This week, Madhu and I chew the fat about the ACI-NA Marketing & Communications/Jumpstart conference, what will happen with airline capacity cuts and the status of the FAA's reauthorization bill. You can click here to listen to our 11:30-minute Podcast. Enjoy!
And visit us at our permanent home for news and notes on all things airports at www.aviationweek.com/tarmacs
This week's guest on the Things With Wings Radio Show is Brett Snyder -- aka proprietor of The Cranky Flier blog. Brett's blog is a humorous, snarky yet informative and insightful look into the wonderful world of airlines. The blog was chosen as the U.K.'s Observer newspaper as #29 of the 100 most influential blogs, and he's won 2 Travvie travel writing blog awards. Oh, and he worked in various capacities at America West and United Airlines.
In our chat, we disuss the spate of recent capacity cut announcements, Southwest Airlines' alleged plot to push Frontier Airlines out of Denver (Brett believes it) and what the industry will look like a year from now. Click here to listen to my 14-minute Podcast with Snyder. Enjoy!
And don't forget -- you cam get the latest news and trends in the airline industry at our permanent home: www.aviationweek.com/thingswithwings.
Happy Weekday? British Airways' wholly owned subsidiary Open Skies will celebrate a full week in operation on June 26. The airline is looking to differentiate itself from other trans-Atlantic niche carriers, flying service that caters to both business and premium leisure travelers.
In observation of Open Skies' Weekday, click here to listen to my interview with Dale Moss, managing director of the startup. Moss, back in the BA neighborhood after a three-year hiatus, talks about the fuel factor and the failings of some other niche carriers, amongst other things. Take a listen!
And check our commercial photo galleries for more pics from the inaugural. Slowly but surely, I'll flag 'em and tag 'em for you.
Enjoy!
The June 16 issue of USA Today includes a story by Thomas Frank on how some police officers are taking exception with Transportation Security Administration airport screeners wearing police-type uniforms and police-type badges.
On the one side, TSA says their transportation security officers need the uniforms and badges in garner respect from the traveling public. On the other side, police officers say their authority is undercut by the screeners.
Whenever I hear anything law enforcement-related, I have to run it past my sister, who is a police detective in California. So I sent her a link to the article and asked her to poll her co-workers about the TSA badges. Here's a compilation of what they had to say about the issue:
To give airport screeners police like badges and uniforms is a grave mistake. You are not only putting the screeners themselves in harm's way in that they will be mistaken as sworn law enforcement, but you are creating more of a safety risk to the general public.
The public relies on law enforcement to keep them safe, period! It is not fair that because they have mistakenly identified a "screener" as a sworn peace officer that the response to their emergency is hindered, delayed, or flat out ignored due to a lack of proper training.
Let me play devil's advocate. Any good police officer must be able to think like the average criminal. That's how we get into who they really are and what they are capable of. Frankly, it allows us to mirror what type of behavior they may exhibit. This ability comes from extensive and on going training on a quarterly basis by properly trained personnel.
If I were a criminal and it was my intention to commit some egregious act then suffice it to say that I am going to do anything and everything possible to get away with that act. This includes preventing any law enforcement and/or "look alike" from stopping me.
As a criminal, all I see is the badge and the uniform. During the commission of my crime, I cannot develop the immediate ability to ascertain if it's security or sworn police. I'M JUST SIMPLY TRYING TO GET AWAY AND I WILL DO ANYTHING TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN.
Just as a police officer is really quite unable to differentiate the difference between a real gun and a plastic gun (in a spilt second), we are just going to protect the public and ourselves in that split second.
The bottom line is this. Nothing good can come of the people we protect and serve not being able to differentiate between us (armed and trained very well and on a consistent and ongoing basis) and airport screeners.
Back in March, I went out to Washington National to see TSA's airport checkpoint of the future. Included in that tour were TSOs wearing the new uniform and badge. I did a Podcast with TSA's Christopher White and I asked about the badges. You can listen to his 1:28-minute reply here.
And don't forget - visit us at our permanent home at www.aviationweek.com/tarmacs to get the latest airport news and analysis.
In this week's show, Madhu and I chat about more of the speeches from last week's American Association of Airport Executives annual conference, where Delta's Scott Yohe spoke about prospects for small communities under his company's proposed merger with Northwest. We also discussed AAAE's aviation summit in Washington, D.C., next month that it hopes will further shine the spotlight on the industry's woes.
Speaking of industry woes, we talk about how Virgin America CEO David Cush sees a small silver lining in high fuel prices. And last, but not least, we talk about the new concession program at Indianapolis International Airport that will emphasize local concessions. You can listen to the 11:14-minute Podcast here. Enjoy!
You can join us in our permanent home at www.aviationweek.com/tarmacs to get the latest news on the world of airports.
Today's guest is Henry Harteveldt, vice president and principal analyst for airline and travel research at Forrester. Airlines have been introducing fees at a fast and furious pace in the wake of skyrocketing fuel prices. Henry and I discuss whether these charges are needed, what the airlines should really focus on to shore up the bottom line and which carriers are doing things the right way. You can click here to listen to the 13:38-minute Podcast of my interview with Harteveldt.
And don't forget to visit us at are regular home -- www.aviationweek.com/wings
It was a busy week for airports last week, which isn't a surprise. On this week's edition of the radio show, Madhu and I talk about the following:
You can listen to our 13:17-minute podcast of the show here. Enjoy!
And don't forget -- keep up with the latest airport news at our permanent home, which is www.aviationweek.com/tarmacs or www.towersandtarmacs.com
On Sunday, I flew out of BWI Airport to attend the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) annual meeting in New Orleans. I was in Korea when the Transportation Security Administration unveiled the checkpoint of the future at BWI back in April. I saw the demonstration that was set up in an old cargo building at Washington National Airport, but that wasn’t operated with actual passengers.
I had the chance to walk though the checkpoint, and decided to whip out the digital recorder to record my journey. I took a photo of the outside of the system – and TSA will be happy to know that a transportation security officer nicely scolded me for taking the photo. I volunteered to erase it, but he let it slide, but warned me that not everyone was as nice has him. Anywhoo, you can listen to my 3:19 minute podcast here. And if you want more visuals of the new checkpoint, check out this post from my favorite TSA blogger -- Bob -- at the Evolution of Security blog. Enjoy!
Don't forget -- you can read all the latest scoop on the world of airports at our permanent home -- www.aviationweek.com/tarmacs or www.towersandtarmacs.com
With everything that's going on in the airline industry these days, most of us barely have time digest the information. To that end, today we are launching the Things With Wings Radio Show, a quasi-weekly podcast where we will chat with Aviation Week editors and industry observers to get some analysis on exactly what's going on.
Our show's inaugural first guest is Richard Aboulafia, who's vice president of analysis at the Teal Group, where he handles projects in the commercial and military aircraft field. He has his own web site, where, among other things, he writes a semi-regular monthly newsletter that are industry required reading, as it takes a humorous, but informative view of the industry. You can listen to my 10:20 minute interview here, where we discussed how high oil could go, airline capacity cuts, the outlook for mergers and who's next for a Ch. 11 filing. Enjoy! And tell us what you think about this new feature. Email me at benet_wilson@aviationweek.com
