Monthly Archives: October 2012

PlaneBusiness Banter Now Posted!

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Hello earthlings! It’s that time once again for the latest edition of PlaneBusiness Banter.

This week we lead off the 3Q earnings season with our in-depth look at Southwest Airlines. The airline reported earnings last week — the first airline to do so. We’ll tell you why we were not overly impressed with the airline’s earnings call and why we don’t like to be “teased” with the possibility of potential revenue enhancements by airline management. Either tell me you have a solution to the problem or you don’t.

This week? It’s a madhouse. Hawaiian Airlines reported Tuesday, and today we have US Airways and Delta Air Lines. Tomorrow we have United Airlines, JetBlue, Alaska. Allegiant is in there as well.

In other news, the pilots and management at AMR continue to negotiate. I’ve come to the conclusion it really doesn’t matter whether the pilots get a contract or not — although if I were a pilot, that 13.5% equity stake is definitely something to think about. But I still don’t think we’ll see a contract agreed upon and then voted in favor of by the pilot group.

I think it’s clear that the more important moves are now taking place off the radar screen and away from the negotiating table. We had evidence of this last week when two hedge funds accused American of ‘playing favorites’ with some of the other members of the UCC.

One way or another US Airways is going to do a deal here. It’s just a matter of how. And how much Tom Horton’s “go-away” package costs.

In other news, I traveled to Las Vegas last week where I had a wonderful session with the Advisory Council of Travel and Transport at their fall meeting. We talked about which airlines have been naughty and which ones have been nice to corporate travel managers. I’ll give you the scoop.

All of this — and much more — in this week’s edition of PlaneBusiness Banter.

PlaneBusiness Banter Now Posted!

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

I’m not going to wax too poetic this evening, as I need to get up and out tomorrow for a trip to Las Vegas, where I will be presenting at Travel and Transport’s Fall Client Advisory Council.

So here is our Cliff Note’s version of this week’s issue.

American Airlines — check.

United Airlines — check.

Southwest Airlines — check.

Delta Air Lines — check

Emirates — check.

Randy Babbitt — check.

Steve Lott — check.

DOT Airline Consumer Travel Report numbers for August — check.

Airline stocks had a rather uneventful week last week — check.

Why We Think American Asking For An Additional 30 Days of Exclusivity Is Not A Bad Thing — check

Why This Week Is The Week A Pilot Contract Needs To Be Negotiated At American — check

What American Airlines’ Employees Attending A Branding Session on “Tone” Are Being Asked To Sign Before They Go — check

A New Airline Leasing Entity Is Poised To Become The Third Largest in the World — check

Have I piqued your curiousity yet? Well then you need to read this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

If you’re not a subscriber already, what are you waiting for?

PlaneBusiness Banter Now Posted!

home-typewriter copy 1.jpg

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

You know the drill. We lead off again this week with coverage of American Airlines.

This week we talk about how the airline now believes its seat problem is a result of passengers throwing gunk in between them. You buyin’ this? No, we aren’t either.

Monday also saw American CEO Tom Horton hobnobbing with IAG Chairman Willie Walsh in New York, as Qatar was officially announced as the latest member of the oneworld alliance. Actually the fact that Walsh managed to sweet-talk Qatar into the fold was the real story here.

But needless to say, American was quick to use the opportunity to do some positive spin of its own as the airline conveniently released its September traffic and PRASM estimates the same day.

Meanwhile, just hours before, Etihad’s marketing agreement (with more to come) with Air France/KLM was announced.

I said it when Qantas announced its deal with Emirates — the alliance system is dead. We’re going to see some big changes on this front going forward.

Airline stocks had a great week last week — with shares of US Airways and Delta leading the pack.

All of this and much, much more in this week’s edition of PlaneBusiness Banter.

PlaneBusiness Banter Now Posted!

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Good evening everyone! This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. We are a bit long this week, but not surprising. There is a lot of stuff going on, including the continued operational issues at American Airlines.

Then again, the American story took another turn over the last week, after the airline suffered at least three incidents in which seats on an American 757 came loose while in-flight.

We talk at length this week about how the airline botched the handling of the story, how the airline continues to get beaten up in the press, and why all of this just validates what we already knew –the management team at the airline needs to change.

I’m not sure how much longer all of this is going to continue, but apparently Tom Horton has dug in his heels and is committed to walking away with what some folks have estimated could be as much as $60 million in bankruptcy exit payouts.

Ridiculous.

Meanwhile, United Airlines has quietly rolled out is new easy-peasy customer service GUI that alleviates the need to go back to the green screen. Everything we hear about the switch has been positive. Would have helped if the airline had done this six months ago, but what the hey.

Speaking of United, CEO Jeff Smisek was on CNBC last week talking about the airline’s new 787s, er, the “game-changer.” I have officially banned the use of that word again. I think it’s become a parody. I don’t want any United execs to use it again.

Time to come up with a new marketing tag. That one has gone stale. Causes acute rolling of the eyes of customers and employees alike.

Delta, United, and US Airways all updated their September PRASM numbers and their 3Q results over the last week. US Airways and Delta should still post a small uptick in PRASM for September, but the increase is going to be less than forecast. As for United Airlines, the airline looks like it continued to underperform its peers by a significant margin in September — and it looks like the airline will do the same for the quarter.

Meanwhile, analyst 3Q estimates for US Airways were raised substantially today as the airline forecast lower fuel prices and lower maintenance costs than expected.

We answer a number of subscriber questions this week on AMR — subscribers can send us any question they want to have answered. We’ll try and print as many as we can each week.

Some labor news from the last week: We’ll talk about both the flight attendants and the pilots at US Airways.

We also run down the 3Q airline sector stock performance results this week — as well as our normal weekly look at which stocks fared well last week and which ones took a vacation.

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