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You can access this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter here. (But only if you are a subscriber. Speaking of, why aren't you a subscriber yet?)
My thanks to an ever-vigilant reader who caught our earlier link omission.
Shame on us.
You didn't really think American Airlines (AMR:NYSE) was going to come back to the Allied Pilots Association with an unqualified "yes" to their list of "cost-free" or "low-cost" goodies they asked for in return for the changes the airline needs in their contract in order to fly DFW-Beijing non-stop ...now did you?
If you've not kept up with this drama, American Airlines is bidding, along with Northwest, United, and Continental, for the next China route from the DOT. American is the only airline that does not have its pilots fully online with the deal -- as the pilot union needs to agree to amend its current contract if the long flight is to be flown non-stop.
Almost two weeks ago the APA gave American a laundry list of "no-cost" items it would like to see added to its current contract -- in return for the agreement to fly the longer flights.
In that list, which included such things as free broadband at all crew hotels, there was also a request that pilots would receive priority for jump seats -- a request that did not sit well with the airline's flight attendants.
But as far as I know, there was no stipulation that the airline pay to have a pilot's piano tuned if the airline asks them to move to another domicile. (Yes, that was a part of an actual pilot contract with an airline which shall remain nameless at this time.)
Yesterday American responded to the pilots' proposal. Their response? A resounding "no."
Or, as Captain Fury puts it in this latest set of cartoon panels -- it wasn't just a no, it was a "bitch-slap."
Don't know who Captain Fury is? We've mentioned him in PlaneBusiness Banter before, but I'm not sure if I've talked about him here or not.
Captain Fury is a well-connected American Airlines' pilot with a wicked sense of humor, and an even-more wicked ability to capture personalities in pen and ink. Captured above are the Captain's renderings of Jeff Brundage, American's SVP of Human Relations on the left, and Denny Newgren, a negotiator for American.
Below -- one panel which incorporates a shot across the bow at the airline's Chief Pilot, Mark Hetterman, a dig at the airline's Fall Leadership Conference and a slam of the legendary PUP bonuses that management has received. And yes, "management" includes Hetterman.
If I was Gerard Arpey, Jeff, or (god forbid) Mark Hetterman, this guy would be my worst nightmare.
You can catch the Captain's latest take on the continuing APA/AA drama here.
Upset that Air New Zealand is planning on outsourcing worker's jobs to ground services company Swissport in a joint venture with Australia's Transfield Services, 1700 ground workers have called for an injunction against the company. Aiding their efforts? This modified, and I might add, rather creative, version of the Air New Zealand logo.
Tuesday the airline officially declined comment on the creative ability of its employees, saying only that it intended to respond to the group's request for an injunction.
One of the things I am always very careful about doing when I write is to give credit to those reporters or sources who are first to report a particular story.
As a result, we have a tomato to throw at Mary Schlangenstein from Bloomberg, who reported Monday about the grounding of the American Airlines' (AMR:NYSE) Maddogs that occurred earlier this month.
We first reported the story here in PlaneBuzz on Nov. 14. We followed up that week with a story in PlaneBusiness Banter.
A mention of the fact that we had reported the story here first would have been much appreciated.
While other news outlets were highlighting the fact that the major players involved last week -- France, DaimlerChrysler, and Lagardere cancelled a scheduled meeting to discuss the financing of the Airbus A350 aircraft -- "squabbling" was how Reuters put it -- Flight International focused today on the real issue here.
The real issue is that any type of launch aid is now subject to closer scrutiny, because the WTO dispute continues between the United States and the European Commission. The question at issue here? Government subsidies to aircraft manufacturers.
Speaking of, the U.S. has filed its first WTO submission, and the EC is expected to reply by Feb. 9. Meanwhile the EC has already asked the WTO to select panelists and set a timetable for its own case against the U.S. before the end of business today.
Given this backdrop, I think it is safe to say that the manner in which the new aircraft's launch is funded is a bit more complicated then it would have been previously.
