Airlines talked a lot last year about all the jobs they were going to cut. But who really did lead the U.S. airline industry in reducing employment over the past year?
That's our question for this week, but we'll make it four questions:
1. Which airline cut the most jobs?
2. Which airline cut the most jobs, by percentage?
3. Which airline added the most jobs?
4. Which airline added the most jobs, by percentage?
We're limiting this to the 15 largest U.S. carriers. We're comparing November 2008 numbers to November 2007, the latest data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. And we're not including carriers like ATA Airlines which went out of business during that 12 months.
Answers below.
Monday, January 19, 2009
AIG insured ditched US Airways' planehttp://usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-01-19-aig-usair-jet_N.htm
NEW YORK (Reuters) — American International Group said Friday it was the lead insurer on the US Airways passenger jet that went down in Manhattan's Hudson River on Thursday.
An AIG spokesman, John Jones, said he could not provide details on the value of the coverage, or the identity of other insurers on the program.
Large, commercial policies are typically shared by several insurers, and AIG, as the lead insurer in this case, may have the largest exposure.
The Airbus A320, which had been in service for nine years, took off from LaGuardia airport on Thursday with 150 passengers and five crew on board, and was headed for Charlotte when it ran into trouble. All passengers were rescued after the plane landed in the river between Manhattan and New Jersey.
An AIG spokesman, John Jones, said he could not provide details on the value of the coverage, or the identity of other insurers on the program.
Large, commercial policies are typically shared by several insurers, and AIG, as the lead insurer in this case, may have the largest exposure.
The Airbus A320, which had been in service for nine years, took off from LaGuardia airport on Thursday with 150 passengers and five crew on board, and was headed for Charlotte when it ran into trouble. All passengers were rescued after the plane landed in the river between Manhattan and New Jersey.
Airbus A350 development on track
TOULOUSE, France — As Airbus reaches a key milestone in the the development of its A350 XWB commercial jet program, a top executive at the company vowed Wednesday not to repeat the mistakes that marred the launch of the A380 superjumbo.
The company is on track to start delivery of the A350 in 2013, Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier told a news conference at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse. The aircraft is designed to compete with Boeing Co.'s 787.
Bregier, who is responsible for Airbus's day-to-day operations, said lessons have been learned from the management and communication failures on the A380 program, which compounded wiring difficulties and led to a two-year delay that wiped billions off profits.
"What for me is the most important is that we have changed the mindset of our people: They tell us the truth," he said Wednesday. "What we want is not that they tell us there is no problem."
"My job is very simple... to make sure there is nobody within Airbus who does not apply the rules. It gives me a big safety net that if there is a drift we will be able to fix it."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States World Trade Organization Toulouse Boeing Co. EADS CEO Louis Gallois
Didier Evrard, head of the A350 program, said Airbus is moving to a "new phase" in the development of the A350 XWB program after a key review was passed.
At the end of 2008, Airbus decided in an internal assessment that the A350-900 model is ready for a detailed definition freeze, which means the engineering focus shifts from the structure of the plane to parts design and the start of component production.
Airbus starts work on the final assembly line of the A350 XWB on Wednesday.
The A350 XWB will be available in three versions: the 270 seat A350-800, the 314-seat A350-900 — which will be the first model to enter production — and the 350-seat A350-1000.
The program was set back when Airbus had to redesign the plane after customers balked at an earlier version.
Airbus has 478 orders from 29 customers for the medium-capacity long-haul aircraft and may be hoping to take advantage of rival Boeing's problems with the 787.
Boeing last month announced a fifth set of delays for its long-haul 787 that will set back delivery for two years to 2010.
Bregier gave few details on how Airbus plans to finance the euro10 billion ($13.26 billion) A350 program. He said that the development costs have so far been funded by Airbus and some of its suppliers in a risk-sharing program.
"We are not in a hurry to find other ways despite the difficulties we know our customers will face in 2009," he said.
Airbus may also seek government aid to create a "level playing field" with Boeing, Bregier said.
Even though Airbus-parent EADS has cash reserves of euro9 billion, EADS CEO Louis Gallois said Tuesday that preserving that cash balance is a "top priority" as funding dries up in the credit crunch. Airline customers may need help with financing, which would drag on resources.
Airbus and Boeing are locked in a dispute over alleged large commercial aircraft subsidies and are awaiting a ruling by the World Trade Organization.
