Travel Industry Archive

 Eclipse Aviation files Chap. 11 — Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation Corp. filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, a few months after its once-largest customer, DayJet, folded in September. The company, which sold light jets for two to four passengers, was founded by former Microsoft executive Vern Raburn. Bill Gates’ investment firm, Cascade Investment LLC, also owned 3.8  percent of the...

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We’ve seen several airlines recently realize that they’ve cut too much from their frequent flier programs, and they’ve reverted to their old rules.  With all those changes, I find the most recent move by US Airways to be the most interesting because of the amount of time that elapsed before they reverted. In May, US Airways removed the 500 mile earning minimum per flight and...

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We all watched as members of Congress repeatedly berated the chief executives of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler for winging to Washington, D.C. on company jets and asking for a $25 billion handout. Sure, Congress made hay with the finest political grandstanding I’ve seen in years, but unfortunately, I don’t think the CEOs understood what they did wrong.  I don’t think...

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I briefly mentioned it earlier this week, but I think Delta’s fourth quarter unit revenue forecasts are worth discussing further. Demand is down all over, and Delta has really quantified it with this latest guidance. Delta had previously expected to see unit revenue increase between 8 and 10 percent during the fourth quarter. This increase was primarily expected due to the massive...

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More than 1 million spectators are expected to line the streets of Washington, D.C and celebrate Barack Obama’s inauguration Jan. 20, bolstering the tourism of the nation’s capital.  But will they all finding a flight and a place to stay?  ”There is a terrific amount of interest . . .  in Obama and his campaign, and that will equate to additional interest in...

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Virgin America’s Chief Executive, David Cush, had a lot to say over the weekend as the airline showed off its first aircraft equipped with wireless internet access, but the most interesting thing he said had nothing to do with the web. Cush had plenty to say on the airline’s finances, though I found some of his comments to sharply contradict other more optimistic statements that...

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Allegiant recently had its investor day, and they’ve filed all their presentations as an 8-K with the feds. I’d recommend flipping through for a good read on the airline. Here are a few things I thought were worth pointing out. The airline is now up to 116 routes serving 65 cities with a mere 38 aircraft. Of those routes, only two (Vegas to Santa Barbara and Fresno) have any...

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Gaming expo reveals Las Vegas fears — At a three-day gaming exposition in Las Vegas, executives seemed preoccupied by the economy, many predicting weak casino sell-offs or contracting with property management as ways companies will cope in the coming year. Financing was considered the biggest setback to most attending the conference. “Gone are the days when you could put up...

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The highest court in Canada decided that those suffering debilitating obesity are allowed to have two seats for the price of one. While several Canadian airlines appealed the new Canadian Transportation Agency rule, the court declined to hear their complaint. The blogosphere response at the court’s decision to uphold the new law was mixed. There was the standard “Let’s make...

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It used to be fun to watch IATA’s premium traffic monitor because the numbers mostly went up. As you can imagine, that’s not the case any more. IATA released September premium traffic numbers and overall, premium traffic is down 8%. Economy traffic was only down 4%, so premium is really the hardest hit. Check out this chart. Oh, is that news not bad enough for you? Along with...

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