Doesn't AA pretty much only use the A319 when the performance is needed? There's at least a batch of them that aren't that old. No, AA uses the 319 in 90% of its missions for the capacity. Too many seats for an E175 and not enough for a 738. The LAA birds out of MIA are uses for performance on some...
Jump to postI believe SK is dropping ORD-ARN. Just was booted off that in May. Looks like ORD-CPH stays but moves up to a 19:45 departure instead of 22:00 This is probably related to SK leaving Star for Sky Team. Since ORD is not a huge Delta operation, the feed is not what it can be at ATL, MSP. or DTW. So, t...
Jump to postThe airlines sure have an awful lot of power when it comes to expanding O’Hare’s capacity. It's not just ORD. The DFW board goes BOHICA every time AA turns down expanding. The new DFW Terminal F is apparently going to be just a strip of remote gates. Some of the airline power comes from legacy agre...
Jump to postIt's easy to criticize AA management for deciding early in the pandemic to retire the 757s, 767s, and A330s. But, at the time, no one knew how long the various Covid restrictions, particularly for international travel, might last, and how quickly people would return to travel. The CEO of DL said thi...
Jump to postIf you live near a bad airport or need to fly to a city with a bad airport, you don't have much choice. But, if you need to connect, a survey of bad airports could play a role. With EWR and PHL being ranked poorly on a consistent basis, perhaps connecting at DCA, CLT, or ATL are better options.
Jump to postDo you think we could see AA maybe add CLT-EGE during the next ski season? Absolutely. AA has long been a leading partner of EGE and Vail Resorts, and years ago when US flew to EGE it seemed like CLT-EGE was the more successful of their services (PHL-EGE was the other). As such I was quite surprise...
Jump to postAgencies that deal with safety and terrorism matters want to be pro-active and not reactive. Just because no passenger has ever tried to enter a cockpit, while a pilot was exiting or returning doesn't mean that no one has thought about it. At the same time, I have seen videos of passengers who, due ...
Jump to postHere's my question. What is the Aviation Department's plan for the old rental car lots and Parking Lot E? I have read that E can't be used, with the new runways/extensions, because the ATS station was too tall, and the cashbox for entering and exiting Lot E was too tall. It seems to me that the ATS ...
Jump to postWith the garbage strike in Paris, the general strikes in France, and the myriad of protests (some of which lead to police in riot gear taking action), are airlines seeing a decline in travel between the U.S. and France? My wife and I cancelled a trip we had scheduled for mid April. While a governmen...
Jump to postHere's what I don't understand. AA resumes ORD-CDG on March 26, with departure at 8:56pm and arrival the next day at 11:55am. Then, on April 4, the departure is pushed back to 10:29pm, with arrival the next day at 1:25 pm. I've looked at other flights out of ORD. For other other hubs and major citie...
Jump to postHere's a weird one. We're traveling to CDG from ORD in mid April. When we booked our flights, the ORD-CDG segment left around 6:30 pm and arrived CDG around 9:30 am. Last fall, departure and arrival were pushed back 2 hours, to 8:30, arriving at 10:30. In the last 2 weeks, AA pushed the flight back ...
Jump to postSadly to see another circular terminal gone What would KCI be if TWA did not leave? Really not upset about it. The terminals were outdated as soon as they opened. Plus that schlep to baggage claim from gate 87 in Terminal C was a pain. This is more centralized, it will be much better. If TWA didn't...
Jump to postThere was an episode of Mythbusters where they tried various methods for boarding a single-aisle aircraft, 2+2 for F and 3+3 for Y, with roughly 150 seats. Calling the entire plane as one group was the fastest way, but virtually none of the passengers liked it. What they found is that putting groups...
Jump to postOne other factor is Covid. A friend of mine who flies had Covid last summer and again this spring, despite being vaccinated and boosted. With the first bout of Covid, he was off for about 3 weeks, because his temperature remained slightly elevated, after the initial higher elevation for several days...
Jump to postIf I remember correctly, the 777s never had the Luxury Liner decals. The 737s never had the Luxury Jet decals. Both of those aircraft entered service in 1999. As someone else said, after the troubles with the DC-10, AA decided not to put "DC-10 Luxury Liner" on the fleet. But, I remember t...
Jump to postAs sure as I'm sitting here, the CEOs of other U.S. carriers are probably irritated as hell, because their unionized pilot and F/A groups will now start wanting to be paid before the current start time.
