Found this online. It's a picture of the aforementioned Independence Air letter: (if it's too small to read or not showing up properly, click here: http://forums.aca-lounge.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=544...
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Independence Air Furlough Message
A flight attendant with Independence Air for three years posted this letter on a forum at Airliners.net. This letter seems to be the one that was mailed out to quite a few people: December 23, 2005 RE : Furlough Dear Flight Attendant ######: As you know, FLYi, Inc, the holding company for Independence Air, has been actively engaged in securing investors in, or purchasers of, the Company as it attempts to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the United States bankruptcy Code. The Company expects that is it is unable to secure significant...
Monday, December 26, 2005
Asian Rivalry Is Good News for Boeing
A long-standing rivalry between two major airlines - Austrailia's QANTAS and Singapore Airlines - is heating up in a big way - in a way that can only benefit airplane manufacturer Boeing. Singapore might order the Boeing 777-200LR, quite a few 787 Dreamliners and up to six 747 Advanced freighters, according to the Wall Street Journal. Singapore would order a total of 80 planes, and had a bunch of 777-300ERs on order as well. Also the word on...
Sunday, December 25, 2005
DOT Says No To Delta, Northwest and Overseas Carriers
The US Department of Transportation said the other day that Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines can't coordinate prices and schedules with their European partners.For quite some time, Delta has been allies with Air France, but this wasn't as strong as Northwest's seudo-marriage to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. So when all four found themselves in the same airline alliance - SkyTeam - and when Air France merged with KLM, things got a bit trickier.The ruling still allows Northwest to sell seats on Air France and Alitalia, another airline in SkyTe...
Saturday, December 24, 2005
United Bids For Part of Indy Air
First off, I'm not dead - I haven't posted here for a while because I've been very busy. They sure pack in the schoolwork the week before vacation.I am currently in Spokane, Washington - a great city. I flew out from Boston two days ago, on United Airlines. Economy Plus both legs - it was via O'Hare - and pretty good service too, all things considered. Nice thing about Economy+ is that it gives me just the right amount of leg room. Plus the second leg of the flight the captain enabled Channel 9 on the audio, which allows you to listen to what the...
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
The Beginning of the End for Independence Air
A certain airline based at Washington-Dulles announced that it will stop service on January 5 to Chicago, Manchester, NH, Jacksonville, FL, and Buffalo, NY. At first this doesn't seem like a big deal. After all, many airlines have announced that they will trim back on unprofitable routes. But this is different - because the announcement comes from the mouth of that upstart carrier, that airline that decided to 'go its own way' and break away from a secure contract - Independence Air.But I see this as the beginning of the end for Indy Air. Rumors...
Monday, December 12, 2005
Delta Cuts Deal With Pilots
Well, it looks like another 'Delta goes bye-bye' scenario has been averted. Late yesterday the pilots and management made a tentative deal worth more than $152 million a year in temporary pay cuts. The number is less than half of what Delta management wanted, and the pilots union is counting this one as a victory - after all, management did want them to give up $325 million a year in pay and benefits. But the question remains: even though the pilots...
Friday, December 9, 2005
Continental CFO: Merger With UAL A Good Thing
Continental Chief Financial Officer Jeff Misner said that a merger with United Airlines would make a great combination - yet he also said that Continental prefers to stay independent, and a spokesperson from United said it hasn't made any deal for Continental - yet.The CFO also said that if United would offer enough money, they would most likely go for it. And I bet that United just might do so, for the following reasons:Little route overlap. United has hubs at LAX, SFO, DEN, ORD, and IAD; Continental's main hubs are at IAH, CLE, and EWR. The only...
Southwest Flight 1248
Many are probably aware of last night's incident at Chicago Midway. A Southwest 737 skidded off the end of the runway, plowed onto a road, and crashed into cars, killing a child in one of them. It is the company's first fatal accident in its 35 year history. No one onboard the aircraft was killed.I generally don't like to discuss airline accidents here, but I'll make an exception this time - because Southwest has responded to the accident in such...
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Boeing 737
Boeing recently passed the 6000 order mark with the 737. I personally feel that the 737 is one of the best aircraft in the skies today. Hopefully it will be the queen of the skies for many years to come. I would also like to add that it appears that over 50% of the 737 orders have been orders for the 737NG (737-600, 737-700, 737-800, 737-900, and 737-900ER). The Boeing 737 is the best selling commerical aircraft of all time, (although there were over 10,000 DC-3's manufactured, the majority of them were military versions, and therefore not included...
Korean Air Pilots Walk Off The Job
KAL pilots, who want an 8 percent increase in pay, went on strike today as they pressured the airline to accept their increase. Management at Korean Air had been offering a 3 percent increase.Korean Air suspended about 53 percent of scheduled flights. Cancellations were set to increase to 63 percent of the total, the airline said. The majority of the pilots are unionized. Some in the South Korean government are calling for the Ministry of Labor in...
