Maria Weber’s Post

✈️ Exciting times ahead at United Airlines set for a bold 2025 expansion, adding destinations like Faro, Madeira, and Nuuk to its network. This move isn't just about new routes – it's about tapping into demand for unique, lesser-traveled destinations and making United the leader in TATL destinations. Interesting to note: United's competition with SATA Azores Airlines on the Funchal-NYC route (S4 flies to JFK) and the FAA safety concerns around the postponed route to Faro, which have now been cleared. What do you think?

✈️ How many U.S. airlines do you think serve all 50 states? 🌎 Take a guess! You might think Hawaii or Alaska are the tricky ones, right? Well, not so much! Even Southwest flies to Hawaii these days. 🏝️ The real surprise? As of yesterday, only one airline serves all 50 U.S. states—and that’s American Airlines! 🇺🇸 But there’s a catch: it’s not entirely by air. American now offers an airside bus service to Delaware's Wilmington New Castle Airport from nearby Philadelphia. So technically, they cover all states, but no airline flies to all 50 just yet. ✈️ 🚌 By the way, Avelo Airlines is the only airline actually flying scheduled into Wilmington New Castle right now. Were you surprised by this? 🤔 And which other airlines do you know that serve every region of a country? Sure, Australia has fewer states—easy. But what about Canada? 🇨🇦 Let’s hear your thoughts! #Aviation #Airlines #US

As Hurricane Kirk approaches, European aviation faces a rare challenge. Expected to weaken into a post-tropical storm, Kirk could still disrupt travel across France, the UK, and beyond. While North American airlines are well-versed in rerouting and offering flexible rebooking during hurricanes, most European carriers are less prepared for these events and with technical debt. Airlines must act quickly to adjust flight paths, issue proactive selfservice options, and—most critically—improve flexible travel waivers in advance. This helps passengers easily rebook flights without hassle, minimizing disruption. In a week, we’ll know more: I regularly struggle with the rebooking bots of the Lufthansa Group and IAG, whereas with United or Delta, it’s usually smooth and very flexible in-app. #aviation #hurricaneKirk #travel

Yesterday’s events brought stark differences in how airlines responded to the rocket strikes from Iran toward Israel, highlighting the complexity of decision-making in crisis situations. Some airlines reacted swiftly, while others took longer to adjust their routes. For instance, Lufthansa Group quickly turned around flights heading eastbound, yet continued operating westbound via Egypt at the same time. Emirates continued operations before eventually diverting. Meanwhile, British Airways (BA) and Air France chose to route their flights through Iraqi airspace, which raised questions given the routes the rockets took. Surprisingly, Iranian airlines like Qeshm even turned around domestic flights, reflecting heightened caution. On the other hand, Wizz Air seemed to be the only carrier still operating in Iranian airspace. What fascinates me here is the diverse risk management strategies and the varying access to intelligence that might have informed these decisions. Do some airlines have access to more detailed information, or is it simply a matter of different thresholds for risk? Curious to hear others’ thoughts on how airlines make such decisions in rapidly changing situations like this. ✈️ #Aviation #Airlines #CrisisManagement #Safety

𝗔 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲-𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – Air France takes a pioneering step with 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻-𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘁 following United's announcement. For frequent flyers and corporate travelers, the question becomes: Do you prefer getting productive work done with a stable internet connection, or squeezing in some restless sleep on an overnight flight? This positions the airline to capitalize on an evolving trend – travelers like myself who, when given a choice between a daytime flight with fast connectivity or an overnight flight (even in Business Class), will choose the former every time. Why? Because working on a plane and then getting a good night’s sleep at a destination (or even at home) sounds much better than an interrupted rest mid-air. This is also a chance for Air France to reconsider its transatlantic (TATL) strategy. Delta, BA and a few others already offer eastbound daylight flights – a model Air France could explore again. With Starlink’s high-speed internet, these daylight TATL flights become even more attractive. Passengers can work effectively on a daytime flight and skip the disruption of overnight travel altogether. In the short term, this technological leap gives Air France (and any airline adopting high-speed internet) an advantage. But in the long run, it will shift the way travelers and businesses think about flight schedules altogether. Day flights become not just a convenience but the preferred option for those who value productivity and rest. ✈️ Forget the traditional overnight TATL flights with only a few hours of sleep – why not offer more daylight options? ✈️ Night flights to South Africa? A productive day flight with a proper night’s sleep on the ground could be the smarter choice. There’s also room for creative new itineraries: two-day flights with stopovers via places like Iceland or Greenland, giving travelers a smart mix of work, rest, and efficiency – all for the cost of a Premium Economy ticket. 𝗔𝗶𝗿 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 + 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 = 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗹𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴. Angus Clarke, Maarten van der Lei #airfrance #starlink

𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵𝘄𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗶𝗿? 🛫 Today’s investor day presentation at Southwest Airlines revealed some interesting moves that appear to be inspired by Ryanair’s playbook. The latest announcements point to further efficiency improvements and revenue generation at the US low-cost carrier. 🔹 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: The introduction of new seat allocation options promises additional revenue – a strategy Ryanair implemented years ago with great success. 🔹 𝗢𝗧𝗔 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: In another big shift, Southwest will be opening up its distribution through online travel agencies (OTAs). Soon, Southwest flights will be bookable on platforms like Kayak, a move that echoes Ryanair’s long-awaited embrace of OTAs. 🔹 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲: Southwest's current turnaround time of 49 minutes, while considered fast in the US, pales in comparison to Ryanair's efficiency. The goal is to trim this down, essentially freeing up the equivalent of 16 aircraft through better utilization. 🔹 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲? 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗲𝘆𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀! While Ryanair hasn’t yet ventured into 24-hour operations, Southwest is preparing to launch 33 daily redeyes next year. This bold move will free up the equivalent of 18 additional aircraft and expand its schedule even further in the coming years. Wizz Air has already tapped into overnight flying, but this could be a significant game-changer in the US market. Will Ryanair follow Southwest’s lead on this one? Or will they stick to their current model? Exciting times ahead in the LCC space! ✈️ What’s your take on Southwest’s evolving strategy?

