Good points... But I object to the on-time metrics, which are the real illusion... When you 'flex' the meaning of on-time to be within 15 minutes and exclude a slew of events (extreme weather, carrier action, security delay) as well as a prorating for late arriving flights at the departure airport, quoting those numbers is a fantasy... Also, passengers arriving late due to cancelled flights are also excluded... So what you have is a 'feel good' number that can be trotted out that does not reflect the real-world experience... Ontime is ontime from the customer perspective and that is not accounted for... You can rationalize all you want, but if I get a ticket that has me arriving at 6pm, I am going to make plans based on that time... Of course, I will be prudent and build some flex... But when I arrive 10 minutes, that is 10 minutes late, not ontime... What we need is a ton of transparency not illusionary statics... Publish all the numbers... 1.Raw on-time (a minute late i

(Written on 26/09/2015)(Permalink)

No matter your opinion of American, this is a serious safety violation and needs to be investigated... 1. to determine if this true, and 2. to determine how a non-etops a/c could have been dispatched... I find it hard to believe with all the systems in place this could slip by... No shame on the author as transparency is the critical component of safety and ALL incidents need the light of day to prevent the future repeating the past...

(Written on 12/09/2015)(Permalink)

Do they realize they just severely increased airport staff to customer interactions (time at gate) with the yellow tag requirement ??? Even if they save time on boarding (no one has been able to do it), the yellow tag requirement will negate that... And I whole heartily agree, we fly Virgin Atlantic when visiting home... Have not stepped on a BA airplane since 2000... Cheers...

(Written on 03/08/2015)(Permalink)

Day flying has increased over the years with the Usps contract, shift of priority to deferred service and an increase in online shipping.

(Written on 21/07/2015)(Permalink)

Having been at FedEx during that period, I can tell you the decision to drop the A380 was driven by market forces and the de-centralization of the network. Unfortunately, the same reasoning that was used to add the DC10 to reduce wingtip-to-wingtip flying (b727s trans atlantic and domestically) was applied for the a380 project. A model long past. You are absolutely right about gate footprints, however an express network needs to have the shortest market-to-market connections and the a380 is a hub-2-hub aircraft and nothing more. It was at that time that FedEx was moving away from a single regional hub (Cdg in Europe for example) to multiple hubs (Cgn) in order to compete and have the fastest-to-market product flow. The a380 was not suited for that role and thus the b777 and Boeing was brought back into the fleet plan for FedEx. Just look at Asia now and the direct flying to Mem vs via Anc or Oak and you see the results of de-centralization. A few other strikes. 1.payload over lo

(Written on 21/07/2015)(Permalink)

Is there a secondary market for A380s ??? Will there be one ??? The era of 4 engine aircraft is over, time for Airbus and Boeing to cut the losses...

(Written on 21/07/2015)(Permalink)

It is about sending signals and the me-too every time fares are adjusted... If there is merit once DOJ gets the data, then it will proceed... If the airlines are not colluding, then it stops and sends a signal to the oligopoly to behave... Unlike the auto industry, we do not have global competition to keep supply & demand in balance...

(Written on 02/07/2015)(Permalink)

When will the airline learn their lesson... You do everything you can to get your personnel to the diversion point... Use one of your executive aircraft or find someone who can fly a team with a boat load of cash to help your customers that are stranded due to your control... Yes ,you own those airplanes and anything that happens to them, even thought the c-suite and bean counters think otherwise... You pull an aircraft out of mx check, crew it with your standby staff and go rescue them... it is an easy decision, why is it so hard???

(Written on 18/06/2015)(Permalink)

I am all for modern design, but imho any aircraft scheme should represent the company and/or country... When you look at Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, you know they are British... When you see Alaska and Hawaiian, you know who they are... Delta has the widget right on their tail... When I see American, it might as well be any carrier and/or country that has red, white and blue... It just says 'nothing'... And it says 'nothing' in an awful tone of grey... Oh wait a minute, it screams Aeroflot old and new... Not th eimage I would want...

(Written on 25/01/2015)(Permalink)

That has possibilities... The tail scheme and how it drops into the fuselage line is disruptive to the eye... Just the eagle would be a great improvement as that tail does not send thea message 'this airplane belongs to American Airlines'... Just a dull gray with red, blue and white is all I see... How many millions did they spend on coming up with that... z

(Written on 24/01/2015)(Permalink)