MLI View from B10 |
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Quad City International Airport - MLI
I missed my connection in Moline, IL and I'm stuck here for 5 hours. At least I have have a good view. Too bad there aren't any flights for a while.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Traveling Thoughts - Jamon
Saturday, July 14, 2012
US Airways Club Changing Rooms
Due to scheduling complexities, I often need to travel on an
overnight flight from Denver to the east coast for work. I need to land fresh and ready for a full day
of meetings. This is challenging because
Denver is less than three hours from the east coast, too short to sleep
well. It is further complicated because
I need to look sharp in business attire.
The latter is solved by the US Airways Club changing rooms. The rooms, located before the bathrooms,
provide a large space to change from comfortable overnight wear into fresh
business garb. There is a chair, coat hooks, counter, tissues, and a mirror. They are also kept very clean, offer good lighting, and a full door. I love them and try to
connect in CLT so I can use them.
US Airways Club Changing Room in CLT |
United Clubs don’t have these rooms, but I hope they are
added to make overnight flying more tolerable.
The alternative is flying dressed up and landing wrinkled or changing in
a bathroom stall, neither a good solution.
US Airways used to be my least favorite airline to fly (though I would fly them, unlike Spirit), but they have improved
significantly over the past few years and are now at least tolerable.
US Airways Airbus 319 |
Thursday, July 12, 2012
United Orders New 737's
United ordered (full press release here) 100 of Boeing's new fuel efficient 737 MAX airplanes to start updating the current fleet. Deliveries will begin in a few years. United also ordered 50 737-900ER jets to replace some 757's in the fleet with deliveries starting next year. This is a good move for United to lower operating costs and I bet they got a great price on the planes because Boeing is hurting for narrow body orders. I prefer the Airbus interior so I'm not jumping for joy on this move. Also the 757 has 4 more first class seats than the 737-900ER and boarding is done through the middle door, so first class has a very private feel.
Strange that this was not announced at the Farnborough Air Show going on right now. Airbus loves to announce orders at airshows to show off in front of the press. Boeing prefers to announce orders as they come, but the timing and order size would make this an air show highlight. Maybe a missed opportunity by United and Boeing.
United 737 MAX, photo from United Airlines |
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
WestJet Has Been Profitable Every Quarter for 7 Years
WestJet today
announced its selection by Aviation Week as a top 10 international airline. The
study ranks airline carriers across the world by their annual revenues, using
financial and operational data to rate publicly traded airlines in five
different performance categories. WestJet is the only Canadian airline and one
of only two North American airlines to appear on this year's list. In May, WestJet announced record
first-quarter net earnings of $68.3 million, the airline's 28th consecutive quarter of profitability.
WestJet 737 Taking Off |
I doubt any airline will win the Nobel Prize for economics
any time soon. But WestJet, Canada’s “preferred airline”
(their words), has been profitable every quarter for the last 7 years and that
is something special. WestJet operates a
fleet of 737 to 76 cities. No CRJs and
no wide bodies. Sounds like
Southwest. Unlike Southwest, they fly to
several countries allowing them to serve additional profitable markets for both
business and leisure (you can be a pure play domestic airline in Canada, but
you need to focus on the way up north, like First Air and Canada North). WestJet also codeshares with American and
Delta to bring in more traffic and offer more destinations for customers
without changing their fleet make up.
These WestJet guys have quietly found the formula for a profitable
airline. That might be worth a trip to
Stockholm after all, on a code share partner of course.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
ITA Matrix Search Game - Most Minimum Connections
I read that some airport pairs require a minimum of 20 stops
to travel between. This seemed stunning,
so I went to ITA Matrix flight search trying to see how many
minimum connections I could find between two cities. My personal best so far is 9 connections for Grayling,
Alaska (KGX) to Tezpur, India (TEZ).
Canada may be a good place to start looking |
Can
you do better? The ITA Matrix search game is born. Post your best pairings in
the comments; it’ll be a fun game.
Friday, July 6, 2012
California Pacific Airlines - Who?
There’s a new airline in town, well in Carlsbad (San Diego north),
California. California Pacific Airlines
(CPA) is a startup looking to make Carlsbad the low cost airport for San
Diego. They plan to have service to
Vegas, Phoenix, Cabo, San Jose, Oakland, and Sacramento. The airline will operate E170 jets in an all
coach configuration. I’ll put the over
under on their survival at 14 months, if they ever get off the ground.
Great Lakes Puddle Jumper, Close Enough |
The SoCal air market is already very crowded and filled with
low fares and high frequencies. CPA seems
unlikely to generate much connecting traffic or traffic originating at their
spokes. They do have an interesting
marketing position focused on Carlsbad’s low costs to customers and convenient
location to people north of San Diego; SAN is amazingly convenient for locals. I don’t think there will be enough traffic
though to sustain their operation. The
big airlines all work out of SAN (40 mins south), Long Beach (75 mins north) and LAX (90 mins north) with
more destinations and frequencies and unless you live right in Carlsbad, it will
most likely be worth the drive to catch a flight. I haven’t written an obituary yet, but I’m
tempted to start soon.
UPDATE 12/14/14:
I have a feeling the airline is done before it ever took off. The flycpair.com domain name expired and is now up for auction, current price $65.
UPDATE 12/14/14:
I have a feeling the airline is done before it ever took off. The flycpair.com domain name expired and is now up for auction, current price $65.
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