Change is good, as they say. So our blog has changed to a new format and location over on the Philly.com site, our host. It may look and act a little different, but the new location should make it easier for users to find our posts and raise our profile overall. Find it here. This site will go dormant, but it will still be visible to read back on old posts.
PHL will not be hit as hard as some other airports this fall when airlines trim their schedules in the face of record fuel costs. Read more from The Inquirer here. In related news, American said it would cut 900 flight-attendant jobs. Other reductions are likely to follow. Read more about that in an AP story.
Michael Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation consultant, has taken issue with "the coalition," as he called it, meaning the Business Travel Coalition, and its list of 150 small- and mid-sized airports that could lose service as a result of airline cutbacks. Mike seems to think "the coalition" doesn't know what it's (actually it's a he, Kevin Mitchell) talking about. I thought the group's list was simply a statement of the obvious --- many smaller airports COULD lose service IF there are cutbacks. If you have time and want to read lots more find the critique at Boyd Group Web site.
Did I ever say I like what PHL administrators do with artwork, adorning many walls that might otherwise be lined with advertising? I can't count the number of times exhibitions have slowed me down as I trod down some of the long corridors.Today Mayor Nutter and other dignataries were on hand to unveil 44 black-and-white photographs of Philadelphia music legends who have stars on the Walk of Fame, on South Broad Street between Walnut and Pine. The exhibition, sponsored by the city and Sunoco Welcome America, is in Terminal A-East through mid-September.
The Business Travel Coalition has set up a new free Web site that provides links to dozens of other travel sites, many of them run by newspaper columnists and bloggers (including this one). You could spend all day parked here, reading airline and other travel-related news and opinion. The site www.netvibes.com/btc#blogs was started, as BTC chairman Kevin Mitchell explains, because he couldn't find anything else like it online. Needless to say, neither could we, so check it out and bookmark it if you want to keep up with travel news beyond what you learn here about PHL.
An announcement last week that AT&T Corp. would move its corporate headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas may not have made headlines in the East. But it's a big blow to San Antonio. The main reason AT&T -- the city's only Dow 30 company -- cited for the move is related to something we've been looking at in this space: How cities may suffer when airlines are forced to make deep cuts in service because of fuel costs. AT&T said San Antonio doesn't have enough direct airline service to major cities, and Dallas, as both an American and Southwest hub, does. Read more about what's being said in the local San Antonio Express-News
The airline industry crisis was succintly understated in a quote in the New York Times last week: "Said John P. Tague, United’s chief operating officer: “There’s going to be a period of adjustment in the last half of the year that will be unpleasant.”
Downright nasty and brutish may be more like it. The evidence continues to pile up: The airlines' fuel-cost crisis is very real and many communities are going to be affected by it. There's little indication yet that PHL will be hit hard this fall, with US Airways planning few cuts in its schedules. But most other carriers are likely to be offering fewer flights to their hubs from Philly unless oil prices were to fall, something that seems increasingly unlikely. The real concern for PHL fliers is the one they have confronted repeatedly over the years, each time US Airways gets into financial trouble and / or goes into Chapter 11: What if US were to fail or substantially reduce its operations? The thinking has always been that the region would fare better than smaller cities because its population is large enough to have a range of flights, even in the worst of circumstances. Without a hub airline, PHL would lose its status as an international gateway for years, but that could be regained, couldn't it?
That optimism may be looking to the past and not the immediate future. What happens if there are multiple major airline failures? What if one or more big carriers has to liquidate, unable to reorganize in bankruptcy court? A few weeks ago, analysts were calculating what $130-a-barrel oil would do to airlines, and it was very ugly. This morning the cost is climbing toward $150, so there's no good news here. Two stories in other publications from the last few days provide more detail: Read one from the New York Times about deep flight cuts this fall, and another from the Dallas Morning News about falling airline stock prices.
Today's column takes a closer look at concerns over laptop seizures from international travelers reentering the country. Read about questions business groups and lawmakers have raised about Homeland Security practices at this link.
US Airways skycaps at PHL, who work for an airline contractor, are losing their jobs when the carrier starts collecting fees for checking bags. Read Linda Loyd's full story about skycaps.
Delta Air Lines just announced that it will add fuel surcharges to what you thought were its "free" tickets acquired with frequent-flier miles. The charge, for tickets issued after Aug. 15, will be $25 for most domestic flights and $50 for international and some long-haul domestic ones. Read the details in a Delta news release.
Let's have a contest. What do you think the legacy airlines will next start charging extra for?
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Tom Belden, a former Inquirer business writer, has written about Philadelphia International Airport, airlines, the travel industry, the conventions and meetings business for 25 years. He has traveled to all 50 states and extensively in Europe and Mexico.
