American: Protecting its New York Turf
By Ted Reed 08/18/10 - 01:53 PM EDT
DALLAS (TheStreet) -- After 84 years of operating in New York, American Airlines(AMR) is not backing down in the face of dramatic expansion by its competitors.
"It's a major issue for us to protect our turf here," said Art Torno, a 31-year American veteran who took over as vice president for New York in March. A big advantage for American, Torno said, is the $1.3 billion terminal the carrier opened at Kennedy Airport in 2007. "That terminal is the place to be, one of the finest in the country," he said. "It's modern, state of the art and roomy."
Now American is trying to squeeze more synergies out of the terminal. (Kennedy is among the few airports where terminals can be dedicated to a single airline.) For instance, it will move in more alliance partners now that regulators have approved a trans-Atlantic joint venture and may soon approve a trans-Pacific joint venture as well. American also wants to boost its level of cooperation with JetBlue(JBLU), Kennedy's largest domestic carrier, to enhance the feed to its international flights.
One thing American cannot afford to do is stand still, because competitors are ramping up dramatically in New York. Delta(DAL), already growing in New York, said last week it will spend $1.2 billion to upgrade its terminal at Kennedy.
Meanwhile, United(UAUA) awaits regulatory approval for a planned merger with Continental(CAL). Perhaps the biggest single prize in the merger is Continental's Newark hub, which will become the New York gateway for the world's biggest airline.
The Newark hub means that "Continental is in the driver's seat" in New York, said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Hunter Keay.
But the region is too important for any Big Three airline to step back. "No one has retreated," said consultant George Hamlin. At LaGuardia, US Airways(LCC) sought to tactically pull back by trading slots to Delta in exchange for slots at Washington Reagan National, but regulators blocked that deal.
Kennedy is the epicenter because three of New York's four principal airlines operate hubs there. In March, American signed a deal with JetBlue that included an interline agreement and some slot trades. Now efforts are underway to expand on that. For instance, as TheStreet reported previously, American and JetBlue are talking about a code share, an extremely close cooperative agreement in which carriers can write tickets on one another's flights.
Unfortunately, the lack of a shared terminal means 90-minute connect times between flights, when an hour or less is typical for dual-airline connects. At Kennedy, connecting passengers must take a bus between terminals and pass through security a second time. But Torno said American and JetBlue envision a bus that would keep connecting passengers on the sterile side of security, reducing the connect time to 60 minutes. Conceivably, the bus will begin running whenever the code share starts, but the two carriers are not rushing to expand the agreement. "We're taking baby steps to make sure what we are doing makes sense," Torno said.
As far as American's partners in the Oneworld alliance, they too could be housed in American's terminal. Currently, partners including AirBerlin, Finnair and Malev are occupants. "We would like to see a facility that is the Oneworld New York gateway," Torno said. "We're in deep negotiations with British Airways to come in, [although] we're not close to finalizing them." Iberia could also be an occupant, as could Japan Air Lines, assuming an application for trans-Pacific joint immunity is approved.
Similarly, American's joint venture partners are moving to house their sales teams in a single midtown office building. "We will co-locate in one office, with fully-integrated sales forces working side by side." Torno said. "When we go to negotiate a deal, we will go in together."
As for LaGuardia, the close-in New York airport, American ranks second to Delta. In 2009, according to figures compiled for TheStreet by OAG Consulting, the combined passenger total for Delta, Northwest and regional affiliates was about 6 million passengers. American and American Eagle carried 4.7 million passengers. Third-place US Airways and regional affiliates carried 4.2 million passengers.
November schedules show that Delta will provide 33% of LaGuardia capacity, while American will provide 20% and US Airways will provide 19%, said OAG. American has been building its LaGuardia schedule, adding American Eagle flights to Minneapolis, Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte on CRJ-700 regional jets that have first class cabins, as well as increased mainline service to Miami and Chicago.
Despite all the improvements, Avondale Partners analyst Bob McAdoo said he views American as New York's no. 4 carrier. The Kennedy terminal is spacious and imposing, but American doesn't utilize it sufficiently -- which is why alliance partners are being welcomed with open arms.
Additionally, he said, American has not sought to provide the type of classic hub that Delta has. While Delta has 876 weekly departures from Kennedy, not only to major cities but also to Akron, Burlington, Vt., and Indianapolis, American has just 426. "I look at the number of cities one guy brings to town versus another, the number of possible connections," McAdoo said. "It's one thing to say 'New York to London Heathrow is wonderful' and 'I have some good markets.' It's another to say, 'I have a hub.'"
