PlaneBuzz

Proving once again just how wacky Wall Street can be, almost at the same time we posted this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter, the news came over the wires that the FL Group -- the hedge fund that is, er, was AMR's largest shareholder, and the one that has been making all the noise about how AMR needs to "maximize shareholder value" issued a release today -- saying it had slashed its position in the airline from 9.1% to 1.1%.

The fund said in a statement this afternoon that while the divestiture of Eagle is a move in the right direction,  AMR's "lack of clarity over timing, terms and valuation" of shedding Eagle "has done little to enhance value."

First, I agree with what the FL Group said.

But secondly, I'm glad they have taken their monopoly money and gone elsewhere.

Ticker: (NYSE:AMR)

Technorati Tags: airline stocks, American Airlines

Posted by Holly at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cranky Flier, aka Brett Snyder has a fun post on his blog today. He was lucky enough to be able to crawl around an Airbus A380 that flew a promo flight around Los Angeles yesterday. Pure airline geekdom at its best.

Posted by Holly at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Subscribers can now access this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter by clicking here.

Be back in a bit.

Posted by Holly at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Great crisp fall morning here at the Worldwide Headquarters. We're in final edits with PBB -- will let you know when this week's issue is posted.

Meanwhile, since we haven't had a Foto Friday in awhile, who can tell me what year this picture was taken?

Back in a bit.

P.S. Check out those uniforms. Now those are real airline pilots.

Posted by Holly at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ah, scratch that earlier help wanted banner.

I think we've already received enough notes of interest that we may have what we need.

I'm wrapped up in this week's issue of PBB for now.

All of you folks behave while I'm gone. Talk to you later.

Posted by Holly at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, I have too much on the plate, and not enough heavy-duty utensils to cut it up with.

With a major shiftover to a totally new software footprint for PlaneBusiness Banter now on the horizon, and with additional web programming needed to get our "Mesa Mess" mini-site completed and posted, I am looking for some part-time web savvy help.

Pressing duties include Photoshop/HTML graphic creation and Movable Type template creation and revisions.

On the backside for PBB, it would be nice to have someone who has experience tweaking code in such programs as JOOMLA, and other open-source UNIX based software on call who can help us as we transition into an entirely new back-end home for our worldwide empire.

This can be more than one person -- so if you are simply a graphics wiz and can manipulate MT templates -- that would be fine. We can look to someone else for the larger site management tasks.

Please send a note to me, at admin "at" planebusiness.com and tell me a little bit about your experience and what particular projects you've been involved in. Also, please advise as to your compensation requirements in terms of project or pay/hour.

Thanks.

Posted by Holly at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mary Schlangenstein at Bloomberg has a pretty good wrap piece on the American Eagle news from today.

As I have shared with a number of you privately this afternoon, I tend to agree with Bob Mann's comments in this piece. While this may make the "activist" shareholders happy -- I'm not so sure that American Eagle is that great a prize, nor will it garner much of a high price.

In the piece, Bob says, "I'm betting this one flops, compared to expectations. Investors may not want a stable of 37-, 44-, 50-seat jets and older Saab aircraft."

He added, "Investors will want to diversify away from American Airlines-only flying, while AMR will want an exclusive, or protection from competitors."

Yep.

The regional sector is growth-constrained, Eagle's aircraft are older, smaller, and more expensive to fly, there is the pilot issue (the contract here is going to be tied to the mainline negotiations to an extent it appears now) and let's face it -- the gung-ho environment that Continental spun ExpressJet into simply does not exist today. Nor is it going to exist in 2008.

So while Craig Hall, who is the airline's fifth largest shareholder tells Mary, "This is a good first step. We certainly hope that they are still looking at spinning off the mileage program, as we believe the biggest opportunity is there," and we can be sure that the FL Group, the largest AMR shareholder is happy with the news, remember that all they are looking for is a bump in the stock price. Meanwhile, AMR is looking for more cost stability.

But neither of those two necessarily go hand in hand with an overly generous price being paid for Eagle. Not in this environment. And not with the equipment Eagle is flying.

Ticker: (NYSE:AMR)

Technorati Tags: American Airlines, American Eagle

Posted by Holly at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Good news for the things with wings today. Weekly inventory numbers issued by the Energy Department this morning showed the drop in crude inventories was lower than expected,  gasoline inventories increased more than expected, and the drop in distillates, which includes the all-important jet fuel, was minimal.

Refinery output was also up for the week.

Wrap all this up together with increasing economic indicators that continue to point to a slowing economy (which theoretically should bring a decline in demand) and voila! Oil prices were down 4% or $3.80 to $90.62 today.

The price of crude has now fallen 7.2% in the last two days.

This fact was not overlooked by airline sector investors today. While the Dow Jones Blue Chip average was up 331.01 points on the day, or 2.55%. the AMEX Airline Index was up a healthy 4% to 40.02.

Leading gainers today included Allegiant, which posted a sizzling 7% gain, closing today at 34.51. It was a day of the 7% gain, apparently as US Airways was also up 7% on the day, closing at 20.97. AMR, parent of American was also up 7%, closing at 21.98. And, yes, Delta Air Lines was also up 7% on the day, closing at 18.77.

Our two always-volatile Chinese airline stocks had another bounce-off-the-wall day as well, as ADRs of China Eastern Airlines were up 21%, closing at 100.89, while ADRs of China Southern were up 8%, closing at 65.20.

Shares of Pinnacle didn't have a bad day, with shares here closing up 7% to 15.72, while shares of Republic were up 8%, closing at 20.27. Skywest? Up 5% to close at 25.65.

Even shares of Mesa, which have posted a horrible month, had a good day. Shares were up 9%, closing at 3.45.

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, crude oil, wall street

Posted by Holly at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just out on the wires. AMR, parent of American Airlines says that it "plans to divest itself" of its wholly-owned regional partner, American Eagle.

Did we hear the magic words in the press release that we've heard oh-so-much these days in the airline industry. Yep. Sure did.

"The decision comes after a careful and deliberate evaluation of the strategy that will best enable us to continue to create value for our shareholders," said AMR Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey.

Ticker: (NYSE:AMR)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, American Airlines, American Eagle, regional airlines

Posted by Holly at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yours truly was named one of the "most influential travel bloggers for 2007" this week by travel writer, passenger rights torchbearer, and syndicated columnist Christopher Elliott.

I'm sure many of you know Chris. He's written about the travel and airline business for many years -- and currently, as usual, he has a couple of gigs going on. He writes a syndicated column on airline travel problems geared at consumers, he has his own blog, elliott.org, and I believe he's also writing for a number of publications on a freelance basis.

What I have always liked about Chris is that he has never allowed himself to fall in the "travel whore" category.

You know the type. The ones who want free tickets, free this, free that.

Then we, as readers, passengers, or viewers, are supposed to believe that whatever they write, or say on TV, is unbiased.

Chris doesn't work that way.

In his comment about PlaneBuzz, Chris said, "Holly writes the airline blog. There is nothing more to say."

Woo hoo.

Other lucky recipients of Elliott's largesse included:

Mark Ashley, Upgrade: Travel Better
Paul Brady, Jaunted
Arthur Frommer, Frommers
Wendy Perrin, Perrin Post
Ben Popken, Consumerist
Rick Seaney, Rickseaney.com

I note that Rick's latest post has to do with the fact that New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International takes his nod as having had the longest security check-in lines of any major airport during the month of November.

MSY came in with a checkpoint time of 40 minutes. Newark was second with 35 minutes, and DFW came in third at 34 minutes. You can read more about his geeky TSA misery index here.

As for Mark over at Upgrade:Travel Better, he had a post of fake vomit on his blog the other day when he was tapped for the list. Nice going there Mark. His post dealt with the recent Tainted Turkey incident involving United Airlines and the less than tasty Thanksgiving dinner it served its employees.

Yum. Yum.

I would only add that I think Chris should have included Brett Snyder, aka Cranky Flier to his list. Not too late Chris. It could just become the "Top Eight." Heck, the more the merrier.

Posted by Holly at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If I read one more major media story concerning United Airlines and it's "desire to merge" with a partner, I'm going to scream.

Yesterday it was  the rehash story that BusinessWeek posted. Not one piece of news in the whole thing. Today, Reuters is in on the act. And there have been others. Many others.

Says one thing to me. The United Airlines' PR and positioning machine is making Tilton available to all who want to talk to him, and they are pushing to get this story out as much as they can.

Interesting. I wonder if this means fourth quarter is shaping up worse than expected, and they want to try and sucker, er, convince a would-be suitor/investment banking team before they have to face the music of reporting how much damage Virgin is doing to the airline's trans-con business?

Whatever the reason, the airline is beginning to look like some of the women who hang out on Bourbon Street. Actually, I'm not sure those women might not be more subtle in their approach.

Oh, yeah. To be fair, there have been two stories concerning United this week. The merger story -- and the story yesterday about how the airline wants to alter its debt repayment plans so that it can have the opportunity to "spread the wealth" to its shareholders.

Such a fine airline, that United.

Ticker: (Nasdaq:UAUA)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airline mergers, airlines, Glenn Tilton, United Airlines, virgin america

Posted by Holly at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

PlaneDad is just fine. Surgery went as expected, and he's antsy to get back to his normal routine. Good sign. Although I don't think he cared too much for that goofy blue surgical cap they put on his head.

I threatened to take his picture while it was still on his head.

I don't think he thought that was very funny.

Posted by Holly at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Terry Maxon, our partner in airline related mayhem over at the Dallas Morning News gets a quote of the week nod this week.

More than one subscriber sent us a note yesterday about Terry's take on Virgin America's Fred Reid. The comment came in connection with American's Dave Cush's move over to Virgin territory.

And I quote from one email, " I burst out laughing when I saw Terry Maxon's post calling Fred Reid a "fine airline executive."

