Sky Talk

Travel execs: Enough with the scary swine flu talk

Roger Dow, president of the U.S. Travel Association, wants public officials to dial back some of their statements regarding the swine flu virus and travel. He issued this statement this morning:

"Americans should heed the advice of medical experts when determining how best to manage health concerns during the ongoing swine flu outbreak.  According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and countless other experts, swine flu should not discourage people from traveling to or within the United States.
"Elected officials must strike a delicate balance of accurately and adequately informing citizens of health concerns without unduly discouraging travel and other important economic activity.

"According to President Obama, swine flu is a cause for concern, but not panic.  President Obama's measured and responsible comments are appropriate and should provide useful guidance to other elected officials."

- Trebor Banstetter

Joyner departing American Airlines

Henry Joyner, who oversaw planning at American Airlines as a senior vice president, announced his retirement today. He'll be replaced by Virasb Vahidi, a former American executive who left the airline in 2002 to work for AT&T.

Joyner has been an integral part of American's operations for three decades. He was involved in the creation of the AAdvantage frequent flier program and has a hand in nearly every piece of American's ongoing strategy, including scheduling, fleet operations, revenue management, real estate and airline alliances.

American has his efforts to thank for its first service to China, a nonstop flight from O'Hare to Shanghai that began in 2006. I covered the inaugural flight for that route, and remember how Henry astonished a roomful of Chinese officials at an event in Shanghai by giving a portion of his speech in fluent Mandarin.

He's also been a driving force behind the anti-trust alliance with British Airways currently being considered by the DOT. That proposal entered a new phase today, with the opening of a comment period and the beginning of a six-month timeframe for regulators to make their decision.

His retirement is effective June 1.

- Trebor Banstetter

Delta to begin service at Dallas Love Field

American Airlines recently announced it's ending - at least temporarily - service at Dallas Love Field. Now, Delta Air Lines is jumping in to fill the void, with new nonstop service to its hub in Memphis. The flights are scheduled to begin July 6, and from Memphis passengers can connect to any Delta destination worldwide.

It seems to be a bid to win some business travelers who prefer Love's proximity to downtown Dallas. We're told that Delta's operation at D/FW won't be affected. (Delta has 36 D/FW departures daily to its hubs in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York JFK and Salt Lake City.)

Delta last had Love service from 2000 to 2003, when Atlantic Southeast Airlines operated a Delta Connection flight to Atlanta.

Yes, we know the terms of the Wright Amendment prohibit nonstops to Tennessee. But the Wright restrictions only apply to aircraft with 56 seats or more. Delta's flights will be on 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets, operated by Pinnacle Airlines under the Delta Connection name.

Those who followed the twists and turns of the most recent Wright Amendment battle (it was like a season of 24 drawn out over two years) may recall that Pinnacle showed some interest in buying the Legend Airlines terminal. The plan at that time was to provide regional service for Northwest to that airline's hubs in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis and Detroit. Northwest even went on the record opposing the Wright agreement which required that the Legend terminal be permanently closed.

Now that Northwest is part of Delta, it looks like Pinnacle will get its chance to take off from Love after all.

- Trebor Banstetter

AirTran to Cuba?

That Atlanta-Havana flight could happen if AirTran CEO Bob Fornaro has his way. He said that if travel restrictions to Cuba are eased, he'd like AirTran to be in that market.

"It’s a very pretty country and the curiosity level as well as the ethnic flying back and forth is going to be substantial,” Fornaro told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I think it’s going to be a very, very strong leisure destination. We’d like to be one of the first ones for scheduled flights, and certainly that would include Atlanta and probably other points in Florida as well. I think a lot of airlines are going to have a lot of interest.”

- Trebor Banstetter

Still more baggage fees emerging

Delta announced recently that it would begin charging $50 to check a bag on international flights - a perk that used to be free. Now US Airways says it will charge an extra $5 per bag to pay luggage fees at the airport during check-in rather than in advance online.

US Airways already charges $15 to check the first bag, and $25 for the second.

- Trebor Banstetter

Profit at JetBlue, improvement at US Airways

JetBlue became the second airline to post a profit for the first quarter (after AirTran) with earnings of $12 million for the first three months of the year. US Airways, meanwhile, narrowed its quarterly loss to $103 million compared with $237 million a year ago.

With most of the results in, here's a rundown on the quarterly earnings so far:

• AMR, ($375 million)
• Delta, ($794 million)
• United, ($382 million)
• Continental, ($136 million)
• Southwest, ($91 million)
• AirTran, $29 million
• JetBlue, $12 million

- Trebor  Banstetter

More bag fees at Delta

Delta announced this morning that it will begin charging $50 to check a second bag on international flights. Airline officials estimate it will raise about $100 million annually. Delta is the first airline to charge a fee for a second international bag, which had previously been free. It will go into effect on July 1.

Most of the major carriers, except for Southwest, began charging checked baggage fees on domestic flights last year. Don't be surprised if other airlines jump on board with their fee for those bags.

- Trebor Banstetter

Airline stocks jump on Delta, United earnings

Delta reported a first-quarter loss of $794 million, and United said it lost $382 million, but airline stocks nonetheless jumped in early trading. The losses for both airlines were smaller than the first quarter of 2008, and there was some hope that revenue declines have stabilized.

"We’ve seen some signs of stabilization as the revenue environment appears to have bottomed out," Delta CEO Richard Anderson said during the airline's conference call this morning. "But it's still too early to call, and we expect to face headwinds throughout the reset of the year."

At about 9:30 CST, Delta shares were up about 13 percent; United shares up 7 percent; AMR shares rose 6 percent and Southwest stock was up 3 percent.

- Trebor Banstetter

Crandall grounds Pogo

Former American Airlines CEO Bob Crandall has pulled the plug on Pogo, his upstart air taxi service that was going to use very light jets to transport passengers. He's returning the seed money to investors.

"Two things did us in," Crandall told Aviation Week. "First, the airplane never got built, and in fact the company went bankrupt. The aircraft still can't operate in icing conditions. So the airplane failed. And while we could conceivably use alternate airplanes, that wouldn't have provided as great a price advantage versus existing alternatives. And secondly, you can't finance anything new these days, especially in aviation."

- Trebor Banstetter

Fare hike fizzles

Rick Seaney at FareCompare.com is reporting that last week's attempt by the airline to raise fares failed after American and Continental began to roll back their price increases Sunday. It was the second big attempt to hike prices this year, and the second failure.

As is always the case with these things, that's good for consumers, and bad for the airlines. Despite the collapse of the price increase, Seaney thinks fares the airlines will keep trying.

"I wouldn’t be surprised to see a success in the near future with legacy airlines ticking up the base airline ticket price points by a relatively small amount," he said.

- Trebor Banstetter