Indian Airlines Gets A Makeover
Well, it's about time, but Indian Airlines finally got a new livery yesterday. It also changed its name from Indian Airlines and the stylized initials logo to just 'Indian' in bold orange titles. At the same time it took delivery of its first new aircraft, an A319, in - get this - 11 years.The old and the n...
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
More Airbus Orders; RAM Selects 787
Philippine flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) signed an agreement with Airbus to buy and lease 18 A320 aircraft - nine brand-new and options for five more at an estimated cost of 840 million US. PAL will also lease two brand-new A320s and two A319s from GECAS, and deliveries will begin the second half of 2006 to 2008. PAL has needed to update its aging fleet for a long time, so this order is good for them. Useless trivia fact: PAL became the first airline to order Airbus - back in 1978. This is important for Airbus, because PAL's short-haul...
Finnair orders 12 Airbus Aircraft
Today, Finnair, announced that they are going to be ordering 12 new aircraft from Airbus. The ordes consists of 9 A350-900's and 3 A340-300's. They also have an option for 4 additional A350's These aircraft are intended to evntually replace the MD-11 in Finnair's long-haul fleet, by 2012. Finnair is expecting that the A350's will be delivered...
Monday, December 5, 2005
Alliance Update
It's time for the bi-monthly Airline Alliance Update, so here goes:Star Alliance has added zero members to the group.SkyTeam celebrated its 5th anniversary - but like Star, no new members. Oneworld announced recently that JAL (Japan Air Lines) will become a member. When fully inducted, it will become the alliance's largest airline in terms of group revenues. It will form the 'Oneworld Big Three' with American Airlines and British Airways. Royal Jordanian will be inducted in late 2006/early 2007. More recently, Hungarian's MALEV was invited to join,...
Sunday, December 4, 2005
A320: Made In China
Like MD-11 has already pointed out, there is the remote possibilty of Airbus opening a factory in China. This facility will produce Airbus' popular A320 aircraft.Chinese Primier Wen Jiabao was in Toulouse the other day, being shown the A380 by the bigwigs from Airbus. He also signed an agreement to consider the A320 factory. As of now, Airbuses are built in Europe: the A320, A330 and A340 in Toulouse, and the A319 and A321 in Hamburg, Germany. And...
Airbus in China
There have been rumors that Airbus is looking into opening a factory in China, as well as an article by Bloomberg about the issue. This factory would produce the A320 series of aircraft. I think that this is partially due to a large backlog on the A320's as well as Airbus wanting to win a lot of the orders in the growing Chinese airline industry, which have recently been going to Boeing for their 737NG product. I personally do not think that this...
Friday, December 2, 2005
Aeroflot To Create Affiliate In St. Petersburg
Anyone who follows this will know that I like to follow the Russian aviation industry. If you don't know this already, you know it now. That said, Aeroflot Russian Airlines announced today that it will set up an affiliate in St. Petersburg.The move will "strengthen its positions on the international and domestic markets", according to its Board of Directors. Air traffic at St. Petersburg-Pulkovo Airport (Аэропорт Пулково) is second only to Moscow....
Thursday, December 1, 2005
Bleeding After Bankruptcy
It's my guess that Grinstein at Delta and Steenland at Northwest haven't been feeling too well as of late. Their airlines are bleeding red ink - especially at Delta, where the situation is critical. They put their airlines into Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on the exact same day. Perhaps they thought Chapter 11 would solve some of their problems. Perhaps they looked at United, which filed in December 2002 and is going to emerge soon. UAL...
AA and Southwest 'Love'-ing Each Other
Big news today is that Southwest is free to go out of Dallas' Love Field, Southwest's headquarters - but only to Kansas City (MO) and St. Louis. President Bush signed legislation that allowed this to happen. The new service is going to begin December 13 with four non-stop flights to each city. The one-way fare from Dallas to either St. Louis or Kansas City will be $79 with a 14-day advance purchase, while the unrestricted fare is $129 each way, Southwest...
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
The End Of An Era
Boeing has recently announced that production on the final 717 has commenced. There are two reasons that I feel this is the end of an era. The first is that this jet, which is to be delivered to Airtran, will be the final aircraft to ever be produced at Boeing's Long Beach, CA facility. This facility has produced many aircraft which have changed the aviation world forever, such as one of the most important aircraft of all time, the DC-3....
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Surprise, Surprise: US Airways Orders A350
The newly merged US Airways will buy 20 A350-800s, becoming the first airline to do so, and deliveries will start in 2011 and go until 2014. The plane is capable of seating 253 in a standard three-class seat layout.According to Airbus, the airline's A330 pilots won't need to undergo additional training to fly the new airplane. The deal is worth €3.42 billion, or $4.03 billion, at list prices. Keep in mind that Airbus will most likely cut a deal with...
