Roundup Since I was away last week

Dear Readers... sorry for the silence.

I spent the last weeek exploring the great American West. Driving a UHaul (aka a large 10,000lb capacity truck) between Seattle and Big Sky Montana was an experience. You get a definite appreciation for the size of the American continent. Some of those things you see from the air are hard to make out at ground level. If you want to rent a REALLY great truly ski in ski out in the Largest Ski area in the USA - then send me a ping.

But this has been an interesting week. the A380 finally started shuttling lovers (oops I mean passengers) in First Class Suites playing chess behind closed doors on SQ. But there were lots of other stories:

Kitty Hawk Airlines stopped service - flying priority freight head to head against the logistics mega carriers of UPS and Fedex is a tough battle. It just goes to show its a business of scale. Remember those little old converted prop planes we used to see around the US country side - well most of them are going bye bye - just like the Supplementals before them.

Northwest rounded out the huge profits of the spectacular second quarter.

Merril Lynch dumped their grumpy Goldman Sachs hating CEO (No relation) O'Neal. Imagine living in the same building as your sworn enemy!!!! No truth to the rumour that his payout is in United stock.

Despite all the advice - people still havent booked their Winter Vacations. In the USA - that means you are going to PAY and PAY!!! Alternatively for about the price of a one way ticket in 1st class on SQ - you can rent my condo in Big Sky!

ILFC finally commited to the Airbus A350XWB. There is no truth to the rumour that the XWB stands for Xtra Weight onBoard as a reference to the new size wize for humans in the USA. However they did up the number to 20 from 16 original orders.

SAS Dumped their Q400 Fleets. Imagine reading the story of the 3rd crash landing by SK when you are flying in said aircraft doing 3 take offs and landings to get from BZN-SEA. SK has just had enough

BA lost it 3rd franchise partner in 6 months with GB airways selling out to EasyJet and Loganair (the Trislander carrier) dumped their contract. No truth to the rumour that Kulula will dump BA when they start flying to the UK next year.

And what about those slots at LHR - 4 of them (not part of the GB airways sale) are on offer to the highest bidder. BAA/LHR has allowed EI to transfer its slots for SNN-LHR to the new service to LHR from Belfast. That story will run for a while.

More insight and analysis starting tomorrow.

Cheers

Timothy