New Thoughts for the New Year

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To start off the New Year, let’s remember those that are no longer with us…Every year, the Cranky Flier has a summary of airlines we have lost…Here’s his list and our summaries. If you aren’t interested, skip past it. There are more thoughts below.

AlpiEagles – Didn’t have much experience with this Italian carrier, but heard of them. We think we saw them codesharing with Lufthansa.
Boston-Maine Airways, aka Pan-Am Clipper Connection – Boston-Maine Airways was the original name for Northeast Airlines, a long-defunct airline, and adopted the Pan Am brand, which had been bought when the original Pan Am went under. They were a disgrace to the name, and we hope if someone else ever buys it, they do it the honor it deserves. They’d open service then cancel it rather rapidly. Hmm…maybe we’ll buy the name. Anyone got a dollar?
Big Sky – Big Sky was a 19-seater turboprop operation, known for its operation of Essential Air Service. It was owned by the same holding company as Mesaba, which was bought by Northwest prior to its Delta merger. Big Sky, however, just faded away one day.
Adam Air
Aloha Airlines – And as the sun sets over the Hawaiian beaches, we bid a fond Aloha to Aloha Airlines, and its 60+ years of service to the Islands. We’re reminded of Aloha 243, which suffered explosive decompression in 1988 en route from Hilo to Honolulu, tearing off a large section of the roof of the cabin, and causing the loss of one life, fortunately not more.
ATA – ATA was once a respected airline, operating a Chicago-Midway and Indianapolis hub. Then, they were reduced to a Southwest connection partner, and finally were combined with several other airlines, which were consolidated, and shut down non-charter operations.
Skybus – Skybus was the Ryanair of America. And our readers know how much we dislike them. They offered less than no-frills. No phone, no staff, and no idea you were flying to the middle of nowhere instead of the city advertised. Of course, like Ryanair, some people actually wanted to go to Portsmouth as opposed to Boston, or Bellingham as opposed to Seattle, but we really wished they’d just admitted where the plane was going in their ads.
Skyway – Midwest’s regional subsidiary exists now only as a ground operations company. Of course, Midwest itself barely exists.
Oasis Hongkong – Another discount airline we lost.
Eos Airlines – The idea of an all-business class airline had its place. For a while there, we all thought it would be the next big thing. But with high fuel prices, and other issues, the dream died.
Nationwide Airlines – One of the many airlines in Africa that have come and gone.
Far Eastern Air Transport – Like Cranky, we’ve heard of Far East Air Transport, but never knew much about it.
Silverjet – Like Eos, Silverjet tried an all-business model. Perhaps it was a glut of the market in addition to fuel that caused these carriers to give up.
Champion – The end of a charter company.
Air Midwest – Air Midwest, another 19-seat turboprop company, was shut down by its parent, Mesa. We flew Air Midwest on a USAirways Express flight a few years ago into Philadelphia. Hardly luxurious, but we did not have a problem with it.
ExpressJet – ExpressJet did not go out of business, they still operate for other airlines. It was their branded service that went under, which was a shame, as we thought their model of connecting medium-sized cities a good one. We read with interest Cranky’s talks with their executives, reviewed their contract of carriage, and grilled a friend who took one of their flights intensely on his experience. But, what was meant to be must be…c’est la vie.
Zoom – A discount transatlantic airline that started with Canadian operations and opened a British subsidiary to try serving underserved cities in the US from London. Has the US-EU Open Skies worked out for anyone yet?
XL – Formerly Excel…XL was a low-cost British holiday charter carrier which stranded fifty-thousand when it shut down.
Aero California – Hardly worth mentioned. They’ve already died once.
Sterling – had its moments in Europe. It may be back though.
European – We barely noticed it existed, we won’t notice it is gone.

Now that we’ve finished mourning the dead, we can ponder what 2009 will be the year of. Certainly, with an economic downturn, even with the extreme drop in fuel costs(for airlines who didn’t hedge at $100 a barrel when it seemed like a good idea), we doubt airlines will drop baggage fees and such Ancillary revenue(revenue not from the fare itself, is important to them.

Our prediction is an increase in ancillary revenue and a decrease in fares. So those willing to do without frills such as water will save money, while those who must travel with more than the clothes on their back will pay more. To supplement that, airlines will likely offer two tiered fare systems, the ala carte and all-inclusive, to profit on travellers who just want a single price without worry, sort of a business/premium economy product. Some of these things have already been adopted by some airlines, but we see this as the unfortunate trend of the industry.

We hope the new administration here in the U.S. will take action where the previous, more laissez faire administration did not. The system of regulation of airline ticket sales should be overhauled to ensure airlines are required to do things in a transparent manner.

In a recent comment, for example, we pondered weather and mechanical delays and the limit on airline liability, specifically, how far the weather has to be from the passenger. If there is bad weather in New York, but the passenger is in California and going to Florida, never passing anywhere near New York, can the airline claim it is not liable because a flight from New York to California was cancelled, thus making it impossible to have a plane to operate the flight the passenger actually is on?

Our hope is that under a dynamic administration these issues are regulated. That does not mean to say the American public will get more, although we certainly mandate less compensation than the European Union, for example. But, there is a hope someone will insist these things be defined clearly, instead of trusting the airlines to do what they so clearly wish to avoid doing.

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