Demand for airline seats fell 3.5% last year, making it the greatest decline the industry has seen, according to the International Air Transport Association. Airlines had a tough time filling 75% of available seats on average flights, IATA reports, and an early recovery, given the difficult conditions of 2009, is unlikely. For the freight sector, the situation was even worse: a 10.1% year-over-year decline, with less than half of all available capacity consumed.
Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s chief executive, says, “In terms of demand, 2009 goes into the history books as the worst year the industry has ever seen.” He continues, to USA Today, “We have permanently lost two years of growth in passenger markets and three years of growth in the freight business.”
IATA forecasts a $5.6 billion loss for the air transportation industry in 2010. Bisignani observes, “Revenue improvements will be at a much slower pace than the demand growth that we are starting to see.”
According to the UK’s Telegraph, the latest casualty of the problems between British Airways’ cabin crews and the company is vintage wine. Those involved in the alcohol abuse were members of the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (Bassa), which is part of the union that represents the airline’s 13,000 cabin crew. They say they destroyed the wine as a symbol of “passive resistance” against some of the new practices that British Airways has instituted.
The unhappy employees had planned on striking over the Christmas holiday, but thankfully, the strike was blocked by a judge.
Apparently, the flap all started when BA introduced some new cost cutting measures – which included firing hundreds of employees and freezing pay for current workers. As a result, the “disaffected” workers have stopped any of their own money-saving efforts onboard the airplanes. One worker was quoted in the Telegraph article as saying that “No-one is doing anything to help save costs any more. Whereas we used to keep unfinished bottles of wine in first-class to save money, now they’re routinely poured down the sink.”
Let’s hope the union and British Airways can resolve their issues soon. I hate to see good wine go to waste.%Gallery-76818%
Well, it’s hard not to see the light at the end of the tunnel after a decade of unusual airline severity. The market was shaken several times by terror attempts – including the attacks of 9/11 – economic pressures from the dotcom meltdown and the recent financial sector only made matters worse. Energy prices hit some peaks along the way, which, according to Joseph Lazzaro of our sister site, BloggingStocks, determines the fate of the U.S. airline sector.
The stock is up 90% since June. To most travelers, this is not just irrelevant, but boring … until you think about how these matters can impact your experience on an airline. When a company is profitable, it has an easier time serving its customers. And, employees tend to relax a little bit, as profits and stock prices tend to be good signs that jobs won’t be disappearing (at least not in large amounts).Also, I use stock price as a proxy for intangibles, like brand strength, customer loyalty and other factors that are hard to quantify. At the end of the day, the price determined by investors takes all this stuff into account, giving customers and passengers a feel for how the airline is likely to treat it.
So, cast aside the recent high-profile debacles of this airline, including its recent runway faux pas in in Kingston, and think to the future. After all, everyone’s screwed up. United has its guitar-playing victim, and Northwest (and, as a result, Delta) watched a plane overshoot a destination. In a business where every player is scraping the bottom of the barrel, American may rise above, even if only slightly.
Airport restaurants have been spanked hundreds of times over the past year for food safety violations, according to a USA Today review of inspection records. Check it out – close to 800 restaurants in 10 airports had tuna and turkey sandwiches that weren’t kept cold enough, raw meat getting a little too chummy with ready-to-eat meals, rat droppings and kitchens that didn’t have soap for employee hand-washing.
Blech.
Yea, it gets nastier. Forty-two percent of the 57 restaurants at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were found to have at least one “critical” violation each. At Reagan National Airport, it was even more disgusting: 77 percent of 35 restaurants. These were violations of a caliber that make the risk of illness common.
JFK, apparently, isn’t so bad. According to the New York City health department, “Restaurants at JFK have had relatively few problems with rodents in comparison to restaurants citywide.”
Imagine an airline experience free of middle seats, standing in line or dealing with nut-job flight attendants who withhold orange juice, water and any other service not related to “safety.” Tom Stuker, it seems, doesn’t have to close his eyes and pretend: he lives the dream. He’s spent 700,000 in non-middle seats this year alone, with complimentary cocktails, a hidden check-in process and a taste of luxury not present even in first class having become the norm for him.
Now, with 8.8 million miles racked up on United over his travel-intensive career, Stuker has been admitted to an elite frequent flier program, of the sort we covered here at Gadling not to long ago. This is the type of secret society noted in George Clooney‘s new flick, “Up in the Air.” Airlines don’t like to talk about it, but they actually do treat people well on occasion. You just have to spend a fortune to matter enough to them.
United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski Janikowski likens the airlines super-duper-premium offer, Global Services, to Yale’s Skull and Bones society. Like the elite underworld of the Ivy League, its members include CEOs, senators and other people envied by the rest of us.
So, how does this work?
1. You get a special check-in area. Avoid the great unwashed, and get greeted by name, as a concierge, of sorts, dispatches with your bags quickly. Your boarding passes will be waiting for you. At some airports, you’ll be able to pass through a hidden door to the front of the security checkpoint.
2. You’ll be watched. When? Well, when you move to the front of anything. We are all aware of those guys who occasionally are allowed to board before the elderly – before any announcements are made.
3. You’ll choose first. For everything, all the time. The meal will come to you before anyone else even knows there’s food on the plane.
4. Your lost luggage is scouted. If the airline loses your luggage, they actually try to find your luggage. Actively. A special team takes care of this.
None of this is truly life-changing, though, except the security piece. The real value of being a member of this type of secret society becomes apparent when something goes wrong … not unusual when airline employees are involved.
If you have a connection that’s too tight, the airline will rebook you on the next available flight – while you are still in the sky. A special agent will meet you at the gate with your new boarding pass, and a set of wheels will be furnished to take you to the next gate. If you need to go through security again, you’ll be escorted personally. In rare cases, a car will be waiting for you to dart you across the tarmac to your next plane. Terminals are for prolie scum.
Thinking back to Stuker, he’s got insane props with several airlines, but his favorite is United, because, “I am treated like a king.” Simply, he notes, “If I was in coach, I would shoot myself.”