Category Archives: travel

The Economist says that this photo is "one of the most apt visual metaphors for the crisis yet". I’m not sure that it isn’t literally true. After all, Charlotte is a banking center, and 23 of the passengers worked at … Continue reading →

BreakingViews has launched its Poor Getting Poorer index, complete with predictable members such as Walmart and pawnbrokers EZCorp. But there’s also JetBlue: Though leisure travel will take a hit, discount carriers like JetBlue will attract those willing to take 3 … Continue reading →

It’s not easy, being an airline. Thanks to high fuel costs, United lost $252 million in the third quarter, on an operating basis. On the other hand, United was hedged. And as a result of those hedges, United ended up … Continue reading →

Tracy Alloway reports on how Lawrence Hunt, the CEO of Silverjet, paid for fuel expenses in the airline’s final weeks: Hunt’s solution was to put fuel expenses on his personal credit card while the company waited for its next round … Continue reading →

I’m never going to stay at the Hotel Felix again. Why? Lots of little things, which I shan’t bore you with. But one of them is their idiotic system of charging for wifi – the subject of Joe Brancatelli’s column … Continue reading →

Eos? Dead. Maxjet? Dead. Silverjet? Dead. Clearly, anybody starting a business-class-only airline would be better taking classes in business. But astonishingly, it seems that the founders of the last airline standing in this market, L’Avion, are actually going to make … Continue reading →

Joe Sharkey talks to Kip Hawley, the director of the Transportation Security Administration, about new checkpoint-friendly laptop bags: Mr. Hawley said he did not expect that the new laptops would create undue confusion after their introduction, since security officers would … Continue reading →

Call it the frequent flier arbitrage: rack up lots of miles when oil prices are low and flights are cheap. Wait a year or so for oil prices to skyrocket and fares to rise. Then cash in your miles, receiving … Continue reading →

Joe Brancatelli: Long-haul flights are going because they burn fuel simply to carry enough fuel to make the long runs. In fact, one European airline executive told me that his nonstop flights to the West Coast use about 30 percent … Continue reading →

Bob Crandall, who used to run American Airlines, thinks that airline deregulation has been a failure and wants to re-regulate the whole thing. But his argument comes from the point of view of airlines, not of passengers: Deregulation did bring … Continue reading →

Are you worried about $140 oil and the concomitant rise in jet-fuel costs? Heritage isn’t. The Ireland-registered Swiss investment company wants to buy Silverjet for ߣ5 million or so (call it 12 cents on the dollar for creditors) and get … Continue reading →

Another airline bites the dust: this time it’s Silverjet, the all-business-class airline: it lasted just a few months longer than MaxJet. The official statement from Silverjet is pathetic, in the literal sense of the word: We extend our sincerest apologies … Continue reading →

David Robertson, on Eos shutting down: Rising oil prices are causing havoc in the airline industry and Eos is the seventh carrier in two weeks to seek bankruptcy protection or go bust. I guess that ballyhooed service from London to … Continue reading →

MaxJet is dead, and it’s blaming high oil prices for its demise, as well as “the resulting impact on the credit climate for airlines”. It might, on the other hand, have simply blamed the fact that three different all-business-class airlines … Continue reading →