I wouldn't, therefore, call the cancellation of the funding meeting last week a result of "squabbling" or "infighting" amongst the EADS partners. Rather, I'd call it making sure their respective backsides are covered no matter what plan is adopted -- given the current political landscape.
Hello all. It's the Monday after Thanksgiving. But unlike most years, because Thanksgiving came so early this year, it's not December yet. I feel like I'm in some kind of nebulous time frame as a result.
A look at the market news today gives us a couple of reasons why many stocks are trading down on the day, especially the airline sector.
First, the price of crude oil is back up above $60 a barrel, fueled by comments this weekend by Saudi Arabia's oil minister supporting a further cutback in OPEC productions levels in December.
Second, it appears that Black Friday was not the blockbuster retail giant Wal-Mart had hoped it would be. Initial indications are that the company actually saw sales down from last year -- and this was after the company started hyping its drop-dead Friday deals weeks in advance.
However, it appears (although numbers are not out yet) that other retailers fared a bit better. We just don't know by how much. In the meantime, Wal-Mart's less-than-stellar performance has traders wondering just how strong this Christmas season is going to turn out to be.
Anxiety and the unknown. Not a good combination for those on the Street to contend with.
Especially now -- as the question of the underlying strength of the economy going into 2007 is somewhat suspect.
As a result, the one-two punch of higher oil prices and potentially softer-than-expected retail holiday sales are weighing heavily on Wall Street today. Last time I checked the Dow Jones Industrials Index was down 150 points while the Nasdaq was running about 50 points down on the day.
As for the airlines, the news was certainly less than festive as a quick check of the airline stocks we track at PlaneBusiness as of 12:28 P.M. CST showed every airline stock in the red.
This week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted.
From today's WSJ:
Airbus revealed that its share of new aircraft orders by value has waned to about 36% this year from 45% last year, in a sign of just how much damage the European jet maker has suffered amid delays in its A380 superjumbo program. Boeing, of course, has been the major beneficiary of Airbus's turbulence, and the U.S. aerospace giant is on course to pass Airbus in orders for the first time in six years. Airbus predicts global demand for 22,700 aircraft worth $2.6 trillion over the next two decades. "This is a growth industry, no matter how you slice it,'' said Chief Operating Officer John Leahy at a news conference in London.Is that the best comment John could come up with?
Investment bank Macquarie Bank and private equity firm Texas Pacific Group have proposed buying out Australian airline Qantas Airways in a deal that could be worth more than A$10 billion ($7.7 billion). News of the potential deal pushed Qantas shares up as much as 21%.
The deal would apparently involve Macquarie taking a 25% stake in Qantas, other Australian investors taking 25%, Qantas senior management 1% and international players led by Texas Pacific Group taking the rest, according to a story in the Australian Financial Review.
This ownership mix would allow the consortium to get around current ownership restrictions that limit one individual entity to no more than 25% of the airline, and international interests collectively owning no more that 49%.
To protect landing rights at airports around the world, Qantas would have to remain majority-owned by Australians, as take-off and landing rights are negotiated between countries.
Analysts told the Financial Review that Macquarie could sell Qantas aircraft to Macquarie's aircraft leasing business and put Qantas's terminal assets into Macquarie Airports.
My only comment is this. If a private deal can be put together for Qantas, it can be put together for a major U.S airline just as easily.
PBB subscribers, this week's issue will be posted tomorrow morning. Yeah, I know. Kind of like doing back-to-back issues since we just posted last week's issue on Friday!
Ye gads! Stop the printing press! Help!
News out tonight is that Delta is shifting the flying of 12 70-seat jets currently operated by Comair to SkyWest. This will leave Comair operating only 15 70-seat jets for Delta.
Click here for the AP story.
No other news yet on any other changes in Delta regional contracts.
For those of you with no turkey to fry or cook, no pie to bake, and no sweet potatoes to mash, you can access a full copy of the Allegiant Travel Company IPO prospectus by clicking here.