Torno said the American strategy in New York, as elsewhere, is to serve the best, most profitable routes, such as Heathrow and Los Angeles and Chicago, and, in January, Tokyo Haneda as well as Tokyo Narita.
"We may not be the biggest in New York," he said. "But we are big where it counts."
-- Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C.
American Airlines to charge for front-row seats
American Airlines to start charging $19-$39 for seats in the first few rows of coach cabin
Samantha Bomkamp, AP Airlines Writer, On Wednesday August 18, 2010, 3:56 pm EDT
NEW YORK (AP) -- American Airlines has found another fee.
The Fort Worth, Texas, airline said Wednesday it's now charging between $19 and $39 for "Express Seats" -- those spots in the first few rows of coach that include bulkhead seats.
American said the price of the seats includes getting on the plane in the first "general boarding" group of passengers. The seats that will cost extra are in the first two or three rows of the coach cabin, depending on the size of the plane.
Anne Banas, executive editor of SmarterTravel.com, thinks passengers will see more packaged fees like this in the future -- where benefits like free standby or boarding perks are included.
The carrier, which is operated by parent AMR Corp., is following in the footsteps of several other airlines who already charge for special seats. UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, Continental Airlines, US Airways, JetBlue, Frontier, Spirit and AirTran all have some seats that cost extra.
The American seats don't give passengers much extra for their money, said Steven Hall of CompareAirlineFees.com. Most of the other airlines' premium seats offer more legroom. But it is a benefit for passengers to be among the first to board the plane, he added.
The seats on American can only be bought at airport kiosks between 24 hours to 50 minutes before the flight for travel within the U.S.
American, the country's second-largest airline behind Delta Air Lines, still provides its elite frequent fliers those seats for no extra charge. American also charges fees for checked bags, priority boarding, booking on the phone or in person, "sleep sets," unaccompanied minors and pets.
On Tuesday, AirTran raised its fee for the first checked bag by $5 to $20 for travel starting in September. The cost is now on par with bigger airlines.
U.S. airlines collected about $1.9 billion from fees in the first quarter, the most recent period for which data is available from the Transportation Department. American's share of that was $261.1 million.
AP Airlines Writer David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.
Flight attendants: Bartenders or bad cops?
Hard-working airline crews juggling conflicting responsibilities
updated 8/17/2010 9:48:58 AM ET
Morris MacMatzen / Reuters
Given the agitation among both paying customers and the uniformed personnel, should the airlines formally and forcefully reaffirm the authority of flight attendants?By Bill Briggs
Steven Slater’s intercom-cussing, double-fisted slide into resignation — has launched a fresh examination of the two-faced persona all flight attendants are asked to master: grinning snack server one moment, frowning rules enforcer the next.
From bartender to bad cop in a snap.
In an era of “current threat levels,” and within a tense flying environment that gives new meaning to “cabin pressure," is it smart to ask airline crews to juggle such outwardly conflicting responsibilities?
Flight attendants have recently demanded and won heftier federal fines for unruly customers, and have been officially designated “first responders” — someone certified to provide pre-hospital care in a medical emergency — by the Department of Homeland Security.
Yet they are earning less and sleeping less, harder-worked and higher-stressed — all while tending to a seemingly rising number of passengers who board toting an edgy “sense of entitlement,” according to associations representing both U.S. airlines and flight attendants.
While the trade groups carefully veer around the central question — does fluffing pillows and dishing pretzels erode a cabin crews’ vital onboard authority — one former flight attendant believes that’s precisely the psychology taking root in the minds of some fliers.
“Yes, in a way, the service that people see day in and day out does make people forget and it does undermine the ... responsibility that the crew members have for the safety and well being of the passengers,” said Carolyn Paddock, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant for 17 years.
.“At times, it is difficult to balance being helpful and a good host, and then having to police people,” added Paddock, who left Delta about three years ago, launching InFlightInsider.com, a website offering tips on traveling smart and stylishly.
