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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:22:01 — 37.6MB)

We look at the state of air travel, and the outlook for the future. In the news, a ceremony commemorates the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, airlines leaving regional airports, skiplagging, the FAA Administrator nomination, and an engine fire on an Air China flight.

Guest

Robert Silk, Travel Weekly Senior Editor for Aviation.

Robert Silk is the Travel Weekly Senior Editor for Aviation. Robby provides coverage and analysis of route networks, service offerings, and distribution, as well as airline industry trends and political and policy debates. He writes the Wheels Up opinion column about commercial aviation.

We look at the state of air travel, both from the airline perspective and from the customer perspective. Robby talks about the lasting impacts of the pandemic, the leisure/business travel balance, and how that has affected airline strategies. He touches on how fees have changed and how the shoulder day (or season) pricing doesn’t always offer the price advantage it has in the past. Robby also provides his thoughts on the dis-entanglement of the Northeast Alliance after the Justice Department suit found it anti-competitive, as well as market trends and predictions for where the market is headed.

Travel Weekly and TravelWeekly.com are influential B2B news resources for the travel industry, providing late-breaking news, analysis, and research for travel professionals. They cover all the business sectors, including airline, car rental, cruise, destination, hotel, and tour operator as well as technology, economic, and governmental issues.

Prior to joining Travel Weekly in 2015, Robby spent a decade covering tourism, business, the environment, development, and general news for the Florida Keys’ daily newspaper, the Key West Citizen, as well as for an affiliated weekly, the Florida Keys Free Press. He also edited the Travel Weekly Florida eNewsletter in 2015 and 2016.  

Aviation News

22nd Anniversary Commemoration

To commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks on New York, Washington, and in Pennsylvania, a ceremony was held on the Memorial Plaza. It focused on an in-person reading of the names by family members.

More small airports are being cut off from the air travel network. This is why

Airlines are leaving regional airports. A recent study by Ailevon Pacific found that American, Delta, and United together have left 74 regional airports since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reasons include the pilot shortage and the current economics of the 50-seat jet. We consider the Essential Air Service (EAS) program.

Skiplagging isn’t likely to stop anytime soon, even if airlines fight it

Skiplagging is the practice of booking a ticket with the intention of getting off at the connecting airport rather than completing the flight to the destination.  It’s attractive because sometimes the ticket price for the longer flight is lower than the ticket for the shorter flight to the connecting destination. Also known as hidden-city ticketing, American Airlines has filed a lawsuit against the site Skiplagged.com.

Biden will nominate a former Obama official to run the Federal Aviation Administration

Michael G. Whitaker is a former deputy administrator at the FAA (2013-2016). Currently, he is the CEO of Hyundai affiliate Supernal working to develop an air taxi aircraft. Whitaker worked at TWA and United Airlines, where he became a senior vice president and oversaw international and regulatory affairs, before moving to the travel company InterGlobe. He holds a private pilot license. Since March 2022, the FAA has been run by acting administrators. See also White House Nominates Michael Whitaker as FAA Administrator from AOPA.

Air China A320neo GTF engine catches fire as plane evacuated in Singapore

An Air China Airbus A320neo made an emergency landing at Singapore’s Changi Airport after a failure in the left engine. Smoke was reported in the cabin and the passengers were evacuated. The jet was assembled at the Airbus facility in Tianjin, China, and delivered by Airbus in December 2018. According to ch-aviation, the aircraft had accumulated 9,244 hours and 3,967 flight cycles as of June 2023. The Air China fleet includes are Airbus A320neos.

Mentioned

How the FAA Let Remote Tower Technology Slip Right Through Its Fingers

Zeppelin NT

Proceed Aspect, My unexpected journey – Steve Visscher’s blog.

Hosts this Episode

Max Flight, Rob Mark, Max Trescott, David Vanderhoof.

733 NOTAM Outage

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:11:36 — 32.8MB)

The NOTAM outage and subsequent ground stop, why Amazon Air is selling cargo capacity, the runway incursion at JFK, the Airbus automated emergency diversion system, and an Australia News Desk report.

Aviation News

Here’s the latest on the NOTAM outage that caused flight delays and cancellations

On January 11, 2023, the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system failed and the FAA issued a domestic ground stop, leading to thousands of delayed and canceled flights. A corrupt database file has been cited as the cause of the failure. NAV CANADA reported issues with their NOTAM system on the same day. At the time, they did not believe the Canadian outage was related to the FAA outage. See FAA’s NOTAM computer outage affected military flights.

Amazon Air to Sell Surplus Capacity Onboard its Jets Ahead of Predicted Market Slump

In 2023, the global air freight market is forecast to shrink by about 25%. Amazon Air has decided to sell excess air freight capacity on its fleet of 97 wet-leased planes.

The FAA is investigating a near-miss between two passenger planes at JFK airport

A Delta Air Lines 737-900 (Flight 1943) was on its takeoff roll when ATC noticed an American Airlines Boeing 777 (Flight 106) crossing the active runway. The Delta plane stopped about 1,000 feet before the crossing. The American 737 returned to the gate and passengers disembarked. Due to a crew resource issue, the flight resumed the next morning. Customers were given overnight accommodations.

Airbus tests pilot assist that can automatically divert flights

Airbus is testing a pilot assistance feature called DragonFly, which can automatically divert a flight in an emergency. The system can pick a flight path to the best airport and communicate with air traffic control and an airline’s operations center. Even if the pilots are incapacitated, DragonFly can land the aircraft safely.

Australia News Desk

This week we have a follow-up on the news about Bonza Airline’s air operators certificate, which was approved by the regulator the day last week’s episode went live. There’s some consternation among the travel agent sector over Bonza’s decision not to service Sydney at all, but as we talked about last week, they’re trying a different strategy.  Time will tell if it works or not.

Australia’s Bonza awarded AOC

On the tourism front, two of China’s three major carriers – Air China and China Southern – are boosting their schedule for flights to Australia, in a move that many hope will see the lucrative inbound Chinese tourist market ramping back up.

China Southern, Air China boosting flights to Australia

And a new network of satellites from Skykraft, sporting significant levels of Australian-made components, has been successfully deployed over the country, in a move that will eventually allow more accurate and reliable tracking of aircraft and WHF communications in some of the more remote areas of the continent.

Australia’s largest ever satellite constellation now active

Mentioned

Airline Pilot Study –  A questionnaire for pilots to learn about what aspects of innovation might make an airline more attractive to pilots when they decide which airline to apply to fly for.

Rob’s Newest jet:

Hosts this Episode

Max Flight, Rob Mark, and David Vanderhoof.