Posted in Daily Departures on February 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s getting to be more like “Weekly Departures,” but here’s the latest roundup of aviation policy news and links:
Ryanair claims that the Dutch “green” travel tax is an effective subsidy to KLM. (I explain here.) [ATW Daily News]
To the extent that passenger rights groups are merging their interests with other disaffected airline parties (labor, etc.), [...]
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged air traffic control, canada, congress, europe, faa, regulation, safety, world on February 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Air traffic control commercialization can change the incentives in the ATC system, Eugene Hoeven (pictured at right) said during a panel discussion last Wednesday, leading to dramatic improvements in the industry. Hoeven, the director for ICAO affairs of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), the trade association for air naviation service providers (ANSP), spoke [...]
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged environment, mergers on February 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“Higher P, lower Q.”
Hat-tip to Daniel Hall, who writes: “I think Tyler is being cheeky here.”
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged Merger Mania 2008 on February 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Wall Street Journal reports that the proposed Delta-Northwest merger expected to be announced any day now will not face antitrust scrutiny as significant as that which doomed previous deals “unless regulators grow uncharacteristically squeamish about the combination’s sheer size.”
The department, which would be likely to review the case before a new administration arrives in [...]
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged Merger Mania 2008 on February 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Ben Mutzabaugh at Today in the Sky collects reports that the boards of the two airlines are meeting today . . .
Stay tuned over at his blog, and see my antitrust read on Delta-Northwest here.
Posted in Daily Departures on February 19, 2008 | Comments Off
According to Benet Wilson, the TSA is considering implementing security lanes based on familiarity with the screening process. Their color code (what’s a Homeland Security program without a color code?) seems to be inspired by ski trail designations. Experienced travelers only in the black diamond lanes! [Towers and Tarmacs]
The United States and Australia have completed [...]
Posted in Daily Departures, tagged history, misc. on February 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
President Lyndon Johnson takes the oath of office aboard Air Force One on November 22, 1963.
In honor of Presidents’ Day, enjoy a little trivia. Have I missed anything interesting in this list? Add it in the comments.
First president to fly in an airplane: Theodore Roosevelt, who flew in a Wright bros. biplane in 1910, a [...]
Posted in Evan's Fiskings, tagged regulation, competition, congress, mergers, Merger Mania 2008, delta, northwest, continental, united on February 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In a BusinessWeek op-ed, House Transportation Committee chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) has come out firmly against airline mergers involving the big six.
Yet this latest round of rumored mergers, which includes a United-Continental scenario, as well as a Delta-Northwest combination, is significant. It would mean further consolidation in the airline industry, further reductions in choice for [...]
Posted in Daily Departures, tagged humor, mergers on February 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Once upon a time, there were two airlines. Each one was happy in its own way. Each had service to most parts of the country; each enjoyed extensive international connections, the former to Asia and the latter to Europe. Each had shiny new planes and hard-working staff members. But each airline sensed a void. They [...]
Posted in Evan's Fiskings, tagged airports, europe on February 13, 2008 | 2 Comments »
If you build it, they will come.
This sort of wishful thinking too often infects policymakers seeking to improve and expand air travel systems. Sometimes, unfortunately, they choose the most expensive option: building an entirely new airport. As I’ve written earlier, this does not happen very often (at least not in developed countries, but check out [...]