Warning. It's a .pdf file and it's massive. 144 pages.
Don't look now but we're about to have another publicly traded airline in the U.S.
Allegiant Travel Company, the parent of Allegiant Airlines which is based in Las Vegas, and flies primarily to smaller markets throughout the U.S., filed its S-1 with the SEC today. The airline plans to sell up to 5 million shares for between $15 and $17 per share in an initial public offering.
Merrill Lynch & Co., the lead manager on the deal, along with other managers, have the option to buy an additional 750,000 shares to cover overallotments, according to the filing.
Assuming an offering price of $16 a share, the company -- which earned $10.3 million on revenue of $180.2 million in the first nine months of 2006 -- would have an initial market capitalization of about $300 million.
The airline is going to be listed on the Nasdaq with the symbol ALGT.
Speaking of new offerings, last Friday shares in the "new" Air Canada went public. ACE Aviation Holdings, Inc., spun off 25% of the airline last Thursday in a deal that was heavily oversubscribed. The new ticker symbol there is AC-A.To (Shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.)
More info on the folks behind Allegiant in the coming weeks. But for the most part -- if you remember the original management team from ValuJet -- you're going to see a lot of the same names.
Only this time it's a different business plan and they're flying MD-80s.
We just all need to remember this when he runs for office.
Last week the news broke about how a woman and her husband boarded a Freedom Air flight operated as a Delta Connection flight in Burlington, VT on Oct. 13. Seated in the window seat near the back of the plane, Emily Gillette apparently then began to breast feed her 22-month prior to departure.
Gillette says that she took care so that no part of her breast was showing.
But after a period of time, a flight attendant came and offered a blanket, asking Gillette to cover up.
At this point, the story becomes the usual she said, she said, with Gillette claiming that she did not want to use a blanket, and the flight attendant apparently insisting that she did use the blanket ...or else.
That "else" then became a Delta ticket agent, who came onboard and asked Emily and her husband to get off the plane.
Gillette filed a complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission regarding the incident. She says that a woman’s right to breastfeed wherever she is legally allowed to be is protected in Vermont under the Public Accommodations Act.
Not surprisingly, when news of the incident broke last week, it ignited a wildfire of protest from various women's groups. A protest of nursing mothers was held Wednesday at the Burlington airport.
Tuesday, nursing mothers and their supporters will be gathering at 10 am for nurse-ins at Delta Air Lines' airport counters across the country to protest Delta's having kicked the nursing mother off of a flight.
Of course, this is just yet another example of why you need to choose your codeshare partners carefully. I'm sure Delta appreciates this --and right in the middle of the Thanksgiving travel rush.
While Delta had nothing directly to do with the incident, it was their codesharing partner who did.
Freedom Air, the airline directly responsible, is a Mesa Air Group (MESA:Nasdaq) operation.
Last week, Paul Skellon, who was identified by the AP as a spokesperson for Freedom, was quoted as saying,
"A breast-feeding mother is perfectly acceptable on an aircraft, providing she is feeding the child in a discreet way,' that doesn't bother others. She was asked to use a blanket just to provide a little more discretion, she was given a blanket, and she refused to use it, and that's all I know."
Not the way I would have handled the situation.
Today, almost a week later, Mesa finally managed to get a press release out -- in which Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein made the comment, "So there is no confusion, I would like to let folks know that we firmly support mothers' right to nurse their children on board our aircraft. We have no company policies whatsoever that hinder breast feeding in any way." He then went on to blame the incident on a relatively newly hired flight attendant.
The airline should have been out front and center on this long before now. And in the right way.
Now it's turned into a national fiasco. And for Delta as well.
Okay, so I missed our rescheduled arrival time by 5 minutes. Send me an email and I'll send you a $5 food voucher. All I have to say is -- the issue was worth the wait. Besides this was a weather-related delay. Well, sort of.
