Winging It

We found a short but informative story about what is surely to be a topic of great concern and interest in the years ahead: the global effect on the climate of travel and tourism. Read the story here.

Like motorists, pilots can save fuel by slowing down their air speed just a little. Read more about it in an AP story.

The Boston Globe has a story today about a running feud with its skycaps at Logan International Arport. American lost a jury trial recently in which the skcaps contended that the $2 per bag fee charged for curbside checkin interfered with their right to make a living. Most other carriers have imposed similar fees at PHL and other major airport, and skycaps everywhere are crying foul, saying customers don't understand that the fees haven't repaced the tips the workers were accustomed to receiving. American upped the ante in the Boston fight by raising skycap wages and prohibiting tips. We plan to look into this situation more closely. Find the Globe story here.

Today's Road Warrior column looks back at an early forecast about what deregulation would bring for air travelers -- a forecast that's clearly coming true. The column also includes a note to you, the reader,at the end. Find it all here. <

PHL director Charlie Isdell sat down with The Inquirer for an interview last week. Read his upbeat assessment of what travelers can expect at the airport if US Airways and United become one airline. Read the Q and A at this link.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a good story today about two senators' amendment to FAA reauthorization legislation that would require greater FAA oversight of U.S. airlines' use of foreign repair stations. Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) is one sponsor; Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) the other. Read more here.

The McCaskill-Specter amendment drew immediate support from the Radnor-based Business Travel Coaltion, which has been a leader in bringing this issue to the forefront. Read a travel-trade newsletter report on BTC's endorsement at this link.

Wall Street Journal reported today that FAA failed to do more than 100 recommended safety reviews at major airlines in recent years. PHL's big kahuna, US Airways, is very much in the story. Read more here.

A bill to reauthorize the FAA was shelved in the U.S. Senate today. Read why in this AP story from Washington.

We have reported numerous times in recent years that in the opinion of Philadelphia officials, PHL should do just fine were its major airline to merge (again) with another carrier. The airport serves a region of more than six million people, making it attractive to the airlines even if US Airways were to trim its hub operations here in a marriage to United. Traditionally, more than half of the US Airways' passengers at its PHL hub are "O & D," or origin-and-destination, meaning they start or end their trips at the airport rather than just connecting. In smaller cities that are hubs, such as Charlotte, as many as 90 percent of passengers are connecting. Airport director Charlie Isdell spoke in a Q-and-A with my colleague, Linda Loyd this week, reiterating the point.

Knowing that made a New York Times story yesterday ring true. Southwest, the story points out, is in a good position to expand in US Airways' and United's larger hubs were there to be cutbacks in those cities. You may recall that Southwest chairman Herb Kelleher, speaking in Philadelphia in 2004 when US Airways was in bankrputcy, said his airline would be happy to take over 25 gates at the airport were the hub carrier (which uses more than 80 gates) to give them up, Southwest now has eight gates and is about to go to 10, with hopes of getting more in a few years. It's good to see that Southwest could have similar ambitions elsewhere, providing additional competition.

PHL's on-time performance improved significantly in March -- something that would have been more surprising had it not. March 2007 was both a nasty weather month and when US Airways botched its switch to a new reservations system. US Airways' overall record is getting better, too. Read the details in today's story.

Some travelers say there are good reasons to pay extra for an old-fashioned paper ticket, which the worldwide airline industry is trying to eliminate. Read about situations in which a paper ticket is valuable here.

Here's an idea that perhaps PHL should try. Chicago's Midway Airport, like PHL a city-owned facility, has created three security-checkpoint lines based on symbols used on ski slopes: green for beginners, blue for those with some experience and black for experts at getting through the process. Read a Chicago Tribune story about it, and tell us what you think by making a comment.

The Big Six airlines are raising fares again, they say to offset fuel costs. We will take a closer look at this topic soon. In the meantime, read the basics of what the carriers did most recently here.

