Business Insider (April 22)
“First, the Iran war made flights more expensive. Now, it’s making them disappear.” Aviation analytics firm Cirium found that “19 of the world’s 20 largest airlines have cut flights in May.” Jet fuel prices have skyrocketed, “doubling in price to almost $200 a barrel. And as the war drags on, jet fuel is getting harder to come by.” Cirium had predicted annual flight capacity growth of 4%-6%, but now envisions a decline of up to 3%.
Tags: $200, Airlines, Analytics, Aviation, Capacity growth, Cirium, Doubling, Expensive, Flights, Iran war, Jet fuel, Prices, Skyrocketed
Fortune (July 23)
The response of CrowdStrike has been “underwhelming,” symbolized by CEO George Kurtz’s failure to apologize immediately. With a bug that “hit less than 1% of Windows devices,” CrowdStrike “unleashed global chaos” last Friday. The fallout “grounded more than 6% of the world’s commercial flights. It also halted surgeries, broadcasts, money transfers, 911 call centers, train systems, stores, hotel reservations, mobile apps, and some government services. As of yesterday, many were still scrambling to recover.” CrowdStrike’s comeuppance may come as it enters “a risky period,” with its stock hammered “by almost a third” and angry customers reexamining their ties to the cybersecurity company.
Tags: Apologize, Apps, Broadcasts, Bug, CEO, Comeuppance, CrowdStrike, Customers, Cybersecurity, Failure, Flights, Global chaos, Hammered, Hotels, Kurtz, Money transfers, Recover, Response, Stock, Stores, Surgeries, Trains, Underwhelming, Windows
Mercury News (May 12)
“From Mexico to far-flung Argentina, thousands of Latin Americans are booking flights to the United States to take advantage of one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, as rollouts in their own countries sputter.” The increased demand is evident. “Flight prices from Mexico to the United States have risen an average of 30%-40% since mid-March.”
Tags: Argentina, Boomed, Campaign, Demand, Flight prices, Flights, Latin America, Mexico, Rollouts, Sputter, U.S., Vaccination
The Independent (August 25)
On Sunday, British Airways should have been celebrating 100 years of flight, instead BA was experiencing “one of the worst weekends in its 21st-century history.” When the Pilots’ Association called three days of strikes, “the airline told tens of thousands of passengers that their flights were cancelled–only to admit many of the messages were sent in error” because the wrong date range was used in sending the alerts.
Tags: BA, Cancelled, Date, Error, Flights, Passengers, Pilots’ Association, Strikes, Wrong
Korea Times (October 1)
A combination of Japan’s Obon holidays and a harvest festival, Korea’s Chuseok break has begun and “a record number of travelers flocked to Incheon International Airport on the first day.” On Sunday, 114,746 passengers used the airport to depart, but the new record is expected to be broken again during the remainder of the 10-day Chuseok holiday season. Flights to Japan are especially popular with Korean Air reporting that “99 percent of its tickets to Japan have been booked,” while flights on low-cost carriers were snapped up long ago.
LA Times (August 8)
“Delta’s computer outage highlights the airline industry’s vulnerability.” On Monday, over 650 flights were cancelled and over 2,000 delayed when Delta’s system went down. These massive failures are becoming more common amidst airline consolidation and expansive systems. “Experts have blamed the rash of outages on massive, interconnected computer systems that lack sufficient staff and financial backing.”
Tags: Airlines. Vulnerability, Cancelled, Computer, Consolidation, Delayed, Delta, Flights, Outage