Jump to postJust saw the AA 738 N947NN with a fresh paint job and they added the AA logo to the inside and outside of the winglets and it looked pretty good. I'm not sure how many have received it yet but this is the first I've noticed. I'd share a picture but I haven't figured out how to do so. I was on a 737...
Jump to postDoes anyone know what the City's plans are for the the surface lots that were used for rental cars? Part of the lot is now the cell phone lot, but much of it appears to be storage or possible used by the rental car companies for vehicle maintenance. Then, there is Lot E, which surrounded the old ATS...
Jump to postFirst, where along the career path did Doug Parker forget what he learned, when he started at AA, back in the 1980s, when Bob Crandall truly ran an innovative airline that took customer service seriously? Second, when Parker was courting AA's unions, to gain their support for having US buy AA out of...
Jump to postI noticed in looking at the ORD website that the ATS systems shows 5 stops, Terminals 1,2,3, and 5 plus the rental car garage. So, what happens to the old stop in the middle of the surface lot E? I've read that the station is too tall, under FAA regulations for the runway that is near completion, du...
Jump to postI was dropping off my wife at ORD this morning and saw several ATS trains, all with signs saying "Test Train." I saw trains a year ago running with the same signage. What is being tested? Is the ride rough? Are there switching problems? Do the trains not stop in the right spots at the stat...
Jump to postDrive past any store or restaurant, and there is a help wanted sign. I think people grew accustomed to how organized labor lay-offs work. When the Big Three laid off hourly workers during an economic downturn, they started with the least senior people and worked up the seniority ladder, until the n...
Jump to postDrive past any store or restaurant, and there is a help wanted sign. I think people grew accustomed to how organized labor lay-offs work. When the Big Three laid off hourly workers during an economic downturn, they started with the least senior people and worked up the seniority ladder, until the nu...
Jump to postI scratch my head at carriers flying to TVC from the likes of BOS and LGA. I've lived in the Chicago area all of my life, so towns around Traverse City and Mackinaw Island are popular with people from Chicago. I also went to college in Ann Arbor. So that part of Michigan is popular with people livi...
Jump to postI scratch my head at carriers flying to TVC from the likes of BOS and LGA. I've lived in the Chicago area all of my life, so towns around Traverse City and Mackinaw Island are popular with people from Chicago. I also went to college in Ann Arbor. So that part of Michigan is popular with people livin...
Jump to postUA used to fly BOI-ORD in the 70s and 80s, typically with 727s. But, as the DEN hub built up, I think UA felt it made sense to funnel O&D Chicago traffic through DEN, rather than have ORD as a second connecting point on what typically was 1 R/T daily.
Jump to postMy point is that an airport like ATL has a train that connects the concourses, while its train to the rental car lot is outside security. DFW's train that connects the terminal is inside security. Years ago, the original train was outside security, leading American to come up with its own transit sy...
Jump to postThe first Mayor Daley (Richard J. Daley) used to boost that Chicago taxpayers never spend one dime on ORD and MDW. All of the funds to operate the airports came from landing fees, airline leases, concessions, and parking revenue. Obviously, additional revenue sources have come along, such as PFCs, f...
Jump to postBack in the late 1990s or early 2000s, after the third airport was set for Peotone rather than on the site of the old steel mills near the Indiana border, Mayor Rich Daley came up with a proposal for 6 terminals at ORD. The current T1 would be for UA domestic. The current T2 would be UA internationa...
Jump to postFrom my understanding the doors on the train cars do not line up with the doors on the station platform (there's a glass wall that separates the platform from the tracks) . How this will be fixed anyones guess but seems to be a mess up and to fix it something has to be rebuilt Is this for all stati...
Jump to postWhile a lot of people have left the Silicon Valley to work remotely anywhere and everywhere, many of those people feel that they will be flying once or twice a week to the Bay Area to meet with bosses and co-workers. UA is well positioned at SFO for the recovery of business traffic. But, DL may be d...
Jump to postDelta used to have a large passenger base in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, when it flew out of ORD to a number of southern cities. My father flew DL regularly to BNA, SDF, and ATL. He would fly Delta to Florida and St. Louis. I think DL used to fly ORD-IAH. One of the reasons why DL built Concourse L...
Jump to postI know a lot of people who refer to DCA as National and not Reagan National, including loyal Republicans. It's the same with ATL. A lot of people still say Hartsfield and not Hartsfield-Jackson. A lot of people refer to IAH as Intercontinental and not Bush Intercontinental, especially since the airp...