Media in the Newark, N.J., area are reporting concern by air-traffic controllers about pilots making wrong turns after takeoff because of unfamiliarity with new procedures adopted in December as part of PHL-New York-New Jersey airspace redesign. Read the AP story here, This is the same issue we reported on two months ago in The Inquirer, noting that PHL controllers had the same worry, and what the FAA had to say in response.

This story should warm the hearts of those of you who commented on whether cell phone calls should be allowed in flight. Southwest had police arrest a man for disorderly conduct after flight attendants said he wouldn't stop talking on his phone. Too bad it's only a misdemeanor. Read more here.

The Air Transport Association predicts fewer flights, but high load factors and more fare increases. Read a little more in this AP story.

This is a topic we think travelers and airlines will be talking a lot about the rest of this year, at the very least. A new survey sponsored by the UBS investment bank has detected a downward trend in spending on corporate travel, despite airlines seeing little evidence of it yet in their boardings. The survey results, and responses from carriers and industry observers were reported in Business Travel News Online, one of the best sources we know of for early intelligence on what companies, especially big ones that spend millions of dollars a year on employee travel, are thinking and doing. Read the full BTN Online story to learn more.

Sources tell the Assoicated Press that United and Continental are talking about some type of alliance, but short of a full merger, while United still is discussing merger with US Airways. Read the latest here.

Change is a constant in life and so it is with what you are seeing at the top of this page today. Don't worry. What has for the last 16 months been the Philly Road Warrior blog has changed its name to Winging It, but the principal author is still the smiling guy whose face appears to the right. The Philly Road Warrior column that appears in the Monday Inquirer Business section in print and online will also be renamed Winging It. The change reflects the reality that this is primarily a space devoted to air travel.

In coming weeks, we also plan to switch to a different blog publishing platform, designed to make it easier for you to comment on what we post. Beyond that, the only other difference you're likely to notice is more comment and analysis on the news of the day, in both the blog and the column. We will still focus on news and information from around the world that is useful to the PHL flier. If you continue to visit here, we think you'll enjoy the ride. Or make that, enjoy the flight.

A slight decrease in travel, by both air and road, is expected this Memorial Day weekend and on into the summer. Read more in an Inquirer story this morning that looks at the predictions and what it may mean for the Philadelphia region's own efforts to attract visitors.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued a final rule requiring airlines to report more data about on-the-ground flight delays. This is an outgrowth of the long tarmac delays and strandings in the winter of 2006-2007. As it turns out, this last winter saw few similar, widely publicized delays, or if they happened the media didn't turn them into national news. The reports were down, probably, for at least two reasons: less severe winter weather and the airlines improved their performance in hopes of avoiding any more news stories. The new reporting requirements for airlines start in October. You can read details of the rule --- many of them -- on the DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics Web site at this link.

We reintroduced ourselves, that is, I reintroduced myself, this morning in the first Winging It column in print. Read it here.

A few of you will be surprised by this: J.D. Power & Associates' annual survey of customer satisfaction with airports gave PHL its highest grade. This is no small achievement, given all that we know and hear locally about the airport. Find this morning's Inquirer news story here. The news release from J.D. Power at this link provides more detail (Note: this is an attachment and may take a moment to open.). Of course, these two items aren't the last word on this topic We plan to say a great deal more about the survey and airports later this week and on Monday.

A later in the day update: The University of Michigan's annual survey of customer satisfaction with airlines came to a less-surprising conclusion. You are unhappy with airline service. Read more about that here.

American Airlines probably surprised few with an announcement, on the day of its annual shareholders' meeting, that it would start charging $15 for the first bag you want to check on a flight. Delta said it wasn't matching yet, but other airlines haven't been heard from. We all know what that means, don't we? American, the world's biggest carrier (at least until the Delta-Northwest nuptials) also said it would park more planes, cutting seats for sale by 11 to 12 percent. Outside the meeting, picketing employees called for the heads of senior managers, saying passengers and employees weren't being well served by the guys in charge. Here's the AP story on that one.