The U.S. and EU have accused each other of providing billions in illegal subsidies to the companies. The United States says EU subsidies have enabled Airbus to capture long-standing Boeing customers. The EU counters that Boeing receives U.S. federal and state tax breaks, development funding and grants, as well as large amounts of military contracts.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-01-16-airbus-a350_N.htm
The company is on track to start delivery of the A350 in 2013, Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier told a news conference at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse. The aircraft is designed to compete with Boeing Co.'s 787.
Bregier, who is responsible for Airbus's day-to-day operations, said lessons have been learned from the management and communication failures on the A380 program, which compounded wiring difficulties and led to a two-year delay that wiped billions off profits.
"What for me is the most important is that we have changed the mindset of our people: They tell us the truth," he said Wednesday. "What we want is not that they tell us there is no problem."
"My job is very simple... to make sure there is nobody within Airbus who does not apply the rules. It gives me a big safety net that if there is a drift we will be able to fix it."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States World Trade Organization Toulouse Boeing Co. EADS CEO Louis Gallois
Didier Evrard, head of the A350 program, said Airbus is moving to a "new phase" in the development of the A350 XWB program after a key review was passed.
At the end of 2008, Airbus decided in an internal assessment that the A350-900 model is ready for a detailed definition freeze, which means the engineering focus shifts from the structure of the plane to parts design and the start of component production.
Airbus starts work on the final assembly line of the A350 XWB on Wednesday.
The A350 XWB will be available in three versions: the 270 seat A350-800, the 314-seat A350-900 — which will be the first model to enter production — and the 350-seat A350-1000.
The program was set back when Airbus had to redesign the plane after customers balked at an earlier version.
Airbus has 478 orders from 29 customers for the medium-capacity long-haul aircraft and may be hoping to take advantage of rival Boeing's problems with the 787.
Boeing last month announced a fifth set of delays for its long-haul 787 that will set back delivery for two years to 2010.
Bregier gave few details on how Airbus plans to finance the euro10 billion ($13.26 billion) A350 program. He said that the development costs have so far been funded by Airbus and some of its suppliers in a risk-sharing program.
"We are not in a hurry to find other ways despite the difficulties we know our customers will face in 2009," he said.
Airbus may also seek government aid to create a "level playing field" with Boeing, Bregier said.
Even though Airbus-parent EADS has cash reserves of euro9 billion, EADS CEO Louis Gallois said Tuesday that preserving that cash balance is a "top priority" as funding dries up in the credit crunch. Airline customers may need help with financing, which would drag on resources.
Airbus and Boeing are locked in a dispute over alleged large commercial aircraft subsidies and are awaiting a ruling by the World Trade Organization.
The U.S. and EU have accused each other of providing billions in illegal subsidies to the companies. The United States says EU subsidies have enabled Airbus to capture long-standing Boeing customers. The EU counters that Boeing receives U.S. federal and state tax breaks, development funding and grants, as well as large amounts of military contracts.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-01-16-airbus-a350_N.htm
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
PRESS TV, Iran:
The current financial crisis which has resulted in scarce credit and slumping oil prices has forced international financiers to dump assets in Dubai city, Bloomberg reported."Dubai is more precarious than it has ever been,” said Christopher Davidson, a professor of Middle Eastern affairs at Durham University."If the property industry collapses in Dubai, it will be finished. Dubai's relative autonomy will come to an abrupt end," added Davidson, the author of "Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success.He added that Dubai's push into luxury property developments was a mere diversification on "paper sand".On Saturday The New York Times reviewed of his book, Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success. An extract from the review:
Mr. Davidson further contends that unstable neighbors threaten Dubai’s success, but here he may have matters reversed. When Egypt and Iran stifle their entrepreneurs, many of them find a wide berth in Dubai. When Saudi Arabia imposes cultural restrictions on its population, Dubai offers a place to drink and let loose. When India and Pakistan have trouble creating jobs for their large populations, Dubai absorbs labor migrants. When Iraq or Lebanon descends into war, Dubai profits from rebuilding them.In short, until a vast arc of countries from East Africa to Southeast Asia changes substantially, Dubai will remain poised to benefit by providing a relatively open, secure, low-tax, business-friendly alternative.I've read Davidson's book and the reviewer is on to something here. Indeed, all these points about the advantages Dubai gets from its neighbors are made by Davidson. With respect to Iran, these advantages trace back many years, and Davidson traces this history well. And while the subtitle, "the vulnerability of success", sounds prescient Davidson did not see the vulnerabilities in the sense of the present problem a leveraged system in an environment of a systemic breakdown in willingness to lend.The NYT review sees a silver lining in the financial crisis:
It was also written before the credit crisis and global contraction, and he makes no mention of Dubai’s economic vulnerabilities. In fact, the world’s searing financial debacle could turn out to be salutary for an overleveraged Dubai, reining in local inflation as well as an insane real estate market.Whatever the short-term pain, the U.A.E. is awash in liquidity, and Dubai’s hefty investments in infrastructure appear likely to persist and to yield future dividends. Above all, accumulated expertise should enable Dubai to continue aggressive pursuit of global market share across its service industries. That growing prowess abroad, no less than pathologies at home, is a central story about Dubai that has been missed amid the glitz. Of course, in the quote at the beginning of this post Davidson could still be right in his recent comments quoted in Bloomberg that "If the property industry collapses in Dubai, it will be finished. Dubai's relative autonomy [i.e., from Abu Dhabi] will come to an abrupt end." For example, the rumor that Abu Dhabi wants an interest in Emirates Air "as the price of a multi-billion pound cash injection" to Dubai. The UAE stock markets have been closed for the holidays. Will an announcement come after the markets reopen?