Here's the full quote:

"C. David Cush, American Airlines' senior vice president for global sales, will become CEO of Virgin America.
And who got to make the announcement? Why, Donald J. Carty, Mr. Cush's former boss at American. David obviously made an impression on Mr. Carty, who is both chairman of Virgin America's board of directors and chief financial officer at Dell.

Mr. Cush replaces Fred Reid, a fine airline executive who unfortunately for Mr. Reid and Virgin America was seen as too tightly connected with the Virgin Group, the British investors behind the new airline. Although foreign investors don't own more of Virgin America than U.S. law allows, DOT thought Mr. Reid would be too beholden to the foreign investors."

That Terry. He's one snarky fellow, isn't he?  Yes, Fred is certainly a "fine airline executive." Isn't he?

Those folks in Dallas had better watch out. I understand Terry's daughter is a writer, just like Dad. And a pretty good one at that.

The weekend before last, Dad and daughter were in New Orleans where she picked up the "Best Short Story by a High School Student" Award at the New Orleans Words and Music Festival. She was also a finalist and semi-finalist in a couple of other writing categories. The Festival is put on by the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society. Proud Dad tells me she met with a few agents, had her work critiqued by some movers and shakers, and all in all, it sounds like Lindsey Maxon is already an accomplished writer.

And she's only 16.

Dad had better watch out. He's got some competition in the house.

Technorati Tags: airline CEOs, airline industry news, airlines, American Airlines, virgin america

Posted by Holly at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey guys. Just a heads up.

PlaneDad has to have some surgery tomorrow -- and yours truly is the designated hand-holder, limo driver,  chair sitter, and prescription retriever.

So I won't be around here too much for the next couple of days.

As for now -- I'm off to find that nurse's uniform with the ugly white shoes and that funky little cap.

Posted by Holly at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Think Virgin America Chairman Don Carty had anything to do with this?

Virgin America announced today that it has found a replacement for CEO Fred Reid. Dave Cush, formerly SVP of Global Sales at American, will take over as CEO at the airline effective Dec.10.

So -- is this good for Virgin, good for American -- bad for either?

I think Cush's departure is not a particularly good piece of news for American.  As for Virgin, I'm sure Cush's international experience will come in handy -- no matter what the future holds for Virgin America. My guess is that his type of experience will be quite valuable to the Virgin Group in the long term.

As for Cush himself, this is clearly a nice grab, as no one is really moving up at American. The only way up is out.

Ticker: (NYSE:AMR)

Technorati Tags: airline CEOs, airline industry news, airlines, American Airlines, virgin america

Posted by Holly at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taking a look at today's action on Wall Street it's not a very pretty sight -- as airline stocks are once again taking some hits. However, on the good side, the hits are relatively minor, compared to the major body blows the sector has endured over the last week or so.

And this, as oil more or less just sits around $97 a barrel.

Looking at the stocks we track here at PlaneBusiness, as of this posting at around 1:15 PM ET, the losers far outnumber the winners.

Leading the gainers are ADRs of China Eastern Airlines, which are currently trading up 4% at 80.08. The biggest loser for the group are ADRs of TAM. The Brazilian airline's ADRs are now trading down 4% for the day at 26.78. ADRs of AirFrance/KLM  are also down 4%, trading around 36.15 as of this writing.

Continental shares are currently down 2% for the day at 27, while shares of Delta Air Lines are flat at 18.13. AMR, parent of American Airlines, is down about 2%, trading at 20.32, while shares of US Airways are down almost 3%, trading at 19.78.

Shares of United are down almost 1%, trading around 39.94. Southwest shares are down 1%, trading at 13.59, while shares of Northwest Airlines are down almost 2%, trading at 17.50.

Tickers: (NYSE:CEA), (NYSE:TAM), (NYSE:AKH), (NYSE:CAL), (DAL:NYSE), (NYSE:AMR), (NYSE:LCC), (Nasdaq:UAUA), (NYSE:NWA), (NYSE:LUV)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airline stocks, airlines

Posted by Holly at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week in PlaneBusiness Banter, I mentioned that the reports we had received from many of our PlaneBuzz readers and our PBB subscribers seemed to be telling a similar story. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, many of you had written me, telling me that loads on your flights were not that bad, weather was cooperating, and that overall, things at the nation's airports were humming right along.

Or as one reader put it, "I've seen Friday afternoons at ORD that were much worse than they were Wednesday afternoon."

This morning, we're starting to get the first reports in from yesterday from a number of flight crew members, and those at the airlines who have access to their airline's respective flight info -- and again -- while I hate to disappoint those national media types who seemed to be salivating at the thought of an ugly passenger experience last week -- I've got some breaking news for you.

There is no story here.

The busiest air travel weekend has come and gone. And by all accounts that we have read, it went pretty damn well.

Technorati Tags: airline delays, airline industry news, airlines, puppy

Posted by Holly at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, I give up. I guess I need to just acknowledge the obvious and make a "Football" category over there on the right.

Will do.

But after a weekend like this, how can one not talk about football?

Pro or college, it was a weekend that will not be soon forgotten.

LSU-Arkansas. Want three overtimes with your public hanging of the nation's number one ranked team? Oh, that was nothing. Let's move to Saturday and the four overtime game between Tennessee and Kentucky. I thought Kentucky should have won that game, for whatever that's worth. Tennessee, as one writer put it today, "Has more lives than any damn cat I've ever owned."

As for LSU, Arkansas was the more prepared and more hungry of the two teams. They deserved to win. The LSU Tigers  played as if they had all eaten way too much turkey on Thursday. And the LSU crowd? For three quarters of the game, they were sound asleep as well.

Then we had Missouri-Kansas Saturday night -- at the same time we had Alabama-Auburn.

No question who I was for in the Mizzou match. I have too many readers who have kids who play football for Carroll High School in Southlake, TX. Chase Daniel, quarterback for Missouri, played high school football there.

All hail the new number one ranked BCS team. For now. (Very important disclaimer, that one. Especially this year.)

And then there was the Iron Bowl. Hey, did I not predict that Tommy Tuberville and the boys were going to beat St. Nick here last week? Yes I did. Tuscaloosa is not a place I'd like to be this morning. Furthermore, if Auburn is seriously considering giving Tuberville his walking papers -- they need to have their heads examined.

All in all, I feel this morning like my football circuits have been shorted out.

But wait. There was more to come. What about the Eagles last night? You can bet that AFC teams are cranking up that video this morning, taking copious notes as to just what Philly did to outgun, outsmart, and flummox the Patriots.

While technically New England pulled it out -- they did end up with more points on the board when the fourth quarter ended -- there's no question Philly won the fight. And with A.J. Feeley at quarterback no less.

What a weekend.

Technorati Tags: college_football

Posted by Holly at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Congrats to you hogheads out there. Arkansas deserved to win today. The Tigers were asleep for the bulk of the game. I guess the Tigers decided to give Coach Les Miles a nice excuse to take the job at head coaching gig at Michigan. With no National Championship game, now Les can say ..."yes!"

Not a happy night in Tigerland. Sigh.

Tomorrow, we've got our Tennessee Vols and Kentucky playing for the Eastern Conference slot in the SEC Championship. Should be a good game.

Posted by Holly at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Subscribers can now access this week's holiday issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

Meanwhile, let's all go back and watch LSU blow their National Championship hopes. Yikes!

Posted by Holly at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm off to tidy up this week's holiday week issue of PlaneBusiness Banter, but just couldn't resist dropping in to convey the news from Airbus this morning.

In a nutshell, Airbus chief executive, Tom Enders  told Airbus employees in Germany yesterday that the sinking dollar is "life threatening" to the European aircraft manufacturer.

"The dollar's rapid decline is life-threatening for Airbus," he said in Hamburg. "The dollar exchange rate has gone beyond the pain barrier."

As the Financial Post pointed out today in a story on the comments, "For every 10¢ the dollar falls against the euro, Airbus loses a billion euros in unfavorable foreign exchange. The euro now sits at US$1.48 against the dollar, up from US$1.35 at the beginning of the year. While the majority of Airbus's expenses are in euros, aircraft are sold in U.S. dollars."

Now while I am not sure that the drop in the value of the dollar is the biggest problem Airbus is looking at, there's no question that its impact is not insignificant.

Having said that,  I think there might be an answer to this problem hidden in my previous story this week about the drama queen in Alabama. Follow me on this one. I mean, if BMW can manufacture automobiles in Alabama, why can't Airbus make airplanes there?

I can see it now. "Proudly Manufactured in Tuscaloosa" on the side of an A320. Tuscaloosa, Toulouse....what the hey.

I would just make sure they didn't hire St. Nick to do PR for them. That would mean his face would be on the front and back of every aircraft brochure. Just as it was this year on the University of Alabama's football media guide.

Technorati Tags: Airbus, airplanes, Nick Saban, declining dollar

Posted by Holly at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oops. Here they are, in larger form.

Posted by Holly at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...And other various pre-Thanksgiving tasks.

Thought I would stick around online and see if oil was going to hit $100 today, but I think traders are suffering from the Turkey Trot -- they want to get home just as much as anyone else. I don't think we're going to see a new record price hit today.

Friday? Another day, another chance.

For PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers, we'll be posting Friday morning, with end of close numbers from today.

Talk to you later -- on the other side of the giblet gravy, stuffing, turkey, crescent rolls, maple baked sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts and goodness knows what else.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone.

P.S. These Thanksgiving cards are the work of an MIT student, Jennifer DiMase. Check out her work. She definitely has a PlaneBuzz sense of humor.

Technorati Tags: Thanksgiving humor

Posted by Holly at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SkyWest announced today that it has named Brad Holt the new President and COO of Atlantic Southeast.

