Tag: Gulliver

AFTER years of ascension, the three Gulf superconnectors, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, have recently suffered a bad spell. The low price of oil—usually a boon for airlines—has reduced spending power in oil-rich states, which has dampened demand for flights from the region. Terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, too, have proved a deterrent. Then came Donald Trump. The president’s attempts to ban travel from some Muslim-majority countries put many off flying to America, which is a big market for these long-haul carriers. American restrictions on electronic devices on flights from the three carriers’ home airports to America made things even worse.

Qatar Airways must have hoped that the only way from here on in was upwards. Those hopes were dashed on July 5th when Qatar’s neighbours, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, decided to sever diplomatic relations with the country, followed swiftly by others, including Egypt. The Continue reading

AIRLINES, like all firms, have a duty to shareholders to cut costs, if it makes them more competitive and more profitable in the long term. British Airways has been zealous in this regard. Over the past few years, the airline, under the stewardship of Willie Walsh and Alex Cruz, has cut staff, outsourced IT, and removed complimentary goodies from passengers.

They have their reasons. Not so long ago, some questioned whether British Airways could survive the combination of low-cost carriers devouring its short-haul route and upscale Middle Eastern rivals dominating the long-haul connecting market. Both of those challenges remain real (indeed a third previously unforeseen threat has arisen in the form of low-cost long-haul competitors such as Norwegian Air). Still, no one now questions British Airways’ immediate future. Partly as a result of cost-cutting, and a bit of luck in the form of low oil prices, the airline’s finances are rosy. In 2016, IAG, the carrier’s parent firm, reported a profit of €2.36bn…Continue reading

HERE in America, we recently celebrated Memorial Day, when barbecues and pool openings mark the beginning of summer, astronomers be damned. For leisure travellers, that means sun, surf and spritzes. For business travellers, it can mean headaches, as airport lines grow ever longer and flight delays more common.

Who is to blame for the annoyances of flying in the summer? Partly, it is those aforementioned leisure travellers. Longer waits in security lines are largely a question of volume. Airlines for America (A4A), an industry group, forecasts that more than 234m passengers will use America’s carriers from June through to August. That would represent a new record, topping last year’s number by 4%. A4A attributes the expected increase to a growing economy and “historically low airfares”. But really, this is a familiar pattern. In 2016 the group also predicted a record-high number of summer…Continue reading

MODERN air travel has become less tolerable in many ways. Seats are narrower, legroom more cramped and luggage space elusive. But in one way it has vastly improved. Keeping yourself amused on a flight once meant squinting at a flickering movie on a distant screen. Today flyers can travel with a library of films, music and books on a small electronic device. On-board Wi-Fi also means business folk can work uninterrupted. 

That may change. On May 28th, John Kelly, America’s homeland security secretary, said that the country was considering extending a ban on large electronic devices in cabins to cover all international flights to and from the country. Currently only passengers on planes taking off from eight mostly-Muslim countries are forced to place their laptops, tablets and the like into the hold. 

The idea has not come out of the blue. Officials have hinted for months that they were considering introducing such a ban. Earlier this…Continue reading

BRITISH AIRWAYS usually relishes the spring bank-holiday weekend, as families take advantage of the extended break to jet off somewhere pleasant. This year’s won’t end soon enough for the airline. A catastrophic computer failure on May 27th grounded over a thousand flights and caused chaos for flyers.  

The incident, which was reportedly related to a power failure rather than a cyber attack, will raise questions about the company’s IT system. But for those caught up in the turmoil, it will simply confirm how the service standards of this national airline have deteriorated. Indeed in some respects it showed a chilling disregard for customers.

Your correspondent’s own experience at Heathrow was far from the worst. Many passengers were stuck overnight thanks to missed connections. We arrived at Terminal 5 at 8.30am on Sunday for a 10.55am flight to Berlin. By then police were only letting some passengers in to avoid overcrowding. Inside there was a huge queue that snaked across the terminal. This turned out not to be…Continue reading

UBER and Lyft will make their triumphant return to Austin on Monday. Whether the Texas capital will welcome them back is another matter.

