Sky Talk

Jack the Cat update, no sightings...

Last night American Airlines updated its Facebook page on its search of JFK's baggage area for Jack the Cat.

Sadly, there have been no sightings of Jack.

But Karen, the cat's owner, has accepted American's offer to fly to New York this weekend and will be escorted through JFK to look for the cat.

American said it is reviewing security camera footage from the area and has launched an investigation into how the cat escaped in the first place.

"We have adopted some of your ideas into our search plan and thank the community for your ongoing support for Jack during this period. We understand that a cat is a loved family member for so many, including many of our own employees, and we are doing our utmost to find Jack," American said in its post.

-Andrea Ahles

Southwest not one of the carriers that have Boeing 737 MAX on order

When Boeing announced on Tuesday that it already had 496 commitments from five carriers for its re-engined 737 model, some wondered if Southwest Airlines was one of those carriers.

Southwest operates Boeing 737s - although it recently added Boeing 717s to its fleet as part of its purchase of AirTran Airways acquisition - and the Dallas-based carrier has pushed Boeing for a decision on whether or not it would re-engine the 737 or create a new airplane to replace it.

But Southwest is not one of the carriers that has ordered what Boeing is called Boeing 737 MAX.

"We are in the discussion phase only. We don't know who the five operators are, but we have not yet committed to the aircraft," Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said in an e-mail.

-Andrea Ahles

 

Details on the re-engined Boeing 737 -- 737 MAX

Commercail airplane industry watchers are weighing with details and early observations on Boeing's announcement today that it was moving ahead to launch a new version of the 737 series featuring more fuel efficient engines. So far the best name Boeing has come up with with is 737 MAX.

Here's video animation on You Tube.

Scott Hamilton at Leeham writes:

Precise details on the MAX remain uncertain; Jim Albaugh, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said engineering is still deciding whether to go for a 66-inch or 68-inch fan diameter for the CFM LEAP-1B. Although Albaugh said it is believe the larger fan still will not require a longer nose gear, with a ripple-effect of changes to the fuselage, he added that there is a contingency determined if a longer gear proves necessary with the larger fan.

Albaugh said final design configuration is still some weeks away.

But Albaugh said that design changes will be minimal to the airplane, confined largely to those associated directly with the new engine. There are minor aerodynamic improvements and there will be some additional fly-by-wire features. There will not be a new cockpit, he said, because customers want commonality with the 737NG cockpit.

The always productive Flightblogger (aka Jon Ostrower) has posted drawings and pictures and has some observations.

The company's released renderings illustrate the larger engine nacelle, which now includesnoise-reducing chevrons that are hallmark's of the airframer's  787 and  747-8 programmes. 

Unclear from the rendering is the exact size of the LEAP-1B engine, believed to be 66in, avoiding any major nose landing gear changes to maintain a 17in ground clearance beneath the nacelles. 

Further, Boeing has made major changes to the 737's aft fuselage, with a  787-style tail coneand light emitting diode (LED) auxiliary power unit (APU) tail lights. 

Perhaps even more significantly, the rendering illustrates the elimination of an aft body join once present on the 737-700. The join on the -700 comes just forward of the last two passenger windows ahead of door two. On Boeing's 737-7 rendering, no such join is present, potentially a significant weight-saving move.

No official word yet on whether Southwest Airlines has committed to buy the new airplane, although there have reports that it has not made that decision.

- Bob Cox

 

American loses cat, Facebook in an uproar

On Thursday, Karen Pascoe checked in for her American Airlines flight at JFK and said goodbye to her two cats, Jack and Barry, putting them into their carriers as they went off to the baggage area to be put on her flight.

And then while she was waiting to board her flight to San Francisco, she got the call: American had lost Jack.

Jack the Cat is apparently roaming around American's baggage area in New York and when it took American several days to respond to Karen about looking for her cat, Facebook and Twitter erupted with outrage.

A Facebook page was launched, telling Jack's story along with a manager telling Karen, "the last time this happened, it took about a month to find the cat. REALLY?!?" And a Twitter hashtag, #findjackthecat, has kept pressure on American to, well, find the cat.

It looks like American is trying to prevent another "United destroys guitar" type of p.r. disaster and posted a lengthy response on its Facebook page to show what it is doing to try to find the cat.

"We repeat our apologies for the upset caused by this situation, and wanted to share an update in our efforst to find Jack: American has offered Jack's owner, Karen, a flight to New York to personally visit the JFK operation and help assist with search efforts."

Cat lovers hope that Jack will be found and not end up like Vivi, the prize-winning Whippet that escaped from its cage at JFK while being loaded on to a Delta Air Lines flight in 2006 and has never been found.

-Andrea Ahles

 

Sabre, American reach temporary agreement in distribution battle

Sabre will continue to distribute American Airlines' airfares to travel agents as long as the two firms are battling it out in court.