Holt replaces not only former ASA President Bryan LeBreque, who announced his resignation earlier this month, but previous COO Anthony DiNota, who left the airline in October.

To put it another way -- the Delta-placed execs at ASA who came over as part of the deal originally are now gone, and SkyWest has now put one of its own at the top of the heap.

Holt has been with SkyWest for 25 years, having worked in Flight Ops, Operations, and the airline's Corporate Safety division. Holt's last position with SkyWest was as head of Flight Operations. Holt began with the airline as a line pilot in 1983.

Good move. Long needed move. With the pilots giving the thumbs-up to the ASA tentative agreement this week, and with these changes in management structure -- I can only say -- it's about time. I would expect that we will begin to see the positive ramifications reflected in SkyWest's next earnings call -- but even more so in the first quarter 2008 call.

As we had mentioned here after this quarter's SkyWest earnings call -- it was the first time that I can ever remember SkyWest not receiving at least one of its incentive payments for service -- as part of its flying contract with a partner. And that happened last quarter with ASA. While SkyWest, as usual, ran a pretty efficient operation, ASA was horrible.

The airline failed to meet even one of its contract incentive benchmarks.

A side note to the pilots at ASA: Remember when I told you in February of 2006 at the ALPA "Family Awareness" meeting in Atlanta that the SkyWest deal was a good thing -- and not a bad thing?

It may have taken awhile -- but I stand by my prediction.

Ticker: (Nasdaq:SKYW), (NYSE:DAL)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airline pilots, airline unions, airlines, ALPA, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, SkyWest

Posted by Holly at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Little did I know when I posted that note from one of our PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers on Saturday concerning the in-flight delay and the onboard iPhone user that it would it catapult our blog post into the realm of high-tech blog stardom.

Funny to read through all the comments that post has generated -- it's clear that most visitors were not airline centric types -- but those more interested in bashing/praising the iPhone. Or bashing the airlines.

I must say, it's rather mind-boggling. Especially the fact that PlaneBuzz was no. 1 on Reddit for part of Tuesday as a result of the post.

In answer to a couple of personal emails to me -- no, I don't own one -- yet. I'm waiting for version 2.0. My contract has now expired on my Treo deal with Earthlink. So I'm just biding my time.

Posted by Holly at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, I have a confession to make. I try, I really try to make sure that every post here has something to do with airlines. Or airplanes.

But sometimes, things just sneak in here.

My snarky little jab at Alabama this weekend was just one of those I couldn't resist.

And of course, the problem with these posts is that then readers send me notes and force, yes force me to continue the thread. Kicking and screaming.

Well, maybe not.

So, after more than one email today from those of you who were lucky enough to read about Alabama's Coach Nick Saban's little performance yesterday following his team's loss to the University of Louisiana-Monroe -- I feel it is my civic duty to get back in here and tell those of you who don't happen to follow the wonderful sport known as Southeastern Conference Football the following tidibit.

Saturday, Alabama was near-nigh humiliated by the War Hawks of the University of Louisiana-Monroe, 21-14.  Now this is not to say that the War Hawks are not a bad bunch of guys. But hey, let's put it this way. This should have been  kind of like Steve Nash going one-on-one with some kid in junior high school.

So yesterday, Alabama Coach Nick Saban, the man who lied about leaving LSU, and the man who played cute again with everyone when Alabama recruited him from the Miami Dolphins -- the man who has no problem taking $4 million to coach a college football team -- yes, that same man, likened the team's loss to other catastrophes -- such as 9/11 and Pearl Harbor.

Here's the quote from his press conference as he exhorted his team to "rebound":

"Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event," Saban said during the opening remarks of his weekly news conference. "It may be 9-11, which sort of changed the spirit of America relative to catastrophic events. Pearl Harbor kind of got us ready for World War II, or whatever, and that was a catastrophic event."

Sorry Nick, but a football game is not quite in the same league as the events that transpired on September 11, 2001. Much less Pearl Harbor. Nick, it's a GAME. It's FOOTBALL. I know you think that whatever you are involved in is the most important activity on the planet -- but no, I hate to tell you this -- Alabama losing to ULM was not a" catastrophe."

But wait, the story gets better.

St. Nick's "spokesperson" then issued a statement today. "What Coach Saban said did not correlate losing a football game with tragedy; everyone needs to understand that. He was not equating losing football games to those catastrophic events," football spokesman Jeff Purington said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The message was that true spirit and unity become evident in the most difficult of times. Those were two tremendous examples that everyone can identify with."

Ah, excuse me, but I don't think this makes things any better.

Only worse.

Nick, forget the X's and the O's this week. Before you lose to Tommy and the boys from Auburn this week -- go spend some time under some rocks -- and try to get some perspective.

Before those irate Alabama fans start leaving bags of burning cow patties on your front porch.

Technorati Tags: Nick Saban

Posted by Holly at 8:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay guys. Just an update on the PlaneBuzz Mesa Air Group Legal Defense Fund. Look for a mini-site with all the information about Mesa Air Group and CEO Jonathan Ornstein's SLAPP suit, how you can contribute to the fund, and more this week. I'm putting the final touches on a small mini-site that will put all of that information in one place.

Technorati Tags: Mesa Air Group

Posted by Holly at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As if you smart guys could not figure out why it is that airline stocks are getting the smackdown treatment today -- a big reason is you-know-what.

Yes, the price of oil is rearing its ugly head today again.

As of this writing, it looks like the price of a barrel of crude is now up more than $3. In one day.

Crude is currently trading at around $98 a barrel.

Technorati Tags: airlines, crude oil, oil prices

Posted by Holly at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taking a look at the sad state of affairs the airline sector finds itself in today, one can't help but wonder if we're getting to the point where it's simply ridiculous not to assume that there is at least one, if not more mergers or other types of link-ups just around the corner.

Why?

Because airline stocks are cheap. And, as of today, getting even cheaper. And if airline stocks are getting cheaper, that means market caps are as well.

Glancing at the rundown from today's trading -- at this writing, shares of Southwest Airlines are hovering around $13.00 a share.

Shares of United Airlines? Down a hefty 10% to $36.65. That will put some of those spoils-of-bankruptcy options under water.

Then there is Mesa Air Group. The airline was told yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris' courtroom that it has to post a $90 million bond, pending the result of the airline's appeal of Faris' recent ruling against the airline in the case involving Hawaiian Airlines.

Last week Faris had told Mesa that the bond could be as high as $98 million, but that was based on the assumption that the appeal would be heard in a U.S. Bankruptcy appellate court. As the case will now be heard in a Federal District Court, the waiting time before a decision in the appeal process will be closer to a year, rather than three.

Hence, the lower figure. However Faris also warned that the bond could be adjusted further, depending upon the result of the District Court's ruling.

Not the news that shareholders of Mesa wanted to hear. Obviously. Shares here are now trading down about 12% on the day, with the airline's shares currently trading around $3.45. Yes, $3.45.

At prices like this -- I wonder if any of the other regional airline players could be taking a look at Mesa? I mean, consolidation is not necessarily a "major airlines only" possibility.

Delta Air Lines is having a miserable day as well, with shares here down 9% for the day, currently trading at 17.26 a share. Continental? Shares here are down 8% to $25.57.

Yikes.

Ticker: (CAL;NYSE), (DAL:NYSE), (MESA:NASDAQ), (UAUA:NASDAQ), (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airline stocks, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Mesa Air Group, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines

Posted by Holly at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Can't help it.

If someone is going to take the trouble to issue a press release about something, and pay the money to do so through PR Newswire, the credibility of the press release is then completely shot when I read a sentence such as this. (Actually I have other problems with this whole survey, but that's another issue.)

From today's release touting the new Zagat Airline Survey,

"Discontent with the air travel industry is so high that 61% of the respondents favored the enactment of the Airline Passengers Bill of Rights, which, inter alia, would insure that passengers be compensated for bad air travel experiences. Only 5% oppose the bill while 34% still don't know what it is."

This sentence ENSURES that I won't take much of the rest of the story seriously. For more reasons than one.

Inter alia? Apparently this writer not only cannot spell, he or she likes to impress people with his or her Latin knowledge too.

I'm really impressed. Aren't you?

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Zagat Airline Survey

Posted by Holly at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

News reports today say that WestJet is in talks with Air France in an effort to reach an "interline" agreement which would see the airlines cooperate on services.

According to the Globe and Mail, details are being ironed out to first clear the way for WestJet to accept inbound Air France electronic tickets by mid-2008. Air France would accept outbound WestJet e-tickets by the end of 2008. The outbound arrangement means Canadian consumers could eventually book a flight to Paris through WestJet, with Air France getting part of the fare revenue after the French carrier flies passengers overseas.

"Discussions with Air France have been very positive, and there is a strong desire by both airlines to move ahead on an interline traffic agreement," said Hugh Dunleavy, WestJet executive vice-president of commercial distribution in the article.

Dunleavy said WestJet would announce "substantive airline partners" in 2008. Other "potential" partners being mentioned -- no less than Cathay Pacific and British Airways.

Christian Herzog, Air France vice-president of the Americas, said in an interview with the Globe and Mail that no WestJet-Air France deal has been inked yet, but "Canada is an important market for us. WestJet would be a good partner."

Christian Lahccen, Air France vice-president for Canada, expressed regard for WestJet's growing network, a sign of "an excellent company."

WestJet will initially benefit by attracting Air France passengers arriving in Montreal and Toronto, but who want to connect to other cities, said Michael Merrithew, chief executive officer of Toronto-based tour operator Merit Travel Group Inc.

Very nice move for the airline that, as we noted last week in PlaneBusiness Banter, not only posted the best operating margin of any airline in North America for the third quarter, but also posted the lowest break-even load factor as well.

Ticker: (WJA.TO)

Technorati Tags: Air France, British Airways , Cathay Pacific, WestJet

Posted by Holly at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Go Tigers.

