by Lufthansa Flyer | May 28, 2012 | Airlines, Industry News |
In news coming out of India, the Star Alliance has extended an invitation to Indian carrier Jet Airways to become the newest member of Star Alliance and join EVA Air as new member-elects to the world’s largest airline alliance. Though this has been in the news previously, it may be resurfacing again.
According to the “Centre For Asia Pacific Aviation”, the invitation had been extended but the Indian Government insists that it will not allow Jet to join the Alliance unless Air India is accepted first. Yes you read that correctly. The airline that was on the cusp of membership in recent months after a 3 1/2 year application period, who has befallen on disastrous economic times, is being used as leverage and Jet Airways stands to be the biggest loser if Star Alliance does not accept Air India in some quasi-package deal.
To me this is simply a transparent ploy by the Indian government to offload a struggling airline into an alliance in the hopes that membership will cure Air India’s woes. Unfortunately, AI’s problems run far deeper than can be fixed by any membership in any alliance. Operating losses and outdating technology platforms have been the major obstacles to alliance membership.
With Jet being the best positioned to succeed, India is willing to threaten the success of yet another Indian based carrier. Have they not learned their lesson with Air India and Kingfisher?
This development follows a recent meeting that was held recently by Lufthansa’s CEO Christoph Franz and Jet’s Chairman Naresh Goyal ahead of Jet beginning new service to Frankfurt and Munich. Personally, the timing of the meeting was a little bit more than interesting to me at this point.
If I had a crystal ball, I think I would see the capitulation of the Indian goverment, who will remove their demands, and will finally let one of their national carriers join an alliance. Maybe.
by Lufthansa Flyer | May 28, 2012 | Uncategorized |
The Semi-Finals are set to begin as we narrow down the contenders for the 2012 AIRPORT WORLD CUP. In the first match that starts today it will be Tokyo Narita vs. Hong Kong.
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This match will end on May 30th at 8:00p US Eastern Time.
The other match will start tomorrow when Singapore takes on Amsterdam.
In the Semi Finals, if there is a tie, I will run a “best out of 5″ Random Number Generator “overtime” to determine the winner.
Please CLICK HERE to see the updated tournament bracket.
by Lufthansa Flyer | May 27, 2012 | Industry News |
This time its NY’s Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer urging legistlation to allow families to sit together without incurring additional fees for premium seats sometimes charged by airlines. He’s reacting to press last week about how families are being “targeted” and are being forced to pay additional fees when trying to sit together.
Airlines in some cases charge premiums for window or aisle seats, and when a family of 3-4 or more travel, they are almost always forced to have 1 or 2 members in this type of “premium” seat, thus creating this added fiscal stress.
The Senator is expected to send a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood urging him to implement rules that would prevent such an affront to the traveling family. Well guess what, should that rule be enacted, fares will go up beyond what the fee would have been (at least thats how airlines have historically reacted). Perhaps airlines will get creative and even charge a higher fare if you are booking more than 2 seats at a time.
I can’t agree with the Senator on this one (or much else that he has proposed in the past) simply because in my opinion, he’s trying to turn this into an entitlement issue that then actually reverse discrimates against those who don’t have children but would still have to pay a premium for sitting in a premium seat on an aircraft.
A family traveling together with a bit of planning can easily accomplish sitting together. Whether its sitting in pairs or using the middle seats on a wide body, it’s easy to accomplish.
Now I expect a fair share of you will disagree with me on this point, but being one without children I am not a big fan of fees being waived for the family who decides to pile into an airplane for their once a year trip to Disneyland while others like myself who fly frequently, and provide far more revenue to the airlines, are forced to pay more for the same seat.
But I am curious, what do you think? Should families be entitled to fee waivers when traveling together, or should they be treated like any other passenger? The polls are open:
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