Julia Morris's blog

Low-cost carriers, much as the name suggests like to keep costs down and one good way of doing so, is by using airports with cheap landing spots.
Now it’s probably no big secret that London’s Heathrow doesn’t rank among those. Instead it is the far more salubrious establishments dotted around the European countryside that provide airlines such offerings, in many cases in the form of re-opened old military airports.

In the battle for business, Continental Airlines has pulled ahead by launching a gift registry program.

Customers can now create a registry and invite friends and family to gift money towards air travel, the the company announced this week.

It’s a pretty clever hook – much as a frequent flyer program or vouchers, a gift registry creates a certain loyalty as customers reluctant to waste any money they may have in their registry account, will choose Continental over another airline, even if the former is a little more expensive.

My initial reaction was of concern. Surely this would result in loss of customer goodwill and rapid switch of allegiance to another carrier.

But on reflection, I’ve decided it’s not that bad an idea.

Although I should qualify that, the not being a bad idea is based on the assumption that the flight cancellations are in lieu of increased airfares. As given a choice, I would sooner be somewhat inconvenienced by less flights on offer, than having to fork out extra cash.

British Airway’s new boss, Willie Walsh officially took the reigns from Sir Rod Eddington on Monday. The Irishman certainly comes equipped with plenty of industry experience having been at Aer Lingus from trainee pilot through to CEO.
But I suspect he might need the experience. Running BA is not going to be easy. The company might be weathering the rocky seas of jet fuel surges slightly better than some of its American friends, but there are plenty of big obstacles to jump in the next few years.

Seven hours on a transatlantic flight is uncomfortable for most, but it’s unbearable for many smokers, unable to survive without a cigarette for so long. For many it is actually a prohibiting factor in flying such distances, forcing them to resort to movies or television to learn what the other side of the pond looks like.

Well, help might soon be at hand as a Hapag-Lloyd pilot is working on starting transatlantic flights complete with a smoking area, reported Airline Business.

British Airways’ soon to retire boss, Rod Eddington called for less protection of US airlines at a recent industry meeting, the BBC reported. He said there were too many airlines and that in the last four years US airlines had “soaked up $15bn to $20bn of public subsidies and loan guarantees”.

That’s a lot of money to soak up, probably surpassing the gross domestic product of many countries.

It’s no secret that airlines are fighting to get our business and constantly searching to find new ways to differentiate themselves.
Apparently some airlines have started displaying ‘on-time’ statistics on booking sites to do just that. It’s new to me, but on first reflection probably not a bad idea. After all, most of us are busy, always looking to squeeze that extra little something into every second of the day. So knowing that an airline is unlikely to mess up our schedule seems like a good thing.

I need a lot of sleep to function properly, so the red-eye from New York to London never works well. Sitting in coach probably doesn’t help, but baring a lottery win or a lucky upgrade, coach it’s going to be for a while. In fact business class fares have climbed so high, that many companies are now also flying employees coach. I am not sure that makes economic sense, as I question the value red-eyed workers actually add, but that is a separate matter.

As the chapter 11 flying club welcomed two new members last week, I do wonder whether this so called ‘short-term remedy’ really works.

I fly across the Atlantic quite a bit, and am therefore frequently looking at Expedia, Travelocity etc. to find reasonable fares. It is quite amazing how airline prices do vary. Sometimes all the airlines quote within a few dollars of each other, while other times, there are huge differences.

'Hello World' and an otherwise blank screen? Well, it wasn't quite what I was expecting when clicking on Northwest Airlines link to information about their chapter 11 fling, which they made earlier today. Is this code for something? It's certainly a new approach to investor relations.

Why are talks between Northwest Airlines and their workers unions making so little progress?

Stranded overnight in New York a few weeks ago, when British Airways (BA) cancelled many of their flights following industrial action by catering and ground staff in London, my friend was somewhat appeased by the prospect of compensation.

Big airplanes are always pretty breathtaking, in particular the iconic Boeing 747, which is a beautiful feat of construction. But despite my admiration, often I find travel in it painful. Boarding for instance, can take forever, as 300-something passengers search for their seats and cram far too much luggage into overhead compartments.

It is therefore with anxious curiosity that I await the arrival into commercial use of Airbus’s new super jumbo, the A380, which depending on configuration, can hold somewhere between 500 to 800 passengers. Impressive - but can you imagine the immigration queues when one, let alone two of these planes land? I not sure many airports are geared up for this volume of passengers, or have the financial incentive to do so. Unfortunately however, such operational bottlenecks are going to have a serious impact on the success of the venture, as amazing on-board amenities or not, once passengers arrive at a destination, they want to get off their plane quickly and smoothly.