Capacity Trimming at US Airlines

Perhaps slash and burn would be more appropriate.

But here is a quick round up of what is going on at the US majors:

Continental - slowing deliveries but since they are pretty much stocked with narrow bodies they should be fine. The big issue is the late delivery of the 787s.

Southwest - deferred 4 2008 deliveries by 4 years. Also may still slow deliveries for 2009 and beyond. With their planes currently flying around 1/3rd empty - they have quite a lot they can do.

Big Delta, massive restructuring of the RJ fleets has seen several hundred Canadairs sent away. Even some new Embraer E-Series have left the fleet. Expect DC9s to disappear. Look for more 757s for international and indeed the use of some of the new 787-700s in long haul. Not sure I would really feel that great going from Atlanta and New York to Africa on a 757. Big cuts in the DC9 fleet are a foregone conclusion. Those old birds should be taken out at dawn and shot.

Alaska - The Canadairs are gone and slowing deliveries of the 737-800s caused mostly by the Boeing strike will probably hold up for 2008/9 but I suspect we shall see deferrals

United - cutting 100 planes (nearly 25% of the fleet) was a big thrust. They still haven't cut back enough staff but that's another story. United has taken a financial hit by writing off the deposits on several airbus planes. Up to 42 deliveries could be cancelled.

The only one changing is American. They are accelerating the 737-800 deliveries and ordering up to 100 787s. At the same time not waiting for the 787s they have ordered a lot of winglets for the 767s.

"Given the cost efficiency of the 737-800 vs. the MD-80, this makes a lot of sense, particularly in this volatile fuel environment," American CEO Gerard Arpey said. "We’re going to continue to look for opportunities to move even faster." I guess he has not looked too closely at the numbers. right now the MD80 is a very efficient aircraft for its size. Just ask Allegiant who is picking them up almost as fast as American and others are dropping them.

Cheers

US DoT policy on China Route Awards - puzzling to say the least

The Government always moves in mysterious ways. This time it is downright screwy.

Effectively the government has decided to consolidate the 2007 and 2009 China route awards. Thus creating a strange situation that would mean that United Airlines automatically gets the 2008 award yet the competition for 2007 and 2009 are hotly contested. For a learned discourse on this go to the Aviation Week website: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=comm&id=news/NDCH07177.xml

However logic would normally suggest that the route awards should be engaged by priority of value proposition. Not so it would appear. Only if you choose the right award date process does it work. Again go figure.

So why the DoT has decided to do this seems to be that the US Dept of Transportation is trying to outdo the European Directorates in bureaucratic nonsense.

If all else fails give it to Maxjet so I can fly from my favorite airport of Seattle on a reasonable seat.

oops that sounds like a special interest statement. Sorry........

Stealth Fare increases - United Airlines new policy

Like all good travellers - the team at ITK like to use the automated tools whenever possible. Better we do it than have some half baked agent in India give you bad information and then charge you for the privilege. However there are times when the IBE - Internet Booking Engine just doesn’t work. It cant handle for example International very well. So admittedly International is but a small percentage of the airlines business but it is an increasingly important part. So one would expect the airline to allow international access to special folk who can manipulate the system to get the answer that is actually there but not viewable through the eyes of the IBE.

United has a new policy. Upgrades are now only available on their website. So if the website doesn’t work what can you do? Answer - nothing. Kicking screaming and throwing a tantrum (this is the usual recourse) only works some times.

So United and others are now deploying these "self service" tools that in fact raise their yields resulting in a stealth price rise by denying the traveller access to someone who can fix the problem.

I am picking on United because I had the specific issue of this today. But other carriers have similar policies, processes and procedures that are resulting in the same thing. A barrier to lower fare access resulting in the punter having to buy a higher fare than is actually necessary.

It adds a whole new meaning to the term "Lower fares MAY be available on our website". Actually United is being careful (as are most airlines) in actually NOT saying that the LOWEST fares are available at their websites because - as I have been able to see numerous times - actually they are not.

Cheers

Timothy