Monday, November 28, 2005
Air Canada Says Goodbye and Adieu to Jazz
ACE, the parent of Air Canada, said today it will spin off Jazz into an income trust. AC will get the proceeds of the deal, as well as majority control of Jazz. From the Globe and Mail of Toronto: ACE plans to market Jazz as a source of stable income because it effectively serves as a charter airline booked by Air Canada for regional flights. Jazz incurs costs for pilots and planes, but it receives a steady stream of revenue from Air Canada,...
Northwest Goes Down The Toilet - Literally
For those that don't believe me, check out http://cgi.ebay.com/NORTHWEST-AIRLINES-model-going-down-the-toilet_W0QQitemZ6581964642QQcategoryZ10771QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemSince this link might not be around for much longer, I'll post the contents of the page here.Please note that I did not write the remainder of this post, so don't get mad at me for these rather radical views.With wage cuts, layoffs, and replacement workers… parking airplanes and cutting...
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Champagne Flows in Chicago Thanks to the Chinese
Just when the folks over in Chicago and Seattle couldn't have thought it possible t get muchhappier after the big Emirates order (see last post), they can now. Eight Chinese airlines placed an order yesterday - when President Bush was in town - for 70 737-700s and -800s worth about $4 billion. They will be delievered between next year and 2008.No specifics were given, but the planes will go to Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern. And it...
Friday, November 18, 2005
Singapore: No Merger with Qantas
Excerpts from an article by the AP:SINGAPORE (AP) -- Singapore Airlines on Friday dismissed talk of a potential merger with Qantas, saying the issue could only be considered if the Australian government allows greater competition on the prized trans-Pacific route to the United States.On Thursday, Australian Prime Minister John Howard threw his weight behind the idea of a merger between two of Asia's biggest -- and most profitable -- airlines after...
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Olympic Airlines Is Gone.... Or Is It?
It seems that Greek flag-carrier Olympic Airlines will be replaced by a new airline company with a different name. Olympic Airlines was created by the Greek government back in 2003 to replace the old Olympic - Olympic Airways. The government has tried time and time again to privatize it, and with the latest attempt unsuccessful, it seems that they're going to shut it down and relaunch it.Details are still sketchy, but the new entity will apparently...
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Air Canada 767s Go Silver
In an effort to save cash, Air Canada is testing out the polished à-la-American look on its Boeing 767 fleet. The whole process shaves off 360 pounds of weight on each plane, which means AC will save about $24,000 per year on fuel costs. Not all 767s will be polished, and of course, Airbus crafts can't be polished because of the material they're made out of (no idea what it is, though).Personally, I think the new 'toothpaste tube' paint job is OK,...
Delta, Air France - KLM, and Northwest
In this day and age, there are a lot airlines allinces, but none stronger than one existing within SkyTeam. Delta and Air France have, for years, had very strong ties. Northwest and KLM are considered, by many, to be one airline, especially with their profit sharing. Now that Air France and KLM are one airline, the image has almost come full circle. The one missing peice is the joining of Delta and Northwest, to create the biggest airline, ever. Together, could emerge from Chapter 11, and be the face of the all new American aviation industry. One...
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Delta: Pilots Strike Would Be 'Murder-Suicide'
Yesterday, Delta Air Lines said that if their pilots were to go on strike, it would be'murder-suicide' for the third largest airline in the U.S. That's right, folks - we're looking at a very distinct possibility that come next week, Delta may not exist anymore. Sure, we've heard it all before - United was going to fail back in '02. It was going to be curtains for American back in '03. And just how many times has everyone - myself included - stuck...
Hello! from MD-11
Hi, I am MD-11 and I will be posting my opinions on current events in the aviation world! Today I am going to start off with the newly announced Boeing 747-8, so here it goes:Today, Boeing FINALLY announced their plan to release a new 747!But, they had to screw it up, by calling it the 747-8 Intercontinental, what's up with that? Why the heck don't they just call it the 747-800, or, even better, the 747-5, or, my personal favorite, the 747-500!How long did it take for Boeing to finally realize that they might actually be able to undercut Airbus...
New Member Onboard
I've decided to let my friend MD-11 join the blog. He'll post his various rants, raves, etc. - not as often as I will, but it's still nice to have an opposing viewpoint now and th...
New Boeing 747 Model Launched
Big - literally - big news. Today Boeing launched its biggest aircraft ever, the 747-8, which will enter service sometime in late 2009. Already it (well, the cargo version, at least) has gotten 5 billion dollars in orders from Luxembourg's Carolux and Japan's Nippon Cargo Airlines. Boeing says that its new plane will bridge the gap between current aircraft on the market and the mammoth A380, produced by archrival Airbus.According to Boeing, there's...
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
American: The Best of the Legacy Carriers?
While United and US Airways are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Delta and Northwest are on the verge of filing, and the rest of the industry is being from high oil prices, pensions, etc., one major US airline seems to have pulled ahead from the rest: American. It is probably the best-managed of the legacy carriers.Let's start with it's CEO as an example. Gerard Arpey took over the reins in early 2003 after ex-CEO Don Carty resigned when it became known...
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