5 Tips on How to Avoid Germs on Planes
How to Keep You and Your Family Healthy While Traveling
By LISA STARK and SHEILA EVANS
Sept. 17, 2009

A two-day meeting beginning today at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., will examine how diseases spread on planes and in airports.

With the spread of the H1N1 virus, airlines have taken notice and stocked up on supplies such as gloves, masks and alcohol wipes and increased their cleanings. Although they are preparing themselves for a flu outbreak, airlines insist that it is still safe to fly.

"Going on a plane is no less safe than going to church, going to work, going to school," said AirTran spokesman Christopher White.

The airflow systems in planes are designed to help minimize the risk of the H1N1 flu spreading because the air flows across the rows of seats instead of front to back. It is continually exchanged with a combination of fresh air and recirculated air that usually passes through a series of filters.

"One of the most persistent myths is that everybody on the plane is breathing the same air and that germs just endlessly recirculate within the cabin. In fact, air on the airplane is probably cleaner than in most indoor spaces," said Katherine Andrus, assistant general counsel for the Air Transport Association.

Yet passengers are still confined to an enclosed space where contagious diseases could spread. James Bennett, a research engineer for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, completed a study of how contaminants move inside a plane.

"Contaminants, such as the small droplets emitted by a cough, do move to other areas of the cabin," Bennett said.

According to Bennett's research, within seconds of one person coughing the droplets have spread outward and nearby passengers get the biggest dose. After 15 minutes those particles could have traveled as far as 10 rows away.

Although exposure does not mean you will get sick, some passengers aren't taking any chances.
"I always have hand sanitizer with me and I always wipe that on me and on surfaces that [my son's] touching a lot," said Sarah Smith, who was travelling with her toddler.

5 Tips on How to Stay Healthy In the Air

Here are five tips from ABC News chief medical editor Dr. Tim Johnson on how to cut down on exposure and help keep you and your family healthy while traveling. If the person next to you is coughing or sneezing, ask to switch seats. It might not always be possible, but it's worth asking.

• Bring along a face mask.
• Bring alcohol-based hand sanitizer and anti-bacterial wipes.
• "Constantly wash your hands," Johnson said, but not in the airplane's bathroom. "Those surfaces are typically going to be contaminated."
• Bring your own pillow and blanket.
• Drink bottled water. "Bring along water and hydrate yourself," Johnson said, because it will make you "less susceptible to viral infections in general." It's also helpful because airplane air is very dry and dehydrating.

"Mostly be alert to people who might be sick and really isolate yourself," Johnson said, "or insist they be isolated."

And if you're the one who is feeling under the weather, do your fellow travelers a favor and stay home.

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

Bumped Passengers Learn a Cruel Flying Lesson
By SCOTT MCCARTNEY

Air travel has gotten a lot bumpier this year -- on the ground.

Passengers are getting bumped from flights at the highest rate in at least 14 years, even though the U.S. Department of Transportation last year doubled the penalties airlines have to pay passengers who have tickets but are denied seats. Among the reasons: Passengers are more reluctant to voluntarily give up seats when flights are oversold for fear of being stranded for a day or two. And some airlines have made their vouchers less generous to save money.

Bumping is still relatively rare, affecting fewer than two passengers out of every 10,000. But the rate at which passengers were bumped in the second quarter skyrocketed 40% compared with a year ago, and airlines say the higher rate will likely continue.

As carriers have slashed capacity, grounding airplanes and cutting flights from schedules, they have packed more people into their remaining flights -- sometimes too many people.

"It's pretty simple: It's just because planes are more full than last year," says Tom Trenga, vice president of revenue management at US Airways Group Inc., which had the highest bumping rate among major airlines, at 1.88 passengers per 10,000 in the second quarter.

This summer, the nine major airlines filled 85.5% of their seats, up from 84.1% last summer. The peak was July, with 86.7% of seats filled. This fall, airlines are aggressively cutting back capacity even further, worried that continued weak business travel could cripple them financially.


Is Bumping Passengers From Flights Right?

That means increased bumping will continue, Mr. Trenga says, until airlines see enough of a pickup in demand to begin bringing flights back into schedules, easing the logjam.
In the second quarter, the most recent reported by the DOT, 20,916 passengers, or 1.39 for every 10,000, were involuntarily denied boarding at major and regional airlines, up from 15,119, or 1.0 per 10,000, in the same period of 2008. (Ten times as many people gave up their seats voluntarily in return for airline vouchers toward future trips.)

If you do get bumped, you are entitled to cash compensation under the DOT's penalty rules, though the airline will likely offer you vouchers. You can insist that the airline pay you on the spot. Do it. Vouchers can have blackout dates, require you to purchase higher fares to use the voucher or even require you to cash in the voucher and buy a ticket in person at an airport rather than booking online.

Desperate for Revenue
Federal rules allow airlines to sell more tickets than there are seats on a plane because customers occasionally change flights or don't show up. Carriers have to balance the cost of compensating customers who get bumped with the cost of having an empty seat when a ticket could have been sold. With the economic downturn, airlines are desperate for any revenue and may be willing to take on more overbooking risk.

Several airlines say they have bumped more people from flights because they have had a harder time getting travelers to voluntarily give up seats. Because flights have been so full, a passenger who gives up a seat voluntarily in return for a voucher toward a future trip may have to wait a day or more to get a seat on another flight.

That means airlines end up refusing boarding to more ticketed passengers, Mr. Trenga says.
In addition, airlines often place heavy restrictions on vouchers. Sometimes vouchers worth $100 or $200 off a ticket can't be applied to the airline's cheapest fares, for example, or they have blackout dates or require customers to buy tickets in person at an airport instead of online.
Alaska Airlines, a unit of Alaska Air Group Inc., tried to cut the value of vouchers in December and saw the rate at which it bumped passengers soar 269% in the second quarter to 1.66 per 10,000, from 0.45 per 10,000 in the same period of 2008.

Before the change, Alaska and its Horizon Air regional-airline unit gave a free ticket to anyone voluntarily giving up a seat when a flight was oversold. But Alaska switched to a two-tier voucher system passengers got a $200 voucher to apply to a future ticket for giving up a seat on a shorter flight and a $400 voucher for a longer flight.

"The perception among those customers on shorter flights was that $200 wasn't enough to offer up their seats as a volunteer," a spokeswoman says. In June, Alaska upped the offer for volunteers on shorter flights to a $300 voucher, "and we've seen a steady decline in the number of involuntary denied boardings since," she says.

UAL Corp.'s United Airlines saw its bumped-passenger rate climb 73% this year to 1.71 passengers per 10,000, second only to US Airways. United says bumping increased because a greater number of leisure passengers have been filling planes than in the past as a result of the downturn in business travel. "They show up for their flight much more often than a business traveler typically does," a spokeswoman says. "As a result, we had fewer no-shows than what we typically see."

The DOT says it isn't concerned about the rise in bumping because the rates are still lower than historical highs. During the 1970s and 1980s, bumping rates were routinely four times as high as today's rate.

Penalties Doubled
Still, the agency doubled compensation penalties for denied boarding last year, the first change in 30 years.

Passengers who are involuntarily bumped will receive compensation equal to their one-way fare up to $400 if they are rescheduled to reach their destination within two hours of their original arrival time for domestic flights and four hours for international flights. The mandatory compensation, depending on ticket price, doubles to $800 if passengers reach their destination later than the two-or four-hour limits.

The best way to avoid getting bumped from a flight is to buy tickets only for flights on which you can reserve a seat and to print your boarding pass early to lay claim to that seat. Passengers should be especially vigilant with regional airlines, which generally have the highest bumping rates in the industry.

And if you're not in a hurry and want to game the system--as many passengers do--you should book flights with few open seats at peak travel hours and tell gate agents early that you are willing to give up your seat if volunteers are needed. For some passengers, vouchers can cut the cost of future trips dramatically. Just make sure you know what you are getting from the airline, what strings are attached, and when your next flight out will be.

Write to Scott McCartney at middleseat@wsj.com

British Airways May Join JAL Pursuit
09/15/09 - 03:13 PM EDT

DALLAS (TheStreet) -- As a strongly motivated AMR(AMR Quote) battles to ensure its continued partnership with Japan Air Lines, other partners in the Oneworld alliance are also considering investment in JAL.