Oh, and for you Alabama fans out there -- who beat you today? What was the name of that team? I may have to send fellow University of Tennessee attendee, fellow Daily Beacon alum, and Alabama football expert  Paul Finebaum a note and ask him to explain this unfortunate turn of events to me.

Paul had a lot more hair when I knew him.

Posted by Holly at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

One of our subscribers sent me this story today. We all knew this one was inevitable when the latest iPhone commercial rolled out -- now didnt we?

"Oh joy! I can't wait for the next ground delay or long taxi due to weather somewhere to get a smart ass with a freakin I-phone shoving it in my face saying "It's NOT raining there... SEE !" Too late ... already happened to me.  We push back, get advised of a ground stop in MEM due to storms in the area. Go to the penalty box and wait. My Captain does the lecture over the PA... not one minute later, we get dinged from the F/A "Some guy with an IPhone says the weather is good, and wants to know what the real reason is for the delay. Is something wrong with the plane?"

I want to tell this clown what he can do with his IdiotPhone - but the Captain does it even better. He gets on the PA and makes the following announcement :

"If the passenger with the IPhone would be kind enough to use it to check the weather at our alternate, calculate our fuel burn due to being rerouted around the storms, call the dispatcher to arrange our release, and then make a phone call to the nearest Air Traffic Control center to arrange our timely departure amongst the other aircraft carrying passengers with IPhones, then we will be more than happy to depart. Please ring your call button to advise the Flight Attendant and your fellow passengers when you deem it ready and responsible for this multi-million dollar aircraft and its passengers to safely leave."

Needless to say, the pax was pretty embarrassed. The F/A later told us the rest of the plane was outright laughing at this dude. What a clown."

Posted by Holly at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)

Posted by Holly at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I think we have a winner for the Mesa Air Lawsuit Defense Fund name.

CAN EAT WAFFLES.

Now, bear with me. This was the suggestion of a reader, who wrote,  "If not for the needless "negative energy, and a lot of time spent on lawyers' pay with very little good coming out of them," I would have to say that Jonathan Ornstein's lawsuit would be nothing but comical. And since Mr. Ornstein finds lawsuits such a productive use of money (perhaps he sees this as an attempt to offset the financial impact of having to pay Hawaiian Airlines), I have come up with a catchier name for your legal defense fund."

Coalition
Against
Negative

Energy
And
Time

Wasted
Arduously
Fighting
Frivolous
Lawsuits
Exemplifying
Superfluousness

Okay, so maybe I've been typing for too long.

Dunno.

I kind of like it. Lots of graphics possibilities.

Posted by Holly at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Subscribers can now access this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter. Have fun!

Posted by Holly at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay guys. Tomorrow morning I'm going to unplug the phone and don't expect me to answer any emails.

No worries. PlaneBusiness Banter will be up in plenty of time for you to print and read on your way out of town.

By the way, how many of you find the numbers coming out of the Dubai Air Show rather mind-numbing?

Was just finishing up our take on the haul by Airbus and Boeing in this week's issue, and I tell you what, if you want any more evidence that the center of the aircraft universe is nowhere near the U.S. -- look at the orders that were announced this week from Middle Eastern and Asian carriers.

Airbus and Boeing have announced contracts worth almost $70 billion over the past four days. Airbus sold 297 jetliners and Boeing 155, putting the two companies on track to easily exceed  2005's record of 2,057 orders.

Technorati Tags: Airbus, Boeing

Posted by Holly at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The only way to effectively deal with lawsuits such as the SLAPP suit that has been filed against me by Jonathan Ornstein, CEO of Mesa Air Group -- is to attempt to negate the reasons for them in the first place.

It is my belief that this suit was filed for two reasons. One, it is an attempt to intimidate me. Two, it is an attempt to bankrupt me.

So first -- I'm not intimidated.

In reference to the second issue, it's not going to happen.

On that note, I have been truly overwhelmed with the show of support that has come in from many of you in just the last couple of days in regard to contributing to the cause. I don't know what else to say, except thank you.

In response to those communications concerning potential donations -- hold those thoughts!

I will be posting more information here in the next couple of days as to how you can contribute to a PlaneBuzz Legal Defense Fund. (And yes, isn't that one of those "More Room in Coach" sounding monikers? I assure you I will come up with something more catchy and less....catatonic.)

In the meantime, I have a day job I need to attend to -- this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

Talk to you guys later.

Ticker: (MESA:Nasdaq)

Posted by Holly at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just for the record -- I am a big fan of CNBC's Erin Burnett. A really big fan. She's smart, she's sassy, she knows what the hell she's talking about. She's also a former M&A banker with Goldman Sachs.

Every morning, I make sure I catch (either live or on tape) her 5 minute segment on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that is hosted by Joe Scarborough. She and Joe have a conversation back and forth, and it's a nice concise look at what will probably be shaking in the market during the day. I don't have time to listen to CNBC for long periods of time, but this segment always serves as a nice short condensed look at what's on the horizon. I also usually agree with Erin's take on the market as a whole -- so that doesn't hurt either.

This morning, as Erin was wrapping up her take on what the market would probably be doing this morning (the live segment airs about 7:15 ET), she brought up the subject of the Delta/United merger rumors.

Pause.

Joe's response, uttered in a slow dramatic fashion.  "Oh god."

Pause.

Erin then added, "I personally don't like to fly United."

Then after a more serious comment about why a merger might be considered (we all know the reasons including higher fuel prices ), and Joe allowed as to how he's had "issues with Delta," (Joe was constantly bitching about Delta Air Lines over the summer as he continues to fly regularly between his home base in Jacksonville and New York), Joe said, "Okay, so I've had issues with Delta in the past, and you've had issues with United, and now....these two may merge."

To which, after an appropriate pause, Erin responded, "Yeah, I know. It just becomes one ......giant........Goliath."

Joe, smiling, "One giant cluster.....what?"

Erin, looking down at her paperwork, smiling, and trying to figure out what to say next, "Ah, yes, a cluster, a cluster of something."

Joe: "Ah, yes....a cluster.......of love."

Laughs all around the "Morning Joe" table and a big smile from Erin, as she said, "Yes, a big cluster......of love."

That's it folks. From now on, this potential deal has a new moniker as far as I'm concerned.

A cluster.....of love.

Ticker: (DAL:NYSE), (UAUA:Nasdaq)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airline mergers, airlines, CNBC, Delta Air Lines, Erin Burnett, Joe Scarborough, United Airlines

Posted by Holly at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As we alluded to in the last post -- one of our readers just confirmed that he's being told Pardus leaked the letter to both the Associated Press and Jeff Bailey at the New York Times.

Considering how thick and credible the rumors have been over the last several months linking Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines -- all of this today now makes perfect sense.

Posted by Holly at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Late reports out now have Delta's CEO Richard Anderson saying, "There have been no talks with United regarding any type of consolidation transaction and there are no such ongoing discussions."

Hmmmm. So who decided to stir up the pot and why?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Interesting comment from Anderson, especially considering an earlier statement from the airline this morning. This morning, Delta said that it had formed a special board committee to review "strategic options." Or, as it put it, "to ensure Delta maintains its leadership position in the airline industry, including potential consolidation transactions."

Delta said that non-executive Chairman Daniel Carp is leading the committee.

So why did the airline say this -- after news of the Pardus letter broke -- if there is nothing going on? And why then did Richard come out and take the position that "there have been no talks with United regarding any type of consolidation."

We're definitely hearing some static here.

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines

Posted by Holly at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is one behemoth to try and get one's arms wrapped around.

1. If the Delta Air Lines management team is the surviving team, fine. If not, no. (Just think, this will mean that Jake Brace and Glenn Tilton will get yet another stratospheric payout.)

2. As I told Barney Gimble with Fortune today, "As I've said in the past, the money guys will dictate who goes after whom. Not the players themselves."

That was true last year. Same now.

If this hedge fund can convince other major players on the Street to support the deal -- that is what will make or break it.

Employees and shareholders will have little to say in this type of situation. Delta ALPA MEC Chairman Lee Moak can say whatever he wants to say about how the pilots at Delta have to be involved from the get-go with any "merger discussions," but indications this afternoon are that this one is already pretty far along.

As I write this, reports are flying all over the place, no pun intended, with some reports suggesting that the headquarters of the airline would remain in Chicago, but that Delta AIr Lines' CEO Richard Anderson would be named CEO of the new airline.

Atlanta would be used primarily as an "operations" center.

Again -- just one set of rumors that are flying this afternoon in regard to the potential deal.

Ticker: (UAL:NYSE), (DAL:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: airline CEOs, airline industry news, airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines

Posted by Holly at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jeff Bailey at the New York Times has a story today that says:

"Pardus Capital Management, a New York hedge fund, has sent a letter to management of Delta Air Lines asking it to seek a stock-for-stock merger with UAL, the parent of United Airlines, in a deal that would create the world’s largest airline and could prompt sweeping consolidation in the airline industry.

Gordon M. Bethune, former chief executive officer of Continental Airlines, is working with Pardus, the hedge fund said in the letter. And consultants have identified $585 million in savings the two big airlines — currently Nos. 2 and 3 in the country — could realize by combining operations.

Pardus said in its letter, sent Tuesday night, that it owns seven million Delta shares, about a 2.6 percent stake."

Technorati Tags: Delta Air Lines, United Airlines

Posted by Holly at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There was another get-together in the courtroom of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris Tuesday.

Mesa Air Group was granted a limited stay -- until Monday -- before he makes a final determination on the amount of the bond Mesa Air Group will be forced to post -- a result of his recent ruling against Mesa. As you recall, Faris ruled at the end of October that Mesa must pay Hawaiian Airlines $80 million in damages in addition to interest and attorney fees, as a result of his finding that  Mesa was guilty of using confidential information obtained as a potential investor during the Hawaiian bankruptcy -- in an effort to gain an advantage in entering the Hawaiian market with its "go!" operation.

