Airports: They Wreck the Air Travel Experience

Yesterday I flew United Airlines from Boston to Spokane, Washington via Denver. The flight itself was quite enjoyable. The check-in process was not.Of course, United's check-in facilities in Boston were crowded, even at 6:45 in the morning. I spent close to half an hour waiting in line, and saw one check-in person even go on break and return fifteen minutes later, when there were still lots of people waiting to be processed. By the time my bags were...

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Best Airline TV Ad?

Here's a post that I hope some of the readers of this blog will get involved in: what, in your opinion, is the best airline TV ad ever? Even notable or just interesting ones would be nice to list. If possible, I'll try to find it online and post it here. (Please add your response in the form of a comment.)Here are some interesting ones. Note that the first two don't feature aircraft too prominately:Aeroflot:Air France (1999):Braniff Airways (1975:)United Airlines (199...

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Delta Buys NYC-London Route From United

Delta Air Lines announced that it would purchase United's JFK-London route authority for up to $21 million, pending approval from the Department of Transportation and bankruptcy court (Delta is still in Chapter 11).Delta has been trying unsucessfully to fly this route for over a decade. It has an international hub at JFK and flies to many European destinations from the airport but has yet to serve London. If all goes well, it plans to start its first...

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Clickair To Be Iberia's New LCC Product

Spanish flag-carrier Iberia has announced that its new low-cost carrier's name will be Clickair. The low-cost airline was originally called Catair, it being based in Barcelona, but in a statement Clickair said that the reason behind the change was that it had to do with computers, since its main sales medium will be the internet. (Strategic Name Development has more on the name change.)However, Clickair's future may be shaky. Pilots at Iberia, concerned...

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United Posts Profit, Stays in Chicago

Chicago's Mayor Daley must be thrillled.United Airlines, Chicago's self-proclaimed Hometown Airline, announced this morning that, after an amazing six years (!) of losses, the company was finally posting a (preliminary) modest quarterly profit. The reason? Mostly higher ticket prices and strong demand, two factors that have helped push up black ink (or at least stem the flow of the red ink) industry-wide. After this morning's announcement, the company's shares jumped up to thirteen percent.United also announced on Saturday that it plans to move...

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