas City being a mega hub sound logical.
So I think I’m going to pass on becoming a WOW investor. And, I suspect, most others are going to pass, too.
Wait… why does an airline blog offer two for the road, instead of two for the sky???