Faris said yesterday that Mesa will have to post the bond before a motion for a new trial is heard, and that the amount of the bond will be closer to the $98 million that Hawaiian Airlines is asking for, rather than the $85 million Mesa was proposing.

Hawaiian argued Tuesday that Mesa should have to post a $98 million bond because it could take as long as three years to prosecute the case on appeal.

According to the Star-Bulletin's take on the hearing, Judge Faris called the three-year time frame, "conservative." He also made the comment that "Statistically, a motion for a new trial is less likely to be granted."

Mesa said if its motion for a new trial is denied, it will appeal to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit.

A hearing on Mesa's motion for a new trial has been rescheduled to Dec. 13.

Again, according to Dave Segal's article, Mesa argued that it has just under $200 million in cash and securities and that Hawaiian was not facing any risk by having the bond put off for up to a month until Faris rules on the motion for a new trial.

But Hawaiian Airlines attorney Sidney Levinson argued that Hawaiian Airlines shouldn't have to take a risk at all, and that the payments might not be recoverable if Mesa files for the"B" word.

Yep -- bankruptcy.

Evan Jones, an attorney for Mesa told the court that there was no possibility Mesa could file for bankruptcy.

While that may be the case, I think maybe some on Wall Street may have been a bit spooked by this little exchange, because shares of Mesa took a rather sharp dip immediately following the opening bell. As of this writing, the shares have recovered somewhat, but are still down 2% for the day.

On another front, Mesa is apparently sparing no expense to fight this latest battle, as yesterday they were represented in court by Daniel Petrocelli. Petrocelli is Los Angeles-based, and is probably most known for his successful representation of the Goldman family in their civil suit against O.J. Simpson. Petrocelli also represented Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling. That one didn't go so well, as the jury found Skilling guilty on 19 counts  of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors.  Mr, Skilling is now serving a 24 year Federal prison term.

So for now -- it looks like the details of the bond that Mesa will need to post will be decided next Monday, and its request for a new trial will be addressed on December 13.

No word yet as to whether Court TV will now start covering the hearings as a result of Mr. Petrocelli's presence.

Ticker: (MESA:Nasdaq), (HA:AMEX)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Mesa Air Group

Posted by Holly at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tuesday the US Airline Pilots Association (USAPA) said that it had formally asked the National Mediation Board to call a representational election.

USAPA President Stephen Bradford said his group has collected more than 3,000 signatures out of about 5,300 pilots working for the airline.

As most of you are aware, this splinter-group based effort is a direct outgrowth of the ALPA seniority decision that was issued last May.

The decision, which was made according to established ALPA procedure, nonetheless did not sit well with many US Airways East pilots, and this move to sever ties with ALPA is the result.

Meanwhile, negotiations on a new contract for the US Airways' pilot group continue to go nowhere. As of last week, there were no new negotiations scheduled, as the US Airways East pilot group continues to refuse to meet with management. The US Airways East group has told management at US Airways that it wants to negotiate a separate interim agreement that would guarantee them pay parity with the America West pilot group -- before negotiations are completed on a new contract for all pilots.

US Airways has said -- no way.

So, as the old America West pilot group cannot negotiate without participation from the US Airways East group -- things remain at a standstill.

What a mess.

Ticker: (LCC:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: ALPA, US Airways

Posted by Holly at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, here's the really important news of the day.

Today's "Inside Edition" is the source. (Why are we not surprised?) You can access the telling page here, but apparently the elves at "Inside Edition" have not updated their archive links yet. Maybe tomorrow. Hang in there.

Title of the segment is "From Plane To Playboy." Heh. I take it they are referring to the flagship publication of the bunny empire, and not Richard Branson.

Posted by Holly at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now this is really cool.

Northwestern University has posted a huge collection of old airline menus as part of its online Transportation Library. Pretty neat to go through and look at what used to be be the standard for airline noshing.

The image to the right comes from a menu from an American Airlines LAX/Dulles flight, 1979.

Here is the front of another one from an American Airlines flight from LAX to Washington, DC, from 1979. Gorgeous. Would love to have it on my wall.

Check it out. Oh, and read the menus too!

Technorati Tags: American Airlines, airline menus

Posted by Holly at 9:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, it's a good time for a Kyla Ebbert update.

A subscriber just sent me this hot news:

"Holly is right again!

I just saw where Kyla got a photo shoot with Playboy!

Keep up the good work and don't let these other problems distract you."

I looked for a link concerning this news, and couldn't find one.

But if this is true, and needless to say our intrepid PlaneBusiness news hounds will work on this tirelessly into the wee hours of the morning if necessary -- then I think Ms. Kyla needs to send the folks at Southwest Airlines a lovely thank you note.

I mean, it's the least she can do for the company that is responsible for launching her, er, career.

Ticker: (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: kyla Ebbert, Southwest Airlines

Posted by Holly at 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a friend send me a note this weekend, asking me about Southwest's hedging positions for the rest of the year and into 2008. Since I am on kind of an oil-centric kick today, I thought it might be of note to relay what I said to him as well.

His question was simple. Does Southwest have advantageous hedge positions going into 2008 -- or is this not the case? Since he had not heard much about their positions, he was assuming the airline did not.

Not correct.

The fact is, the higher the price of oil goes, the more advantage Southwest gains on its competitors, as the airline is sitting on some very nice hedge positions.

In the airline's recent earnings call, CFO Laura Wright said that the airline now has 90% of its fuel hedged at $51 a barrel for the fourth quarter.

In 2008 the airline has 70% of its fuel needs hedged at about $51 a barrel, and in 2009 the airline also has approximately 55% hedged at about $51 a barrel. In 2010, over 25% of the airline's fuel needs are hedged at approximately $63 a barrel, and in 2011 and 2012 the airline has over 16% of its fuel needs hedged at approximately $64 and $63 a barrel respectively.

Very nice.

Funny. I am reminded of the comments that JetBlue then CEO, and now Chairman, David Neeleman said more than a few times a couple of years back. Remember when he said he hoped oil would continue to rise -- that JetBlue had such low costs -- it would be no problem for the airline if oil went to $80 a barrel or $100 a barrel. It was Neeleman's equivalent of the "Bring it On" type of pronouncement.

David Neeleman is a gifted person in some respects -- but that was not one of his shining hours.

Ticker: (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: jet fuel, jetBlue, oil prices, Southwest Airlines

Posted by Holly at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can't help it. What a more appropriate post to follow-up our post on the closing price of oil today than this one.

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has become the first person to buy a personal Airbus A380.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Alwaleed is the world's 13th richest person, according to Forbes magazine, and Citigroup's largest individual shareholder. (Yes, he has taken a bit of a bath with his shares there of late -- to the tune of about $2.5 billion.)

A billion here. A billion there. Who's counting? He already owns a personal Boeing 747-400.

The new aircraft has been dubbed "The Flying Palace." No word on what he is paying, or any details on how the new jet will be outfitted.

As Todd Blackledge was heard to exclaim over yet another of his "Taste of the Town" adventures on ESPN's Saturday Night Football recently, "Sweet Mercy!"

Technorati Tags: Airbus, Boeing

Posted by Holly at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good day for airline stocks today. The price of oil dropped back $3.45 to $91.17 and only three airline or airline-related stocks we track here at PlaneBusiness were down on the day.

On the not-so-good news front, however, as a person who, just like you, puts gasoline in his or her car on a regular basis, the price of gasoline is now beginning to reflect the increase in oil prices we've seen over the last month.

A fact I was ruminating over today when I went to the Post Office and saw a soccer Mom tooling around in a new burnt orange Hummer. Keeping that thing fed these days must cost the equivalent of some people's rent payment.

Technorati Tags: oil prices

Posted by Holly at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a March 17, 2006 issue of the Star-Bulletin, Mesa Air Group's CEO Jonathan Ornstein told the paper, in reference to a lawsuit his airline had filed against Hawaiian Airlines, "Frankly, I always view lawsuits as negative energy, and a lot of time spent on lawyers' pay with very little good coming out of them."

Not withstanding his comments then, apparently Mr. Ornstein feels that our recent coverage of the Hawaiian-Mesa trial was defamatory to his company.

I first received a letter from a legal firm representing Mr. Ornstein and Mesa on October 18, which was basically one of those "threat before we file suit" types of letters. The trial was over, but had not yet been decided. The letter demanded a retraction of several PlaneBuzz blog posts. In fact, the demand was for an immediate retraction. I did not feel there was a basis for the retraction of the posts, so I did not do so.

Those posts are:
Here
Here.

And here.

My attorney, who represented me against another similar lawsuit that Mr. Ornstein filed against me in 2002, Dan Barr of Perkins, Coie, Brown and Bain in Phoenix, was out of the country on vacation.

I replied to the law firm that sent me the letter that I would like time to discuss this with my attorney.

Neither he nor I received any additional response from the other firm. Nor did I receive any communication from Mr. Ornstein.

This past Friday I was served at the PlaneBusiness Worldwide Headquarters with the lawsuit. It was filed on the day the ruling came down in the Hawaiian case.

So folks, here's the deal.

I am going to publish everything that is relevant to this case here. Publicly.  As it continues.

You can read for yourself and judge the merits (or demerits) of the suit.

Here is a .PDF of the original letter that was sent to me.

Here is a .PDF of the complaint section of the lawsuit. (There is more to the actual filing, but this will give you the gist of the assertions that are being made without you having to download 35 pages. However, if you want the whole thing, just drop me a note. I'll be happy to send it to you.)

As my attorney told me Monday, "Just tell your readers that you are going to vigorously defend yourself in this matter."