Both British Airways and the Australian carrier Qantas are potential investors, said a person who is familiar with the negotiations between AMR's American Airlines and JAL.

In particular, British Airways is "deeply preoccupied" that JAL could partner with the SkyTeam alliance, which includes its rival AirFrance as well as Delta(DAL Quote), the person said, noting, "All of the members of Oneworld, led by American, are profoundly interested in intensifying the relationship with JAL.

"American is extraordinarily motivated to maintain a successful partnership with JAL that is more than 10 years old, to keep them in Oneworld and to move forward with more intensive joint operations," the person said. "American will always make an offer superior to whatever Delta wants to do." A British Airways spokeswoman declined to comment and a Qantas spokesperson was not immediately available.

Financially troubled JAL is seeking to restructure and to raise funding from banks, investment funds and others including airlines. It wants about $300 million to $500 million from an airline partner or partners, as a share of the $2.7 billion it reportedly needs. The airline investment is viewed as an industry vote of confidence that would inspire other investors to participate.
JAL has the largest hub at Tokyo Narita, Asia's key airport because of its importance to Japan and its web of connections throughout the continent.

FAA investigating American's MD-80 repairs

Federal regulators investigating American Airlines over repairs to MD-80 series jets
By David Koenig, AP Airlines Writer
On Friday September 4, 2009,

1:48 pm EDT DALLAS (AP) -- U.S. regulators are investigating American Airlines over structural repairs to its aging fleet of MD-80 series aircraft.

A Federal Aviation Administration official said Friday that the investigation centered on 16 planes.

The Wall Street Journal reported FAA officials suspect American rushed to retire one of the planes to keep it away from inspectors.

A spokesman for American denied the accusation and said mothballing the aircraft wouldn't let it escape FAA scrutiny.

"We retired the plane for economic reasons, tied to our decision several months ago to reduce capacity," spokesman Roger Frizzell told The Associated Press. "Any other assertion is incorrect and misleading."

FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford declined to say whether inspectors believed the airline had tried to hide the plane or whether they had examined it in the New Mexico desert, where it is now parked. He said inspectors examined "a number of planes."

Lunsford said the investigation centered on repairs to the rear bulkhead of the MD-80 series aircraft. As of May, American had 270 MD-80 series jets, or 44 percent of its fleet, according to the company's Web site.

Fort Worth-based American, a unit of AMR Corp., is slowly replacing the MD-80s with new, more fuel-efficient planes while it reduces capacity, or the number of flights, to deal with a decline in air travel.

Airplanes expand and contract as the cabin is pressurized for flight and then depressurized. That can lead to metal fatigue that requires close monitoring and sometimes repairs, especially around the rear bulkhead.

Improper rear bulkhead repairs were blamed for the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 that killed 520 people, still the worst single accident in aviation history.

The Journal reported that FAA inspectors believe at least 16 American jets may have flown for months or years with improper fasteners and poorly done repairs to structural cracks.

American spokesman Tim Wagner said the airline discovered the potentially improper fasteners used on the MD-80 bulkheads and told the FAA, identifying each aircraft with the questionable parts.

FAA investigations can lead to exoneration of the carrier or, as in recent cases involving American and Southwest Airlines Co., penalties that run into the millions of dollars.
Shares of American parent AMR Corp. rose 10 cents to $5.59 in afternoon trading Friday.

American to cut 921 flight attendants' jobs, including 228 layoffs, others taking leave, (all furloughees are former TWA flight attendants, ed.)
By David Koenig, AP Airlines Writer
On Tuesday September 1, 2009, 6:13 pm EDT

DALLAS (AP) -- American Airlines is cutting 921 flight attendant jobs as it deals with an ongoing downturn in traffic and lower revenue.

The airline said Tuesday that the cuts will take effect Oct. 1 and reduce its flight-attendant ranks by about 6 percent.

American, the nation's second-largest airline, said 228 employees will be furloughed -- laid off but with rehiring rights -- and the company will put 244 more on leave for two months. Another 449 will take voluntary options such as leave.

Nearly half of the flight attendants to be furloughed are based at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
The airline said it planned to cut 1,200 flight attendant jobs but was able to reduce the number by adjusting staffing requirements for the winter.

The airline said in June that it would cut jobs as it reduced flights to meet lower travel demand.
American said Tuesday that of the 228 furloughs:

105 would be at LaGuardia

67 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport,

25 in Boston,

17 in St. Louis and

14 at Reagan National near Washington

The workers' union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said it had worked with the company to avoid even more layoffs by offering employees voluntary leave and the two-month forced absences.

"What was going to be 1,200 jobs lost has been limited to 228," said union President Laura Glading.

The 244 employees who will be placed on "involuntary overage leave" won't work in October and November, when air traffic is expected to be very weak. They will return to work in December, the union said.

While off the job for two months, those employees will have to pay for their own health insurance although they can get it at American's lower group rate, according to the airline.

Those on involuntary leave can apply for unemployment benefits without American contesting the claim, said American spokeswoman Missy Latham. The airline would contest a claim filed by someone who took voluntary leave, she said.

American has 14,936 active flight attendants, Latham said.

American's traffic plunged 10 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period of 2008, as the recession grounded many travelers.

The airline's woes were compounded by a steep drop in high-paying business travelers. Second-quarter revenue at parent AMR Corp. tumbled 21 percent from a year ago.

Like other carriers, American has responded to declining traffic by cutting flights. American's capacity in the first six months of the year was nearly 8 percent lower than during the same time last year.

Airlines can cut capacity by operating fewer flights or using smaller aircraft that carry fewer passengers. With fewer flights, American doesn't need as many flight attendants, pilots and other workers.

Shares of Fort Worth-based AMR fell 23 cents, or 4.2 percent, to close at $5.23.

FAA investigates Southwest Airlines' parts, repairs
10:59 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 25, 2009
By ERIC TORBENSON / The Dallas Morning News
etorbenson@dallasnews.com

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Southwest Airlines Co.'s use of unauthorized parts and repairs on its older Boeing 737 planes just months after the carrier paid the agency $7.5 million to settle maintenance violations.

An FAA inspector working at a maintenance shop used by Dallas-based Southwest questioned whether some parts on Boeing 737-300 and 737-500 series planes were authorized for use.

The parts under examination divert hot engine exhaust away from the wings when the plane's flaps are extended.

As a result, Southwest grounded 46 aircraft Saturday, causing significant delays in its system and cut its on-time performance to less than two-thirds from its typical 90 percent.

FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said that the agency was still in the process of understanding how the unauthorized parts got onto the aircraft and that it was too early to comment on any possible enforcement against Southwest.

Southwest said the issue was about whether a vendor correctly documented the repair and parts used on the planes. Southwest also said it wasn't about whether the parts themselves were authorized to be used on the aircraft, said spokeswoman Beth Harbin.

Southwest and Chicago-based Boeing Co. worked on a solution to address the problem with the FAA, but Southwest chose to temporarily ground the planes Saturday. The FAA allowed Southwest to fly the aircraft for 10 days until a permanent solution is reached.

"We are all working toward that resolution now, but there are no conclusions or mandates at this point," Harbin said Tuesday night.

The parts in question – hinge fittings located near the jet engines – aren't considered critical enough to jeopardize the immediate safety of the airplane. If they don't work properly, they can put too much pressure on the flaps – wing panels used to help control the plane.

What's unclear is whether a new investigation would violate the terms of the settlement reached with the FAA on March 2 that lowered a proposed fine of $10.2 million for the carrier's failure to do required inspections on some of its planes.

That settlement stated that Southwest needed to comply with a series of new procedures in its maintenance department, including adding more staff and improving its training manuals.

Southwest flew nearly 60,000 flights in 2006 and 2007 on aircraft that weren't checked for cracks, and the airline had a relationship with regulators that an FAA whistleblower called too cozy.

The resulting congressional hearings created considerable embarrassment for Southwest and for the FAA.

More recent problems have continued to raise questions about Southwest's maintenance practices.

