Friday Flyer – October 20, 2023

Hope everyone at PROS is enjoying the recharge day and if you’re flying, enjoy the view from the window seat!  It’s time for earnings in the US, so the big airlines have kicked things off.  There’s always a lot of good industry level detail in those.

Interesting Aviation News

  • United, Delta, and American all announced earnings and had plenty to say.  The narrative around the US LCC market suffering soon continues to gain steam, with some chatter on that in the announcement.  United and Delta did quite well (profitable) while AA fell short.
  • Airlines are constantly looking at ways to improve efficiency, especially when it can mean fewer delays.  One of the common places airlines like to tinker is in the boarding process.  It’s an area that is researched often, with everyone wanting the fastest way to get all passengers on board.  United has once again changed their boarding process to board window seats first, middle seats next, and aisle seats last.  This sounds good on paper, but between priority boarding and access to overhead bin space, it will be interesting to see if this works.  (h/t: Brian W.)
  • Loyalty programs aimed at businesses aren’t a common topic, but AA has one that they’re retiring in order to roll out a new one.  I thought this was interesting to understand more about the concept. 
  • This is a weekly newsletter that I came across.  It has a lot of good data visualizations from around the airline industry.  Particularly interesting was the chart on how Delta spends the revenue it brings in on its path to profitability.  
  • You often hear and read about the biggest airline markets.  But what about the smallest?  Here’s the list you’ve been waiting for. (h/t: Stanislava)
  • I’ve shared information about the importance of weight and balance to the operations of an airplane.  Apparently, the assumptions of the weight and balance calculations are challenged when a group of sumo wrestlers book the same flight.

Interesting Aviation Fact

I recently came across the YouTube page called 74Gear.  It’s videos of a 747 pilot providing insight into various situations that have happened in real life and made the news.  He also covers the movies with airplane related content, sharing some insight into whether it is realistic or not.  A favorite of mine is the assessment of the fine film, Con Air.  If you haven’t seen that movie, I’d highly recommend not wasting those two hours of your life. 😊

Cool Aviation Photo

This picture is an old one from 2004 (obviously from the livery of the United plane), but really cool to see the perspective of these planes. The foreground shows a United Boeing B757 on approach at SFO with a Lufthansa Boeing B747-400 in the background.  The planes certainly way too close!