“The Justice Department is trying to determine whether Google Inc. would gain too much sway over the online travel industry by acquiring ITA Software Inc., which powers the Web’s most popular airline-ticket search and booking sites, said people familiar with the department’s review.”
That’s according to the Wall Street Journal. Read the rest of the story here.
Continental Airlines Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Smisek defended a proposed merger with UAL Corp., testifying in federal court that combining the airlines will “increase our revenue and decrease our costs.”
Read the rest of the story from Bloomberg News.
House of Representatives Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar is on a tear. Last week the Department of Justice approved the merger of United and Continental airlines.
Air Transport World reports, “Oberstar said in a statement that DOJ “had little choice” but to approve the UA/CO combination owing to the “very narrow set of criteria” current US law allows it to use to make judgments on airline mergers. He said there is a “need to give broader authority over such mergers to the Department of Transportation, allowing DOT to consider such factors as the impact a merger will have on service to communities and customers, as well as the effect the merger could have on the industry as a whole.”
Read the rest here.
Last week the U.S. Justice Department gave its blessing for the merger of United and Continental airlines. This week mergers details are emerging. The Houston Chronicle reports the merger is expected to be a done deal October 1. But it will likely be May of next year before customers start to notice differences.
Read the rest of the story here.
For the past few days the airport has hosted one of history’s most famous airplanes: a B17 Flying Fortress. The Liberty Bell is one of only a handful of B17s that still fly. This Saturday, August 28, the Liberty Bell is open for tours at the airport’s General Aviation Complex. More information is available from the Liberty Foundation.
Liberty Belle at Springfield-Branson National Airport
Art Deco design with Varga inspired femininity
“U.S. airlines workers, who have gone through pay and benefit cuts, layoffs, bankruptcies and rising workloads in recent years, are looking to capitalize on the return to profits this year of most big U.S. carriers.” That’s the lede today in a story from USA Today.
The bottom line is the airline employees have been ignored for too long. Now that the airlines are showing a profit, employees may well start to demand their due.
The Wall Street Journal and the Dallas Morning News jump in with airline labor stories too.
This week we unveiled a new customer service feature in the terminal lobby. It’s a 40-inch video monitor that displays three different data feeds:
Enjoy.
Allegiant Air has been named the 25th fastest growing company by Fortune Magazine. Every year Fortune publishes its “100 Fastest Growing Companies” list. The magazine says, “Our annual collection of rising phenoms reveals who - and what - is succeeding even in a stagnant economy.” According to Fortune, Allegiant’s earnings per share (3-year annual rate) is 85%.
Now just in case you’ve forgotten, or don’t know, Allegiant flies directly from Springfield to five destinations: Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Orlando and Tampa/St. Petersburg. You can often find round-trip fares for less than $200.
See the top 100 list here.
Our July numbers are in and it’s a mixed bag…
We were up a tad this July, but our monthly growth is essentially flat. For the year we’re down three percent, compared to the same seven month period last year. Our best guess is that we’ll finish the year flat, or down a couple of percentage points. Air freight numbers are another story…
The bulk of air freight is flown by Federal Express and United Parcel Service. We view the air freight numbers as a sort of economic barometer. The more freight that moves, the better we figure the local and national economies are doing.
As you can see, freight was up twelve percent. It’s been going up steadily since the first of the year. To give you an idea of just how bad the freight numbers were… In March 2009 freight was down 49 percent!
As always, you can dive into the numbers by clicking here.
“The nine largest US passenger airlines posted cumulative net income of $1.45 billion for the three months ended June 30, turned around from a net loss of $556 million in the year-ago period…” That’s according to Air Transport World.
Airline news has, indeed, been rosy of late. But most of the business press gets only half the story. Here’s what’s not being widely reported:
Airline labor is extremely unhappy. Pay cuts. Benefits cuts. Staff cuts. All the cutting has undoubtedly helped the bottom line, but it’s been at the expense of employees. Some predict that labor will get its revenge through strikes.
At best, the economic recovery is uncertain. This means uncertainty for the airlines (yes, that a “duh” point, but no one seems to get it).
The airlines continue to heap abuse on their customers. The brewing backlash could clobber the airlines where it hurts most: the bottom line. As aviation consultant Michael Boyd recently wrote:
It’s not that airlines don’t have the right to charge for what they deliver. They do, regardless of phony tantrums thrown by Senator Schumer who’s jealous that he can’t tax a lot of the new fees - yet. But it’s how airlines do it that could send the Pope to a Valium bottle. There are the incredibly dumb rules [inflicted] on both passengers and line employees (assuming they have any). Any little change to an itinerary - even just a two hour flight change - can mean hundreds of dollars in penalties. ‘Cept these charges aren’t called penalties. They’re dubbed as “service fees” - which is like describing jail time as a short term vacation. Any variation, and the consumer can get nailed. A particularly opportunistic one is the fee for getting on an earlier flight - when the customer is at the airport already and the earlier flight is nearly empty. The whole process is beginning to be perceived as if the ticket is just the down payment - if you don’t want to be uncomfortable, you’ll have to pay more…Unless things change, and soon….One word, Benjamin: Re-regulation. Bank on it, consumers are starting to revolt, and may rush into the open cloak of Washington charlatans like Schumer. Then everybody loses…