The ride-hailing giants left in a huff a year ago, after Austinites had the temerity to vote in favour of maintaining the city’s requirement that the firms perform fingerprint checks on their drivers, as traditional taxi companies must. The pair have long resisted being held to the same standards as taxis, with an insistence bordering on arrogance. They have also tended to assume that customers had their backs. So it was a rude awakening when, after forcing a city-wide ballot on the issue, and spending close to $9m on their campaign, Uber and Lyft found themselves on the wrong side of the progressive Austin population, which didn’t want to be pushed around by big companies from out of town.

Even so, the city had become reliant on the ride-hailing firms, due to a combination of hedonistic nightlife,…Continue reading

DONALD TRUMP made a splash during the American presidential campaign when he called for a trillion-dollar investment in infrastructure. But when he actually released his first major budget proposal this week, funds for roads and bridges hardly attracted notice. Though the document does lay out a target of $200bn in direct federal spending, to be augmented by private investments, it provides only $5bn in 2018. “President Trump’s campaign promises on infrastructure are crumbling faster than our roads and bridges,” said one senior Democrat.

Yet tucked away in the proposal is one short paragraph that ought to intrigue the country’s city-dwellers, who overwhelmingly vote Democratic, as well as business travellers who often find themselves visiting American cities.

In a paragraph titled “Incentivize Innovative Approaches to Congestion Mitigation”, there is a proposal to “provide valuable incentives for localities to think outside of the box in solving long-standing congestion challenges,” modeled after…Continue reading

ONE of the more disquieting rumours of the year is that of the Iraqi transport minister who reportedly demanded a turn at the yoke of a plane carrying 200 passengers flying from Baghdad to Basra. According to a report in the New Arab last month, and a witness account on al-Sharqiya television news, the politician entered the cockpit and asked if he could land the plane. The captain told his co-pilot to give his seat to the minister so that he could land it under his supervision. New Arab quoted one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity: «The minister did not do a good job. He slammed the front of the plane into the ground, sending the passengers into a panic.»

That all sounds a bit far-fetched to Gulliver. (The Iraqi Civil…Continue reading

TO WHOM does the legroom on an aeroplane belong? More specifically, who owns the four inches of knee-space into which a passenger can recline his seat?

The accepted notion is that such territory belongs to the person seated in front. That flyer has, after all, paid for a reclining chair and thus believes it is his “right” to occupy the space behind. If he remains upright, magnanimously bequeathing extra inches to the person behind, it is on the understanding that he can move the border whenever he likes. 

But, in common with many borders, disputes are inevitable. Sometimes the newly squished passenger will wage a guerilla war, perhaps by wedging his knees into the back of the seat in front, ensuring that the price of territorial expansion is discomfort. Weapons may also be deployed. The Knee Defender, a device that can be attached to the chair in front to render it rigid, is banned by many airlines, but that does not deter desperate flyers from using them. All too often, real warfare ensues….Continue reading

ON MAY 7th a fist-fight broke out on a Southwest Airlines flight that had just landed at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California. The violence began when a passenger accused another of “messing with his chair”. It was, inevitably, captured on video and quickly spread on social media.

Twenty miles down the road, Los Angeles International Airport unveiled a new $22m terminal. The facility, called the Private Suite at Los Angeles International Airport, will be the first of its kind in America when it opens on May 15th: an exclusive hideaway for Hollywood types who want to avoid the masses (and the paparazzi) en route to their flights. For an annual membership of $7,500, plus $2,700 to $3,000 per flight, a group of up to four travellers can enjoy luxury suites before being screened by a dedicated security team and transported directly to the plane in a BMW. Once there, they can board using a separate staircase,…Continue reading