But as flight attendants shove massive snack carts through the aisles, they offer passengers just a tiny glimpse of jobs that have gained deep complexity since Sept. 11 — jobs that pay an average of $35,000 a year, according to Corey Caldwell, spokeswoman for Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, a labor union representing more than 50,000 flight attendants at 22 airlines. "However," Caldwell noted, "most newly hired flight attendants and those who have only been at their carrier for just a few short years often make less than $20,000 a year."
“What [travelers] never see, and what they’re not supposed to see,” Paddock said, “are the inner workings of what it takes to make a flight safe, secure, and work well.”
So what happens behind the curtain? “In the interest of your safety, I cannot reveal what goes on,” Paddock said. “But trust me when I tell you that there is more that meets the eye ... What I can say is the crew is making assessments. Who are the passengers most likely to help in an emergency? Who is acting or looks suspicious? Who looks unwell? Are they unwell enough to fly? Who is sitting next to that little unaccompanied minor and is she OK sitting next to that passenger? ... At times, being underestimated works to the crew's advantage.”
That “underestimation” — or, put bluntly, lack of respect — also reflects what flight crews see on the clock and off, at their hotels, at the mall, on the freeway, or in their neighborhood grocery store: a self-involved, me-first mentality, said David Castelveter, vice president of communications at the Air Transport Association of America. (The ATA is the nation’s oldest and largest airline trade group.)
“More than ever before, there’s a sense of entitlement in society and that’s what creates the challenges for these flight crew members,” Castelveter said. “At the end of day, we’re in the customer service business and the old adage ‘the customer is always right’ is still the norm. But we have to find that balance between the customer being right and [a flier who] does something that creates a potential hazard or inconvenience for another passenger.”
Msnbc.com contacted three domestic airlines to discuss the state of flight attendant authority. Southwest spokesperson Paul Flanigan said he would not discuss whether the Slater incident indicated that U.S. airlines, in general, needed to re-examine or address the command or clout held by flight attendants inside the cabin. "We, to date, have declined all media inquiries regarding the JetBlue incident," he said, and referred questions to ATA. United and JetBlue, meanwhile, did not respond to interview requests on the topic.
“It’s absolutely a rising factor,” said Beth Blair, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant until 2004 and now a travel writer whose job has put her in the sky as often as three times a month. “There are the people who are always looking for anything free. For example, passengers assume they deserve a complimentary upgrade just because a seat is available or they should be granted a free drink because their flight was slightly delayed.”
When such accommodations are not met, some passengers “simply stew in their seats while others react with an outburst which may or may not make the news,” Blair added.
The worst offenders? “Frequent fliers,” Blair said. They are “most likely to break safety rules such as cell phone use or not paying attention to safety briefings.”
Amid these ill-mannered trends — and following Slater’s famous meltdown last week (which may or may not have been sparked by bad passenger behavior) — has the time come for airlines to take pre-emptive action? Must they formally remind passengers of who is in charge in the cabin, and that it’s a federal crime, now punishable by a $25,000 fine, to disobey or interfere with flight attendants?
That question comes with two critical caveats. First, due to post-9/11 union concessions that helped keep airlines in business, flight attendants are paid about 30 percent less than they were before the attacks and they are working about 40 percent more. Fatigue and stress among flight crews are both high, industry experts acknowledge. Couple that with the anxieties many passengers are carrying: strenuous security checks, fewer flight options, jam-packed planes and general worries about terrorism.
“I’m not sure I would say [they must take] official steps,” said Caldwell of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. “On a whole, the traveling public understands the role of flight attendants. [But] it certainly doesn’t hurt to remind them again — that flight attendants are certified safety professionals who are required to enforce federal aviation regulations.”
"Remember, their primary responsibility is to ensure the safety of the traveling public," ATA's Castelveter said. "If any passenger is interfering with the duties of the flight crew member, it's a federal crime."
Caldwell concedes, however, that she can envision a day when the service slice of the flight crews’ job is substantially reduced and attendants ride purely to keep the peace and enforce the safety rules.
“That’s definitely a possibility,” Caldwell said. “If you look at the current business model that airline management has sort of set up, yeah that could be a possibility.”
Although, she added, flight attendants always will remain the face of the airlines and, as such, “there will always be just that little customer service angle. It’s the flight attendants who are in the steel tube at 40,000 feet with the passengers.”
Perhaps some airlines ultimately will find the need to designate certain flight crew members as “hospitality” attendants and others as “safety monitors” — both squads with clearly separate duties, perhaps even wearing different attire. That’s unlikely to occur until the economy rebounds, said flight-attendant-turned-writer Blair.