An unexplained football-size tear in a Southwest jet bound for Baltimore July 13 forced the aircraft into an emergency landing, though no one was hurt.

The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the cause of the rip in the top of the plane's fuselage.

Southwest, like many major airlines, pays other companies to do heavy maintenance on its fleet of 544 Boeing 737s.

Following the series of inspection issues at both Southwest and at Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc., the FAA cracked down on enforcement and has been substantially more aggressive in enforcing airworthiness directives designed to keep the flying public safe.

Surviving the dreaded tarmac delay

By HARRY R. WEBER, AP Airlines Writer Harry R. Weber, Ap Airlines Writer – Wed Aug 26, 2:06 pm ET

ATLANTA – You're tired, hungry, have a cranky baby on your lap and all you want to do is get off the plane, but you can't because it's been on the tarmac for hours waiting to take off.
While such delays are rare, they can be more common during the hot summer due to thunderstorms and, this year, because of fewer flights to get you to your destination if your flight is canceled.

A six-hour delay with 47 people aboard a small Continental Express plane at a Minnesota airport this month is the extreme. In June, the most recent month for which data is available, there were 278 tarmac delays of 3 hours or more. That was the most this year but still only .05 percent of the total number of scheduled flights that month.

Information is the best ammunition in such situations. Experts advise that passengers be prepared. Here are answers to some questions travelers may ask.

Q. Can't I just get off the plane?

A. No. The captain has ultimate control of the plane and generally will determine if and when to return to the gate and allow passengers to get off.
"It's not a democracy," says Robert Mann, an airline industry consultant in Port Washington, N.Y.

Passengers can request that the aircraft return to the gate, or if they have a cell phone they can call airline customer service or their carrier's frequent flier hotline and exert pressure that way. If you have a medical condition or are ill, notify the crew immediately. But taking matters into your own hands is ill-advised. An FAA spokeswoman says unruly passengers who make a run for the aircraft door could be arrested for interfering with the crew.

Q. Why would the airline choose to keep the passengers onboard rather than let them get off?

A. It takes a lot of time to get passengers off a plane and then back on again. If the weather clears up at the airport where you are heading, the crew may have a limited opportunity to take off. Tarmac delays often occur because of bad weather, congestion and air traffic control issues. Further delays could be caused by allowing passengers to get off, which also could mean passengers with connecting flights might miss those connections.

Airline operations also are a factor. Because of weak demand for air travel due to the ailing economy, airlines have taken large chunks of seats out of the air and are offering fewer flights and frequencies to some destinations.

"It may add to the reason there are the tarmac delays and not the cancellations," says Terry Trippler, an airline and travel expert based in Minneapolis. "The airlines realize that there aren't a lot of flights to get them onto alternate flights, and that's why they rather just wait and get them out."

Q. How long can the crew keep me on the plane before heading back to the gate?

A. There's no law or rule mandating that the crew allow you to get off after a certain period. Legislation introduced in the Senate in July would require planes delayed more than three hours to return to a gate. A rule proposed by the Department of Transportation would require airlines to have contingency plans for dealing with lengthy tarmac delays.

Some airlines have implemented customer commitments in recent years to try to appease passengers. JetBlue Airways vows to deplane passengers if an aircraft is delayed on the ground for five hours. That was instituted in 2007 after passengers on a JetBlue flight waited 11 hours on the tarmac at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Q. Will I get something to eat and drink while I wait?

A. Airlines generally only stock enough food and drinks for the length of the flight. Passengers on the Continental Express flight later complained about not being offered food and drink during their lengthy tarmac delay. Several airlines have procedures for dealing with onboard delays that include making sure the cabin temperature is appropriate and passengers have access to restrooms, and food and water.

After a recent AirTran Airways flight from Pittsburgh to Atlanta was diverted to Chattanooga, Tenn., flight attendants offered bottled water and pretzels to passengers during the 90-minute tarmac delay.

Delta Air Lines says on its Web site that in the event of onboard ground delays under certain circumstances, it promises to make timely announcements regarding the flight status, allow customers to use cell phones and laptop computers and provide snacks and beverages to customers when "reasonable and safe to do so." Experts advise that passengers should carry food and drink with them on flights in case of a delay while onboard.

"Instead of that extra pair of shoes in your carryon, you put an extra sandwich or an extra bottle of water," Trippler says.

Q. What can I do to pass the time during a tarmac delay?

A. On a long delay you might be hoping that you're not stuck next to someone who wants to share his life story. In that case on-flight TV or radio may be your salvation. What's more, it's always smart to carry something to read to get you through a delay no matter how long.
If you have a connecting flight that you might miss, use your cell phone to call airline customer service and rebook your next flight. The one thing experts agree on is that it is important to stay calm in those situations.

Q. What kind of compensation am I entitled to if I experience a tarmac delay?

A. Typically, circumstances beyond the control of an airline are not covered in terms of passengers being provided compensation, says aviation consultant Mark Kiefer of CRA International in Boston. However, airlines have discretion to help passengers out, and some even have policies for allowing for compensation when there are tarmac delays.

For instance, JetBlue customers who experience an onboard ground delay on arrival for two hours or more after scheduled arrival time are entitled to a voucher. The voucher is good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for their roundtrip ticket.

Q. Where can I get more information about airline policies regarding tarmac delays?

A. Airline Web sites are a good place to start. Check the airline's contract of carriage, which outlines its responsibilities to customers and the action it will take in various situations.

American Airlines retires Airbus A300 jets after 21 years
09:21 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 25, 2009
By TERRY MAXON tmaxon@dallasnews.com

American Airlines Inc. has flown its last flights with the Airbus A300, more than 21 years after it began flying the wide-body jet.

The last American flight flown by an Airbus landed shortly after midnight Monday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, ending the airplane's history with the Fort Worth-based carrier.

American spokesman Tim Smith said a combination of factors led to the decision to take the Airbuses out of American's fleet.

"One, we are in the process of cutting capacity. Two, these airplanes are a likely candidate for retirement, in that they are older than most of the airplanes in our fleet," Smith said Tuesday.
In addition, the A300 requires different training and maintenance from the other airplanes in American's fleet, he said.

All told, "it's a good time to take them out of the fleet," Smith said.

American ordered an initial 25 Airbus A300s in March 1987, to be leased from Airbus, and accepted delivery in 1988 and 1989.

It later bought another 10 that were delivered between 1991 and 1993.

One of the leased airplanes crashed shortly after takeoff from Kennedy in November 2001, leaving American with 34 before it made the decision to ground the Airbus fleet.

American placed an order for 15 Boeing 767-300ERs at the same time it acquired the 25 Airbus jets, and Smith noted that the two aircraft types were very similar, with two engines, two aisles and international range.

Even though American had no Airbus airplanes before the order, "we were in a growth mode," Smith said. "We needed wide-body aircraft for a broad number of missions, and we could not get 767-300ERs as quickly as we liked. All that came together to have us look at the A300."

While the Boeing model for years was the heavy hitter for American's international routes, Smith said, the Airbus "was in one particular way a better aircraft than the Boeing 767-300ER, and that's in its cargo capability."

Its huge cargo hold, combined with a lot of seating, made the A300 the perfect airplane for American's growing Caribbean network. The airplane primarily flew out of Miami and New York Kennedy, plus American's hub in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

American officials announced in July 2008 that they would park the entire Airbus fleet by the end of 2009 as part of its plans to reduce capacity.

Eventually, American plans to replace the Airbus with the Boeing 787, a new aircraft that has faced substantial delays. American expects to take its first 787 in the second half of 2013. American's first A300 jets joined the fleet in the late 1980s. Their huge cargo holds and seating capacity made them perfect for the airline's growing Caribbean network.

Delta plans domestic hub at LaGuardia
Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 9:31am EDT

Delta plans to start a domestic hub at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, thanks to an exchange of flying rights with US Airways.

Atlanta-based Delta (NYSE: DAL) reported a deal with US Airways (NYSE: LCC) to exchange certain flying rights and airport facilities at LaGuardia and Washington's Reagan National airports, allowing Delta to expand its New York customer service by creating a domestic hub at LaGuardia.