Contrast that with what was happening a few miles away at Southwest's annual meeting, where co-founder Herb Kelleher and longtime sidekick Colleen Barrett stepped down as chairman and president, respectively. Gary Kelly, who's been CEO and running the airline for three years, was named to both their former posts. And the really big news: No employee pickets reported. We'll have more to say about these developments later.

This story from a public radio program, should be of great interest to all those who wish more rail service was available as an alternative to air and road travel. Find it here.

Just in time for the start of the summer travel season, Congress' Joint Economic Committee has issued a report saying that air-travel delays cost the economy $41 billion last year. Read a full story on the report, including a PHL detail and what FAA is planning to do help reduce Northeast air-traffic congestion here.

You knew it was coming, didn't you? US Airways says it's considering joining what will soon be a stream of airlines charging for checking all bags, $15 for the first, matching American's move of yesterday. Read the online story at this link.

US Airways just announced that it's asked federal regulators to allow it postpone the start of its PHL-Beijing service for a year because of fuel costs. The airline said it now plans to launch the daily roundtrips in the spring of 2010 if the U.S. Department of Transportation will allow it. US Airways president Scott Kirby, in a letter to employees, said DOT already has approved similar requests from United and from Northwest for planned cargo flights. The Inquirer's staff story on that and other airline issues can be found here.

Kirby said US Airways remains committed to growing international service from PHL and had done considerable work to prepare for the China flights. Officials met with Chinese officials to discuss facilities and licenses, created code-shares for inter-China service with Air China and done marketing planning. But fuel prices are swamping lots of plans and prompting airlines to think of every way they can to bring in revenue (see the item above about the $15 first-checked-bag fee). US Airways said the annual fuel costs alone for PHL-Beijing flights would be $90 million a year at today's prices, $40 million more than the estimates made when it filed for the route. Stay tuned for even more stories like this one and the one above.

Find a good summary from the Associated Press of the airlines' fuel-related woes at this link.

Here's a story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that we haven't seen anywhere else, reporting on a call from the National Transporation Safety Board for inspections of all 757s for cracks or other defects. It's a followup to a US Airways jet that lost a portion of a wing enroute to Philadelphia. Read more here.

Today's Winging It column looks at one explanation for Philadelphia ranking first in J.D. Power's 2008 airport customer satisfaction survey. Read it here.

I find no news stories from the usual sources on this report, issued by the federal recordkeepers. " U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 4 percent fewer pilots and 32 percent fewer maintenance workers in 2007 than in 2000, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today " on the agency's Web site: www.bts.gov . The news release is straightforward, with no spin. Just the facts.

The New York Times reported that talks between US Airways and United have stalled. Read more Here. Find the Times story at this link.

Are the merger talks between US Airways and United flagging, as reported yesterday? So what will Doug Parker and UAL CEO Glenn Tilton talk about today? Read the latest guesses in this AP story. The Inquirer's Thursday story included a view from PHL, with aviation director Charles Isdell noting the limited impact a merger would probably have here.

US Airways CEO Doug Parker and United CEO Glenn Tilton have told employees that they won't be merging - at least right now. Find the latest from AP here. For background on this ongoing drama, read Linda Loyd's Inquirer story at the link in the blog entry just below this one. Also, here are the first two paragraphs of Parker's letter to employees, sent early today. As usual with corporate statements, you have to read the second paragraph to find the "lead" or the main point of the story.

Parker said; "As you know, we have been assessing our strategic options over the last several months and there has been much speculation about our airline and consolidation. With fuel in the $130 range, I thought it would be helpful to let you know where we are at this point. Hopefully that will help to relieve some of the anxiety created by rumors.

"After much work and many conversations with other airlines, we have come to the conclusion that consolidation involving US Airways will not occur at this time. This is not to say that something won’t occur in the future – as you know I strongly believe that consolidation is required in our industry and that US Airways would benefit from participating. Rather it is simply unlikely that anything will happen in 2008 as our industry continues to struggle with how to function in a world with $130/bbl oil prices."

The Inquirer took a look at what happens to US Airways now that it's no longer talking merger with United. Find it at this link.