So it doesn't count in the official DOT statistics.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
PlaneBusiness subscribers can access this week's issue here. Now.
I'm happy to report that we are back up and running at normal hyperactive speed again. Thank you BellSouth. We're in final edits and we'll be posted in time so that you guys on the East Coast can rip, print, and read on the way home today.
Talk to you later!
Hey guys. Yes, I'm late for this week's advisory on our posting time, and there's a reason. We're having some connectivity issues. Let's just say writing and editing live on the web using dial-up is not my idea of having a good time.
Due to heavy weather that moved through here yesterday our high-speed connectivity to the Worldwide Headquarters has been affected. BellSouth says we should be good to go by tomorrow.
Great. But that doesn't help us now.
in the meantime, we're still working, although it is at a crawl. God, how did we ever get by in the old days with just dial-up? I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.
Again, look for this week's issue to be posted tomorrow.
"Speaking of airlines -- my bottom call on Delta looks like a real bottom now as UAL Corp. (UAUA) is making an offer! On the 5th, at $1.04, I said about the Jan '08 $2.50s: "Now I can just put them away and forget about them or just set a sell at .15 (.10 is not worth it) and hope for some exciting news between now and then."
I think this may qualify as exciting news already!"
From the Phil Davis' SeekingAlpha "Stock Market Opinion and Analysis" page today.
Somebody might want to send Phil a note and explain the facts of proper airline identification to him.
Me? I'm too busy working on this week's issue of PBB and trying to decide if Doug Parker is truly brilliant or a true sadist.
Doug Parker. You know him. He's the CEO of UAL Corp.
Was just talking to a couple of my Wall Street buds and I think it's pretty clear what the motivating factor might be in US Airways (LCC:NYSE) making this move now.
As many of you might be aware -- for the last week there has been increasing speculation concerning the question of whether or not a big deal was in the works that would see United Airlines possibly go private.
I don't think this was idle speculation. From what I hear, there has been some active behind-the-scenes planning going on in regard to a potential deal of this type.
Given that a deal of this size would require a sizable number of participants, i.e., banks and funds of one type or another, and given that one of the reasons for such a deal could certainly be to take in yet another bankrupt airline and then roll out the new entity as a new public offering at some point -- I think we see a big potential reason for US Airways doing what it did today.
And yes, as this deal was made directly to the creditors, and not to the airline itself -- it's not a friendly type of proposal. Rather it signals that US Airways has forced the issue -- and that perhaps Delta management has not been that receptive to their earlier advances.
Let the fun begin.
I admit. I'm still trying to digest it.
Then again in June, I wrote this in PlaneBusiness Banter in a column on the value of mergers:
"Last week, [US Airways CEO Doug] Parker kind of made sure everyone was awake at his dinner in New York [at the Merrill Lynch Transportation Conference] when he made the comment that they, US Airways, were looking at any and all opportunities. As he said, "This situation [with two majors in bankruptcy] is a once in a lifetime opportunity."
So, throw US Airways in the pot as well. Frankly, I like the thought of a Delta/US Airways combination. I think it could work. But it would only work if Delta was completely and totally reconstructed. It would also probably have to be set up more like a "parallel" deal -- something akin to a Southwest/ATA arrangement.
Money? US Airways could get it.
For that matter, the old issue of "box of rocks" thinking should no longer be an issue for Continental management and Delta. There are not many "box of rocks" thinkers left at Delta. "
Oh boy.
Fast forward to this morning when it was announced that US Airways (LCC:NYSE) has made an offer to Delta creditors that would involve both equity and cash -- for a total of $8 billion. The deal would be a merger, and the resulting entity would be named, "Delta." ("New" Delta, I suppose would be more technically correct.)
Needless to say this blows the content in-the-works for this week's issue of PBB.
A few quick things -- as we'll no doubt be talking more about this in the coming days and weeks.
First -- strictly from a creditor perspective, the deal is a pretty good one.
Two -- given this alternative, will Delta continue to maintain that it wants to remain independent?
