Travel Industry Archive

November was a miserable month for many airlines as demand really started to fall off, often faster than capacity. Here are the year over year changes in traffic for US airlines’ commercial service (including regional operations unless noted).  Click for definitions. Airline ASMs RPMs Load Factor AirTran (7.1%) (6.6%) +0.4 pts Alaska* (6.8%) (6.9%) N/C Allegiant (10.6%) 1.9%...

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Mesa Air can’t go! Aloha – A bankruptcy judge lambasted Mesa Air Group for crassly trying to take the now-defunct Aloha Airlines name and blocked the company from using it until Feb. 19 — giving time for groups of supporters and opponents to respond.  Judge Lloyd King postponed the licensing hearing Thursday saying, “How about all the people whose lives were...

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We’ve talked a lot about how the tremendous drop in the price of fuel can help airlines to weather a drop in demand. This week, Delta President Ed Bastian put it in perspective, and we’re talking huge numbers. Bastian noted that if oil stays at $50 a barrel through next year, the airline will save $5 billion in costs for 2009. I assume he’s talking about the combined...

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I saw something today that made me realize how bad things are in Nevada: the cash-strapped Nevada Commission on Tourism canceled its annual meeting next week — to save money. From the Associated Press: “It’s a huge deal and it was an extremely difficult decision to make,” Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki said Wednesday. “This conference was going to lose money and...

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I didn’t mention it here on BNET when it was first announced that Southwest was planning to buy its way into New York’s LaGuardia airport, but now that the slot sale has been confirmed, I thought it would be worthwhile to discuss how they might be used. There are a few different ways they could go here. The first question is whether this is really just a beachhead into a much...

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Delta says more flight and job cuts — Delta Air Lines Inc. president, Ed Bastian, said Delta will cut flight capacity to 8 percent and talked about job cuts at an investors meeting Tuesday. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport can expect to see a 13 percent cut, or 40 flights a day, from the carrier. Delta’s regional carrier, Comair, will be laying off 150 pilots next...

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It shouldn’t really be a surprise that an airline would object to something that helps its competitors, but I do find it amusing to see how blatantly self-serving those objections can be. United, Continental, Lufthansa, and Air Canada have applied for a transatlantic joint venture that would also include global antitrust immunity for those carriers along with TAP, LOT, Austrian, bmi,...

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BA’s shares received a boost on news that it is considering a merger with Australia’s Qantas, while it tries to ringfence potential tie-ups with Spain’s Iberia and American Airlines. The merged entity, if it goes ahead, would have a dual listing structure. Why it makes sense: The two airlines are broadly the same size in terms of fleet and passengers, and already codeshare on the UK to...

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Southwest has always lagged the industry in load factor, but even with that in mind, its November numbers are pretty shocking. The airline turned in a 63.2 percent load factor for the month, down more than 6 points from last year. While many airlines decided to slash capacity, Southwest held firm and actually had a very tiny increase (0.4 percent). So with the same amount of capacity flying...

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After years of growth and gaining the eyes of millions, online travel sites Travelocity, Expedia.com and Orbitz experienced their first real decline – and it’s a big one. Visitors to Web travel portals dropped 14 percent, or 38.2 million, says ComScore Inc., a market research company. But some companies, like Priceline.com and Kayak, are blossoming.  The breakdown of online...

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