“I think an onboard safety team is a great idea because it does give the crew members a specific role,” Blair said. “I’m not sure, though, if the airlines will see it as practical or financially feasible.”
Still, fliers already recognize that the “service” elements offered by flight crews are dwindling as pillows and blankets become scarce, and as beverages and snacks are cut or switched to pay-only, pre-boxed meals.
“Other flight attendants, pilots and I used to joke that one day vending machines would replace the galley,” Blair said. “It seems like we may be heading in that direction.”
© 2010 msnbc.com Reprints
If you're bumped from a flight, you may be stuck
By Evan Eile, USA TODAY
A power outage at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on July 15 delayed flights and closed security checkpoints for hundreds of travelers. Such a delay can cause a domino effect, bumping passengers.
MORE SEATS FILLED
Flights on domestic routes are more full than ever. Share of seats filled:
2005 77%
2006 79%
2007 80%
2008 80%
2009 81%
Source: Air Transport Association
Dan Reed, USA TODAY
Lots of luck catching another flight if you've been bumped or miss a connection.
Commercial airlines in the USA have never been so full. Seven of them — Delta, American, United, Continental, US Airways, AirTran and Alaska — reported filling at least 87% of their seats in July. Even Southwest, always the industry's laggard in load factor, beat the industry's average over the previous six Julys of 84.6% by filling 84.9% of its seats.
That leaves precious few spots available if you've been bumped off a full flight or miss a connecting flight. And because airlines are scheduling fewer flights than five years ago, travelers could face long waits for a direct flight to their destinations or have to settle for circuitous reroutings to get there.
Some travelers, such as Robert Beilstein, consider themselves lucky if a missed flight doesn't cost more than a day's time. Beilstein, a supply-chain software consultant from North Syracuse, N.Y., twice recently missed connections to San Antonio at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. He made it to San Antonio both times, after being rerouted via Denver.
"I did lose a day's worth of consulting revenue," he says. "But at least I did manage to get there in one day and didn't lose two days of revenue." He says he's even more "lucky" he hasn't been bumped from a flight lately.
For those who've been bumped off flights against their wishes, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has proposed increasing the maximum compensation from $800 to $1,300. The proposal is included in a package of "fliers' rights" rules that LaHood wants to impose this fall. The Air Transport Association, the trade group that represents the nation's biggest airlines, says it won't object to raising the compensation. Missing a connecting flight as Beilstein did is far more common than being bumped as a result of an airline selling more tickets for a flight than the plane has seats.
However, most delays leading to missed connections are caused by weather. And unlike overbooking, the weather is outside airlines' control. Most passengers who miss a connecting flight aren't owed anything, although airlines sometimes provide vouchers for meals and hotel rooms. LaHood isn't proposing to change that.
Most airlines automatically reschedule passengers with computer software that often predicts missed connections before a plane has landed. The airlines say this lets them speed people who've missed flights to destinations as quickly as possible.
Some travelers aren't convinced.
"Airlines do not care at all anymore if passengers are inconvenienced," says Jill Naas, a project manager from Seattle who flies at least monthly. She has been able to get other flights after missing connections, she says. But, she says, she's "had to fight like hell" and "emphasize" her elite-level frequent-flier status with airlines to do it.
A growing problem
Bumping, known as "denied boarding" in the industry, isn't a big problem, statistically speaking. In 2009, 69,416 passengers were involuntarily bumped, out of 584 million passengers boarded in the USA. An additional 695,510 were coaxed into giving up their seats by offers of discounts on future travel. The rate of involuntary bumping in 2009 was minuscule: 1.19 per 10,000 passengers boarded.
However, it's a growing problem. In the first half of this year, the rate rose to 1.37 per 10,000 boardings, the highest first-half rate of people involuntarily denied boarding in 16 years. The rise in involuntary bumpings is a byproduct of U.S. airlines' record-high passenger loads. That's the result of the airlines cutting capacity, or the number of seats available, by 12% since 2005 by reducing the number of flights or moving to smaller planes.
"The people who volunteer (to be bumped) ... tend not to be all that upset about it," says Ira Gershkoff, a former airline scheduler who develops software for SlipStream Aviation Software that helps airlines better match capacity to fluctuating travel demand. "They brag to their friends about the compensation they got. But those who are involuntarily bumped are upset. They ... had to be somewhere."
