Hey folks. For those of you who are subscribers of PlaneBusiness Banter, look for this week’s issue later this evening. As usual, I’ll drop a note here when the issue is posted.
Talk to you later.
Monthly Archives: September 2007
Oil Closes Above $80 for the First Time
Monsoon Weather
Heh. So much for Houston getting drenched by Tropical Storm-Hurricane-Tropical Storm Humberto. Here at the Worldwide Headquarters, just north of the Crescent Ciy — we’ve been getting heavy weather in the usual Tropical Storm band formation since last night.
And it looks like the fun is just beginning.
According to the National Hurricane Center a few minutes ago, Humberto intensified at the fastest rate in history yesterday, before making landfall this morning as a Category 1 hurricane.
You think the NHC is trying to cover its rear with that statement?
There were no tropical storm warnings, no nothing for those folks in Southwest Louisiana and southeastern Texas who were awakened this morning by 85 mile an hour winds.
Technorati Tags: Tropical Storm Humberto
Humberto
Flying in or out of Houston tonight or tomorrow?
Good luck.
Tropical Storm Humberto looks like one big lumbering rain event. No advisory press releases yet from Continental Airlines.
Technorati Tags: airlines, Continental Airlines, Tropical Storm Humberto
Oil Closes at $79.91
Just nine cents away from a very important psychological number.
Will we end the day tomorrow over $80? We’ll have to wait and see, but the tea leaves seem to be lining up more and more in that direction.
Technorati Tags: crude oil
US Airways Hiring Pilots; Airline Stocks Slump On Higher Oil
From MarketWatch:
“US Airways said Wednesday it plans to hire more than 350 new pilots with training dates beginning in November 2007. The Tempe, Ariz.-based airline also said it will move 140 pilots, who currently fly for US Airways Express carriers, back to mainline flying after they were furloughed several years ago. US Air said its pilot staffing needs are being driven primarily by retiring pilots. US Airways shares fell 3.9% to $29.94 in Wednesday morning trade.”
Speaking of falling airline stocks — it’s not just LCC. With oil prices hitting new all-time highs, it’s not a good day for airline stocks across the board today on Wall Street.
Technorati Tags: airline stocks, airlines, US Airways
Too Bad So Sad
It always saddens me to hear that a group of attorneys might be denied the right to make a fair wage.
Bankruptcy lawyers for Northwest Airlines Corp. were denied $4.2 million in “end-of-case” bonuses Tuesday, after the judge ruled that their average rates of about $500 an hour had already provided adequate compensation.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper rejected a $3.5 million bonus for Northwest Airlines’ lead law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, which ushered the airline out of bankruptcy in May. A law firm representing creditors, Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen, was also told to forget a $700,000 bonus.
Gropper said that for the attorneys to deserve a so-called fee enhancement, their work should have a remarkable result that couldn’t be expected from lawyers being paid their regular fees.
The flight attendants at Northwest, represented by the AFA, as well as the U.S. Trustee and a creditor-turned-shareholder objected to the bonuses, arguing they were unjustified. Those groups said Northwest’s bankruptcy had not produced a remarkable result, since its share price has dropped 22 % since the company emerged from court protection on May 31.
The AFA also objected on the grounds that pilots and flight attendants took pay cuts and schedule changes to help the airline out of Chapter 11.
Small victory in the big scheme of things, but a victory nonetheless.
In other action, Gropper agreed to paying the law firms involved their submitted bills for their work on the bankruptcy. Gropper approved a total bill of $118.8 million in fees and $5.4 million in expenses.
Cadwalader earned $35.4 million in fees and $2.2 million in expenses. Otterbourg got about $7 million in fees and $210,231 in expenses.
Ticker: (NYSE:NWA)
Technorati Tags: airlines, Northwest Airlines
Bombardier Grounds Q400s Following Landing Gear Failures
Today Bombardier told airlines to ground 60 of its Q400s after two of the planemaker’s aircraft experienced landing gear failures in one week.
According to Bloomberg, “All Q400s with more than 10,000 cycles — comprising a takeoff and landing — should be grounded until they’re inspected, Montreal-based Bombardier said today.” The landing gear was made by Goodrich Corp. of the U.S., Bombardier added.
The grounding does include aircraft flown by Alaska Airlines regional airline, Horizon Air, as well as a number of international airlines.
Apparently both landing gear incidents occurred in Europe and neither incident involved any fatalities.
You can read the article here.
Ticker: (NYSE:ALK)
Technorati Tags: airlines, Alaska Airlines, Bombardier, Horizon Airlines
Chew Adds President to COO Title at JetBlue
Last week we heard good news from US Airways as they named a new COO who appears to be just what the doctor ordered. Not to be outdone, this week JetBlue announced that Russ Chew, who joined the airline this spring as its new COO, will now add on the title of President to his business cards.
Good move.
Dave Barger remains as CEO of the airline.
We see this as a very positive move for JetBlue.
For those of you who are not familiar with Russ, he came to JetBlue after a stint as COO of the FAA. But prior to that, Russ had been with American Airlines for almost 20 years. He last gig at AMR was head of the airline’s System Operations Control. He was also in charge of Strategic Operations Planning at the airline.
And yes, Chew can also fly a mean airplane. While at American he was a line-qualified pilot for the Boeing 767, Boeing 757, and Maddog.
Oil Sets New Record — Humming Along Teasingly Close to $80
Was just reading over some recent analyst reports over the last week and in more than one the issue of the “lower price of fuel” was mentioned in the same sentence as third quarter forecasts and fourth quarter estimates.
Hmmmm.
You might want to think about those comments after the last three days in the futures markets.
We noted yesterday that the price of a barrel of crude had hit a new all–time high.
Today, after the government reported very weak energy inventory numbers, it has been off to the races for oil traders.
As of this posting, crude is now trading at a new high, at 78.90. Intraday, the price has already shot up beyond $79.