No quick fix for airlines amid high fuel prices
No quick fix for airlines amid high fuel prices — A casual observer of the struggling airline industry might think the nation’s biggest carriers are either inept for losing billions of dollars with no end in sight, or pretty clever for managing to stay in business through it all. Neither image would be fair. The bulk of the industry, whose first-quarter results come out this week and next, has no easy way to turn around its fortunes, analysts say.
It’s official: Bics are now banned — On a smoking deck Tuesday at Tampa International Airport, passengers lit their cigarettes with butane lighters, inhaling a few final puffs before boarding. Starting Thursday, they’ll have to use matches. That’s when the Transportation Security Administration will start banning lighters aboard planes. Butane, Zippo and novelty lighters will not be allowed past airport security checkpoints or in checked baggage.
Airline ownership law criticized as outdated — As the U.S. airline industry slumps into its worst crisis in years, some executives and analysts say the time is ripe to repeal a 1938 law barring foreigners from owning more than a quarter of U.S. carriers. While hardly a panacea, such a move could open a spigot of cash for the industry as record fuel costs threaten to push more airlines — already reeling after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the downturn that followed — into bankruptcy.
Dutch demand explanation for US U-turn order — Two members of the Dutch Parliament demanded Monday to know why an airliner with 278 passengers on board was forced by U.S. authorities to turn around near the Canadian border and fly back to the Netherlands. The airline, KLM, said that its flight from Amsterdam to Mexico City on Friday had been refused permission to fly over U.S. airspace at the last minute and been told that two passengers were a security risk.
Online agents see trouble ahead — Internet travel agencies like Expedia and Orbitz still rule the online travel business, but sites run by airlines, hotels and car rental services are luring travelers seeking better prices by avoiding the middle man. Analysts say the competition from supplier sites is unlikely to topple any of the big three online travel agencies — Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. But it may erode their profits even as the agencies remain dominant.
Home is where the hangar is — John Hromoho and his wife, Juanita, are about to start constructing their dream home. It will be located in a charming part of the New Jersey countryside, near rustic red barns, a quaint little horse farm … and an airport runway. While most homeowners complain about noisy airplane engines, the vroom of low-flying aircraft, says Mr. Hromoho, is “music to our ears.”
Contributing: Charles Leocha, John Frenaye