The agreement, which is subject to government approvals, calls for US Airways to transfer 125 operating slot pairs to Delta at LaGuardia and Delta to transfer 42 operating slot pairs to US Airways at Reagan National. The airlines also will swap gates at LaGuardia between the Marine Air Terminal and US Airways' Terminal C to consolidate all Delta operations -- including the Delta Shuttle -- into an expanded main terminal facility with 11 additional gates for Delta customers.

Delta plans a nearly $40 million construction project at LaGuardia to connect the current Delta and US Airways main terminals; rebrand US Airways' existing main terminal gates, ticket counters and lounges to Delta's standards; and create a new dedicated check-in area for Medallion, First Class, BusinessElite and Shuttle customers. The project will be completed in 2010.

Delta expects to more than double the number of nonstop destinations it serves from LaGuardia by adding or preserving service to more than 30 small- and medium-sized communities. Delta will add new flights to more than a dozen cities not currently served by US Airways. In every slot where US Airways operates small turboprops, Delta will operate larger jets. This will allow more than 2 million additional passengers to use LaGuardia each year without increasing the total number of takeoffs and landings.

"Increasing Delta's service in the world's most competitive and largest air service market is a key part of our long-term strategy,” said Delta CEO Richard Anderson, in a news release. “This transaction will provide substantial benefits to our customers, employees and shareholders in years to come."

Which Airlines Will Survive?

Tom Van Riper, 08.04.09, 12:00 PM EDT

Another losing quarter, despite painful cutbacks. Consolidation may be the only solution. How many more seats can the airlines pull from the sky? Apparently not enough to turn the industry around for a sustained period.

The nine largest U.S. airlines--those accounting for about 88% of all domestic traffic--lost a collective $1.5 billion during the recently completed second quarter. This despite per-seat traffic numbers (known in the industry as load factor) flying close to an all-time high, according to Robert Herbst, an independent airline analyst who complies industry statistics on his Web site, airlinefinancials.com.

His prognosis for the third quarter: a 20% or so decline in revenue for most big carriers from the same quarter in 2008, as business and leisure travelers continue to cut back. He predicts the July load factors that airlines are set to announce this week will show that planes were close to 90% full.

"To see this kind of load factor and still lose money is very unusual compared to the industry's history," Herbst says.

The problem? Too many airlines. With the economy already taking a bite out of demand, cutting the supply of seats only goes so far when they're spread among nine major carriers, plus regional competition. The industry is essentially engaged in an ongoing fare war, a tough way to price seats high enough to cover costs.
An improving economy, inevitable at some point, figures to push oil prices as much as customer demand. Will carriers ever be able to set prices optimally?

"Not unless you have major restructuring, including consolidation," says Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University who has long followed the industry. In other words, spreading out 88% of the domestic flying public among six airlines would work a lot better than spreading them among nine. Until then, "it's a dim future for as far as we can see in the future."

Herbst estimates that the majors will need to combine cost cuts and revenue increases by at least 15% in order to turn marginal profits while upgrading their aging fleets. The problem, as he sees it, is that most carriers have been through big restructurings either in or outside of bankruptcy, leaving little room for further cost cuts in an industry with a costly infrastructure that includes equipment, terminal rentals and expensive labor.

"Most carriers will cut capacity further, which will reduce some costs, but there are so many fixed costs to cover," he says. Meanwhile, price competition keeps the revenue side challenged.
Herbst does expect most major carriers, including Delta, JetBlue and Air Tran, to squeak out operating profits in 2009. But the razor thin margins offer little cushion against any one-time costs that might pop up.

The bulk of the operating losses figure to come from United, American and U.S. Airways ( LCC - news - people ), which he predicts finish 2009 a combined $1.7 billion in the red on an operating basis. AMR Corp. ( AMR - news - people ), American's parent, just privately placed $276 million in debt to finance equipment, on which it will pay 13% interest.

The biggest problems, though, are at U.S. Airways and United, both of which could easily land in bankruptcy in less than a year, both Herbst and Masters believe. Low market caps and a lack of unencumbered assets to borrow against makes raising cash a problem, Herbst notes.

"At least United has strength in its Asia-Pacific routes," he says. "U.S. Airways just has little to offer that you can't find elsewhere." Sounds like a reason to have at least one fewer airline.

A Frontier Air Pilot’s Take on Southwest Air’s Bid
By Michael Corkery

Southwest Airlines has said its potential purchase of Frontier Airlines Holdings out of bankruptcy-court proceedings would depend partly on whether it can obtain a labor agreement with Frontier’s pilots union.

What Southwest is looking for from Frontier’s 720 pilots is unclear. So Deal Journal spoke with John Stemmler (left), the Frontier Airline Pilots Association president, who is headed to Dallas on Monday to meet with Southwest management and its pilots’ union to start discussions. Stemmler spoke about his fears of the sale leading to job losses at Frontier and the phasing out of airline’s favorite animal logo.

And while Republic Airways Holdings, a holding company for regional airlines, has also bid on Frontier and said it wanted to extend the pilots’ contract by three years if it wins the auction for the company, Stemmler says.

Deal Journal: Would you be happy with Southwest Air buying Frontier?

John Stemmler: It’s too early to tell. We haven’t been formally approached by Southwest, but the company has said in internal communications that they are looking for some kind of labor agreement with the pilots. Absent that agreement, they might not go through with the deal.

DJ: Do you expect there will be any job losses from any acquisition.

Stemmler. There are roughly 2,500 back office people at Frontier in Denver that are what they call synergistic cost centers. (In other words, they are overlapping with Southwest operations and vulnerable to cuts). These aren’t the people whom I represent, but they are my friends. The Southwest deal would probably eliminate more of these jobs than a Republic deal because Republic doesn’t have the ticketing and back office operations that Frontier provides.

DJ: Do you expect that seniority of Frontier pilots in a combined work force with Southwest will be a major sticking point.

Stemmler. It’s the biggest issue. Seniority is life in aviation. There as many formulas for seniority as there have been mergers. The best-case scenario is that they phase out Frontier’s Airbuses and retrain Frontier pilots to fly 737s (the Boeing plane in the Southwest fleet), resulting in no net work-force reduction. The worst case is that Southwest ignores Frontier’s seniority and our pilots are put at the back of the list.

DJ: Will a sale kill Frontier’s corporate culture?

Stemmler. We are small airline. I’ve been at the company for nine years and we’ve all flown together. It’s much different at a bigger airline. Change is painful. We have done so well, recording a profit over the past eight months. It’s tough for employees to get their arms around the idea that we need a financial sponsor to get through bankruptcy.

The tails of Frontier Airlines planes decorated with wildlife portraits stand at the gates at Denver International Airport in 2003.

DJ: What about Frontier’s famous animal logos, will you miss that?

Stemmler. Kids go crazy about it (each of Frontier’s 51 planes has a different animal on the tail). Passengers will ask what animal is this plane. The experience of going through airports since 911 has been getting increasingly worse. But we are still trying to have fun.

DJ: Do you think your pilots will be able to integrate into Southwest’s own folksy culture?

Stemmler. It’s a very similar thing. They stress that this is not just about putting butts in seats and moving them. It’s about giving customers a pleasant experience. They seem to get it.

DJ: Some pilots would love to fly for Southwest because they pay so well.

Stemmler. There was a time when people when people wouldn’t dream about going to Southwest because you didn’t know if it would still be flying in a few years because it was such a small company. Now these are coveted jobs. It went from one of the lowest paying to one of the highest. Southwest has grown to point to where it’s really stable, which you can’t say about a lot of other airlines.

Southwest’s Bid for Frontier Is Bad News for United
By Scott McCartney

It’s hard to run a huge hub at an airport where Southwest Airlines becomes a strong number two in market share. So the biggest impact of Southwest’s potential bid to buy bankrupt Frontier Airlines may fall on United Airlines.

If Southwest is successful in acquiring Frontier in bankruptcy court, the two airlines together will have about 30% of the market at Denver International Airport, with UAL Corp.’s United hanging on to 50%. But United is shrinking, and struggling financially.

A bigger fight in Denver with a stronger number-two airline could well weaken United. It might not be long before Southwest could overtake United as the largest carrier in Denver.