Inappropriate aircraft orders, constantly new route cancellations, AOGs, shares on the decline, ignorant customer service: at the moment, Wizzair is the clear loser of the European LCCs for me. Let's take a closer look at the latest route announcement: The first long-haul route with the ordered Airbus A321XLR does not even require this new aircraft type. Tap flies with a regular A321LR across the Atlantic to Toronto or Natal, for example, which is 500 miles further than from London to Jeddah. What happened here? A wrong order or a planning error? The indifference of network planning also plays a role here. Let's take Vienna as an example: a major expansion from Vienna was announced in 2018, but not much is left of it. Down from 9 aircraft only 4 aircraft are stationed today in Vienna, while Ryanair is the winner here in the immediate vicinity of Wizz HQ in Hungary and now operates a base four times as large. When I look at the Wizz routes I flew, I notice that 9 out of 10 routes have been canceled: BRE, DTM, LIS, KWI, JTR and SOF from the Gulf.... This may be a bad commercial decision, but on top of that there was miserable and unlawful customer service. Even official arbitration by the regulator is ignored and customers are left to pursue administrative penalties and civil lawsuits. So what is going wrong at Wizzair? Joszef Varadi is well advised to rethink, because he won't get his 100M bonus this way. It seems to me that those who only chase money are much less successful than those who enjoy their work and business. What do you think? #lcc #europe #alltimelow

Last week we took a look at independent LCC routes in Germany vs France and found that there is not a single domestic route in Germany, but 43 routes within France (excluding islands). One of the reasons is the strong market presence of Lufthansa-owned low-cost carrier Eurowings. So today we compare the flag carrier-owned LCCs Eurowings and Transavia. Eurowings operates 14 domestic German routes, 12 to Austria and 4 to Zurich. Transavia is not that far behind with 9 purely French domestic routes. All in all, there are 52 domestic French routes from 5 carriers to 14 domestic German routes only from Lufthansa's Eurowings, which is now also discontinuing the connection between the two largest cities in the language area Berlin and Vienna and will only be served by its own Austrian. Of course, this also has an impact on the price structure. While in France there are countless routes with entry prices of 17 euros, in Germany we are at a multiple of this, namely 48 euros between Munich and Cologne and 58 euros on most other routes, if at all. It should be noted that Eurowings only includes a small carry-on bag and the carry-on bag is subject to a surcharge. To summarize, it must be said that something has gone very wrong in Germany. Deutsche Bahn is as unpopular and unreliable as never before and the only alternative is the Lufthansa monopoly, which is many times more expensive than in neighboring France. #lcc #france #germany

When the buyer adopts bad habits of the rescued company or: The race to the bottom at Air France. This is exactly what is happening in the Group right now. After KLM switches to Buy on Board from 2025, the previously prominent Air France is also testing Buy on Board on routes to Helsinki and Lisbon from January. SAS was one of the first airlines to introduce this bad habit over 10 years ago and it has not saved them from ruin, quite the opposite. Now Air France-KLM is following suit and thus aligning itself even more closely with SAS, while SAS passengers are now often excluded from lounge access on domestic flights due to stricter lounge access rules in SkyTeam. Lufthansa has already seen an exodus of passengers since Buy on Board was introduced in 2021 and has been testing included catering again since July, at least for status passengers. After all, why spend even more money on a flag carrier if what is on offer is nothing but no frills? Lufthansa and Swiss even experienced significantly more delays over the summer than their competitors. Especially to Lisbon, Air France is certainly not doing itself any favors. It is already the most expensive and is in direct competition with EasyJet from CDG, although the TAP and Vueling flights from Orly are much easier to reach by metro. TAP even offers a higher frequency and nice services such as early standby from the Ponte Aerea program. Air France management needed more than 3 years to copy the competition and then doesn't even do it very sophisticated. Air France-KLM, Angus Clarke, Luis Rodrigues

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿, or at least my booking behavior. Why? One thought is enough: What is better, working with fast internet or sleeping in an airplane? If I have a reliable choice between a day flight with fast Internet or an overnight flight, even in Business Class, I will always prefer the day flight with a night at home or in a hotel - and even save a lot of money in the process. All of this will be possible with #Starlink internet coverage, as Scott Kirby presented at United Airlines yesterday. The consequence is a positive effect for all airlines with fast Internet in the short term, but a change in booking behavior in the long term. ✈️The transcontinental redeye with 4h sleep? Never again, instead as a day flight. ✈️The eastbound TATL at night with 5 hours of restless sleep? Never again - there are already daytime flights eastbound (BA, DL, AV). ✈️The night flight to South Africa and parking the plane there during the day to fly back at night? Definitely not. ✈️I won't book any more night flights westwards either. Hello my nightmares: OS26, TP87, LH506 There will also be new opportunities for smart stopovers: two day flights via Iceland, Greenland or the Azores with dinner and a night in a hotel in between, working on the plane for the price of a Premium Economy ticket. Count me in! What do you think? #redeye #dayflight