And folks, that is exactly what I intend to do.

Ticker: (MESA:Nasdaq)

Technorati Tags: airline CEOs, airline industry news, frivolous lawsuit, Jonathan Orstein, Mesa Air Group

Posted by Holly at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Okay guys, this week's issue of PBB is now posted.

That's it for the earnings issues. We should be back on our normal "non-earnings intensive" schedule next week.

PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers can access this week's issue here.

Posted by Holly at 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anyone else out there remember when I used to do that thing on Friday nights called "The Wings Bar and Grille." If you do, you get a dog biscuit.  I mean, we're talking 7,8,9 years ago.

That's what I feel like I need right now. A trip to the Wings Bar and Grille.

Maybe we'll have to reopen the old place one of these days. Then again, I guess if we "re-open" it, we'd have to make it the Wings Spa and Grille, since that seems to be more politically correct these days, huh?

Okay, guys, the last big earnings issue of the quarter is done. But since it's late, I'm going to go with a posting tomorrow.

I have to admit, I like picking through the airline earnings calls. I know, I'm weird.

This week I take a look at the recent results of WestJet, SkyWest, and Hawaiian Airlines.

SkyWest was the last earnings review I did this week. What was the most interesting factoid about the boys and girls based in St. George this quarter? (Besides the fact the airline continues rake in cash at a faster clip then Citibank?)

For the first time since SkyWest took over Atlantic Southeast, SkyWest did not make one dollar on operational bonuses for the ASA operation. Not one incentive threshold was met.

I may be wrong, but I don't remember SkyWest ever not picking up at least one of its performance incentive payments during a quarter. Ever.

So while the SkyWest operation had a fairly solid quarter, the travails of ASA continued.

Listening to SkyWest CFO Brad Rich at the beginning of the call, referring to the ASA problems, I got the impression he just wanted to address them, acknowledge them, and then move on as fast as he could to something else. Anything else.

Last quarter Brad talked about how Delta had taken over ground operations for ASA in Atlanta. In this call, the airline acknowledged that Delta's shifting schedules in the third quarter took a toll on the airline -- as did the fact ASA was faced with a 32% increase in departures during the quarter.

Interesting reading.

Okay, on that note, I'm going to go rest the eyes. We'll post tomorrow. Let me clean up the edits, and polish her up a bit. I'll talk to you guys manana.

Ticker: (SKYW:Nasdaq), (HA:AMEX),WJA.TO

Technorati Tags: airline earnings, airline industry news, airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, SkyWest, WestJet

Posted by Holly at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I wonder if Gary Chase got any sleep last night?

This morning, the Lehman Brothers analyst was out with another interesting research note. Every Friday Gary updates investors on the industry's capacity moves. Today? He had some interesting news concerning Virgin America's trans-cons in his pre-update capacity note.

Gary reports that Virgin in pulling down capacity in its trans-con routes.

Clearly, this is primarily good news for JetBlue. But it also is good news for other airlines that fly a notable portion of their RASMs in trans-cons as well, including American, United, Delta, and Continental.

According to Gary, Virgin  today pulled about 14% out of its JFK-SFO schedule and 6% out of its JFK-LAX schedule for Nov, Dec, and Jan period (deepest reductions come in Dec).  JFK-SFO went from 4x daily to 3x daily and JFK-LAX went from 4x to 3x (in the off-peak parts of the month) in the schedule tapes.  The adjustments begin in late November. As Gary noted, "It may be only for the off-peak period, but it sure is better than the previous schedule."

So is Virgin merely moving the capacity elsewhere? Nope. Gary reports that there does not appear to be any offsetting additions by the airline.

Gary's overall take on the news? "We don't think Virgin would be drawing down capacity if they were eating everyone's lunch in these markets and shifting large market share."

Tickers: (UAUA:Nasdaq); (CAL:NYSE), (AMR:NYSE), (JBLU:Nasdaq)

Technorati Tags: airline analysts, airline industry news, airlines, jetBlue, virgin america

Posted by Holly at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a follow-up to a post from a reader yesterday, the answer is apparently, "No."

That is what I was told late Thursday by officials at US Airways.

Posted by Holly at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In all the hub-bub this week over the changes in Southwest AIrlines' fare structure, I forgot to say something about the airline's really nifty web-based audio-video system they used this week to hold their web cast press conference.

I do not recall the name of the product that popped up on my computer, after I went to the media-designated web address, but the system they used was excellent. I'll drop the folks there a note today and ask them who it was.

Not sure if this is the same system the airline has used in the past, as I have never participated in one of their live calls in this manner before, but audio quality was excellent, we saw slides of the changes to the website set-up come up on our computer as Kevin Krone, their IT wizard went through the changes -- and if we had a question, there was a little box right there for you to type in the question. Southwest corp com folks then would read out the questions sent in by various folks to CEO Gary Kelly in-house in Dallas. (There were also reporters there underfoot who asked questions directly.)

Very, very, nice system. Would be nice to see more airlines be so open and technologically advanced when they do webcasts. Then again, it would be nice to see more airlines do more live webcasts. Period.

Ticker: (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: airlines, Southwest Airlines

Posted by Holly at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gary Chase, analyst with Lehman Brothers, posted a midnight oil research note tonight on the departure of John Harvey from JetBlue.

Chase says to expect some "near-term weakness" in JetBlue's shares, especially tomorrow. However, he also does not see this news as being indicative of any "imminent breakdown" in JetBlue's fundamentals.

However, Chase also commented,

"This news comes at a bad time.  Oil is reaching new highs almost daily and concern about competitive impact from Virgin America among other things are weighing on JBLU sentiment specifically. JBLU is heavily shorted (highest short interest in the group) amid concerns about Virgin impact especially.  To boot, on the surface, it looks very expensive.  Bottom line, the path of least resistance is to be negative for tomorrow and possibly the next several trading sessions.

Now for the not so obvious...
We believe JBLU is a company in need of restructuring. Its valuation on current consensus is not the issue.  Its true earnings potential is the issue, in our view.  Importantly, we see significant upside opportunity on the cost side of the ledger and in the potential for larger network restructuring."

Technorati Tags: airline analysts, airline earnings, airline industry news, airline stocks, airlines, jetBlue

Posted by Holly at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay guys. This week is the last earnings heavy issue of PlaneBusiness Banter. Whew!

Look for this week's issue to be posted late tomorrow.

Next week -- we'll be back on our usual Thursday publishing schedule.

Talk to you later.

Posted by Holly at 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Late day announcement today from JetBlue that says CFO John Harvey has resigned as CFO of JetBlue. We hear that is not exactly the case. Sounds to us like Harvey was pushed. By the JetBlue board of directors.

The airline said in its release that SVP of Finance Ed Barnes has been named interim CFO.

Looks like it's shake, rattle and roll time at the carrier. The airline recently also showed its previously  highly touted EVP and Chief Revenue Officer Trey Urbahn the door. Although in his case there was no press release announcing his departure.

Posted by Holly at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No surprise here.

American Airlines today told the airline's pilot union thanks, but no thanks, to the union's most recent contract proposal.

According to American's response to the Allied Pilots Association, the proposed package would have increased American’s pilot costs by more than $1.4 billion a year and would have brought the pilot cost per hour to a level that was more than that of competitors Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines combined.

In other news, Bloomberg reports that a seniority agreement that had been negotiated between American, American Eagle, and their respective pilot unions has collapsed. The reason? A disagreement over adding 25 additional regional jets to the Eagle fleet.

The agreement, reached Oct. 24, would have preserved seniority rights for American pilots and helped recruit new pilots at the commuter unit.

The issue now will now be decided by an independent arbitrator, the APA told members in a message today.

Ticker: (AMR:NYSE)

Posted by Holly at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

United Airlines announced today it would add a surcharge of $5 each way to tickets for most domestic flights to offset the price of jet fuel.

The No. 2 U.S. carrier said the surcharge will be incorporated into fares for travel within the United States, excluding Hawaii.

Ticker: (UAUA:Nasdaq)

Technorati Tags: jet fuel, United Airlines

Posted by Holly at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just saw an earlier posting here, by L1011, to our first post on the Southwest fare change announcements, and yes, L1011, obviously I agree with your thoughts. We are definitely on the same wavelength.

Posted by Holly at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a follow-up to my post from yesterday, here is what I think Southwest should have announced yesterday. That is, if the marketing foot had been in gear with the hand holding the excel charts.

Instead of the new "Business Select" and "Business" class monikers, Southwest should have gone with two main fare classes -- "Gotta Get Away," as they have done for the lower fares, but "Gotta Go Now" for their fully refundable price fares. Or "Gotta Get There Now" if the previous suggestion sounds too much like one of those commercials for an overactive bladder.

Anyway, there are a couple of potentials that could have been used.

My point is -- Gotta Go Now, Gotta Get Away? Simple. Ties into the airline's established marketing mindset. Makes the point. And no crappy "Business" fare tag for a product that is not any different from  the product sold as a "Gotta Get Away" fare -- except that it is more expensive and refundable.

Then, they should have created the "A+ Boarding" option. A simple flat add-on fee for guaranteed "A" group boarding.

"Flying on a Gotta Go Now fare? Upgrade to the "A+" boarding option for (fill in the blank) and be assured of an "A" Group boarding pass."

Marketing could have had a field day with this. Given out special little buttons. T-shirts. Given "A+" purchasers more drink coupons. I can see the commercials now.

In other words, the airline should have taken that "exclusive" group feeling that is there now and run with it. Taken advantage of it. It would have fed right in with the exclusive "clubby" "A" boarding group mentality that we "A" group boarders like to think we possess.

But does the term, "Business Select" lend itself to any of this? Not hardly. In addition, note to Southwest. Not all "A" group boarding nuts consider themselves to be "business travelers." And you shouldn't have made that assumption, or hung that moniker on them. It's a mistake.