Ed Perkins, a contributing editor at SmarterTravel.com, says airlines for the most part handle the job of bumping passengers off a flight fairly well, though he thinks that passengers who are forced off flights against their will often aren't compensated sufficiently for the inconvenience.
"(Airlines) are able to take care of roughly nine out of 10 cases of bumping by offering people some kind of goody," says Perkins, who was Consumer Reports' travel editor for four decades. "But times do come when nobody wants to get off the airplane."
In addition to providing a seat on a later flight, carriers must pay involuntarily bumped passengers — in cash or by check — an amount equal to the price of their ticket, or $400, whichever is lowest. If the passenger arrives more than two hours late, the compensation cap rises to $800.
But the average domestic ticket in the USA in the first quarter of the year was $328. Few involuntarily bumped travelers ever get paid the full $800, or even $400. Typically, only those who buy first- or business-class tickets or full-price coach fares qualify for the maximum payout. The budget traveler flying on a $139 ticket gets only $139.
LaHood wants to raise the caps to $800 and $1,300. But Perkins says the formula, not the actual amount of compensation, is what's wrong.
"I see no reason why the dollar compensation should have anything to do with how much you paid for your ticket, because that doesn't have anything to do with the amount of inconvenience," he says. "The compensation should be a fixed amount. And for a lot of travelers, the money may not be near as important as fixing their trip. There ought to be more focus on that."
He says airlines should be required to put involuntarily bumped travelers on the next available seat to their destination, even if it means paying another airline to carry them.
Most airlines say they won't hesitate to put bumped fliers on competitors' planes if that's the best solution.
Monte Ford, chief information officer at American Airlines, says, "We have become more progressive in our thinking about how and when we put somebody on some other airline's aircraft. In a disruptive situation, we'll put somebody on someone else's airplane in a minute."
But critics such as Perkins say that's often done only as a last resort — often after a bumped passenger's frustration boils over into an ugly confrontation.
Missing connections
Airlines don't have to report the number of passengers who miss connecting flights. But Gershkoff, who is researching the issue, thinks about 7% of all passengers miss their connections.
On the surface, absorbing those fliers shouldn't be a problem.
Despite fuller flights, airlines still can't fill about 20% of their seats over the course of a year. But missed connections don't happen at a steady pace. They come in bunches, often when bad weather throws flights off schedule at one or more big airport hubs.
Delays, which often lead to missed connections, also tend to have a ripple effect. An hour's delay on one plane in Dallas in the morning becomes a 90-minute disruption in New York by noon, a three-hour nightmare in Chicago by 5 p.m., and a five-hour-late arrival on the West Coast by the end of the day. Along the way, 500 passengers scheduled to fly on that one plane have their travel schedules thrown into chaos. Chances are if one plane is affected, 30 others are, too.
"A 30-minute fog event at one airport can throw the rest of the day off," says Michael Baiada, president of ATH Group, a consulting group that does time-flow management consulting work for airlines. "The flights using that plane throughout the day just go later and later and later."
More than 1.9 million passengers board flights on U.S. airlines on the average day. If just 10% miss connecting flights or can't begin their trips on time because travel is disrupted elsewhere, about 125,000 people could be forced to compete for the few remaining unsold seats that day. (Schedulers estimate that about a third ofpassengers who miss flights are leaving from their home airport and go home to wait a day before flying or simply give up their travel plans.)
And there are fewer flights to get on than five years ago.
For example, travelers who missed United Airlines' first flight from Chicago O'Hare to Raleigh-Durham in August 2005 had six more United flights that day to choose from, a USA TODAY analysis of flight schedule data provided by OAG Aviation Solutions shows. Today, there are only four flights total each day.
Five years ago, Continental flew four times a day from Cleveland to South Bend, Ind., the data show. Today, it has three flights. American has cut the number of daily flights from Dallas/Fort Worth to Huntsville, Ala., to three from six. In 2005, Northwest flew eight times a day from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Delta, which bought Northwest in 2008, flies the route five times a day now.
As a result, it can take travelers a day or more to reach destinations. It can cost hours of scrambling on the phone, extra expense and stress. It's also why travelers say it's important how airlines and airline workers treat them when things go wrong.
