Troubled Air Scotland Changes Name

Scotland's self-proclaimed 'flag-carrier' is getting an overhaul. Air Scotland, operated by other airlines based in Greece and the Netherlands, suffered from a bad image as a delay-prone airline with bad service. There's never been anything 'Scottish' about the airline, maybe except for the huge Scottish flag branded on the tails of their airplanes. Even the the logo banner at the top of the airline's website reads, 'Air Scotland - Operated by Greece...

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Aloha Airlines Goes Retro

Like many other airlines, Aloha Airlines has decided to paint one of its planes (a Boeing 737) in a livery from the past. Aloha used the 'Funbird' scheme starting in 1969 and throughout the 1970s. The paint job was shown off for the first time yesterday at Honolulu International Airport, complete with a party featuring 70s cars and music."It's a feel good time. We've gone through a lot the last year and a half," Aloha Airlines President and Chief...

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BA Center of Price-Fixing Investigation

Today's news reads that British Airways is being investigated by the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the US Deparment of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly fixing fuel surcharges on some of its longer flights in and out of the UK.According to the BBC, passengers on long-haul BA flights currently pay a £35 fuel surcharge for a one-way ticket, compared with a £37 surcharge on AA flights in and out of the UK. While American is not under investigation at...

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U.S. Airlines Expand Internationally

Delta Air Lines recently announced that this winter it will start flying to Accra, Ghana from New York-JFK with a Boeing 767-300ER, becoming the only scheduled airline to do so. And they're not planning on stopping there. "With more additions planned by winter," a statement by the airline reads, "Delta is proud to operate nonstop flights to 12 unique trans-Atlantic destinations not served by any other U.S. carrier." As of now, the destinations out...

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Varig To Close Down Today?

So I've said that Varig might shut down earlier (see last post), even saying that a shutdown was imminent. However, Varig was saved (for the time being) - a group comprised of employees made a bid for it, and even though it was the only bid, the judge approved it.Now, however, there are strong rumors floating around that Varig will cease operations sometime today - mostly because of a lack of cash. According to this source, this rumor is substantiated...

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Final Hours for Varig?

Assets of the bankrupt Varig, Brazil's flag carrier, did not sell at auction yesterday - meaning that Varig could liquidate any day now.There was only one bid - from a group of Varig employees. And even that bid only totaled half of the asking price for the airline's aircraft and routes. The bankruptcy judge said that he would return a verdict in 24 hours whether to accept the bid or not - which means that a verdict should arrive, literally, any...

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Mergers Possible?

Many analyists agree that the US airline industry is badly in need of consolidation. If this is the case, which it very well might be, which airlines would merge? Here are the combinations that I see might work. Keep in mind that many of these airlines are in no financial shape to merge, and even if they were, airline mergers have usually not gone off well in the past (with a few notable exceptions). Readers out there are welcome to post comments/criticisms about my ideas. So here goes:1) Northwest and DeltaThere are several advantages with this...

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Alliance Update

Hm. This could be the shortest post yet. Portugalia is going to join SkyTeam whilst Air China will join Star Alliance. Star has fought long and hard for an airline in China to join, and it finally got one of the big ones. Now I just wonder if Shanghai Airlines will join Star as well...

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