United Airlines Boeing 777
From July 19th to July 27th of this year, United Airlines has had to cancel 329 flights, causing issues for over 36,000 passengers. United has filed suit against the Air Line Pilots Association and four pilots stating that they are purposely causing “slowdowns” with United and pressuring pilots to take more sick leave and not fill in for pilots that do take sick leave.
I am all for people protesting not being treated correctly, but first off is this the proper way to do it? Secondly is this the proper time to be doing it? Already airlines and passengers are strapped for cash and patience. These actions hurt with both.
Source: NYTimes Image: Thomas Becker
Global airline ridership has increased about 7% from last year to about 4.8 billion passengers. Above are the top 10 busiest airports, but you can see the Top 30 here. Although there is a large increase in the Middle East (11.3%) and Africa (11.2%) I am sure we will be seeing declining numbers in America and Europe next year.
Source: MSNBC Image: ACI
Although not directly airline news, I feel this falls under “future airline news” since who knows, boarding a plane (or spaceship?) might just be as easy and cheap as it is now to fly (hopefully they won’t charge for peanuts).
Anyhow, Virgin Galactic has shown to the world (and galaxy?) what White Knight Two “Eve” Mothership will look like (hmm maybe pick a name?). This aircraft would take SpaceShip2 up to about 48,000 feet before it takes the six wealthy folks 300,000 feet in only 90 seconds.
For a mere $200,000 you can book your seat to fly into space. Even though going to the ends of Earth for $200k might not seem like a good deal to most people, I think it is great since it will pave the way for private space exploration. There are enough wealthy people to support this — 100 have already paid full price and another 170 have put down deposits.
THANKS BEN FOR THE TIP!
Source: The Washington Post Image: The Washington Post
British Airways has announced that it is going to merge with long-time partner Iberia. Even though both airlines will keep separate identities (for now) they will still have a combined 450 aircraft and over 250 destinations.
This comes as no surprise as more and more airlines are looking to merge and save money and resources. Even though the BA chief executive Willie Walsh says it is “far too early” to say if any jobs will be lost, it is most likely the new combined airline will need to cut jobs to help save on costs.
Source: The Press Association Original Image: Thomas Becker
The CEO of JetBlue has decided to lower his salary from $500,000 to $250,000 for the remainder of the year due to the worsening airline economy. They have also put a hold on route expansions and receiving new aircraft.
Even though $250,000 per year can still go quite far and it is only for 6 months or so, I think it does show a lot when a CEO is willing to suffer a little bit with the rest of their employees.
Source: The Guardian Image: Flyian