Cranky on the Web: United's New CEO, Southwest Ponders Change, 2020 Route Launches

United’s Scott Kirby Finally Gets a CEO Job: Now What? – Skift
Brian Sumers asked me about my experiences with Scott when he was running revenue management, and I was a pricing analyst and, eventually, manager. I’ll have much more to say about this change in management next week.

Is Southwest Airlines considering a no-frills ticket? (Just don’t call it basic economy) – USA Today
Southwest surveys probably shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but I do expect Southwest is up to something. What that means isn’t clear.

New Airline Routes Will Open Great Travel Possibilities in 2020 – WendyPerrin.com
Once again, I was asked to write up a post with new 2020 routes for Wendy Perrin’s website. Take a look for a rundown of the most interesting launches.

Brett

5 responses to “Cranky on the Web: United's New CEO, Southwest Ponders Change, 2020 Route Launches”

Richard

Dec 7, 2019

Looks like Transatlantic fares out of Boston are going to be a blood bath!

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1. Kilroy
  
  Dec 11, 2019
  
  Not surprised at the Cape Verde flight from Boston. That’s very much a “visiting friends & relatives” flight, as there is a solid population of people from Cape Verde in the BOS area.
  
  The flights that American added from Philly to Eastern Europe seem like they may be a bit of stretch, but we’ll see, maybe some of those will stick.
  
  I’d love to see Brett do a deeper dive on some of the new routes that he finds the most interesting.
  
  Reply
SkyVoice

Dec 7, 2019

RE: Southwest. I flew with them ten times this year (so far), and empty seats on their airplanes have been scarce! Southwest’s load factors are just fine. I have seen firsthand evidence of that during my layovers this year at MDW. Now, the main purpose of the basic economy movement is to get something (anything!) for seats that would otherwise fly empty, netting the airline $0. In WN’s case I say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

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Jon Snow

Dec 9, 2019

Can someone get Brian Sumers an editor to proof-read his work? Two easy typos in his piece.

Also, any specific stories about working for Kirby?

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1. CF
  
  Dec 9, 2019
  
  Jon – I don’t have any specific stories to share in writing. Needless to say, Scott was a colorful guy to work for. I couldn’t have imagined getting a better education straight out of college than the one I got working for him.
  
  Reply