Jump to postI remember being in Seattle, when the local media was covering Boeing looking for tax relief in exchange for adding assembly space in Everett for the 787. Boeing was looking at multiple locations for assembling the Dreamliner, and Washington State was determined to keep the 787 in the Seattle area, ...
Jump to postHere is the all important question. When will the ATS be operating? On Tuesday, my wife and I took our son to ORD. Since he is 17, she got to go out to the gate with him. I sat in the cell phone lot, until she came out at the baggage claim. While sitting in the cell phone lot, the test trains were ...
Jump to postHere is the all important question. When will the ATS be operating? On Tuesday, my wife and I took our son to ORD. Since he is 17, she got to go out to the gate with him. I sat in the cell phone lot, until she came out at the baggage claim. While sitting in the cell phone lot, the test trains were r...
Jump to postHindsight is always 20:20. I think the point Parker was trying to make is that the airline industry was no longer chasing market share by charging low fares, and it was no longer flying large aircraft and dropping fares to fill them. The industry was really mindful of the cost of getting an aircraft...
Jump to postI suspect that any large airport project across the country will be delayed, simply because travel volume is so light. While leisure travel will probably rebound as a vaccine becomes readily available, some analysts suspect that it might be 2022 or 2023, before we see any business travel of signific...
Jump to postI think airlines are simply trying to survive for the next 1 to 3 years. I've read that aviation pundits think it will be some time after a vaccine becomes readily available, before businesses put employee back on airplanes. My wife works in financial services, and there were executives from Europe ...
Jump to postI got an update from CNBC earlier today. AA was up, after it announced that the July schedule would be increased 55% over the May schedule. Here's something else to consider. My wife's boss told her that corporate is really concerned at the number of people who are carrying their full or nearly full...
Jump to postThis is how bad it is at AA. A friend of mine is a 737 captain. He started with AA about 30 years ago. He made captain in '08 and switched to the 737 in '09. He has no schedule for April. Now, he assumes that he will get called for a trip or two this month. But, a lot of very senior pilots are seein...
Jump to postI can't tell you specifically what is going on at ORD. But, construction is considered essential in Illinois, so construction projects big and small are continuing. I've seen roofing projects in my neighborhood. The addition and new football bleachers are going up at my son's high school. Downtown C...
Jump to postWell, (some) fares didn't go down: I checked a round-trip to Europe for end of June-early July and prices are what they were 2 years ago. So, whatever route is flown is not done at discounted fares. All fares went down, but the decrease hasn't extended into late June yet. ATL hasn't been mentioned ...
Jump to postThe speed at which air travel returns sort of depends on who you are. Employees in businesses which have have suffered through little or no effects will get back to traveling. My wife works for a financial services firm. Management has said that they anticipate no lay-offs, as long as financial mark...
Jump to postBut, when people get cooped up, they will make up for lost time, once they can get out and about. When they can. A lot of my friends are now unemployed. Even assuming this resolves quickly, it'll be awhile before they have built the reserves to start traveling. We have a Federal Reserve Bank Presid...
Jump to postI read that AA is flying 777s on DFW-FRA, solely with cargo. There is enough airfreight demand between central Texas to Germany that AA will fly one to three times per week. I also saw that AA has at least on 787 on PHL-ORD, doing a round-trip. That was last week. So, I don't know if that is in the ...
Jump to postI know it took some time for airlines to recover after 9/11. Simply put, people were afraid to get on airplanes, thinking terrorists would try to cause more crashes. People were unsure if the government could screen passengers and keep terrorists and explosives off of airplanes. And then there were ...
Jump to postThis morning, Warren Buffet announced that the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders' meeting will not have the public in attendance. All events held with the meeting are cancelled. So, will AA, as well as other carriers, drop their extra weekend service to OMA for May 2 through May 5? I don't remember al...
Jump to postThe advantage for Boeing is that AA's 788s are now being sold, meaning that Boeing will get paid for the agreed-upon price, when AA takes delivery. With Boeing Capital owning the aircraft and leasing to AA, Boeing gets money with every lease payment that AA makes. So, Boeing's cash flow will improve...
Jump to postI just read on CNBC's website that AA is cutting international flying by 10% this summer, with huge cuts on flying to Asia. Domestic flying in April will be around 7.5%. I'm guessing that changes in flying listed on this post are a combination of Coronavirus and lack of MAX aircraft. Listening to CN...
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