Monthly Archives: December 2011

PlaneBusiness Banter Now Available for Subscribers

Hello again!

Just a short note to let subscribers know that PlaneBusiness Banter is once again accessible. Apparently the company that houses our server decided to move it last night. And not tell us.

Not good.

This caused all kinds of things to happen. But I think we’ve worked out all the kinks and all the electrons are once again working as they should after a couple of reboots and a handful of tweaks.  

Just glad they did this during an “off” time, and not in the middle of a publishing timeframe.

Our apologies for any inconvenience, stress, or other unnecessary angst this may have caused.

FYI — PlaneBusiness Banter returns on January 10th.

Access to PlaneBusiness Banter Down

Hello everyone. “Almost Happy New Year” to all of you!

Don’t know if this is an omen for 2012, but this morning we woke up and found that the SQL database that controls access for PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers had short-circuited. The PlaneBusiness site itself is still up, but for now, subscribers cannot access PlaneBusiness Banter when they attempt to log in.

Bad timing — as most of our geeky friends are not at their computers this week.

I’ll let everyone know here when the site is back up.

PlaneBusiness Banter Now Posted!

home-typewriter copy 1.jpg Hello everyone! I hope all of you are not crazed today. It’s that time of year. It’s a good time. But it can also be very stressful. So try to concentrate, leave those cookies alone and get your work done so you can push all the papers aside later in the week and just breathe. And enjoy.

And eat chocolate.

This week’s two-for-one issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. I told subscribers last week that I was going to delay the publishing of our last issue for the year by a week — so that I could talk about my trip to New York last week.

But that was not the only reason to wait until this week to write.

Delta Air Lines took Manhattan last week. And Brooklyn. And Queens. And the Bronx. And Staten Island.

In addition to the airline’s new route announcements out of LaGuardia, the airline also held its investor conference in New York last week.

We let you know what the airline had to say.

Meanwhile, yours truly presented at the Business Travel News Group’s Corporate Travel Management 2012 Conference in New York last week along with Kevin Crissey, airline analyst for UBS.

It was a packed house and I’ll give you one piece of intel from our session. When surveyed, the group of top corporate buyers overwhelmingly said they see increased spending on air travel in 2012.

I also attended the BTN Travel Hall of Fame dinner later that evening. What a rollicking event that turned out to be, as some of the other inductees decided to turn it into a roast of former AMR Chairman and CEO Robert Crandall.

Meanwhile, while all of this was going on, airline stocks enjoyed a second week of strong gains. Big winners included JetBlue and US Airways.

But Pinnacle Airlines was not as lucky. The airline warned the week before last that it was attempting to restructure contracts with vendors, customers, and employee contracts.

The stock is now trading at about a buck.

It’s a jam-packed issue this week including our yearly column in which we divulge what airline CEOs are asking for from Santa, we look at the October DOT operational numbers, and much, much more.

Subscribers can access this week’s issue — the last issue for 2011– here!

PlaneBusiness Banter Now Posted!

home-typewriter copy 1.jpg

Hello everyone. This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted.

No surprise, we’re talking a lot about American Airlines again this week.

First, the airline’s labor unions have been given a strong position on the airline’s creditors committee. This is no small deal, as the members of the airline’s creditors committee pretty much dictate how the airline is operated and what the airline will look like when it finally escapes from the grasp of bankruptcy.

In addition, Tuesday the airline announced the first round of upper level executive departures. We expected this — and we hope the departures announced Tuesday are just the beginning.

American’s filing has begun to have ripple effects across the industry. One such effect: JetBlue announced Tuesday night that it was starting (FINALLY) BOS-DFW service in May 2012.

A different effect? Southwest Airlines‘ CEO Gary Kelly’s letter he posted to employees about the American bankruptcy. Essentially Kelly took a hardline with employees — making the point that Southwest Airlines is now, for all practical purposes, the airline in the crosshairs — having never filed for bankruptcy, and now forced to compete with an aggressively managed group of “new” airlines including United, US Airways, and Delta Air Lines.

In other news, we’re sad to see FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt have to resign from the agency. But someone in his position cannot be arrested for DUI. Even worse, you can’t be arrested for DUI and then not tell your boss about it. Reportedly DOT Secretary LeHood found out about Babbitt’s arrest only after the Fairfax City police issued a press release on Monday.

Worse, if Babbitt is convicted, he will lose his commercial pilot’s license.

An extremely unfortunate situation — both for Babbitt, and for the FAA. The last thing the agency needs right now is a distracting search for his replacement.

On Wall Street, airline stocks posted a great week last week. Well, there was one exception. But AMR was just that — an exception. Shares of JetBlue soared, leading a number of airline stocks to hefty double-digit gains on the week.

All this and more in this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter!