A federal judge has ruled that American Airlines and JetBlue must end their Northeast Alliance because it is anti-competitive.

Formed in 2021, the partnership allows the two carriers to coordinate schedules, swap slots and share revenues at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Airports in the New York metropolitan area, and Logan Airport in Boston.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled in favor of the Justice Department, which had brought the suit in partnership with six states. Combining two of the four largest US airlines, the Northeast Alliance has decreased the number of flights at the four airports, and violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The Alliance “makes the two airlines partners, each having a substantial interest in the success of their joint and individual efforts, instead of vigorous, arms-length rivals regularly challenging each other in the marketplace of competition. Though the defendants claim their bigger-is-better collaboration will benefit the flying public, they produced minimal objectively credible proof to support that claim. Whatever the benefits to American and JetBlue of becoming more powerful—in the northeast generally, or in their shared rivalry with Delta—such benefits arise from a naked agreement not to compete with one another,” Judge Sorokin wrote in his decision.

The Boston Globe called the ruling “a major victory for the Biden administration, which has used aggressive enforcement of antitrust laws to fight against mergers and other arrangements between large corporations,” noting that an economist predicted it would cost consumers more than $700 million a year extra if American and JetBlue stopped competing in the Northeast.

While American Airlines yesterday reported positive results year to date, capacity remains an issue as domestic airlines continue to struggle with pilot and staffing shortages.  American will continue to fly below 2019 capacity levels in the third quarter, but nevertheless, projects increased revenues resulting from higher fares. Delta, United, and American have now all reported Q2 profits due to a strong travel rebound and higher fares.

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Flying business class on American Airlines has some new perks. But there’s an extra fee, of course. Read the rest of this entry »

Taking advantage of the surge in demand, American Airlines is dramatically increasing its service to Dublin, Ireland with new flights from Charlotte, Chicago, and Dallas through October 29. Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Travel Association and other signatories sent a letter to the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator requesting the end of pre-departure Covid testing for air travelers to help the economy bounce back and return to normal.

The letter was signed by American Airlines, Carnival Corp, Marriott International, Walt Disney Co’s Disney Parks, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Travel Association and others.

“Given the slow economic recovery of the business and international travel sectors, and in light of medical advancements and the improved public health metrics in the U.S., we encourage you to immediately remove the inbound testing requirement for vaccinated air travelers,”  the letter stated.

All air passengers 2 years or older with a flight departing to the US from a foreign country have been required to show a negative COVID-19 viral test result taken no more than 1 day before travel, or documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 in the past 90 days.

The travel industry has expressed concern that many Americans are not traveling internationally fearing they will test positive and be stranded.

Six out of every 1,000 checked bags in US airlines were reportedly lost, stolen, or mangled in the second half of 2021, according to the report conducted by LuggageHero.

The travel industry is back on track again and as the world slowly adapts and transitions to the “new normal,” more people across the globe are looking to travel this year.

But for all of the wonderful things travel’s return means for travelers, it also sages a return of mishandled luggage as a side effect of the surge. 

LuggageHero, a luggage storage service locator, annually produces a report highlighting the number of bags the airline lost and mishandled last year. According to the report, a total of 1,251,209 out of 220 million checked bags, or about 6 out of every 1,000 pieces of luggage pass through the airline’s hands. These figures, according to LuggageHero are 80.6% worse than the first half of 2021.

The report also indicates the best and the worst airlines in terms of travel baggage management. Envoy Air ranked worst followed by American Airlines. From July to December last year, the two airlines have reportedly lost and mishandled 9.04 and 8.62 bags per 1,000 luggage, respectively. 

Allegiant Air scores the highest in terms of safe baggage handling. For the past four years, the airline lost 1.85 bags only out of 1,000 in the second half of 2021. Allegiant Air is followed by Frontier Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. 

December appears to be the worst month for your luggage’s chances of arriving at your destination with you, while September is the safest.

​Last week, the CEO of American Airlines, Doug Parker said that checking passengers for proof of vaccination wouldn’t be physically possible on domestic flights without causing enormous delays to the airline system.

It’s tempting to compare Mr. Parker’s statements to similar ones made by tobacco and asbestos CEOs, who insisted that health authorities should not regulate their products. What he probably should have said was,“Without some form of proof that a person is vaxxed, and streamlined airport procedures, it isn’t physically possible for domestic flights to check passengers for proof of vaccination.”

Many of the problems airlines and airports encounter involving COVID-19 could be prevented if passengers couldn’t enter either without verified vaccination credentials and a one-minute COVID antigen swab test, or a breath analyzer test at a TSA security portal. Read the rest of this entry »