I’m leaving for Dallas shortly to attend Southwest Airlines’ media day. Look forward to a dispatch or two from Dallas in this space tomorrow. Is there a policy issue you’d like me to ask Southwest about? Let me know in the comments.
Archive for September, 2008
Dallas-bound
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged misc., southwest on September 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
If you love Alitalia so much, Silvio, why don’t you just marry it?
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged alitalia, business, europe on September 24, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Alitalia, the feline airline with nine lives, may yet live, according to AP and Financial Times stories. (The FT lede says that the lack of a “Plan B” may keep Alitalia flying. In the real world, the lack of a Plan B means liquidation.) No one wants to buy this basket case of an airline, [...]
“Green idealists fail to make grade, says study”
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged environment, europe on September 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
An item of interest from the Guardian:
According to the researchers, people who regularly recycle rubbish and save energy at home are also the most likely to take frequent long-haul flights abroad. The carbon emissions from such flights can swamp the green savings made at home, the researchers claim.
Stewart Barr, of Exeter University, who led the [...]
Small Community Air Service Development dead?
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged dot, small communities on September 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I missed this news item a week ago from AAAE:
AAAE expressed concern that of the $10 million that Congress appropriated for Small Community Air Service Development Program, only $6.8 million is slated to go to small communities that need assistance. According to DOT’s order, the other $3.2 million will be used to cover “current and [...]
Lufthansa’s new social network
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged lufthansa, misc. on September 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Benet points us to a new initiative by Lufthansa to get into the student travel market by running a social networking site. It provides forums, games, and access to special fares. It’s nice that Lufthansa is reaching out to this demographic, but I don’t know how useful it will prove. I’m no longer a student, [...]
Surprise! BAA to sell Gatwick; everyone wants to buy it
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged airports, BAA, competition, europe, virgin on September 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
No sooner do I say that the BAA case will be a hot topic this fall on yesterday’s Things with Wings Radio Show (thanks, Benet!) than BAA beats the Competition Commission to the punch and puts London’s Gatwick Airport up for sale. According to BAA’s chief, quoted in the Financial Times, “We have decided to [...]
“Lehman Brothers reminds me of Pan Am”
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged business, regulation on September 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Interesting op-ed by Andy Kessler on Forbes.com yesterday:
Not to sound harsh, but Lehman Brothers reminds me of Pan Am Airlines. No one (well, beyond their employees) is going to miss them. There are plenty of others to take their place.
In the ’70s and ’80s, a deregulated airline industry grew beyond its means, was stuck with [...]
I didn’t think Alitalia had a prayer. . . .
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged alitalia, humor on September 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
. . . but they apparently have advocates in high places.
(H/T: Things with Wings)
Obama’s labor love
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, Aviation08, congress, faa, labor, politics on September 14, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I previously wrote about Barack Obama’s aviation plan; today’s post is about the one aviation-related bill he’s introduced in Congress, the FAA Fair Labor Management Dispute Resolution Act of 2006 (S 2201). The bill, which never made it out of committee, would have amended the FAA’s personnel management procedures so that the FAA administrator would [...]
Aviation08: The McCain aviation record
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, Aviation08, competition, congress, faa, labor, open skies, politics, regulation, travel on September 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I haven’t had any luck getting the McCain campaign to fill me in on the details of his aviation plan (if he has one). His website has one mention of aviation, and it’s a throwaway press release on the air traffic control communications outage in August with a boilerplate call for reform in Washington. However, [...]
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