http://emirateseconomist.blogspot.com
Mr. Davidson further contends that unstable neighbors threaten Dubai’s success, but here he may have matters reversed. When Egypt and Iran stifle their entrepreneurs, many of them find a wide berth in Dubai. When Saudi Arabia imposes cultural restrictions on its population, Dubai offers a place to drink and let loose. When India and Pakistan have trouble creating jobs for their large populations, Dubai absorbs labor migrants. When Iraq or Lebanon descends into war, Dubai profits from rebuilding them.In short, until a vast arc of countries from East Africa to Southeast Asia changes substantially, Dubai will remain poised to benefit by providing a relatively open, secure, low-tax, business-friendly alternative.I've read Davidson's book and the reviewer is on to something here. Indeed, all these points about the advantages Dubai gets from its neighbors are made by Davidson. With respect to Iran, these advantages trace back many years, and Davidson traces this history well. And while the subtitle, "the vulnerability of success", sounds prescient Davidson did not see the vulnerabilities in the sense of the present problem a leveraged system in an environment of a systemic breakdown in willingness to lend.The NYT review sees a silver lining in the financial crisis:
It was also written before the credit crisis and global contraction, and he makes no mention of Dubai’s economic vulnerabilities. In fact, the world’s searing financial debacle could turn out to be salutary for an overleveraged Dubai, reining in local inflation as well as an insane real estate market.Whatever the short-term pain, the U.A.E. is awash in liquidity, and Dubai’s hefty investments in infrastructure appear likely to persist and to yield future dividends. Above all, accumulated expertise should enable Dubai to continue aggressive pursuit of global market share across its service industries. That growing prowess abroad, no less than pathologies at home, is a central story about Dubai that has been missed amid the glitz. Of course, in the quote at the beginning of this post Davidson could still be right in his recent comments quoted in Bloomberg that "If the property industry collapses in Dubai, it will be finished. Dubai's relative autonomy [i.e., from Abu Dhabi] will come to an abrupt end." For example, the rumor that Abu Dhabi wants an interest in Emirates Air "as the price of a multi-billion pound cash injection" to Dubai. The UAE stock markets have been closed for the holidays. Will an announcement come after the markets reopen?
http://emirateseconomist.blogspot.com
One Emirate, Two Emirates, Three Emirates, Four
I recently traveled to Abu Dhabi to assist an international architectural firm create a concept and a program for a boutique, luxury resort. I was particularly struck by the differences between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, to which I had traveled four or five years ago.Dubai, as we all know, is always in the (industry) news, for its grand scale of new hotel developments, including those on the Palm and the World and Bawadi, Burj Al Arab, etc. It is the Middle East’s version of the Las Vegas Strip: faux, over-the-top and always adding something new and more grandiose.In the United States, except for the rare few, when we hear of the United Arab Emirates, we think of the excesses of Dubai. It is little known that Dubai has relatively small oil reserves, that the Sheiks of the Makhtoum family have been beneficiaries of the oil wealth in the Emirates and have used that wealth to develop Dubai into the destination it has become. What we don’t know – generally – and don’t realize at all is that the most oil in the Emirates is produced in the largest emirate, Abu Dhabi, that the Al Nahyan dynasty has both overseen the growth of Abu Dhabi and was a principal mover in the creation of the UAE. Its Ruler, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, is the president of the UAE, and is known for far-sighted and progressive leadership.Abu Dhabi itself is a modern city; it has none of the excess of Dubai (well, maybe, one). It is well planned, the streets are clean, the citizens and residents (approximately two-thirds of the population in Abu Dhabi is comprised of expatriates) are industrious. Except for the new Emirates Palace, there is little over-the-top development (and, I suppose the ungodly rich are entitled to one playground!).Just as the states that make up the United States have different characteristics, so, too, the Emirates.In more ways than one, we – as individuals, as an industry and as a country – would be well-served to learn, understand and respect those differences. President-elect Obama, I (and the Emirates, from what I can tell in the newspapers there) hope you are reading.