Southwest has always been a shrewd, opportunistic player. When Midway Airlines shut down years back, Southwest dispatched a virtual SWAT team to the Chicago airport to move in quickly.

Southwest jump-started its growth in the west by acquiring Morris Air, and took out a potential irritating competitor in Texas by buying Muse Air. Buying assets of bankrupt ATA Airlines gave Southwest slots and gates at important East Coast airports–plus more gates at Midway–at fire-sale prices.

The company has had a keen sense at pegging weak carriers not up for big battles to defend markets (viz. US Airways in Baltimore). Southwest has eaten away at entrenched hubs, weakening Trans World Airlines in St. Louis, for example, and Delta Air Lines in Salt Lake City.

As Southwest has grown at Los Angeles International Airport, United has shrunk, from some 240 daily flights to fewer than 100 departures a day. Airline hubs can better compete when Southwest is at a secondary airport, like Houston, Dallas, San Francisco and Chicago. But when the competition is head-to-head, it’s a lot tougher on incumbents.

Bob Jordan, executive vice president for strategy and planning at Southwest, notes that Southwest’s growth has already been strong in Denver. The airline started flying to DIA in January 2006 and in three-and-a-half years has grown to 113 flights a day. But combining with Frontier takes that operation to a whole other level.

“We’re in this to win,” Mr. Jordan said in an interview.
Be careful about betting against them.

Southwest makes bid to buy Frontier Airlines

Southwest makes bid to buy Frontier Airlines
By DAVID KOENIG, AP Airlines Writer

DALLAS – Southwest Airlines Co. is seeking to trump a rival bid and acquire Frontier Airlines, a Denver-based carrier operating under bankruptcy protection.A court had already approved the sale of Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. to the parent of Republic Airways for $108.8 million, but that deal can be nixed if a better offer comes along.

Dallas-based Southwest said it submitted a nonbinding bid of $113.6 million. Southwest hopes that making the bid will allow it to talk with Frontier and get information to help shape its final proposal.

Southwest said it faces an Aug. 10 deadline for submitting a binding bid. If there is more than one qualified bidder, an auction will be held the following day."We are excited about the opportunity to submit a bid," Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in a statement. "We see a strong fit between our company cultures, a mutual commitment to high quality customer Service, and similar entrepreneurial roots.

"Southwest recently went back into the Denver market, where it competes against Frontier and United.Shares of Southwest rose sharply on the news. They were up 33 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $7.84 in afternoon trading.

Inside a flight attendant's not-so-glam life
Story Highlights

• Once considered glamorous, job now involves long hours, crowded planes
• Cost-cutting measures mean fewer flight attendants taking care of more passengers
• Flight attendants often battle hunger as airlines eliminate meals on shorter flights
• They're not paid for one of the hardest parts of their job: the boarding process

By A. Pawlowski
(CNN) -- As you encounter flights that leave you frustrated, hungry and tired this summer vacation season, chances are the person who greets you with a smile when you come on board could be feeling the same way.

A flight attendant serves beverages to passengers. A duty day can last up to 14 hours on domestic routes.

The glamour has long faded from the job of a flight attendant, but the occupation still captures the imagination of a public fascinated by the constant travel and work above the clouds.
Still, many people know little about the realities of a flight attendant's life, changed by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the efforts of a troubled airline industry to stay afloat and the recent economic downturn.

"When my mom was a stewardess in the 1950s, they wore white gloves and they learned to serve lobster thermidor table-side," said Rene Foss, a flight attendant for 25 years and the spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants.

"Instead of wearing white gloves, I'm wearing rubber gloves; and instead of learning to serve lobster thermidor, I'm learning to put handcuffs on passengers."

The chance to see the world while offering an important service still lures many men and women to the job, and the flight attendants who spoke with CNN said they enjoy what they do. But they also described work that can be draining and sometimes given little respect.

Long days
Many flights are now full as airlines park planes to save money, leaving passengers spread over fewer aircraft in the system. At the same time, layoffs, furloughs and other cost-cutting measures mean fewer flight attendants taking care of more people on board.

Meanwhile, pay cuts are forcing many to work more hours to offset the difference.
"I made more money in 1998 than I make today," said Kim Kaswinkel, a flight attendant for 22 years who holds a legislative committee chair position at the Association of Flight Attendants.

Flying realities

• About 99,000 flight attendants work in the United States

• Their mean annual wage is $39,840

• The Atlanta area has the highest concentration of workers in this occupation

• Major airlines are required by law to provide flight attendants for the safety and security of the traveling public

• Flight attendants must be certified by the FAA Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The days can be long -- up to 14 hours of duty time on domestic routes and even longer on international trips -- and the layovers short, sometimes shorter than the workdays.
Flight attendants say they often battle hunger as airlines eliminate meals for passengers on shorter flights, which also means fewer food options for them.

"There are days, specifically domestically, you go 7, 8, 9 hours and have not gotten anything to eat because there's no food on the airplane; and when they're trying to turn these airplanes around quickly, there's no time to run off and get food," Kaswinkel said.

She carries protein bars and apples with her to help fend off hunger.

Flight attendants fly 70 to 100 hours a month, but they're only paid when a plane's engines are running, Foss said. So they receive no compensation for one of the hardest parts of their job: the boarding process.

It's now more aggravating than ever as passengers bring more carry-on bags to avoid paying fees for checked luggage, sometimes resulting in confrontations and delays when there is no space to accommodate them. Kaswinkel called the carry-on situation "out of control."


Frustrated passengers often take it out on the crew and sometimes each other. As she tries to enforce rules and resolve conflicts, Foss said she sometimes feels like a police officer, a baby sitter and a referee.

Flight attendants say they try to create a friendly atmosphere, but sometimes get little response.

"A lot of passengers complain that flight attendants don't smile, but I can't tell you how many times I've stood at the boarding door with a smile on my face greeting people and they will just ignore me," said Heather Poole, a flight attendant for 14 years who writes for the travel Web site Gadling.com.

'Cart toe'
Seniority determines many aspects of a flight attendant's life, including what routes they fly and whether they work in economy, business or first class. Surprisingly, some flight attendants consider economy easier even though they serve many more passengers. Coach usually requires only a drink service, while flight attendants in the other cabins work almost nonstop serving meals and drinks.

Shoes wear out quickly at this pace. Poole, who mostly works in business class, says she buys a new pair every three months. A particular problem is "cart toe," leather that wears out on the nose of the shoe where she pushes the brakes on the carts that hold drinks and meals.
There are many tales of strange passengers. Foss recalled waiting on the tarmac to take off from Tokyo, Japan, when a woman suddenly took off all her clothes and began running up and down the aisles. The plane had to return to the gate, where police were waiting to remove her.
Kaswinkel is amazed that people still try to smoke on planes and recalled a recent incident in which a passenger offered her $5 to not write her a warning after she caught her sneaking a cigarette in the lavatory.

Poole still remembers the passenger who removed a fire extinguisher from the plane to take as a souvenir.

With all the travel they do, you might wonder how flight attendants choose to spend their vacations. Some continue to fly even in their free time, while others cherish "staycations" or find ways to globe-trot without getting on a plane.

Poole was a frequent traveler until she got married and had a child. Now that her son is 3, she's ready to start jetting off with him on vacation.

Foss considers it a joy to sleep in the same bed for a few nights, but also likes train travel.
Kaswinkel's ideal vacation after being away from home for 16 to 18 days a month is also staying put. But that's not fun for her family, so she does travel occasionally during her time off.
"We enjoy cruising the most because I can relax and do nothing by the pool with a frozen drink, while they go tour the destination ports of call. It's a great compromise," Kaswinkel said.

United Airlines Shows How Not to Run a Business
by: Shaun Rein July 26, 2009

This commentary originally appeared in Forbes

As the world now knows, last year a guitarist named Dave Carroll was sitting in a window seat on a United Airlines (UAUA) plane at O'Hare airport in Chicago when he looked out and saw baggage handlers hurling guitar cases through the air. He pointed it out to flight attendants; they responded with indifference. When he arrived in Nebraska, he found that his instrument had been smashed. After months of complaining to the airline and getting no response, he wrote and performed a song, "United Breaks Guitars," and posted it on YouTube. It was viewed more than 3 million times in its first 10 days.