Three -- yes, it's a nightmare of logistics. I mean, where do you start?
Four -- from a regulatory perspective, this deal would undoubtedly see capacity pulled from the East Coast -- and the Shuttle would have to be sold.
Interestingly, because of the new opportunities for other airlines the merger would open up -- major competitors might not be that opposed to the deal.
The scope of it boggles my mind.
Thanks to a number of readers who wrote to tell me that American has now inspected and repaired all but 10 or 11 of their MD80s that were forced to spend much of the weekend on the ground.
Good news for American. Should mean the airline can be back up to full capacity by the end of the week. If not sooner.
Only a week before Thanksgiving, American Airlines (AMR:NYSE) is apparently scrambling to work through a maintenance snafu that has seen tens of its MD80s grounded in various locations around the country because of fuel contamination problems.
From what we understand, American Airlines' maintenance crews improperly prepped fuel tank access doors of the affected aircraft before painting them.
The mistake then apparently caused the paint to contaminate the fuel filters of the aircraft.
We understand that American Airlines was forced to ground 54 of its approximately 300 MD80s on Friday and as of yesterday, there were still a fair number of aircraft parked around the system.
Needless to say, not even considering the cost of repairing the actual problem, this has become a costly mistake for American, as thousands of travelers have had to be compensated and/or rerouted since the aircraft were pulled from service.
Given the date, it's going to become even more costly if the airline can't get those aircraft back up and flying soon.
Kudos to Continental's (CAL:NYSE) CEO Larry Kellner, who told an attendee in response to a question at the International Trade Summit and Expo 2006 Monday that he is against the use of personal cellular telephones on aircraft while in-flight.
Kellner didn't see a need to ban brief calls in flight, but he favors Internet access as well as text-messaging on cell phones or BlackBerries. He also said that Continental hopes to make broadband Internet access available to passengers by 2008. But that VOIP usage would not be included.
This topic is back in the news because of Emirates' announcement last week that it plans to bring onboard cell phone access to its flights beginning in January.
Emirates said last week that it hopes that passengers would "respect the privacy of those around them" when using their phones, but just how this is going to be accomplished is certainly a mystery to me.
I guess flight attendants will now be expected to act as "cell phone cops" for the entire flight?
Yeah! Unlike onboard cell phone usage, here's an onboard enhancement that makes sense.
Apple Computer today announced it is teaming up with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to deliver the first seamless integration between iPods and in-flight entertainment systems. These six airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections which power and charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on the their seat back displays.
In-flight iPod connectivity will be available beginning in mid-2007. Apple is also working with Panasonic Avionics Corporation to bring even more airlines in-flight iPod connectivity in the future.
A friend of ours sent out these pics this week that were taken in Las Vegas. The aircraft? The only one of its kind --a Russian Antonov 225. It is also the largest aircraft in the world. Wingspan on this baby? About the length of a football field.
![Imag[2]-1](http://www.planebuzz.com/Imag%5B2%5D-1.jpg)
The airplane was delivering a power transformer for Nevada Power, which had been manufactured in Turkey. I wonder what the air freight charges were on that shipment?
In case you're interested, here are the aircraft's specs.
Wingspan - 290 Ft.
Height. 59.4 Ft.
Length - 276 Ft.
Number of wheels..24
Max T.O. weight - 1,322,750# (A little over 660 Tons)
Max payload - 551,150# (Over 275 Tons)
Engines - six Lotarev D-18T turbofans
Max speed at altitude - 530 MPH
Cruise speed - 495 MPH
Range - 8310 NM
Subscribers can now access this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter here.
We're back on our normal schedule this week with PlaneBusiness Banter. No running around the countryside this week for yours truly.
And we've got a huge issue for subscribers to dig through as I take a closer look at the recent quarterly results of ten, yes, ten airlines.
Look for this week's issue to be posted later today. As always, I'll let you know when we're up.
Yes, well, "they" have obviously never been involved in the airline industry.
