Top 10 US Airlines

Top 10 US Airlines Measured by Passengers Carried in September 2008.

Airline Name	Passengers carried in September 20008
SouthWest	7.4 Million
American Airlines	5.2 Million
Delta	4.6 Million
United Airlines	4.0 Million
US Airways	3.7 Million
Northwest Airlines	2.7 Million
Continental	2.2 Million
AirTran	1.7 Million
SkyWest	1.5 Million
JetBlue	1.3 Million
Merged Delta & Northwest	7.3 Million (2nd Place)
Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics

The Near Future of Flight

Costlier, slower, smaller & noisier.

Huge increases in fuel costs are driving airlines towards (TurboProp) propeller aircraft which have traditionally slower cruise speeds, more in cabin noise and higher levels of vibration (as the propellers flick air against the aircraft body causing buffeting). Many TurboProps can carry around 78 passengers compared to the 50 passengers of smaller regional jets so this will add a few extra minutes to boarding and disembarkation.

It is probable that the turbo probs will turn up across routes that are both currently supported by small jets and fill in at less popular journey times on traditional heavy jet routes. Savings are unlikely to be passed on to the consumers as airlines use cash to either hedge fuel costs of pay for the fleet replacements. Business Week covers the trend in an article titles “Amid soaring fuel costs, a new generation of turboprops is selling briskly“

Considering the average TurboProps generally cruises around 415 Mph compared to a small jets 500 – 530 Mph it is worth making a note of how long regional flights used to take before the aviation marketing police erase our memories and convince us all that a 400 flight was always 20 minutes longer.

The good news is Turbo Probs cease to be as efficient as jets around the 500 mile mark so it will be a while until the B29’s and Lancaster Bombers are dusted off for the San Francisco to London run.

Online Travel Booking Change Pace: New York Times

New York Times Travel article suggesting less people are booking online, but the value of those remaining online is increasing.

UK Airlines Destination Finder

A new travel website called Everyjet now lists all UK Scheduled Flights.  The Everyjet blog also lists new scheduled flight destinations from the UK to anywhere in the world. While it doesn’t yet cover flights that do not have a UK departure or arrival, it is a useful flight tool for finding who flies where.

Live Like Donald Trump – Helicopter around Manhattan

Marla Maples wasn’t available, so we had to settle for a chopper over the Big Apple.  

US Helicopters now offer regular service from JFK and Newark to Manhattan, bringing back a little glamour to travel. 

At around $160 per person single you can even avoid issuing junk bonds and juggling creditors for most of your career to pay for it.  

Taking about 10 minutes flying time it’s much faster than a limo and around the same price, albeit only if you travel alone. 

Since you can check in at the heliports through to your final destinations with Continental and Delta, certain passengers may find it significantly less hassle as well. Flights are aboard the relatively spacious Sikorsky S-76

Is your website Up…..To Date

At 3.11pm today a probable car bomb drove into the doors of Glasgow Airport (GLA) in Scotland. At 4.13pm the BBC Breaking News Alert email service delivered a message “Glasgow Airport is evacuated after a car hits the terminal building and ignites.

“The airports website http://www.glasgowairport.com did not appear to update with any information until after 5.30pm, more than 2 hours after the incident which closed the airport.While the Glasgow airport staff did a great job and will have had their hands full, BAA, the airport owners should have updated their website within minutes, stopping passengers arriving and keeping friends and family of those at the airport connected to events.

This is almost certainly not a case of BAA’s online media staff sitting around with feet up watching TV. It is more likely that staffing shift patterns and update systems are not aligned to easily enable immediate updates 24/7.

Events such as terrorism, crime and weather inconvenience far more than they kill, and with stress levels increasing, making websites relevant to the larger events on a 24/7 basis portrays an image of a company that is conscious, and intelligently working for their customers every minute. The customer may even feel “If their website is already updated they really must be on it. This is a company that is in control.

”In the case of Glasgow airport, a “break glass in event of emergency” style widget on a secure laptop in the Glasgow airport control room could have been clicked within minutes of todays event, automatically updating the Glasgow Airport website with a pre-prepared splash page or icon informing all users of the status, not to travel and a selection of phone numbers. This alert could have also emailed and text messaged to people such as catering suppliers, and everyone likely to regularly visit the airport.

The same principal of online preparedness goes for an IKEA store with a collapsed roof or an adventure park that is flooded, if we want our business websites to be the most timely and relevant sources of information we’re going to have to work harder to make the bold statements between the hold music true.