Across the world in China, Wang Jianshuo, a famed blogger, posted about a United flight he took to the U.S. A surly flight attendant refused to help an elderly passenger stow his carry-on luggage. The audio on the movie channels didn't work. The overhead lights turned off and on the entire trip. His return trip was worse: The plane sat on the tarmac for three hours and then was cancelled until the next day because of a fuel leak.

How does a company perform so badly? United's stock price was tottering even before the financial crisis. Now that even stellar airlines like Southwest suffering, a weak player like United seems doomed to follow inGeneral Motors' and Circuit City's footsteps unless it makes major changes.

This week, United announced a quarterly profit of $28 million, but that included fuel hedges and other accounting gains, without which it lost $323 million. It also named a new president. The airline's missteps over the past decade provide a case study of what not to do when running a company.

Here are three key lessons we all can learn from United.

Create Brand Loyalty, Not Simply Satisfaction
It is doubtful that the millions who have watched Carroll's video or read Wang's blog will want to fly United anytime soon, unless they have no choice. That is terrible for the airline. It is fighting for every last passenger dollar, and trying to make inroads into the emerging Chinese travel market. Part of the problem is that the company, like many, makes satisfying customers part of its mission statement but fails to go nearly far enough beyond that.

Winning companies like Apple (AAPL) go past mere satisfaction to try to create true brand loyalty. Not only do loyal customers spend more, they are more likely to become brand ambassadors and bring along other customers. When everyone from the mailroom to the chief executive buys into the mantra of creating brand loyalty, the result is increased profits.
Consumers are more price sensitive in this economy, and they are trading down, but it's still a great time to capture loyalty. People don't want to waste money on brands that fail to meet their expectations. They're buying only what they trust, and they'll return to trusted brands repeatedly.

Instead of watering down its frequent flyer benefits to save costs, United should be taking the exact opposite tack. It should take a page from hotel stalwarts like Starwood and Marriott, which are offering more goodies than before to their most loyal clients. In consumer studies that my organization, China Market Research Group has conducted, we've found that the No. 1 reason people fly United regularly is because they have racked up points in United's Star Alliance loyalty program. Why would United want to disenfranchise its most loyal customers?
As consumers think harder about where to spend their money, aiming to satisfy them is not enough. Only striving to create true loyalty will work.

Don't Forget Why You're Here
Many companies forget their main purpose and become bogged down in just sustaining their operations. United forgets that it's not only selling a means of transportation that is faster than trains or cars. For vacationers, who make up most passenger traffic, it's selling dreams and memories. An airline flight is typically the first and last part of a newlywed couple's honeymoon, or a family's overseas trip in planning for years.

People remember such journeys forever. I fondly recall my own first flight on TWA when I was six years old, to Italy and Greece with my parents. Likewise, my childhood flights on Delta to see my grandmother in Florida. What United fails to get is that it is selling dreams, not just a form of transportation. Few United employees take pride in their jobs, and it shows.

One company that gets it right is Disney (DIS). A trip to Disney World is not simply an outing to an amusement park like Six Flags (SIX) or Universal Studios. It is a time when families can create memories that last a lifetime. Disney trains its employees, from the monorail drivers to the people selling fast food, to be more than just salespeople. They are weavers of dreams. That is one reason families repeatedly return to Disney World, according to research my firm has conducted with visitors from eight different countries.

Unilever (UL) got it right with its Axe deodorant. That company understands that it is not selling a way to stop sweat or to smell a little better. It's selling a way for young men to be more attractive. Axe put together a TV commercial that shows a dorky guy, who happens to use Axe, getting more glances from attractive women than Ben Affleck, the movie star. The spot uses humor to imply that you, too, can be as appealing as the Hollywood star who dated Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez and is married to Jennifer Garner.

To create real customer loyalty, you have to offer more than just functionality. And you have to train everyone in your organization to have the pride to sell an emotional connection, not just tools.

Don't Forget Employee Morale
United's workers have been a beleaguered group for years now. They have had their wages, pensions and benefits cut even as the chief executive officer, Glenn F. Tilton, has been paid nearly $20 million dollars over the last five years (despite United's stock dropping 43% during his tenure). Does that seem fair?

Employee morale has gone into the gutter. Unhappy workers mean terrible customer service--as Dave Carroll and Wang Jianshuo and millions of their followers know. The company may have no choice but to lay off workers and reduce benefits in the downturn, but it has to do so with respect and with effective communication to the rank and file about why such pain is necessary. Every company everywhere must have an effective strategy for ensuring that its remaining employees don't lose hope or happiness, just as it must maintain its focus on creating brand loyalty.

One thing to do is to make sure that all employees share the pain equally. If there are big cutbacks anywhere, senior management should take substantial pay reductions and limits on its privileges, such as fewer business class flights and trips on private jets. The troops look to senior management for direction. If those troops see the top brass caring for itself at the expense of others, the spirit of the entire organization erodes.

In today's economy you can't get by on decent prices or acceptable service. You have to stand out and win the hearts of your customers. To do that you have to go beyond satisfaction to true loyalty. You have to provide a compelling reason, beyond basic service and price, for consumers to choose you. And your organization must be unified in that mission. Otherwise, you may be the next to follow GM into Chapter 11.

Recession cuts Delta’s worldwide flight plan
Drop in international fliers revises timetable for global growth.
By Kelly Yamanouchi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, July 19, 2009

There’s nothing like a global recession to make the best-laid plans go awry.
A little over a year ago, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines was on an international growth streak started in 2005, rapidly expanding with more flights to Africa, Europe and elsewhere around the world.

Executives had their eyes on an even bigger prize: their merger with Northwest Airlines, whose expansive Asia network, including a Tokyo hub, would fill in an area where Delta was lacking. Delta looked forward to being the No. 1 carrier to Asia and touting itself as a “truly global airline.”

Fast-forward to today. International travel is slumping —- far more than domestic travel. Asia is one of the hardest hit regions. Delta is now cutting international capacity by 15 percent.
International flights have long been cash cows, but some have become burdens to be unloaded as quickly as possible as business travelers cut back, taking with them the high-end fares that subsidize tourist-friendly discounts.

In good economic times, international markets have higher operating margins than domestic markets where airlines like Delta face heavy competition from low-cost carriers, said airline consultant Robert Mann. Now, those international margins are shrinking.

Some of the highest-profile international route cuts Delta is making are in Asia —- including a much-ballyhooed Atlanta-Shanghai route, which will be discontinued this fall. Delta is also axing service between Atlanta and Seoul; Mumbai; and Cape Town, South Africa.

“Customer demand for international travel has fallen significantly,” Chief Executive Richard Anderson and President Ed Bastian said in a joint memo to employees last month. The capacity cuts target “routes that have experienced losses in the current economic climate and with higher fuel prices.”

Other international routes being cut include Cincinnati to Frankfurt and London-Gatwick; and New York’s John F. Kennedy International to Edinburgh, Scotland.

“Business travel in general is slowing and all international destinations are just much more difficult,” said Avondale Partners analyst Bob McAdoo. “Delta and every other carrier who flies internationally is having to look at how much capacity to actually offer this year.”
Anderson and Bastian aren’t admitting defeat in their international offensive.

“In keeping with our long-term business plan, we continue to grow the global footprint that is a cornerstone of our successful strategy,” Bastian and Anderson wrote.

Though Delta is cutting international capacity and eliminating routes, it is adding some new routes in other areas.

“Having this globally-balanced international network is what gives you a hedge to economic conditions around the world,” said Delta spokesman Kent Landers.

But even if Delta is still moving forward, the strategy’s execution has involved a running series of revisions. Last October, Delta said it was continuing to expand international capacity but would trim growth plans by about 2 percentage points from its previous plan for 15 percent international growth in the fourth quarter of 2008.

By December 2008, as the economy worsened, Delta’s forecast for 2009 was for an international capacity cut of 3 percent to 5 percent. In March, the outlook worsened to a 10 percent international capacity cut for this fall. And in June, Delta revised its plans again to a 15 percent slash of international capacity.