Mitchell Fong, a financial services industry executive from Mill Valley, Calif., who flies 200,000 miles a year, recalls a day last winter when his flight into Chicago arrived too late to make his connection to Milwaukee. United's computer system automatically rebooked him on the next available flight — the next morning. Fong would have missed his meeting in Milwaukee. Luckily, he hitched a ride that night with an associate who happened to be driving there.
"United was not sympathetic, did not offer any compensation and did not offer extras or perks to ease my situation," Fong says.
U.S. airlines' aren't obligated to provide anything beyond rebooking to travelers who miss connections for reasons beyond airlines' control, such as weather.Being an elite member of a carrier's frequent-flier program may be the single best way to avoid being bumped, and of getting one of the few available seats on the next flight. But it's no guarantee.
Airlines consider the price paid by each disrupted passenger for their ticket; whether any have health issues that require special attention or are unaccompanied minors; whether passengers are part of a group; and most important, which passengers will be the most inconvenienced, or delayed the longest, if they don't get the next available seat.
It also helps to check in early. Check-in times can be the tie-breaker.
Rahsaan Johnson, a spokesman for United, says the difficulty in getting a seat nowadays is overstated. And, he says, getting one shouldn't be thought of as a contest between passengers.
"Every day of the week, there are airline employees and retirees who are at the bottom of the stand-by list, who do get onboard planes and enjoy a flight," he says. "It's a fallacy that with 85% load factors, you can't get a seat. Statistically, it is more difficult. But it is done all the time."
American, JetBlue Negotiate Code-Share
By Ted Reed 08/16/10 - 04:21 PM EDT
American Airlines/JetBlue story updated with comments from JetBlue.
DALLAS (TheStreet) -- American Airlines(AMR) and JetBlue(JBLU) are negotiating a code-share agreement that could be in place as early as the first quarter of 2011. "We are negotiating, working towards perhaps a code-share in the future," Art Torno, American's vice president for New York told TheStreet. He emphasized that no agreement has been reached so far.
A code-share, which enables airlines to sell tickets on one another's flights, would be a natural step in the increasing cooperation between American and JetBlue, which in March announced plans to work together in New York where both operate hubs at Kennedy International Airport. The two carriers recently announced plans to enable customers to earn frequent flier miles on either airline on connecting flights.
The next step, said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin, is for the carriers to post interline itineraries on their websites.
"We've said all along that we are open to discussions with American to grow this relationship, but at this time we have no plans to enter into a traditional two-way code-share relationship with American," Baldwin said.
The initial deal involved an interline agreement enabling sales on one another's flights, but the proceeds are remitted directly to the operating carrier. In a code-share, revenue is pro-rated between the airlines and each airline can put its own code on the other's flight. Interline agreements are far more common: American has about 135 interline partners. Both arrangements enable baggage exchange between carriers.
Torno said he has worked closely with JetBlue CEO Dave Barger since the initial deal was announced, but the two carriers want to take things slowly. "We're taking baby steps to make sure that what we are doing makes sense," he said. "Whatever we implement, we want to make sure it works."
As the biggest aviation market in the world, New York is hotly contested. Delta(DAL) said last week it will spend $1.2 billion to upgrade its facilities at JFK .
Meanwhile, a merger between United(UAUA) and Continental(CAL) means the combined carrier will push more traffic through the latter's Newark hub.
Torno said American has a competitive advantage with its $1.3 billion JFK terminal and plans over time to move its alliance partners British Airways and Iberia into the terminal as well. Additionally, if a trans-Pacific joint venture with JAL is approved, that carrier would also be expected to move to the American terminal.
American's parent AMR closed down 0.72% to $6.85 on Monday, while JetBlue shares closed down 0.33% to $5.96.
-- Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C.
Howie Kurtz Scolds Media Over Coverage Of ‘Bogus’ Steven Slater Story
5:24 pm, August 15th, 2010
Howard Kurtz hates shark week. Kidding! Howie Kurtz simply does not approve of either Steven Slater nor the adoring coverage he received at the hands of the media. Especially the latter. Kurtz saved his Slater rant for the last few minutes of Reliable Sources today, the gist of it being that Slater could have killed someone, and the media has gone overboard in their coverage of his antics (cue: “those darn kids!”).
And here’s what left me with motion sickness: this JetBlue clown, the flight attendant who got ticked off at a passenger, then triggered the emergency chute at JFK Airport and slid his way out of a job and got himself arrested is actually being celebrated by the media.