The original distribution contract between American and Sabre was set to expire on August 31 and if it had not been extended, American's fares could have disappeared from Sabre's distribution system which is used by thousands of travel agents and some online travel sites.

Instead, the two companies said they will extend their existing agreement until American's anti-trust suit filed against Sabre in Texas state court has been resolved.

"No trial date has yet been set, but we anticipate that the proceedings could last well into 2012," wrote American spokesman Ryan Mikolasik in an e-mail. "This agreement ensures continued access to American's content through the Sabre GDS as we continue to pursue our claims in court."

At issue are the fees American and other airlines pay the big travel reservation systems to display flights and make bookings. American wants more of its travel partners, such as travel agencies and websites, to connect directly to American's own reservations system, which would save the airline booking fees.

Sabre and American have been involved in several lawsuits since January when Sabre temporarily made it more difficult for travel agents to find American's fares in its distribution system. The two companies then attempted to negotiate a new contract agreement through the spring but then renewed legal action against each other this summer.

UPDATE: Here is the letter that Sabre sent to its travel agents.

"We’re writing to inform you that we have reached an agreement with American Airlines that will ensure your continued access to AA content throughthe Sabre global distribution system for the duration of the airline’sTexas state lawsuit against Sabre.

"We’re pleased that through this agreement there will be no disruption to your business operations during this time. We understand that this temporary extension falls short of the long-term certainty that we know youneed and which we are committed to achieving.

'Toward that end, Sabre remains committed to negotiating a new distributionagreement with AA that enables a transparent travel marketplace, so travel agencies and consumers can efficiently and cost-effectively comparison shopacross hundreds of airlines and thousands of suppliers worldwide.

"We will also continue to vigorously defend ourselves in court against AA’s baseless claims. We view this litigation process as a distraction to the important business of negotiating a new distribution agreement that our travel agency and corporate customers clearly desire. We are prepared to continue negotiations despite the legal activities.

"We will continue to communicate with you as we get additional information."

-Andrea Ahles

American expects to be launch customer for re-engined Boeing 737

Last month, American Airlines was the first carrier to announce it would purchase a re-engined Boeing 737 model.

With Boeing's board approving the re-engine plans this week, American said it expects to be a launch customer for the new aircraft, receiving the first planes in 2018. It has ordered 100 re-engined 737s.

"In today's operating environment, it is critical for us to maximize the fuel and cost efficiency of our fleet while delivering state-of-the-art amenities, the latest technology and a modern travel experience to customers," said American's director for corporate planning Vasu Raja. "Boeing's latest evolution of 737 product is an important step forward for airlines and our customers."

We've seen Boeing's production schedule for new aircraft models - just look at the Dreamliner - slide before, so it will be interesting to see if American actually receives its more fuel-efficient  planes by the announced 2018 date.

-Andrea Ahles

 

Boeing commits to launch of 737 variant with new engines

Boeing's board of directors has approved the launch of a new version of the 737 series jetliners featuring new, fuel efficient engines to compete with the Airbus A320neo series. Boeing said it already has "order commitments for 496 airplanes from five airlines and a strong business case."

American Airlines has already announced it would place firm orders for at least 100 aircraft if Boeing committed to produce it.

"The re-engined 737 will allow Boeing to continue to deliver the most fuel efficient, most capable airplane with the lowest operating costs in the single-aisle market," said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Jim Albaugh. "This, coupled with industry leading reliability and maintainability, is what customers have told us they want. As a result, we are seeing overwhelming demand for this new and improved version of the 737. We are working with our customers to finalize these and other agreements in the weeks and months ahead."

The new 737 family will be use CFM International LEAP-1B engines. Boeing said it will have the lowest operating costs in the single-aisle segment with a 7 percent advantage over the competition. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2017.  

"Customers tell us they want to improve profitability and fuel efficiency while reducing their environmental footprint," said Albaugh. "This solution meets all three of those needs."

- Bob Cox

 

American fares poorly in customer service during Hurricane Irene, survey says

If you were one of the unlucky passengers that had a flight canceled over the weekend, you probably spent a lot of time on hold, waiting for the airlines' customer service representative to pick up the phone.

For those waiting for American to take their call, they had to wait the longest, a new survey says.

According to STELLAService, a customer service quality firm, American had the longest hold time and were unresponsive to customer tweets on Friday, right before Hurricane Irene hit the Eastern seaboard. The informal survey, which included 8 phone calls per airline and 12 tweets per airline, was conducted on Friday.

US Airways had the shortest hold time at 2 minutes and 38 second with Dallas-based Southwest Airlines following in second with a hold time of 8:10.

Fort Worth-based American's hold time was over an hour and a half. Delta Air Lines had the second worst hold time at 33 minutes and 43 seconds. Delta was also the fastest and most responsive airline, replying to 100 percent of its tweets and within 14 minutes, according to the survey.

