3 Links I Love: Regionals Get Together, Emirates Talks, The TWA Font

May 3, 2019

More Reading on This Topic: Links I Love

This weeks’ featured link:

Southern Airways Announces Strategic Minority Investment By SkyWest, New Alliance Between the Companies – Southern Airways Express
Well if this isn’t a neat little move. I assume Southern Airways Express needed capital. SkyWest needs pilots. So, SkyWest gives Southern some money for a stake, then Southern sets up a pilot flow-through agreement. Southern operates under Part 135, so it can have pilots with fewer than 1,500 hours. Once they hit that level, however, then they can go anywhere. This should funnel them all in to SkyWest. I don’t know how much was paid or what stake was purchased, but if the price is fair, this is a win-win for everyone.

**Image of the Week**: This is an interesting look by IATA at how air travel and democracy may be correlated. You can read the entire study. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit, IATA

Two for the road:

Emirates maps out a new route network without the A380 – Arabian Business
I always find it interesting to listen when Emirates CEO Tim Clark talks. It’s strange to hear him telegraph that he’s interested in more fifth freedom flying to the US. That’s not going to go over well politically.

TWA’s long-lost typeface embodied the golden age of flying. Now it’s being reborn – Fast Company
What’s this? An article that allows airline and font geeks to come together? Huzzah! The TWA Hotel at JFK is getting more hype than any I’ve seen before. I can’t way to see it sometime.

Brett

7 responses to “3 Links I Love: Regionals Get Together, Emirates Talks, The TWA Font”

Ronald de Neef

May 3, 2019 at 4:40 am

GoodMorning Cannot get the TWA article up – I am an ex TWA Purser and really interested in this article . Please send me a link.
Thanks very much for your follow up

Reply
1. ejj
  
  May 3, 2019 at 5:35 am
  
  Worked perfectly for me….. Here it is again…. (It may have been corrected)
  
  https://www.fastcompany.com/90340841/twas-long-lost-typeface-embodied-the-golden-age-of-flying-now-its-being-reborn
  
  Reply
David

May 3, 2019 at 5:14 am

The graph from IATA looks to me like a somewhat spurious relationship. I would be inclined to instead see 2 somewhat separate links:
1 – democracy leading to countries being higher income
2 – wealthy counties having higher levels of air connectivity
Countries which have oil/gas wealth but do not have democracy still have plentiful air connectivity

There is probably a weaker link in that democracy leads to people wanting (and being able) to travel more, and also that high levels of air connectivity leads to ideas from abroad being imported and increasing pressure on corrupt Governments to democratise but I’m not sure this graph can show either of these 2 links particularly effectively

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1. CraigTPA
  
  May 3, 2019 at 10:51 am
  
  Have to agree – if you omit a few outliers that are dependent on connecting traffic, the correlation between democracy and air links becomes more of a correlation between disposable income and air links, with a few poorer countries (e.g. Greece) represented because of the disproportionate amount of its economy devoted to tourism.
  
  The chart also doesn’t adjust for the fact that Europeans use trains much more extensively than other parts of the world.
  
  And on more democratic side of the chart, I think they may be playing a little fast and loose with the definition of “full democracy”. For example, why is Ireland apparently considered more democratic than Germany or the UK? Why would Canada be considered more democratic than the UK, considering the Canadian political system is based on the Westminster model?
  
  Reply
iahphx

May 3, 2019 at 10:23 am

Politicians in Washington rarely agree on anything, but they’re almost universally hostile to more Fifth Freedom flights for Emirates. As they should be. This isn’t a for-profit airline, and it’s unfair to make USA airlines compete further with such a subsidized foreign carrier. Especially since Fifth Freedom rights are rare in US commercial aviation. I do not believe Clark would be foolish enough to poke the bear. But we’ll see. Honestly, he’s foolish to even bring up the subject: it’s more ammo to be used against his airline by his for-profit competitors.

Reply
derek

May 3, 2019 at 3:46 pm

The chart is anti-American in that it ranks other authoritarian countries as more democratic than the United States.

Reply
1. Sean S.
  
  May 4, 2019 at 1:46 pm
  
  Do you think Iceland and Ireland are dictatorships?
  
  Reply