TEMPE — US Airways chairman and CEO Doug Parker opened the airline’s annual media day with remarks on the state of the airline industry, pointing out financial, political, and labor-related challenges in the year ahead and calling on airline managers to change the way they think about industry competition.
Parker has long been an apostle of [...]
Posts Tagged ‘consumer advocacy’
US Airways’ Doug Parker on challenges for the airline industry
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged business, consumer advocacy, labor, mergers, regulation, us airways on March 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Obesity rule upheld in Canada
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged canada, consumer advocacy, regulation, travel on November 23, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I don’t know why the blogosphere has erupted over this just now (I saw several posts on the subject in my non-aviation-related categories on Google Reader), but I’ll mention it: the Canadian Transport Agency’s January ruling on obese travelers was challenged by Air Canada and WestJet, upheld by a lower court, and appealed to Canada’s [...]
Thought leaders on aviation trends
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged budget airlines, business, consumer advocacy, delays, network airlines, open skies, southwest, travel on October 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
DALLAS — Our lunchtime entertainment here at Southwest headquarters was provided by a panel of five airline industry thought leaders who offered their thoughts on the future of the industry. Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com kicked off the discussion. Some of the trends he noted include a “decline in human interaction” through the increasing utility of [...]
Federal appeals court overturns NY passengers bill of rights
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged consumer advocacy, regulation, usa on March 25, 2008 | 1 Comment »
BREAKING NEWS: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court decision upholding New York state’s airline passenger’s bill of rights, ruling “that New York’s new state law interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier.” (Here’s my take from when the law was signed last summer, [...]
Senate gives Sturgell a hearing: a full report
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, competition, congress, consumer advocacy, delays, faa, mergers, regulation, safety on February 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
FAA administrator-designate (and current acting administrator) Robert “Bobby” Sturgell faced the Senate Commerce Committee for his confirmation hearing today, fielding harangues and questions from skeptical senators but offering little in the way of changes he would make at the FAA.
Sturgell is a former naval aviator (and Top Gun instructor), commercial airline pilot, aviation lawyer, and [...]
FAA chief Sturgell grilled by Senate Commerce Committee
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged air traffic control, congress, consumer advocacy, delays, faa, mergers, regulation on February 7, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Today I went to the confirmation hearing for Robert Sturgell, the acting administrator and administrator-designate of the Federal Aviation Administration. He received a tense reception by the committee, members of which berated him (rightly or wrongly) over air traffic controller morale and retirements, a passenger’s bill of rights, NextGen and air traffic control modernization, redesign [...]
Politicians trying to get a piece of the merger action
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged congress, consumer advocacy, mergers, network airlines, regulation, usa on January 18, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Ben Mutzabaugh reports that politicians are wasting no time trying to horn in on the merger discussions currently underway at major airlines. The man from my former congressional district, Steve Cohen (pictured at right), has called for join Transportation Committee and Judiciary Committee meetings to address a potential Delta-Northwest tie-up. What Congress really wants to [...]
A tight squeeze in Canada with “one-passenger-one-fare”
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged canada, consumer advocacy, regulation, travel on January 14, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I briefly blogged the Canadian Transportation Agency’s ruling on obese passengers the other day, but I wanted to revisit it. The policy requires airlines to provide an extra seat, at no extra charge, for someone who is disabled and needs a personal assistant during the flight, as well as for someone who is “functionally disabled [...]
Surprise: travelers don’t hate air travel as much as you might think
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged consumer advocacy, travel, usa on December 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Gallup has a new poll out today with some unexpected results: Americans on the whole are satisfied with air travel, and their positive opinions of it have actually increased since 1999.
Americans who fly (about 43 percent have flown in the past year) report being satisfied with airline staff, on-time performance, baggage handling, and even airport [...]
“There’s no part of our operation that government can’t find a way to improve.”
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, competition, congress, consumer advocacy, environment, faa, labor, politics, regulation, us airways on March 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
TEMPE — Echoing Doug Parker’s plea for the government to “do no harm” to the airline industry, C. A. Howlett, US Airways’ top government affairs officer, outlined the challenges the industry — and US Airways in particular — face in the policy environment. His primary focus was the pending FAA reauthorization bill. Put off since [...]
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