The ‘Southwest Effect’ Expands Its Reach
September 28, 2010Yesterday’s announcement that Southwest Airlines plans to acquire AirTran is welcome news for travelers, but it probably made Delta executives choke on their Monday morning coffee. Just last week, Delta lost its place as the largest domestic air carrier when shareholders of United and Continental agreed to merge those companies under the United banner. Not that Delta has been on top for very long. It claimed number-one status only after …
A Government Regulation That Works, So Far
August 19, 2010Federal regulators cannot solve every problem of modern life, but that does not mean that well-targeted rules cannot solve any problems. Case in point: airline passengers who become airline hostages during extended ground delays. Last June, passengers on 268 commercial flights in the United States were stranded on the tarmac for more than three hours. This June, only three flights were similarly delayed. In May, there were only five flights …
Buy Me A Spreadsheet, And Cracker Jack
May 25, 2010Memo to the New York Mets front office, from one of your team’s diminishing number of followers: You seem to be running the Mets like an airline. This is not a good idea. Airlines seldom make any money. Also, most of their customers can’t stand them. Citi Field, the beautiful $800 million facility you opened just last year, is like a shiny new terminal. Most everyone who has been there …
Wi-Fi In The Sky
March 25, 2010It is no big deal that I am writing this column on my laptop while flying from San Francisco to New York. People have done that for years. But as I write, I can send instant messages to colleagues at my office and surf the Web for research material. The Internet has arrived in the skies. And that, of course, is a big deal. I am a little behind the …
Faith And Flying
January 5, 2010My wife dropped off our daughter at the airport on Sunday for a flight from New York to Chicago. She did not need to fly. My daughter wanted to drive her own car home from college for her winter break, but I objected. The route would have taken her through several Great Lakes snow belts, and I did not want her to drive solo on such a long trip through …
Liberation On The Tarmac
December 29, 2009Airlines can continue to herd their customers like cattle, pack us like sardines and nickel-and-dime us like the suckers we must be, since we keep coming back for more. But they can no longer hold us hostage. With pro-passenger legislation bottled up on Capitol Hill, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has issued a Department of Transportation rule addressing many of the concerns of travelers’ advocates. LaHood is calling the new regulations, …
Holding Patterns
August 14, 2009A few years ago, I was traveling from Dallas to Detroit when my flight was diverted to Fort Wayne, Ind. After stormy skies over Detroit forced us into a holding pattern, the plane began to run low on fuel. Shortly after we landed for a refueling stop, the crew reached its maximum allowable work time for that day. Passengers were deplaned and we were given the option of waiting for …
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