As many of you know, a group of Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines' employees recently started a website called H.E.R.O. This stands for Hawaiian airline Employees Repelling Ornstein.
Yes, that would be Jonathan Ornstein, as in the CEO of Mesa Air Group (MESA:Nasdaq) which owns "go!" (Or as we have dubbed the effort, "Hawaii Five-O")
A couple of weeks ago the H.E.R.O. site went black. First there was a request for some pro bono legal help posted on the site, and then there was a message on the site saying it would be back, after it was sold to new owners.
What was going on?
I'm still not sure, but here's my hunch. I suspect that the legal eagles at Mesa sent the folks behind the site a "cease and desist" threat of some type.
So after the ownership of the site was changed from private hands, and apparently some legal eagles working for the employees deemed the content on the site to be non-actionable -- the site is now back up -- and the group doesn't seem to have missed a beat. As they continue to beat up on Mesa and its fearless leader.
In fact, there is a new offering on the site that might be just the thing for an airline fan's stocking this Christmas.
You can access the bogus Amazon sales page for the parody review of Jonathan's new book, "First to Worst" here.
I have to admit. I don't know where they found that picture of JO, but it has to be one of the worst pictures of anyone I've ever seen.
These guys at H.E.R.O. have a real future in politics.
...and go vote.
Then take a picture of your purple finger and send it to me so I know you really did.
Seriously -- get out there and vote. It's important.
Now this is big news.
Today FedEx (FDX:NYSE) announced it was buying 15 Boeing 777 freighters -- and canceling its order of 10 Airbus A380 aircraft.
FedEx said its agreement with Boeing also gives it options to purchase an additional 15 aircraft. It expects to take delivery of four of the 777 aircraft in 2009, eight in 2010 and the remaining three in 2011.
This is huge, as if there were two companies that were thought to be willing to wait for the A380's delays more than most, it was UPS and FedEx.
Not FedEx. Can UPS be far behind?
Given the closeness with which FedEx had worked with Airbus in the development of the freighter version of the aircraft -- and the fact that FedEx is walking away from it -- you have to assume this move signals a belief on the part of FedEx that the aircraft simply is never going to do what it needs to do -- in terms of freighter performance.
Yours truly is suffering through the first cold of the season. A fact that was probably not helped by my sitting outside in 40 degree weather late last week watching a high school football game.
But hey, it was Texas high school football. It was worth it.
I had a great time.
I'm just paying for it now. Sniff, sniff. Sneeze. Sneeze.
I would like to thank the PBB subscriber who shall remain nameless who sent me the text message this morning that read simply, "Go Vols."
Yes, well you can chow down on two day-old dog food too.
Yep. Thanks to the typically inconsistent, but this time successful in the end, playing of LSU's offense, the UT Vols are no longer in the hunt for any meaningful end of season SEC championship effort. LSU beat Tennessee Saturday night in front of more than 106,000 Big Orange faithful. Now Tennessee's just playing for style points to see what bowl game it can snare.
A fact at least three Vol players must have been quite aware of Saturday night, as they proceeded to get arrested in Knoxville for drunk and disorderly behavior. "Oh hell, the season's over, who cares?"
However, on the pro side, it was a great weekend --- as the Bless You Boys, aka New Orleans Saints, beat up on Tampa Bay. The Saints are now 6-2 in the NFC South, enough for first place.
Marques Colston -- Rookie of the Year. No question.
Okay, enough pigskin pokes.
Leading the airline news today is the fact that the AMFA strike against Northwest Airlines is now officially over. I say "officially" because we all know Northwest was successful in breaking the union over this dispute a long time ago -- as the airline continued to fly using mechanics it had hired, and eventually, many of its own mechanics who crossed the union picket lines.
It was announced today that 72% of eligible workers voted to accept the tentative agreement that the airline and the union recently negotiated. The agreement settles the strike legally -- something Northwest needed as it proceeds through its bankruptcy process -- and it will give some small amount of benefits to those mechanics who remain on strike against the airline. While their old jobs are not part of the deal -- mechanics who accept "layoff" status will be able to re-apply to Northwest for a job.