Posted by Michael Shindler on November 20, 2008 Comments (3)
http://.hotelsmag.com/blog/630000663/post/500036850.html
Posted by Michael Shindler on November 20, 2008 Comments (3)
http://.hotelsmag.com/blog/630000663/post/500036850.html
Emirate's Superluxe Airbus A380 Makes Flying Fun Again. If You're Loaded
SAN FRANCISCO -- The world's biggest jetliner brings back the golden era of air travel, when flying was an event so grand men wore ties and women wore furs. That is, it will bring it back if you've got $14,000.
That kind of cash buys a first-class ticket for a New York-Dubai round trip on Emirates airline's new A380, a 489-seat behemoth where the 14 people rich enough to sit in first class enjoy hot showers, massaging chairs, 1,000 channels and seven-course meals served on china and linen. Oh -- there's also a bar with a waterfall.
If you're like the rest of us and have just $1,500, you get a seat sandwiched between nine other people, a 9-inch TV screen and space in an overhead bin. But the seat's comfy, there are 500 channels, and the cup holder's gyroscopic.
Dubai-based Emirates is adding 58 A380 super-jumbo jets to its fleet as fast as Airbus can build them. It picked up the first one last week and made the maiden voyage from Dubai to New York on Friday. Emirates is adding service from Dubai to San Francisco and Los Angeles by the end of the year, and even though it's using the more conventional Boeing 777-200 on those runs, it brought the A380 to San Francisco Monday to show people how the other half lives.
Huge doesn't begin to describe the A380. It's 238 feet long, it weighs 560 tons and it carries 82,000 gallons of fuel. The airline says the plane burns just 3.1 liters of fuel per passenger per 100 kilometers (a little more than three quarts of fuel per passenger every 60 miles), a figure it boasts is "better than most hybrid passenger cars."
Just how big is it? The KLM Boeing 747 next to it looked dinky, and the American Airlines Airbus A300 that taxied past looked like a Smart car alongside a Hummer. Despite its size, the A380 is said to be quite nimble, very fast and a dream to fly.
"It's like driving a Ferrari," says Abbas Shaban, chief pilot for Airbus and captain of the three flights the plane's made since Emirates picked it up last week. He's been flying commercial jets for 28 years and says the A380 "is much better than any plane I've flown. It's more responsive, more powerful and more stable."
It's also more ostentatiously over the top than anything in the sky. If Steve Wynn built airplanes instead of Vegas casinos, they'd look like the Emirates A380. First-class passengers sit in leather seats that fold flat at the push of a button. They watch first-run movies on 23-inch flatscreens. Their private suites -- seats are so plebeian -- are trimmed in polished wood and brass. There are two showers with faux marble floors, fluffy towels and the biggest assortment of shampoo this side of a Beverly Hills salon. (With just 50 gallons of water for 14 people, you're limited to five minutes.) Lighting that mimics sunrise and sunset is said to keep your internal clock in sync and minimize jet lag.
One of the 76 business class seats will set you back $9,000. They're almost as swanky as those up front, but you don't get the showers, the TVs are a little smaller and there's no waterfall -- but there is a well-stocked bar that'll seat 25 people and apparently was hopping on the flight from Dubai. Even the 399 seats in economy class -- which, at $1,500 a person round-trip, is a bit of a misnomer -- is nicer than anything you've flown recently. The cloth seats are wide and supportive, the entertainment system offers so many choices it's overwhelming. and your meal doesn't come in a box.