I have a lot of friends at Southwest Airlines. Some very dear friends. And the airline has done more positive things over the years than most. There is no question about that.

But the more I think about this announcement from yesterday, the more my head hurts. It makes things way too complicated and it takes the very guts out of their existing core marketing strength. It really makes me wonder if any of this decision was run by the great folks at GSD&M in Austin (they handle the airline's advertising) beforehand. If it was, shame on GSD&M. If it wasn't, shame on Southwest.

"Business Select?" Arrrrgh.

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Southwest Airlines

Posted by Holly at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Speaking of Skywest and WestJet, SkyWest reported earnings today -- and WestJet came yesterday. While SkyWest had good quarterly numbers, remember a few days ago when I gushed about the numbers from Allegiant? Get ready. WestJet had one drop dead quarter. A record-breaking quarter. More on their great numbers in this week's PlaneBusiness Banter.

One final note about SkyWest. It was announced yesterday that pilots at the airline had once again turned back efforts from ALPA to unionize the pilot group at the airline.

The vote wasn't even that close. 65% voted against ALPA representation.

Ticker: (SKYW:Nasdaq); (WJA.TO)

Technorati Tags: airline earnings, airline industry news, airline pilots, airline unions, airlines, ALPA, SkyWest, WestJet

Posted by Holly at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I may sound cynical, but my reaction is, it's about time.

Can we please get rid of the "Alice in Wonderland" thinking now? Or, rather, the "techs are strong and that will save the market" thinking?

This morning crude oil continues to pick up ground, (hovering around $97.40 as of this writing) while we have more banks talking about more billion dollar writedowns, and those banks which have already confessed to mortgage debt-related write-downs are now talking about even more on the horizon.

This morning it was announced that retail sales for October were, er, mixed to down.

Thomson Financial, which compares monthly results at 43 of the nation's largest retail chains, said October same-store sales overall rose 1.6 percent, weaker than its initial forecast of a 2 percent rise. Same-store sales in October 2006 rose 3 percent.

Last month's lackluster performance follows a 1.4 percent gain in September, which was the slowest monthly same-store sales gain since August 2004.

Notable in their gains for the month? Target, Costco, and Saks. Interesting.

Then there is the issue of the dollar. Been to Europe lately? Good luck. As of this writing, the euro is hanging at almost $1.47.

Thinking of getting married in the near future? Be prepared to spend more for the bling. Both gold and platinum are continuing their record-making climbs today -- as commodities prices in general continue to surge.

And finally, there was Big Ben's pronouncements this morning to Congress. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve told Congress this morning that the U.S. economy not only faces the risk of a sharp slowdown from the housing market's contraction but also of an inflationary surge from sharply higher crude-oil prices and the weaker dollar.

Sharp guy that Bernanke. Wonder how he came to these conclusions.

Bernanke said that the policy-setting Federal Reserve Open Market Committee expect the economy to slow "noticeably" from the third-quarter growth rate and remain sluggish in the first half of 2008. But Bernanke also suggested that the hawkish members of the Fed might have a point about inflation. There were downside risks to the subdued growth forecast, and upside risks to the benign inflation outlook, Bernanke said.

Oh, and the Things with Wings?

They're getting beaten up today on Wall Street. All the airline stocks we follow were in the red, last time I checked, with the exception of Republic, SkyWest, and WestJet.

Technorati Tags: Ben Bernanke, crude oil, Economy

Posted by Holly at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In light of the mounting evidence that the economy is falling apart -- United Airlines said today that if demand starts to fall off noticeably, the airline will either have to raise fares or reduce capacity -- given the specter of $100 a barrel oil.

According to Dow Jones, United CFO Jake Brace told those at the Goldman Sachs Transportation Conference in New York yesterday that with crude oil prices approaching $100 a barrel, United and other airlines eventually will have to deal with those skyrocketing prices by either raising fares further or reducing capacity rather than flying with too many empty seats.

"Either the industry passes on the higher fuel prices or we're going to have to lower capacity, but you have to make the equation work," he said in comments to the conference in New York.

Brace said United has a little more than 100 aircraft unencumbered by debt, including 50 Boeing 737s, "that we could ground whenever we needed to if the demand environment were such that it didn't make sense to fly those planes."

The 100 planes would represent more than a fifth of United's mainline fleet of about 460 aircraft, as of Dec. 31.

It also has 13 narrow-body airplanes and one 757 coming off lease in 2008 that also could help it adjust capacity.

Ticker: (UAUA:Nasdaq)

Technorati Tags: airline analysts, airline industry news, airlines, airplanes, United Airlines

Posted by Holly at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those of you who are followers of the ongoing Mesa Air Group/Hawaiian affair, I have a tidbit to share with you today.

And the most remarkable, ironic, or telling part of all this? (Take your pick.) It comes compliments of Mesa's own website.

It can't get much better than this guys.

Just a hint. If you want to see the pictures we're talking about live, you'd better act fast, because I'm sure they will be removed pretty quickly. Then again, for those of you who aren't quite as fast, don't worry. We've made copies of the page, and the pictures. (We are posting all links below.)

But for those eager beavers who read this quickly enough, if you want to see what interesting thing we found today while scrolling the Mesa website, first, open your browser and go to the Mesa Air Group home page.

Scroll down to the section on the recent launch festivities involving Kunpeng Airlines, the regional joint venture created by Shenzhen Airlines and Mesa Air. Headline is "Kunpeng Airlines Launches Services in China." Check out that fake fog while you're at it. (Well it was around Halloween.)

Click on the link that says "MORE" in that section. It will bring up an entire page of full resolution photos. Not minimal JPG sizes. Oh, no, full resolution photographs. (That will become important here in a minute.)

The picture that caught our eye is on the next to the bottom row -- one picture towards the right. It's the one with the huge flower artwork on the wall behind a number of people seated at a long table.

Direct link to the photo.

When the photo is downloaded,  it is identified by the Mesa Air Group site with a moniker that includes  "Kunpeng Launch." As you can see, it is in a group of other pictures that were clearly also of the various launch festivities. When did this particular occur? Well, the launch was officially Friday the 27th of October. So, it could have been the 26th, the 27th or the 28th.

Now, here's the point of my web adventure.

Look who's seated next to Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein at the official event.

To his right -- with, appropriately, an open laptop in front of him? (I know, at this point it's becoming more and more like a skit from Saturday Night Live.)

While he seems to be somewhat pre-occupied with a napkin in the photo, and not what is on his laptop, there's no question the person seated next to Jonathan is Peter Murnane. In fact, because the photo was uploaded in its full resolution -- you can clearly make out his name on the little white name placeholder in front of him. George Peter Murnane III no less.

But wasn't Peter on administrative leave from the company at the end of October?

A little historical perspective here for those who took a cruise to Alaska in October.

On Sept. 21, Mesa Air Group sent out a press release. In that release, it stated that the Board of Directors of the airline had put  Peter Murnane on "administrative leave." In the press release, Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein said, "Our policy is to comply with only the highest ethical standards of conduct and, if we become aware of a potential or alleged violation of such standards, to conduct an appropriate investigation and to take appropriate remedial action when warranted. We will report the outcome of the Company's investigation as soon as it is completed."

"Until the investigation is complete, William Hoke, Vice President of Finance will continue to be responsible for the financial and accounting functions of the Company and will perform the duties of Mr. Murnane," the release said.

As you recall, it was just a few days later that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris ruled that Murnane had intentionally destroyed files that Mesa had used before launching its airline go! These files had been sought as part of the trial's discovery process. This was the ruling that came after the porn-made-me-do-it defense by Murnane.

I'll let all of you talk amongst yourselves about this. Goodness knows there is enough to chew on.

For those of you who didn't go see what we saw today soon enough, here are the pertinent copies.

PDF of the page of Mesa's Kunpeng launch pictures

Photo in question

Ticker: (MESA:Nasdaq)

Technorati Tags: airline CEOs, airline industry news, airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Jonathan Orstein, Mesa Airlines, Peter Murnane

Posted by Holly at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When you take two current Rapid Rewards tickets and turn them in -- to get one "Freedom Award" -- there is a $50 charge only if you want to start a new 12-month usability time frame. Otherwise, the airline will take the "closer" of the two expiration dates on the tickets being turned in -- and give you that date for the new ticket.

Okay, off to expand my horizons.

Posted by Holly at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Still mulling over the changes announced by Southwest this morning, and here are a few thoughts.

One, I really don't like the fare names.

I've already had more than one of you send me notes in regard to "Business Select." Yep. As in that horrible adventure in futility that US Airways pursued in the mid-90s. Exactly. And, as we all know, memories are long on the East Coast. Especially when it comes to US Air. Bad karma associated with this name guys.

But here is my bigger picture objection.

Let's say Joe Blow Passenger goes to buy a fare tomorrow on the Southwest Airlines' website. The three fare classes are now "Business Select," "Business, " and "Gotta Get Away."

Now, is it just me, or do some of you also see the problem here?

The classifications seem incongruent.  "Gotta Get Away" is the playful, normal Southwest type of title. It is also a term that has been used for years by the airline.  But "Business" and "Business Select?" Those are about as innovative or Southwest brand-friendly as "More Room in Coach."

I would have preferred something along the lines of "Whole Enchilada, Taco, and Rice and Beans."

Not really, but you get my drift.

I just have this feeling that if Joe Blow is looking to fly from Tampa to New Orleans, might he not think that "Business Select" or "Business" class fares are something he should avoid, because they are for "business people."

I mean, to me, with the three names across there, I get one connotation. Those two fare brackets are expensive.

Period.

And if I was going through the process of buying a ticket, and there were no "Gotta Get Away" fares left, I think that might make me more prone to go look at another website, rather than buy an expensive "Business" or "Business Select" ticket.

