United rewards employees and offers bag option

United Airlines has awarded US$125,000 to employees across the company for excellence in customer service as part of the company’s Outperform Recognition Program: a celebration was duly staged at George Bush Intercontinental airport in Houston.

Launched in June 2012, the Outperform Recognition Program invites customers who are MileagePlus members to nominate eligible employees for service at the airport, on the phone, on a flight or at any other stage of their travel with the carrier. Employees from all work groups, including pilots, flight attendants, ramp and customer service employees, may be nominated. The airline randomly selected 16 winners from more than 9,000 customer nominations submitted during the first four months of the program running.

Separately, United Airlines has launched a new baggage delivery option, enabling customers to have their checked bags delivered directly to their final destinations, within 100 miles of their arrival airport, thereby avoiding the baggage claim process. A single bag to be delivered within a 40 mile radius will cost just under US$30; an additional charge will apply for a more distant drop-off.

Baggage delivery by BagsVIP will initially be available to customers departing from any domestic airport and arriving in Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles and Orlando. The airline plans to expand the service to more than 190 domestic airports in the coming months.

 

 

Delta and Pinnacle: a joint future

The future of Pinnacle Airlines was up in the air at the start of the new year, when it was revealed that it could exit bankruptcy as a Delta Air Lines subsidiary. Delta’s potential ownership stake in this regional airline partner was simply one of several possibilities that had been suggested within agreements that currently await US Bankruptcy Court approval.

Some weeks later, Pinnacle Airlines confirmed that it would be emerging from bankruptcy as a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, based on a new agreement struck with the regional airline’s unsecured creditor’s committee, Delta and its pilot group.

“The reorganization plan will provide for Delta or an affiliate to acquire the equity in the reorganized Pinnacle Airlines Corp. after it emerges from bankruptcy,” Pinnacle stated in a press release. Although the new agreement is still pending court approval, the plan is for it to continue to fly under its own operating certificate.

Pinnacle has until mid-February to submit a reorganization strategy to the bankruptcy court. If all goes according to plan, the bankruptcy court could rule on Pinnacle’s reorganization scheme by May.

The whole of Pinnacle’s new common stock will be issued to Delta; indeed, Delta has served as Pinnacle’s debtor-in-possession lender throughout the entire reorganization process. The carrier agreed to issue US$74.3m in financing, a decision made last May, and has agreed to seek repayment in the form of exit financing and common stock to allow Pinnacle to emerge from bankruptcy.

 

Wildlife: a cause for concern?

The event last year at Tweed New Haven Regional airport has underlined once again the dangers posed by the environment immediately surrounding an airport.

In the case of Tweed, a deer bounded across the runway, just as a Lear Jet was taking off. Fortunately, the damage was limited to the aircraft and the deer, and the Lear’s occupants survived what could have been a fatal incident. The event has prompted the airport authority to erect fencing around the airport although it points out that there is a history of it working with the US Department of Agriculture in order to reduce the threat of wildlife colliding with aircraft.

The occurrence, though, is perhaps not so uncommon.

Bradley International, for example, had recorded 570 such incidents by the end of September 2012, whilst Denver International had logged a worrying total of 4,173.

 

Moving people in Florida

Orlando International has announced plans to build a new automated people mover system and parking garage to help cope with the growing levels of passenger traffic that it has been experiencing.

The new people mover system should be in operation by 2015 and will function as the terminal point for new passenger rail services into the airport. It will connect with a new parking garage, thereby providing the airport with additional capacity until the new south terminal is built in 2017.

The airport has said that this new people mover complex would allow private rail companies like All Aboard Florida to begin a passenger service between Orlando and Miami.

Gate catering for United

Late in 2012, gategroup announced contracts totaling more than CHF430m (US$462m) in revenues over the three-year life of the agreement signed with United Airlines. This award was part of a tender that covered the majority of United’s contracts with the gategroup brand, Gate Gourmet.

Gate Gourmet renewed more than 90% of its contracted revenue on tender. The contracts include extensions in catering and provisioning service at three of United’s core connecting hubs, at Chicago O’Hare, San Francisco and Washington Dulles, as well as further volumes in San Francisco and Washington Dulles.

In addition to the three hub locations, Gate Gourmet will continue to provide services to United in the following spoke cities, for which tenders were held: Columbus, Jacksonville, New Orleans and San Antonio. The agreements took effect in January this year and will run through to December 2015.

 

Guns: is the TSA over a barrel?

The Transportation Security Administration has revealed that it discovered more than 1,500 firearms at airport checkpoints in 2012, according to a report.

Despite the fact that travelers are forbidden to carry firearms on board aircraft (although they can be checked in, provided that counter staff are informed and that the weapons are unloaded and put into a secure, robust container), the 2012 figures exceed those of 2011, when just over 1,300 weapons were discovered.

The TSA spokesperson said that he assumed the vast majority were seized because people were unaware of the rules – a statement which seems to border on the naïve, given the high profile attached to guns in the wake of recent killing sprees in the US.

For the record, Atlanta came out with the worst statistics, with the number of guns found totaling 80 in all. Close behind in second place was Dallas.