Emirates is flying the A380 only on its Dubai to JFK route, but it's got two more planes on the way for its Dubai to London and Sydney-Auckland runs. It has $18.8 billion worth of A380s in the pipeline and may bring them to other U.S. cities in the future. All those planes will add more than 25,000 seats to the airline's fleet, which makes you wonder who's going to fill them.
Emirates isn't worried. The airline's grown by 20 percent annually since it was founded in 1985 (and, according to Senior VP Nigel Page, done it without any government subsidies). With air travel expected to triple in the next two decades and landing rights at airports getting tougher to secure, airlines need to pack as many people into every flight as possible. Adel Al Redha, executive vice president of engineering and operations, said the demand is there. "The only thing holding us back is the planes," he says. "We can't get them fast enough."
That kind of cash buys a first-class ticket for a New York-Dubai round trip on Emirates airline's new A380, a 489-seat behemoth where the 14 people rich enough to sit in first class enjoy hot showers, massaging chairs, 1,000 channels and seven-course meals served on china and linen. Oh -- there's also a bar with a waterfall.
If you're like the rest of us and have just $1,500, you get a seat sandwiched between nine other people, a 9-inch TV screen and space in an overhead bin. But the seat's comfy, there are 500 channels, and the cup holder's gyroscopic.
Dubai-based Emirates is adding 58 A380 super-jumbo jets to its fleet as fast as Airbus can build them. It picked up the first one last week and made the maiden voyage from Dubai to New York on Friday. Emirates is adding service from Dubai to San Francisco and Los Angeles by the end of the year, and even though it's using the more conventional Boeing 777-200 on those runs, it brought the A380 to San Francisco Monday to show people how the other half lives.
Huge doesn't begin to describe the A380. It's 238 feet long, it weighs 560 tons and it carries 82,000 gallons of fuel. The airline says the plane burns just 3.1 liters of fuel per passenger per 100 kilometers (a little more than three quarts of fuel per passenger every 60 miles), a figure it boasts is "better than most hybrid passenger cars."
Just how big is it? The KLM Boeing 747 next to it looked dinky, and the American Airlines Airbus A300 that taxied past looked like a Smart car alongside a Hummer. Despite its size, the A380 is said to be quite nimble, very fast and a dream to fly.
"It's like driving a Ferrari," says Abbas Shaban, chief pilot for Airbus and captain of the three flights the plane's made since Emirates picked it up last week. He's been flying commercial jets for 28 years and says the A380 "is much better than any plane I've flown. It's more responsive, more powerful and more stable."
It's also more ostentatiously over the top than anything in the sky. If Steve Wynn built airplanes instead of Vegas casinos, they'd look like the Emirates A380. First-class passengers sit in leather seats that fold flat at the push of a button. They watch first-run movies on 23-inch flatscreens. Their private suites -- seats are so plebeian -- are trimmed in polished wood and brass. There are two showers with faux marble floors, fluffy towels and the biggest assortment of shampoo this side of a Beverly Hills salon. (With just 50 gallons of water for 14 people, you're limited to five minutes.) Lighting that mimics sunrise and sunset is said to keep your internal clock in sync and minimize jet lag.
One of the 76 business class seats will set you back $9,000. They're almost as swanky as those up front, but you don't get the showers, the TVs are a little smaller and there's no waterfall -- but there is a well-stocked bar that'll seat 25 people and apparently was hopping on the flight from Dubai. Even the 399 seats in economy class -- which, at $1,500 a person round-trip, is a bit of a misnomer -- is nicer than anything you've flown recently. The cloth seats are wide and supportive, the entertainment system offers so many choices it's overwhelming. and your meal doesn't come in a box.
Emirates is flying the A380 only on its Dubai to JFK route, but it's got two more planes on the way for its Dubai to London and Sydney-Auckland runs. It has $18.8 billion worth of A380s in the pipeline and may bring them to other U.S. cities in the future. All those planes will add more than 25,000 seats to the airline's fleet, which makes you wonder who's going to fill them.
Emirates isn't worried. The airline's grown by 20 percent annually since it was founded in 1985 (and, according to Senior VP Nigel Page, done it without any government subsidies). With air travel expected to triple in the next two decades and landing rights at airports getting tougher to secure, airlines need to pack as many people into every flight as possible. Adel Al Redha, executive vice president of engineering and operations, said the demand is there. "The only thing holding us back is the planes," he says. "We can't get them fast enough."
A ‘Climate Change Crime,’ Or… ?
