This Week’s Featured Link
John Sharp, Alan Joyce swap barbs over Rex vs Qantas – Executive Traveller
Here’s some backstory on the brawl brewing down under. You’ll find first the article from Rex CEO John Sharp, and then you can read Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s retort below. John sounds like the guy running the punk upstart who is trying to stir up trouble. Nothing wrong with that. Alan sounds like an angry corporate CEO who is throwing barbs (safety, seriously?) and whining which is a very odd choice. It does not make Qantas look good at all.
Image of the Week
Two for the Road
Behind-The-Scenes With American Demothballing Jets From Pandemic Storage – Skift
We saw plenty of stories about how airlines parked their jets when the pandemic began. Here’s a good story about what it takes to pull them back out now that demand is returning.
JetBlue Takes Delivery of First Airbus A321LR Aircraft Enabling Airline to Launch First-Ever Transatlantic Service – JetBlue Newsroom
JetBlue’s Transatlantic airplane is here… and it has only 138 seats onboard. That’s 24 in Mint and 114 in coach. That is just not a lot of seats. I know it’s an efficient airplane, but JetBlue is going to need some decent fares for this to work.
13 comments on “3 Links I Love: Qantas Plays In the Mud, How American Brings Planes Back, Alaska’s Commitment”
The Alaska plane does look very good. I’m sure they’ve done the math, but I really hope that ground units that supply cool air in places like PHX can keep up with the heat that that plane will be absorbing with the dark paint job.
Thanks for the Skift article… I wish it went into a bit more detail, but I find it very interesting to read about the “behind the scenes” efforts relating to the storage, maintenance, and re-activation of the planes that were parked due to the pandemic. The photo of the tail sticking out of the custom-designed hangar door at the end of the article is hilarious as well.
LOL — I thought the same thing. The old American livery seemed to reflect more light than it took in. I wonder if paint color has a sizeable effect on the ground temperature and the need for gate AC? And for the record the Alaskan plane looks awesome.
That plane is likely to stick with Alaska routes where they want to absorb all the sun’s heat they can! ;-D
Regarding the JetBlue A321LR, I could see the reason for the configuration. Maximizes the range capability somewhat. My only complaint about the overall is that B6 didn’t opt for the raccoon mask on the cockpit windows.
Morn…from an old boat/airplane pilot…wouldn’t that be the starboard side of the Alaska air pic?have a grt wknd..tom
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The image shows the starboard side. The link below takes you to the port side photo on AS’ website.
Re: The Alaska plane, it does look cool. the underpinnings behind it though, seem a little dubious.
Is there anyone out there who still doesn’t have at least a basic grasp of the ‘diversity’ concept? If you can see this plane and/or have computer access, then that person is not you. So, not exactly sure what the point is.
Which takes me to my next point. When any business starts wading into politics and social issues, they do so at their own peril. And the best advice really is to just butt out of both altogether. Given the almost perfect 50/50 stalemate and political polarized nature of the country, anything anyone says is guaranteed to alienate and p*** off half the country. That’s just how it is.
From a business perspective, not a good decision IMHO.
And off topic since today is the potpourri day, I enjoyed your article on Avelo yesterday. And people asking about the local LA airports.
I was an avid airliner photography in the 1990’s. And took a ton of pics from LAX and SNA, and even some from ONT during that era. So if anyone is interested in seeing them. I don’t publish them anywhere online except on FB. Look up the group “Airliners Past And Present” and join in.
Matt, you may catch some flak for your commentary from the SJW’s among us, but your comment was well put and I – for one – totally agree with your sentiments. Businesses used to stay out of politics for the most part and that was in a less polarized time. It now seems that they are all dying to jump in, yet all seem to think that the coastal big city points of view are all that matter. Which is how they alienate and pi** off the other 50%, who’s opinions matter too.
Just be the best at what you do and leave the political stuff to politicians and pundits.
The claim that when “businesses start wadding into politics and social issues, they do so at their own peril” is awfully fascinating in a country with unlimited lobbying groups and corporate political donations. If you think that businesses “just started getting involved” last week, month, year in politics and the levers of this country, perhaps we can discuss a bridge I am interested in selling you?
I also find it “interesting” that people find it alienating when an airline has a design featuring an artist’s rendering of Black faces and a quote on education from Nelson Mandela on a plane. If that alienates people then I would argue the problem is with them, and not with the plane. (but its art — it should invite debate & introspection. . . )
Agreed. In fact, it’s nice to that corporations are wading in more publicly than in the past. Historically, all of the posturing and deal making would be done in smoke filled back rooms; at least now we know where they stand. People have been voting with their pocket books for years. No reason why a company can’t appeal to that, especially if it’s in their best interest.
Quite possibly the first commercial airliner to feature dark-skinned youths and already some people are upset that it’s one too many. Hopefully they will get to see first hand the extraordinary power and joy that is representation.
I just don’t see how B6 makes this plane work on TATL, especially if they are going to enter competitive markets like LHR. They are going to need a revenue premium, but the competition can throw a widebody on the route and have enough discount seats in both cabins to force B6 to discount in order to fill their planes. And the other carriers will still have seats to sell at higher prices. Maybe this would work if they were using the planes to enter VFR markets that the majors won’t touch, but London will be a bloodbath. Of course, in the long term I don’t think it’ll matter, as I expect AA to absorb B6 within 5 years. Then these planes will be moved to appropriate routes, like almost anything from PHL…..
Which is exactly why UA has announced BOS-LHR service: a not-so-subtle threat that they can destroy B6’s yields if they push too hard on UA’s EWR turf…