Yes, I know, it’s August and he’s got over 200,000 Facebook fans. But Steven Slater could have killed someone on the runway with that reckless move. And yet, look at this — front page of “The New York Times,” front page of “USA Today,” front page of the New York tabloids, and television in a tizzy.
Yes, the media went overboard — as much as I enjoyed their coverage, by the end of the week the NYT appeared to have made Stephen Slater their personal mascot. However, in the grand scheme of overdone stories this year (and make no mistake this has been a banner year), overdoing a story 98% of the country enjoys hearing about seems to me to be a lesser sin than say, a beer summit clock
'What he did was despicable,' host of 'Celebrity Apprentice' tells 'The Insider'
8/12/2010 7:26:23 PM ET
America may be embracing JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, who famously quit his job this week during an expletive-ridden rant on a loudspeaker.
"Celebrity Apprentice" host Donald Trump isn't.
"What he did was despicable," he tells "The Insider." "I think as an employee he's horrible and as an employer I would really go after him big."
Trump says it is wrong that people are "celebrating" Slater "who could have caused a major catastrophe and who is obviously not very stable. I think he's a wacko. I think he had a [disagreement] with someone close to him and he let it out on the passengers. I don't think he's a hero, and I don't think he's going to be a folk hero for very long. I think we should stop celebrating him pretty quickly."
Meanwhile, several passengers on the Slater's plane tells the Wall Street Journal he was the one who instigated the ugly confrontation that led to his nasty departure.
When one passenger asked Slater where her bag was stowed, he spewed an expletive before storming off.
Said a witness, "It really blew my mind. It was so inappropriate."
Copyright 2010 Us Weekly
American Airlines in talks to revamp JFK terminal
Published: August 12, 2010 10:59 AM
Modified: August 12, 2010 12:03 PM
Carrier seeks to bring alliance partners British Airways and Iberia under one roof to counter Delta's $1.2 billion renovation at Kennedy.
(Bloomberg) -- American Airlines is in advanced talks to bring alliance partners British Airways Plc and Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA into one “premiere” terminal at New York's Kennedy airport to bolster overseas flights.
“It will require expansion and will be significant in terms of investment,” Art Torno, vice president overseeing American's New York operations, said in an interview. “When we finish that terminal, it will be a watermark for everyone to shoot for.”
Putting the Oneworld alliance members under one roof would help AMR Corp.'s American counter Delta Air Lines Inc., which unveiled plans yesterday for a $1.2 billion renovation at John F. Kennedy International Airport. American and Delta are vying for passengers in New York, the biggest U.S. aviation market.
The cost and scope of the possible changes at American's Terminal 8 are still under discussion with British Airways, Spain's Iberia and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees JFK, Mr. Torno said.
Any investment would be in addition to the $1.3 billion that Fort Worth, Texas-based American spent on a terminal renovation completed in 2007, he said. The 1-million-square-foot facility is American's primary international gateway in the eastern U.S.
American, British Airways and Iberia couldn't begin talks on a single terminal until after July 20, when they won final U.S. approval to jointly set prices, sell tickets and schedule trans-Atlantic flights. That venture doesn't cover other Oneworld members, which include Japan Airlines Corp.
“New York is really a battle for market share,” Mr. Torno said. “I don't think anyone can own New York. Our reaction is a competitive response to protect our interests here in the world's largest aviation market.”
American is adding 15 new destinations from New York this year and 33 additional flights. It will announce more schedule changes involving its alliance partners for the summer of 2011, he said.
Delta will renovate Kennedy's Terminal 4, which is used by foreign carriers, and link it with Terminal 2, where the Atlanta-based airline has flights.
The 1960s-era Terminal 3, formerly used by Pan American World Airways, will be demolished to make room for parking jets. Delta will begin work next month and finish by mid-2013. JFK is a Delta hub for overseas flights and became a focus for expansion after the airline's 2007 bankruptcy exit.
American also is remodeling Concourse D and Concourse C at New York's LaGuardia airport, where its domestic flights are based. The carrier, which is investing about $30 million in the projects, is considering whether to connect the two terminals or build an additional Admirals' Club lounge, Mr. Torno said.
Filed Under : American Airlines, Commercial Real Estate, Delta Air Lines, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
American: Protecting its New York Turf