McAdoo said he doesn’t expect Delta to abandon its international push, which was born of concern that peers such as American, United and Continental were pulling bigger shares of the high-margin international travel market.

Once the economy turns, “I imagine Delta will go back and rebuild and increase frequency in those markets where it cut capacity, and reinstate international service it had for a while before the economy fell apart,” he said.

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is inextricably tied with Delta and its international growth plans. Delta, which has its biggest hub at the airport, is in talks with the city over a new multiyear lease for its operations at the airport.

Hartsfield-Jackson is also building a new $1.35 billion international terminal to accommodate expected growth in international flights, particularly at Delta. The airport got city council approval this month for an $800 million bond deal to complete the terminal and plans to go into the market for financing in August.

International traffic at Hartsfield-Jackson is down about 5 percent this year.
“Taking the long view, we know this is a very good decision,” said Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Ben DeCosta. “We’re confident that the local economy will sustain and traffic will return.”

Delta said that though it is cutting back flights in some areas and downgauging to smaller aircraft in others, it is maintaining roughly the same level of about 1,000 daily departures from Hartsfield-Jackson it had a year ago. It’s unclear what effect Delta’s international slowdown could have on the plans for the international terminal.

“Maybe it’s delayed a year or two in terms of when it gets fully utilized,” McAdoo said.
Last month, as Delta executives made a presentation at an investor conference, Bastian said “we’re building a plan not anticipating any consequential recovery for the balance of this year.”
Along with the impact of the recession, Bastian said Delta also expects a $125 million to $150 million drop in revenues due to H1N1 flu concerns. “And we did see bookings in the month of May fall off in a very dramatic manner across Asia,” Bastian said.

Delta had underestimated how large the traffic drop in Asia would be. In June, Delta’s traffic in its Pacific region fell 17.3 percent —- the largest drop among its regions —- even though it had only cut flight capacity by 5.9 percent in the Pacific.

But Delta has not been alone in rushing to keep up with the fall in passenger traffic, according to the International Air Transport Association. Other airlines’ cuts have also trailed behind declines in traffic.

Benefits from lower fuel costs have been outweighed by drops in traffic and fares across the airline industry, according to the report. “The expectations reported for the next 12 months have dipped into pessimism once more,” according to IATA’s business confidence index.
Although analysts have speculated about the solvency of some airlines, Delta has been seen as stronger than some of its competitors.

That’s partly because of Delta’s moves to cut back flights amid slow demand.
“They have been far more proactive eliminating flights that are not paying for themselves,” McAdoo said.

Continental CEO Kellner to step down at year end and be replaced by company president Smisek
By David Koenig, AP Airlines Writer
On Thursday July 16, 2009, 9:47 pm EDT

DALLAS (AP) -- Chairman and CEO Lawrence W. Kellner will leave Continental Airlines Inc. at the end of the year to return to the private-equity business and will be replaced by company president Jeffery Smisek.

Continental, the nation's fourth-largest airline, announced the change late Thursday.
Kellner, 50, has spent 14 years at Continental, including the last five as CEO. His tenure included discussions with United Airlines over a combination, but talks collapsed last year when United's finances worsened.

In one of Kellner's last achievements, the company this month won antitrust immunity from federal officials for its plan to work closely with United Airlines and other partners in setting prices and schedules for international service.

"It is the right time for this transition," Kellner said, citing the antitrust immunity, which he said "will allow us to continue as an effective global competitor."

Smisek, 54, will take over both of Kellner's jobs on Jan. 1. He has been president and chief operating officer.

Smisek has been responsible for overseeing flight operations, maintenance, labor relations and other duties. A corporate finance and securities lawyer, he joined the airline in 1995 as general counsel and was promoted to president in 2004 and chief operating officer in 2008.

Henry Meyer, the lead director on Continental's board, said it was Kellner's decision to leave.
In recent years, Continental has performed financially better than many other so-called legacy airlines, those that date back before 1978, when carriers were closely regulated by the federal government. It earned profits in 2006 and 2007.

"Larry, Jeff and their team have run the best-performing network airline with the best labor-management trust relationship in the business," said Robert Mann, an airline industry consultant in Port Washington, N.Y.

But like others, Continental was hurt last year by record-high fuel prices -- it lost $585 million -- and this year by plunging demand for air travel, especially among high-ticket business travelers.
Mann said Kellner was leaving at a difficult time in the airline industry. But, he said, the company was in good hands with Smisek and others who helped manage through the fallout from the 2001 terror attacks and a restructuring.

Kellner faced one of his toughest decisions last year whether to merge his airline with UAL Corp.'s United.

Delta Air Lines Inc. was in the process of buying Northwest to become the world's largest carrier, and some analysts believed other carriers needed to consolidate too. But Kellner broke off the talks.

"He made the right call," said Darryl Jenkins, an airline consultant who knows executives at both companies. "Continental's product is much better, and it would have been very difficult to integrate the two products."

Continental under Kellner tried to preserve amenities including food service in coach and free blankets, which he believed set his airline apart.

Although Continental and United did not merge, they will soon be partners in the Star Alliance. This month, the U.S. Transportation Department approved antitrust immunity for the airlines to work together on setting prices and schedules on many international routes. The arrangement could be a precursor to a later merger.

United CEO Glenn Tilton said of Kellner that he "appreciated his leadership as we partnered to gain antitrust immunity to the benefit of our customers and the communities we serve."

When Kellner took over as CEO from Gordon Bethune in 2004, Continental was still recovering from the recession and terror attacks of 2001 plus increasing competition from low-cost airlines such as Southwest, JetBlue and AirTran.

In a restructuring, he extracted concessions from labor groups while avoiding bankruptcy.
Before joining the airline, Kellner was executive vice president and chief financial officer of American Savings Bank, owned by a member of the Bass family investors in Texas. He had also been CFO of real estate and construction firm The Koll Co.

Kellner will leave Continental to lead a new Houston-based private investment firm called Emerald Creek Group LLC.

According to the company's proxy filed with regulators in April, if Kellner resigned other than for "good reason" he would get a lump-sum supplemental retirement benefit estimated at $5.3 million last Dec. 31, plus health insurance and lifetime family travel benefits on Continental.

Last year, Kellner was paid a salary of $296,875, down from $712,500 the year before. The company valued his compensation package at nearly $5 million, but it could be worth much less today because his stock and option grants have lost value as Continental's stock price has tumbled.

Smisek is well-known to Wall Street analysts and industry insiders, who expect a smooth transition.

"Smisek is an airline guy that has touched many facets of the company's functions during his professional growth," said William Swelbar, a director at Hawaiian Airlines' parent and an airline-industry researcher at MIT.

Mike Boyd, an airline consultant in Colorado, said the switch from Kellner to Smisek should be just as smooth as the one that brought Kellner in five years ago.

"It's a very rough job, being an airline CEO," Boyd said. "You might sometimes get a vacation, but you never get a day off."

Pilot Of TWA 800 Just Before Fateful Flight Questions Official Conclusions
http://twa800.com/news/cimisi-9-6-00.htm
Associated Retired Aviation Professionals
Post Office Box 90, Clements, Maryland 20624 USA


It is no surprise to anyone on either side of the TWA Flight 800 controversy that the National Transportation Safety Board declared at its final, just concluded hearing that the doomed plane that exploded four summers ago was brought down by an electrical spark which had ignited vapors in the empty or near empty center wing fuel tank.

Unfortunately, the NTSB said, its investigators have not been able to locate the spark or wire that originated the explosion.

Among the many who contest the NTSB scenario is the last pilot to fly the 747 and live to talk about it.

In a phone interview some days after the NTSB hearing, now retired TWA pilot Al Mundo, who had brought the plane into New York from Athens late on the afternoon of July 17, 1996, explained not only the fuel system of the plane, but detailed his reasons why the center wing fuel tank would not have been the initiating cause of the explosion or explosions that destroyed Flight 800.

"We had left Athens that Wednesday morning," said Mundo. "The center wing tank would have been full."

The center wing fuel tank is just that: a tank of fuel that is directly in the middle of the plane, beneath the passenger cabin.