As I have said before -- AMFA leadership totally blew this one.
Before I wander off to find the Kleenex box, one last mention. It was announced today that Southwest Airlines won the Business Travel News Annual Airline Survey for 2006.
Now I usually don't make much of such contests, awards, etc.
But I think this one is a fairly nice grab for the folks at Southwest (LUV:NYSE)as its the first time in the nine-year history of the award that neither Continental (CAL:NYSE) or American (AMR:NYSE)took top honors.
Or as BTN said, "For the first time, a low-cost domestic carrier that does not offer corporate contracts, an international network, a business class cabin or global distribution system participation drew the highest marks in an annual survey of executives responsible for purchasing corporate airline services."
There was a rather amusing quote from American Airlines' vice-president Frank Morogiello in the BTN announcement. "I would think managed travel programs would give Southwest the worst ranking: They don't offer corporate discounts, they don't run agency programs—they're totally against a managed travel program. You can't fail if you don't have a corporate contract that you have to do a review on, you can't fail if you don't have an agency program that you win or lose, and you can't fail if you don't offer amenities."
Ah, is it just me or does Mr. Morogiello sound like he is living in the past? Who needs corporate discounts when your base fares are lower to begin with Frank? Oh, and what amenities does American offer these days? Having recently flown first class on American, I can't say I was overly impressed by the experience. And I'm still trying to think about what amenities I received, as food was certainly not one of them.
As BTN explained in their release, "However, for buyers responding to this year's survey, price was king. In response to an open-ended question about the primary way their preferred carriers in the next year could keep their business, respondents overwhelmingly asked for more favorable pricing."
The release included one excerpt from a participant to make its point, "Southwest has made us feel like they care and value our business, even though we are a small account."
Let's look at these reasons. Low price and "they made us feel like they care and value our business."
Mr. Morogiello, did you write these reasons down? Do we need to explain how this works any further?
Okay, we're off on a Kleenex hunt.
Talk to you guys later.
It's posted. PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers can now access this week's issue.
Look for this week's issue of PBB to be posted by noon today. I'll let you know when it's ready to go.
A reminder to PlaneBusiness Banter readers. This week we are posting PBB on Friday.
Just a necessity because of my being on the road this week and a somewhat fractured schedule. No biggie.
Now, go get ready for this week's episode of Grey's Anatomy.
Hello everyone.
It's Thursday and I'm in Dallas working on this week's issue of PBB.
Yesterday I spent most of the day at Southwest Airlines -- as part of their media day activities. I wish I could say there was some interesting news to report from this year's program, but there really wasn't.
About the most interesting thing to report is that this year they combined the analyst/institutional investor day with media day, which provided for some interesting conversations at lunch.
Overheard at our table:
Reporter: And what investment firm are you with?
Investor: Blah Blah and Sons. You've never heard of us.
Reporter: Oh. Are you based in New York?
Investor: Yes, but we never talk to the press. We make it a point to stay "under the radar." We don't want any publicity.
Reporter: Oh.
End of conversation.
Unfortunately we really had little time just to "socialize" with folks who were there. I saw Gary Chase, I saw Betsy Snyder, I saw Jamie Baker, I saw Mike Linenberg, I saw Kevin Crissey, all the rest of the analyst community, not to mention all the media folks who were also there. But there was little time to talk to anyone. I had my hands full with my pizza and my ice tea looking for a place to sit at lunch when I saw Betsy, for example. Never got a chance to track her down before we were all shepherded into the next session with Southwest CEO Gary Kelly.
Shame. Would have been nice if we could have had more schmooze time. Both with Southwest execs and with the investor/analyst folks, since they were there. That type of informal contact, whether it be in the form of a cocktail party, or dinner, is a huge reason these types of events are usually worth attending.