We look at the state of air travel, and the outlook for the future. In the news, a ceremony commemorates the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, airlines leaving regional airports, skiplagging, the FAA Administrator nomination, and an engine fire on an Air China flight.

Robert Silk is the Travel Weekly Senior Editor for Aviation. Robby provides coverage and analysis of route networks, service offerings, and distribution, as well as airline industry trends and political and policy debates. He writes the Wheels Up opinion column about commercial aviation.

We look at the state of air travel, both from the airline perspective and from the customer perspective. Robby talks about the lasting impacts of the pandemic, the leisure/business travel balance, and how that has affected airline strategies. He touches on how fees have changed and how the shoulder day (or season) pricing doesn’t always offer the price advantage it has in the past. Robby also provides his thoughts on the dis-entanglement of the Northeast Alliance after the Justice Department suit found it anti-competitive, as well as market trends and predictions for where the market is headed.

Travel Weekly and TravelWeekly.com are influential B2B news resources for the travel industry, providing late-breaking news, analysis, and research for travel professionals. They cover all the business sectors, including airline, car rental, cruise, destination, hotel, and tour operator as well as technology, economic, and governmental issues.

Prior to joining Travel Weekly in 2015, Robby spent a decade covering tourism, business, the environment, development, and general news for the Florida Keys’ daily newspaper, the Key West Citizen, as well as for an affiliated weekly, the Florida Keys Free Press. He also edited the Travel Weekly Florida eNewsletter in 2015 and 2016.  

To commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks on New York, Washington, and in Pennsylvania, a ceremony was held on the Memorial Plaza. It focused on an in-person reading of the names by family members.

Airlines are leaving regional airports. A recent study by Ailevon Pacific found that American, Delta, and United together have left 74 regional airports since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reasons include the pilot shortage and the current economics of the 50-seat jet. We consider the Essential Air Service (EAS) program.

Skiplagging is the practice of booking a ticket with the intention of getting off at the connecting airport rather than completing the flight to the destination.  It’s attractive because sometimes the ticket price for the longer flight is lower than the ticket for the shorter flight to the connecting destination. Also known as hidden-city ticketing, American Airlines has filed a lawsuit against the site Skiplagged.com.

Michael G. Whitaker is a former deputy administrator at the FAA (2013-2016). Currently, he is the CEO of Hyundai affiliate Supernal working to develop an air taxi aircraft. Whitaker worked at TWA and United Airlines, where he became a senior vice president and oversaw international and regulatory affairs, before moving to the travel company InterGlobe. He holds a private pilot license. Since March 2022, the FAA has been run by acting administrators. See also White House Nominates Michael Whitaker as FAA Administrator from AOPA.

An Air China Airbus A320neo made an emergency landing at Singapore’s Changi Airport after a failure in the left engine. Smoke was reported in the cabin and the passengers were evacuated. The jet was assembled at the Airbus facility in Tianjin, China, and delivered by Airbus in December 2018. According to ch-aviation, the aircraft had accumulated 9,244 hours and 3,967 flight cycles as of June 2023. The Air China fleet includes are Airbus A320neos.

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