August 19th, 2009 01:22pm
Thomas V. Bona
(Hat tip to airline industry vet Joel Chusid for the link)
Travel expert Rick Steves suggests ways to limit fees while getting cash abroad. Good stuff I’ll try to remember for my next trip. Not counting Canada, I’ve only been abroad twice (a summer in the Dominican Republic, including a weekend jaunt to Haiti, more than 10 years ago and a honeymoon in Ireland back in 2007). Hopefully we can go somewhere like England or elsewhere in Europe in 2011, when my vacation time expands a week. But I’m pretty clueless when it comes to international travel (not Clark Griswald clueless, but still). Fortunately, my wife is an expert - she probably knows all of Steves’ tips already.
August 5th, 2009 04:23pm
Thomas V. Bona
Not a surprise here. With high fuel prices and the start of the recession in 2008, Chicago Rockford International Airport saw a 4 percent drop in cargo volume. That sent it down one spot to 19th in the nation, according to preliminary rankings released by the Federal Aviation Administration last month. RFD was passed by Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
It wasn’t a good year for cargo airports. More than half of the 121 cargo airports listed saw drops bigger than Rockford’s. Only 31 increased, and only three airports bigger than Rockford’s increased.
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August 5th, 2009 02:50pm
Thomas V. Bona
Courtesy of Today in the Sky, UAL is moving 2,800 workers from Elk Grove Township to the Tower Formerly Known as Sears. Good news for downtown Chicago. Obviously, a lot of incentives were given, and the price was right. Of course, as a coworker said, downtown’s gain is the suburb’s loss. It will be interesting to see if there are problems having its ops center farther from ORD…
August 5th, 2009 01:33pm
Thomas V. Bona
Late last month, the FAA released its preliminary 2008 passenger rankings for U.S. airports. Chicago Rockford International Airport rose in the rankings for the sixth straight year, despite a slight drop in traffic. That’s because others fell worse than RFD did, thanks to high fuel prices and the start of the recession. The airport is now 213th in the nation, up from 215th at the end of 2007.
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August 5th, 2009 12:11pm
Thomas V. Bona
Just back from my vacation in Santa Fe, an amazing city with a much lusher climate than I expected from the southwest (the mile-plus altitude helps). It even hailed one day, though a shopkeeper said, “This almost never happens” while I resisted the $700 boots she was selling. (It wasn’t hard to resist).
Anyway, we flew from Midway to Denver, then drove down to Santa Fe. Mainly it was an excuse to fly for the first time on Frontier Airlines (and to catch a Rockies game and some excellent beer in Denver). I’m glad I flew Frontier - had an excellent couple of flights; moreover, Frontier as we know it may not be long for this world.
While I was gone, Southwest Airlines made a preliminary bid to buy Frontier. This is big news in Denver - Frontier is the second-biggest airline there and Southest in number three. Both are low-cost carriers, and the sense is there’s not enough room there for both. Cranky Flier, like others, expects Southwest to operate Frontier as a standalone subsidiary for a bit, then phase out its planes and gobble up some of its employees:
Ultimately, however, I think this is just about one thing. Southwest can eliminate a competitor for just over $100 million. They must believe that they can benefit by more than that by simply getting rid of Frontier. … There really isn’t much room for three carriers over in Denver, and this is a cheap way to fix that problem.
Cranky thinks it’s potentially good news for United, which will see a competitor disappear, another one shell out millions and cut competition at some non-Southwesty routes to Mexico and smaller western cities. Wall Street Journal is not so sure, while Airline Bulletin thinks United could make its own bid. This will be interesting to watch - Republic is still in the Frontier bidding, though for how much?
Anyway, the smart money is on Southwest getting what it wants and eventually ending Frontier as we know it. That would be sad, in that Frontier has a unique product - the in-seat DirectTV was worth the $6, I love the animal pictures on the tails and the prices are right. Had the smoothest landing I’ve ever had into Midway (though, to be fair, most of my landings were on old ATA planes so the bar wasn’t too hight). If I had an excuse to fly though Denver again, I might trek down to Midway for Frontier.
Though, if Southwest gobbles them up, it’s not the end of the world - Southwest also had a unique product that I enjoy as well. When it comes down to it, I’ll fly whichever airline gives me the best fare at the most convenient airports, though things like Frontier and JetBlue’s in-seat TVs and AirTran’s satellite radio are nice tie-breakers.
Thoughts on the changing airline landscape?
July 24th, 2009 02:14pm
Thomas V. Bona
Iowa folks may have to wait a bit on a study of extending Amtrak service to Des Moines, according to an Associated Press report today. The story is somewhat confusing, so let me break down all the Illinois-Iowa studie:
- Amtrak has done its study of service from Chicago through Rockford to Dubuque, Iowa, so it’s not affected by this. Service could start by November 2011 if funded by the federal stimulus and state officials.