Before going into the reasons why the fuel in that tank would not have been full on arrival in New York, Mundo explained the fuel system of the 747.

"There are four main tanks of fuel, and two reserve tanks, to feed into four engines. If you're sitting in the cockpit, from left to right, you have on the edge of the left wing, the number one reserve tank. Then, in sequence, you have the number one main tank, number two main tank, number three main tank, number four main tank, then on the tip of the right wing, the number four reserve tank."

Mundo went on to say that the fuel flow of the plane is maintained so that the weight of fuel throughout the wing span will be balanced. Fuel is normally fed from each tank to its corresponding engine, although, said Mundo, when the combined fuel in the number one main tank and its reserve, and the number four main tank and its reserve equals 25,000 pounds (the fuel is measured in pounds, not gallons), cross feeding fuel procedures are initiated.

"We turn on both of the center wing tank fuel pumps. The center wing tank has two pumps, which work at twice the capacity of the other four main tank pumps; their fuel flow is at fifteen pounds per square inch (psi), the center wing tank pumps put out fuel at thirty psi.

"The cross feed valves are open, which allow fuel from the center wing tank pumps to go to the number one, two, three and four engines. We shut off the pumps from the number one main and its reserve and the number four main and its reserve. We leave the pumps on from two and three as back up, though because they are working at a rate only half that of the center wing tank, it's the center wing tank that is supplying fuel to the engines. At that point the two and three main tank feed is there as a backup. Anyway, at this point the center wing tank is supplying fuel to all the engines.


"Eventually, as the center wing tank burns down to about 3,000-4,000 pounds of fuel, the fuel begins to feed from the number two and three main tanks."

When the fuel quantity in the center wing tank gets low, a light for each pump begins to blink on the flight engineer's panels. "When the light gets steady," said Mundo, "you turn off the pump for that light.

"Then you turn on the fuel/water scavenge pumps in the center wing tank to drain any liquid remaining. "

With the feed from the center wing tank now turned off, all four engines are being fueled from the number two and number three main tanks. At the point where there are about 25,000 pounds of fuel in each of the main tanks (again, with number one main and reserve tanks and number four and reserve tanks totalling 25,000 pounds each), so there is an even balance across the wing. Cross feeding is terminated so that main tank one and its reserve will be going into its respective engine, number two into its respective engine and so forth.

Mundo went on: "When the plane landed in New York, the center wing tank guage in the cockpit would have read zero pounds. It is possible that the underwing center wing tank fuel gauge could have read 300 pounds, which would be about fifty gallons. This is not an unusual discrepancy."

In the first few days after the Flight 800 investigation Mundo asked a TWA official what exactly the fuel use log had shown in regards to the quantity of fuel in the center wing tank upon arriving in New York. "He told me," Mundo said, "that the log, which is placed in the Flight Document Envelope and normally kept for ninety days, could not be found. This was an abnormality."

He added that whatever level of fuel existed in the center wing tank at that time would not be entirely composed of fuel. "All fuel contains some water. It's the same with the gas in your car. Fuel is 6.7 pounds per gallon; water is heavier, 8.34 pounds, so the water goes to the bottom of the tank. This combination of water and fuel is what the scavenger pumps transfer to the number two main tank."

Mundo said, "When 747's undergo a heavy maintenance check, and the nose wheel strut is deflated which tilts the plane downward, all the liquid in the center wing tank fuel goes to the front of the tank where it is drained out. The amount drained is usually close to fifty gallons or around 300 pounds."

In sum, the center wing tank of the plane that was about to become Flight 800 was empty or nearly empty before leaving New York in the late afternoon prior to its evening takeoff to Paris.

Because of prevailing winds, planes usually carry more fuel when going west than when going east. "And then," said Mundo, "you also have to consider the distance youâ ¬!"re travelling. Athens to New York is a lot farther than New York to Paris."

Now we get to one of the crucial points of the NTSB theory about the volatility of the center wing tank. Mundo said, "There is the assumption by the NTSB that the fuel was heated by the air conditioning packs below the plane to a temperature that caused the fuel and fuel vapors to reach an explosive level."

This is an assessment with which the majority of the media concur. A New York Times article from Wednesday, August 23, the day after the NTSB hearing began, stated, "the nearly empty tank, which had been heated to an explosive state while the twenty-five year old jet sat baking in the sun for nearly three hours before taking off."

Mundo said, "I left two of the packs running, as was common practice." He added that with the flight time between Athens and New York at about ten hours, "for at least nine and half hours the metal of the tank was, at the altitude we had been flying, exposed to temperatures that were about minus fifty-five degrees Celsius. Now metal will cold soak when your car is outside through the night in January you know it takes the metal some time to warm up.

"This is something they should have tested, but they didn't, exactly. The NTSB flew a plane across the continental United States, trying to duplicate the conditions of the Athens to New York flight, but in the summer the air over the land would be warmer than over the North Atlantic and of course the plane would not be in the air for as long as on an Athens to New York run. Nobody knows exactly what the temperature in the fuel tank was when Flight 800 took off from New York. Commander Donaldson took a reading from a 747 at Kennedy the summer after the accident, and he found the temperature of the fuel drained from the center wing tank which had been on the ground an equivalent amount of time as 800 was, to be a degree above the ambient [outside] tempertaure." (Retired Navy Commander William S. Donaldson has been a longtime critic of the government's investigation of Flight 800.)

"Flight 800 took off for Paris at about 8:15 p.m. on the evening of July 17, 1996. A nearly empty tank has more fuel vapor than a tank that is full. Government investigators speculate that the vapor-ridden center wing full tank was ripe for an explosion instigated by the as-yet unfound electrical source.

But Mundo pointed out that the center wing fuel tank is vented to relieve the pressure inside the tank. "With an aircraft in flight," Mundo said, "you have a Venturi effect over the vent outlet. The more the speed, the less the pressure. When you're in a car and someone's smoking and you open a window, the air pressure outside is less than the pressure inside and the greater pressure inside pushes the air outside; the smoke will be sucked out of the car. The air rushing outside the plane would create a great suction that should have decreased or eliminated any buildup of vapor in the tank." _____

Former TWA pilot Al Mundo then talked about another aspect of the electrical spark theory: on Good Friday, 1995, when he was flying the plane that would become Flight 800 in July, 1996, the aircraft was struck not once but twice by lightning.

The plane did not explode.

"We were descending into Rome. We were at about 13,000-11,000 feet. There were two strikes of lightning, about three minutes apart. There was a loud bang, and a yellow flash; initially there was no indication of anything wrong in the cockpit."

But a photoelectric cell activated an inerting gas whose purpose was to smother any fire or smouldering that could be caused by an electrical spark. This was done on the first lightning strike.

Mundo said, "Upon landing it was discovered there was not only substantial damage to the right wingtip, it was also found that an electrical charge had gone all the way into the wing area, causing circuit breakers in the cockpit to pop and the wheel brake temperature indicators to register full scale when the brakes had scarcely been used. It is quite evident from this that a strong surge of electricty went through the wing.

"The damage incurred was extensive. The plane was out of service for a week," said Mundo.

But despite the damage that had been inflicted by the two lightning strikes, the plane was able to land safely. The inference is obvious: if the plane that expolded fifteen minutes out of JFK in the summer of 1996 was brought down by an electrical spark igniting the center wing fuel tank, why didn't two lightning strikes, which would certainly supply infinitely more voltage to the electrical system of the plane than the theorized stray spark, cause the aircraft to be blown apart?

Early on in the Flight 800 investigation, Mundo learned that there had been sooting found on the right wing vent system. "It seemed strange to me that if the explosion was initiated by the center wing tank, why would there not be sooting on both sides of the wing? I contacted personnel in the investigating team and suggested they check those records from the 1995 flight to determine if the sooting came from the lightning strikes. I was later informed that the records could not be located."

Mundo was questioned by investigators "about five days after Flight 800," he said, but the extent of the questioning was solely on the character of the Athens to New York Flight. The former pilot continues to feel that government investigators have not pursued the obvious lines of inquiry raised above or, if they have, such tests or studies have not been made public.


© 2000 William S. Donaldson III. All rights reserved