There's just something that's not working here. I think the desire to appeal to the "business traveler," in an attempt to increase revenues has superseded the airline's usual superb branding efforts. The three titles send off very different "intangibles." And the airline does not want to send out mixed messages as to who they are and what they are. Especially not at the point of purchase.

Ticker: (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Southwest Airlines

Posted by Holly at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

One of the biggest changes announced today is this one.  If you are a heavy-use business traveler that flies Southwest, that is, if you fly 32 one-way trips in one year, you will get the best available boarding pass available when you book any fare. In other words, if there are already the maximum number of "A" group boarders when you check in, you'll get an automatic "B" or whatever. But the assumption is that you will get an "A" group assignment more often than not. Whether you are flying on a Business Select fare or not.

Ticker: (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Southwest Airlines

Posted by Holly at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Southwest Airlines just unveiled its new changes in a webcast press conference.

The airline is changing its fare products. Business Select, Business, and Wanna Get Away. Within the Wanna Get Away fares are other fare breakdown classifications.

Business Select fares will be higher than the highest fares the airline has charged in the past. The amount will vary depending upon the flight.

The airline says for now about 10% of its seats will be available on that basis.

Business Select fliers will get more Rapid Reward credit, get "A" boarding, and a free drink.

Business class fares as essentially the same as the previous full fare refundable ticket.

Another change in the Rapid Rewards program -- if you want a Rapid Rewards ticket that is good on any flight, for the exception of the usual holiday periods  (how it used to be), you have to turn in two regular Rapid Rewards tickets and pay $50.

Remember that the airline changed its Rapid Rewards program a couple of years ago to a "capacity controlled" system like other airlines.

So essentially, this is going back to what the program used to offer -- at a higher cost.

The press conference is still ongoing at this point.

Southwest Airlines' CEO Gary Kelly says that the airline expects the changes to bring the airline $100 million in additional yearly revenues.

Ticker: (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Southwest Airlines

Posted by Holly at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sounds like Southwest Airlines is getting ready to unroll more secrets from its "customer experience improvement" bag 'o tricks tomorrow.

And I quote, "Join Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly tomorrow to discuss additional product changes that transition Southwest from a-one-size-fits all airline to the airline that fits our Customers’ lives."

Can't wait. Wonder if Gary will exhibit any residual effects from his recent encounter as Edna.

The conference, which is being held at the airline's headquarters will begin at 11 AM CST. It is being webcast.

Ticker (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: Southwest Airlines

Posted by Holly at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Attired comfortably in my Ratty Old Bear Suit, I am perfectly calm and collected as I say this.

What does the market expect is going to happen when the Fed cuts interest rates again -- in an effort to bail out the growing mortgage debt/banking mess? That's right. The dollar is going to drop further, and the price of oil is going to go even higher.

Be careful what you wish for is what I say.

Today, a barrel of crude closed at $96.70 -- another new record. At one point, it was trading as high as $97.10.

Posted by Holly at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why should the western world be surprised when on-time numbers improve in September -- as opposed to July?

I don't know. But the improved on-time average for the group is certainly getting a lot of press today. As we all know, when the skies are not as crowded with flights -- operations tend to function better.

September was no exception.

However, I would point out that while on-time stats month-over-month were much better,  and baggage stats for the group year-over-year improved -- year-over-year complaints did not.

For the group, complaints were up 41%. The airline to post the largest percentage gain in complaints? Comair. The airline that posted the biggest reduction in complaints? Hawaiian. The major domestic airline that posted the lowest absolute percentage of complaints? (This does not count those hot shots in Hawaii) -- Southwest Airlines. The overall top winner here, with zero complaints filed -- Aloha.

Our congrats to the employees at all four airlines.

On the other side of the chart, who was the major domestic airline that posted the largest absolute percentage of complaints? US Airways.

Interesting to note that this month Delta Air Lines almost snatched that less-then-honorable title right out from the nose of US Airways. Delta posted one of the worst months for complaints it has posted in a long time, posting just a hair fewer complaints than did US Airways.

Sitting on top of Delta, in terms of bad complaint numbers were Comair and Atlantic Southeast, so Delta scored a rather undesirable trifecta there this month.

United Airlines, which hasn't been posting very positive complaint numbers the last few months either, was tied with Atlantic Southeast (a rather nebulous honor, to say the least).

Ticker: (DAL:NYSE), (UAUA:Nasdaq), (LCC:NYSE), (HA:AMEX), (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways

Posted by Holly at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In case you missed it, Mesa announced Monday that Peter Murnane had been relieved of his CFO duties.

Mesa named William Hoke, its vice president of finance, as interim chief financial officer.

I don't think Mesa had much choice in this matter. After U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Faris' rulings (both the one directed towards Peter's destruction of evidence and the ruling against Mesa in terms of damages in the Hawaiian case) there was a big problem of having an officer of the company still on the payroll who had been directly involved in these actions.

Not something the SEC looks favorably towards. Nor, you would think, would shareholders.

According to the Arizona Republic, Mesa attorney Brian Gillman, said Monday that Murnane will not receive severance because his employment contract, which wasn't due to expire until 2010, says there will be no severance if he was fired for cause.

What has not been disclosed however, is whether Murnane and Ornstein will sever their other mutual business interests. Both are involved in a number of business entities, besides Mesa, which were outlined in the airline's 2006 annual report.  These "subsidiary" companies include Nilchii, Patar, Ping Shan, MAGI Insurance and Ritz Hotel Management.

Ticker: (HA:AMEX), (MESA:Nasdaq)

Technorati Tags: Hawaiian Airlines, Mesa Airlines, Peter Murnane

Posted by Holly at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know the famous part of "Little Shop of Horrors" when Steve Martin, aka Orin Scrivello,DDS, has his little scene? Yes, well I that's where I was, figuratively speaking, yesterday.

The day began innocently enough. Another trip over to my Dad's house to continue the cleaning out of my Mom's stuff. My mother never threw out anything. Ever. Now we get to do the honors.

Then, it was a trip to the dentist, where I was to get a permanent crown. (All the ugly stuff having been done weeks ago.)

So here I am in the dentist's chair, with no novocain, looking at the birds in the bird feeder outside one minute, and the next minute I have a hand with the biggest hemostat I've ever seen trying to yank out what is now a firmly cemented crown out of my mouth.

Yes, it appears that for whatever reason, he cemented the tooth -- but it was not "seated right." When this was then discovered, it became something akin to a scene out of "ER" with him barking orders to not one, but now two assistants, followed by his cramming some kind of blue stuff onto the tooth, after which he then took the aforementioned hemostat and began to ....pull.

And pull.

And pull.

After the third attempt at this routine, I, who could not speak for the various implements and suction tubes in my mouth, finally just started to make noise. Lots of it. At which point he said, "Oh well, I don't want to hurt her. Numb her up."

Lovely.

So after being "numbed up," then I got to experience something new. A dentist "cutting off" a newly cemented crown. Actually it involved cutting, digging, and well, you know, at that point, I think my hands had created permanent creases in the arm rest of the chair.

With pieces of porcelain flying around (the assistant advised me to close my eyes), yep, all I could think of was Steve Martin.

Which, all things considered, was probably not as good as trying to think of cool waters in a babbling brook. Or any of those other supposed "calming" visions one is supposed to try and think of during such an event.

Today? Sore jaw and a growing reluctance to ever set foot in a dentist's office again.

Posted by Holly at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whew. The LSU/Alabama just came on the television. That's cutting it close. ;-)

Another mega-earnings week this week for PBB subscribers. If there is one earnings call review you read, make it the Allegiant Travel review. Allegiant Travel is the parent of Allegiant Air.

These guys have figured out a new niche, while everybody else has been out there chasing the elusive LCC/Southwest model for the last 15 years.

And it's a niche that just keeps making money. Good times, bad times. Low fuel, high fuel.

Very impressive quarter for the folks out in Las Vegas.

Posted by Holly at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. Subscribers can access this week's issue here.

Posted by Holly at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah, boys, do you think you could cut down the length of your earnings call next quarter?

Sheesh.

Yours truly here. Slogging through the Alaska Air Group earnings call review for this week's PBB. When I saw the size of the audio file I knew it was long. But, well.....then I pulled the transcript earlier today. It was 27 pages.

Anyway, no way this issue is going to be ready for a final edit before the clock strikes twelve. I don't care what time zone you're in.

Mea culpa.

PlaneBusiness Banter  will be posted tomorrow. Promise. It has to be. LSU plays 'Bama tomorrow afternoon.

Talk to you then. 

Posted by Holly at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whew. Has everyone recovered from Halloween mirth and merriment yet?

Not sure that was the case on Wall Street today, where things took a decidedly scary turn, with the Dow Jones ending the day down more than 360 points -- as the giddyness of yesterday's rate cut gave way to the more gritty reality of an economy that far from healthy.

Oh, and the price of oil? It closed at $93.49.

Us? We've been working on this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

Which reminds me. This week's issue should be posted tomorrow. And yes, hopefully this is our last mega-earnings issue. Yee haw!

Funny thing though. All six airlines we're talking about in depth this week -- posted good earnings for the quarter.

Always nice to talk about that.

All for now. We'll touch base with you manana.

Posted by Holly at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Less than three months after the airline was swept out of the running for Midwest Airlines by the coalition of TPG and Northwest Airlines, AirTran's board of directors yesterday appointed Bob Fornaro CEO.

Fornaro succeeds Joe Leonard, who will remain with the airline as Chairman of the Board.

Bob is the long-time second banana at AirTran, having most recently served as its President and COO. Fornaro first came to AirTran at Leonard's urging in March of 1999.

Ticker: (NYSE:AAI)

Technorati Tags: airline CEOs, airline industry news, airlines, AirTran

Posted by Holly at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)