- Amtrak also completed a study of service from Chicago to the Quad Cities, which would also be funded by the stimulus and the state and start in the next couple of years.
- Amtrak also added a study of extending the Quad Cities line to Iowa City.
- But on top of that, Iowa officials also want a study of continuing the Quad Cities route to Des Moines. It’s the study of the portion between Iowa City and Des Moines that’s being delayed. Also, officials eventually want Amtrak service to continue on that line to Omaha, Neb.
- Finally, Iowa officials want Amtrak to also study extending the Dubuque route farther west into Iowa. So some day, who knows how far west we could go from Rockford?
This is good news for Amtrak. Between the federal stimulus and other pro-train comments from the Obama administration, Amtrak could be expanding a lot in the coming years. Like any expanding entity though, there will be a lag. Hopefully for train advocates, the momentum continues.
July 24th, 2009 10:45am
Thomas V. Bona
Leaving soon on vacation to Denver and then Santa Fe, and other than a possible outbound trip report I won’t be updating the blog until the first week in August. There may be a couple more posts today, though.
So, as a transportation dork, I managed to convince my wife to let us drive to Chicago Midway International Airport to fly Frontier to Denver (”DirecTV!” I said. She rolled her eyes.)
Never flew on them before. As far as I can remember, the airlines I’ve flown on are: Aer Lingus, AirTran, Allegiant, American, ATA, Continental, Eastern, Midwest, Northwest, Southwest and United.Only two deceased ones.
I’ve also never been to Colorado and New Mexico, so looking forward to that. The downside to all this, of course, is the drive to Midway. But the airport has improved over the years (way better than my just-out-of-college days of taking ATA out of there), and we got a good deal on parking.
(You know how RFD’s slogan is “The way flying should be”? Chicago airports should go with “The way flying is. Deal with it.”)
Any Frontier fans out there?
July 22nd, 2009 05:02pm
Thomas V. Bona
Chicago Rockford International Airport had a chance to be part of JetAmerica’s rollout, but were asked to provide marketing and/or revenue guarantee money up front, airport Executive Director Bob O’Brien just confirmed. The airport said no, thanks. (Toledo, on the other hand, paid for a $150,000 “learning experience” and other airports lost a bit less for an airline that never got off the ground.)
“Clearly we made the right decision and we’re not as badly bruised as Lansing and Toledo,” O’Brien said. “On the other side of the coin, I take no pleasure in being right and getting nothing. … I just wish that we could have been in the rollout and they could have rolled out.”
O’Brien is not ready to throw the JetAmerica folks under the bus, as they’ll be back in some form or another. JetAmerica is already saying as much: “We have decided to suspend our operations in order to refocus on different markets. We still strongly believe that there is an unmet need for affordable air service to secondary markets and we look forward to offering this option again in the near future,” CEO John Weikle said.
If they come back looking to fly out of RFD, O’Brien will listen, though not if they’re asking for a lot of money again
“It totally depends on what they came back with, in terms of destinations, in terms of aircraft, in terms of fare structure,” O’Brien said. “There’s no blank checks. We’re interested, but it has to make sense.”
July 21st, 2009 11:07am
Thomas V. Bona
Not entirely new, Allegiant has been talking Hawaii for a while.
But some new potential details out of Allegiant’s smaller focus city of Bellingham, Wash.:
- Hawaii service would be at least a year away, at least out of Bellingham.
- Allegiant is considering, among others, Boeing 757, which hold at least 33 percent more passengers than the MD-80s Allegiant now uses (Those Maddogs can’t really fly the long haul to Hawaii).
- No word on where else Allegiant would consider Hawaii flights from. LAX makes a lot of sense, as do its other California cities. The big question for folks out here in the Midwest is whether they’ll start offering connecting service so we could get in on that. Of course, we’d first need to get LAX service, which Allegiant has so far deemed too far away to be profitable. I wouldn’t hold our breath waiting for connecting service from RFD to Hawaii anytime soon, but it continues to be a good sign that RFD’s largest airline has good growth options.
July 20th, 2009 12:58pm
Thomas V. Bona
I’m addicted to using priceline.com for hotels when traveling, even for occasional weekend jaunts to Chicago. You can get some sweet deals, and the geographic boundaries are such that you have a decent sense where you’re staying.
But I’ve never tried it with air travel or car rentals. When flying, my schedule is always so tight I can’t take a chance on Priceline giving me an early morning or late night flight, no matter how cheap.
However, I’m contemplating using priceline for my rental needs on an upcoming vacation. Anyone have any experience with rentals through them?
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