Friday Flyer – December 22, 2023

This will be the last Flyer of 2023!  It’s been an awesome year for the airline industry as demand came back in a big way, perhaps even more than expected.  With 2024 on the horizon, everyone is keen to see how recovery continues to look.  Airlines certainly continue to remain optimistic as aircraft orders for the future continue to flood in.  I’m excited for what 2024 has to hold and looking forward to how PROS can help our customers and new airlines achieve their goals.

Interesting Aviation Stories

  • Speaking of those aircraft orders, the Lufthansa Group got in on the ordering with a narrowbody order.  Particularly noteworthy in this order is that it’s for Boeing B737 MAX.  The 737 is one of the most popular narrowbody aircraft, but Lufthansa notably hasn’t bought any in nearly 30 years.  In addition to that order, the group further ordered Airbus A220s for more short-haul flying.  It’s a big upgrade to their aging fleet of narrowbody aircraft. (h/t: Andrew B.)
  • The US Department of Transportation says they’ll be opening an investigation into airline Frequent Flyer programs.  It seems that they want to make sure there is proper regulation around these programs since there is effectively no accountability on the airlines today.  (h/t: Brent F.)
  • Speaking of the US DOT, they levied a serious fine against Southwest Airlines for last year’s Christmas operational meltdown.  The tab charged to Southwest is $140M, which is on top of the estimated $600M that Southwest says they already have paid out to customers directly. The DOT is hoping to use these funds to kickoff a program similar to the EU’s EU261 program that guarantees compensation for delayed and canceled flights.  Given both of these stories relate to the DOT investigating airlines, it’s worth noting that I read somewhere this week that there might be more to come from the DOT in this area because it’s an election year, and everyone likes to beat up the airlines, so it could add some political capital during the election.
  • On the topic of holiday meltdowns, the big US carriers are preparing so they can have better results this year.  At least one thing working in their favor is that a massive winter storm doesn’t appear to be timed to happen right as holiday travel kicks off.  But there are other things they’re doing as well. 
  • If you do happen to be in a situation where operational issues have caused an oversell, being aware of how the compensation process works today is a good idea.  Here’s an article that does exactly that. (h/t: Vikas)
  • As we look ahead to the busy travel season next summer, one interesting market is the popular New York to London route.  Here are some interesting facts about that market. (h/t: Yining)
  • Changes at Qatar Airways continue after the replacement of their long time CEO.  This change is that they’ll now be arming their flight attendants with smartphones, loaded with information about passengers.  The goal of this approach is to enable the flight attendants to provide a more personalized experience to their passengers.  This opens the door to a lot of technology/AI that PROS is working on with personalized offers. (h/t: Sri)
  • If you have someone in your family patiently (or impatiently) awaiting the arrival of Santa, FlightRadar24’s tracking his progress across the globe this weekend.  There are several others that will be tracking, but I’m partial to FlightRadar.

Interesting Aviation Fact

While most pilots in the sky at any given time are focused on getting from point A to point B, some may also be gathering hours or simply wanting to express their creative side.  In the Christmas season, that means we get to see pilots making Christmas tree flight patterns in the sky.  Here’s some history on this and some fun examples. 

Cool Aviation Photo

This picture is an obvious throwback since airberlin hasn’t existed for a while, but I wanted a Christmas themed livery for today’s Flyer.  This is a Boeing 737-800 decked out in the “Flying Home for Christmas” livery in 2014. 

I hope everyone has a great holiday season and happy new year!

The Friday Flyer is a weekly email with links to interesting aviation articles from the previous week.  It was started by the Travel PS team a few years ago as a way to keep interested PROS colleagues updated on the latest happenings in the industry.  It was handed over to me in 2020 to keep it going.