UPDATE: American Airlines issued the following statement on Tuesday, disagreeing with the informal survey conducted by STELLAService.

“We disagree with the findings of the study. We believe it is highly inaccurate and based on an insufficient sample size – eight calls and 12 tweets on average -- that skewed results and does not represent reality. We handled more than 100,000 calls on Friday, and during the period in question our customers waited an average of 21 minutes, far less than alleged and in line with most of our peers. Our response time for AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum and Gold customers averaged from 30 seconds to less than three minutes per call. Of the 78 tweets directed to us from Thursday through Sunday, a significant number of which did not request action, we responded to 46 tweets either publicly or privately to assist customers, and we also sent four proactive tweets with travel information related to the storm. Each day, and especially in times of service disruption, we make responding to and informing our customers – whether through social or other traditional direct channels – our highest priority.”

UPDATE No. 2: STELLAService got quite a bit of push back from the carriers when it announced its informal survey results. And upon further reflection, STELLAService updated its blog post to show some of the mistakes it made in its survey.

"STELLAService originally excluded replies from tweets sent to Continental’s Twitter account since it stated that its Twitter account is no longer active. Even though United and Continental have merged and now use a single active Twitter handle, @United, we have updated our findings as of 8/31/11 to reflect the 58% response rate to tweets directed to the inactive @Continental Twitter account. The tweets sent to American Airlines were sent to an account they deem to be inactive, so we have removed their Twitter findings and updated the above chart for that as well."

STELLAService survey information

Average Hold Time

1. US Airways 2 minutes, 38 seconds

2. Southwest Airlines 8 minutes, 10 seconds

3. Continental Airlines 8 minutes, 15 seconds

4. United Airlines 12 minutes, 4 seconds

5. Spirit Airlines 24 minutes, 7 seconds

6. JetBlue Airways 24 minutes, 16 seconds

7. AirTran Airways 27 minutes, 52 seconds

8. Frontier Airlines 29 minutes, 54 seconds

9. Delta Air Lines 33 minutes, 43 seconds

10. American Airlines, 1 hour, 32 minutes, 39 seconds

Average Twitter response

1. Delta Airlines 14 minutes, 100 percent

2. Frontier Airlines 4 hours, 4 minutes, 100 percent

3. JetBlue Airways 11 minutes, 83 percent

4. Southwest Airlines 6 hours, 12 minutes, 83 percent

5. United Airlines, 3 hours, 31 minutes, 58 percent

5. Spirit Airlines 1 hour, 10 minutes, 41 percent

6. US Airways, 24 minutes, 16 percent

No response from AirTran Airways

 

-Andrea Ahles

Monday Midday Must-Reads

-After losing part of American Airlines' big plane order to French rival, Airbus, Boeing has replaced its commercial sales chief Martin Dailey with Ray Connor. Dailey will move to the presidents position over Boeing Germany, Europe and Africa, according to Reuters. The aircraft manufacturer's board is also meeting this week to discuss a re-engined option of its popular 737 series. American Airlines plans to order 100 of these newly-engined 737s if the board decides to go ahead with the redesign.

-The Today Show  looked at frequent-flier credit cards to see which ones offered the best perks to different types of travelers. It named Continental's OnePass Plus Chase Mastercard as a good deal for those who fly Continental and United frequently and Citi Gold/AAdvantage is best for domestic travelers who fly to the same place often.

-And the Center for Public Integrity has a five-day investigative report that started on Monday that is looking at the "Windfalls of War." It's first installment examines war contracting and how no-bid contracts have tripled since 9/11. In 2003, no-bid contracts were $50 billion and in 2011 it was $140 billion, the report says.

-Andrea Ahles

Airlines getting East Coast operations back up and running after Hurricane Irene

Airlines are slowly but surely getting their operations back on line following the weekend wrath of Hurricane Irene.

As of Monday morning, all of New York City's major airports had reopened for arriving and departing flights. However, carriers were still cancelling hundreds of flights as aircraft are being moved back into place for normal daily operations.

According to FlightAware.com, there are 1,448 flight cancellations on monday mostly at Newark, JFK, LaGuardia, Boston Logan and Philadelphia airports. The flight tracking website reported there have been 13,416 flight cancellations from Saturday through Monday.

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport had about 50 cancellations on each day this weekend, all to East Coast airports. The airport said it had about 85 stranded passengers spend the night in the terminal on Saturday and 150 overnight on Sunday as well as 40 additional aircraft that airlines had moved to D/FW to keep them out of the path of the storm.

There were a handful of cancellations Monday morning but airport spokesman David Magana said the airport operations were "pretty much back to normal."

American Airlines spokesman Ed Martelle said the carrier had 89 flight cancellationson Monday while the regional carrier American Eagle had 79. Most of the cancellations were early in the morning as the airports in the northeast began to re-open.

-Andrea Ahles