American Airlines is the subject of a modest row across the Atlantic, where environmentalists are furious that the company proceeded with a flight from Chicago to London with only five passengers.
The issue arose when AA’s Flight 90 was delayed more than 12 hours on Feb. 8 at O’Hare. Given the enormity of capacity to London these days, most passengers had made other arrangements by the time the 777 was ready to depart for Heathrow. By then, five people remained, and American needed the plane in England to collect passengers who planned to fly to the states.
“It is a climate change crime,” Norman Baker, a member of Parliament and a transport spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, was quoted as telling London’s Daily Mail in today’s editions. “It shows the ludicrous nature of the aviation industry. For an airline to think it sensible to fly aeroplanes which are virtually empty and where the crew outnumber the passengers is madness.”
According to the newspaper’s math, the average car would need to travel 123,000 miles to match the carbon footprint of the American flight to London.
American spokeswoman Anneliese Morris said the decision to fly the mostly-empty plane was made after the company carefully deliberated the repercussions to other passengers. “We had to consider the knock-on impact cancelling this flight would have had on our schedule out of London on a weekend when all of the flights were extremely busy,” she said.
This is, fortunately, a very rare occurrence in the airline world and one can see fine points raised by both sides. Those five people who had tickets to London are just as valid as any of American’s other passengers – and yes, each was reportedly upgraded to business class, if you were curious. (Wonder how luxurious that flight was? Consider: Given the average crew size on a 777, each of the five had an average of two flight attendants assigned to him/her.) And why would the airline cancel the flight and assume the cost and burden of rebooking all those now-irritated U.S.-bound passengers when that was avoidable?
And yet… the fuel burn for the flight was not insignificant. One thinks American could have made alternative arrangements for its London passengers to reach their destinations. Moreover, it is the winter lull season, when loads typically drop across the industry. So maybe the activists are onto something. Perhaps this case is just further evidence that the environmental impacts of our travel have not reached a critical mass for most of us. Does the issue of one’s “carbon footprint” play absolutely any role at airline operations centers? Should it? Do we want or need airlines considering this issue when it comes to making a call about which flights to scrub and which to push? I’d be fascinated to hear from anyone who works in operations on this.
So what do you think: Did American do the right thing?
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=amr&submit.x=18&submit.y=16
The issue arose when AA’s Flight 90 was delayed more than 12 hours on Feb. 8 at O’Hare. Given the enormity of capacity to London these days, most passengers had made other arrangements by the time the 777 was ready to depart for Heathrow. By then, five people remained, and American needed the plane in England to collect passengers who planned to fly to the states.
“It is a climate change crime,” Norman Baker, a member of Parliament and a transport spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, was quoted as telling London’s Daily Mail in today’s editions. “It shows the ludicrous nature of the aviation industry. For an airline to think it sensible to fly aeroplanes which are virtually empty and where the crew outnumber the passengers is madness.”
According to the newspaper’s math, the average car would need to travel 123,000 miles to match the carbon footprint of the American flight to London.
American spokeswoman Anneliese Morris said the decision to fly the mostly-empty plane was made after the company carefully deliberated the repercussions to other passengers. “We had to consider the knock-on impact cancelling this flight would have had on our schedule out of London on a weekend when all of the flights were extremely busy,” she said.
This is, fortunately, a very rare occurrence in the airline world and one can see fine points raised by both sides. Those five people who had tickets to London are just as valid as any of American’s other passengers – and yes, each was reportedly upgraded to business class, if you were curious. (Wonder how luxurious that flight was? Consider: Given the average crew size on a 777, each of the five had an average of two flight attendants assigned to him/her.) And why would the airline cancel the flight and assume the cost and burden of rebooking all those now-irritated U.S.-bound passengers when that was avoidable?
And yet… the fuel burn for the flight was not insignificant. One thinks American could have made alternative arrangements for its London passengers to reach their destinations. Moreover, it is the winter lull season, when loads typically drop across the industry. So maybe the activists are onto something. Perhaps this case is just further evidence that the environmental impacts of our travel have not reached a critical mass for most of us. Does the issue of one’s “carbon footprint” play absolutely any role at airline operations centers? Should it? Do we want or need airlines considering this issue when it comes to making a call about which flights to scrub and which to push? I’d be fascinated to hear from anyone who works in operations on this.
So what do you think: Did American do the right thing?
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=amr&submit.x=18&submit.y=16
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