Will the majority of travelers forgive Southwest Airlines and start buying tickets on the major US air carrier again? To answer the question, it helps to have a deep knowledge in commercial aviation information technology operations, which safe to say, is not something most travelers possess or travel websites offer to consumers researching the latest airfares. Southwest Airlines accepted the blame for its technological meltdown during the holidays, and it has committed over $1 billion to fixing it. The airline conceded what critics had ben saying for years and after the crisis were able to say even more forcefully — and to a much wider, angrier audience. It had not invested enough in scheduling software and as a result didn’t have staff in place properly, and couldn’t catch up once the system started cascading with flight cancellations. According to airline experts who took part in a recent CNBC Technology Executive Council Town Hall, there’s been some signs of panic from the airline in answering this question itself. “People have been booking away from Southwest in January and February. Southwest is, from my perspective, in a moderate state of panic,” said Henry Harteveldt, Atmosphere Research Group president and a travel industry analyst and advisor who formerly worked in airline marketing. He pointed to $29 fare sales, “something I haven’t seen Southwest offer in a long time,” he said. Bonus offers and other incentives to sign up for credit cards, and companion passes for frequent fliers, are other examples of great benefits for passengers worth considering as a return traveler to Southwest, he said, but added, “These are not the actions of an airline that is seeing business flow across the transom at the level they expect.” Leisure travelers will return if the airline can prove its return to a former level of reliability, he said, but business travelers may be more reluctant, he added, depending on where they live and what other flight options they have. The biggest problem, though, isn’t the front-facing consumer efforts but that even a billion-plus dollars on operations spending can’t guarantee that Southwest steers clear of another tech meltdown in the future. Another very bad storm could produce similar results before an effective tech solution can be implemented.<br/>
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European airlines have warned they will struggle to compete with Chinese rivals as travel rebounds after Covid-19 lockdowns because they are forced to take longer routes to Asia to avoid flying over Russia. Ben Smith, CE of Air France-KLM, said Chinese airlines had an “unfair advantage” over European carriers that have been banned from Russian airspace since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine redrew some of the world’s main flight paths, cutting European airlines off from Russian airspace when flying the “great circle route” over northern Russia. But Chinese carriers can still fly over Russia and take shorter routes to Europe. “Between Paris and Seoul, it can add up to three hours in flight time,” Smith told the Financial Times. “If you’ve got a Chinese carrier that is flying over Russia, they’ve got an unfair advantage over us.” Finnair CE Topi Manner this week also warned that European airlines were at a “significant” disadvantage. “We think that what this will mean is that it will be very hard to make secondary cities of China profitable in terms of flying,” he said. Finland’s flag carrier built its business by using its location in the north of Europe to offer quick flight paths to Asia through northern Russia, and was badly hit by the sudden closure of the country’s airspace last year. “It adds hours to the journey and thus fuel, costs and emissions,” said Andrew Charlton, an aviation consultant. Finnair flights between Helsinki and Tokyo now take over 13 hours, up from 9 hours 30 before the airspace closures. Charlton said the rerouted flights would also add to congestion in the skies over Europe, leading to likely air traffic control delays. The warnings came as a wider rebound in air travel is already bringing traffic close to pre-pandemic levels in regions such as Europe, fuelling a recovery for the industry. In particular, airlines are hoping to capitalise on an expected return of Chinese tourists to popular shopping destinations such as Paris.<br/>
Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s low cost carrier signed a letter of intent to add Embraer regional jets to its fleet in a push to fly to smaller destinations in Asia’s emerging markets. Scoot will start taking delivery of nine E190 E2 jets from 2024, the carrier said in a statement Friday. The aircraft will be sourced from leasing company Azorra, and will allow Scoot to tap growth and match capacity to demand as it enhances its regional network, the statement said. The agreements marks the first time Singapore’s main airline is ordering Embraer planes and is a major boost for the Brazilian planemaker, which is seeking to secure the future for its flagship commercial aircraft. Bloomberg News in December first reported on Embraer’s efforts to sell regional jets to Singapore Airlines’ low-cost unit in an order that could grow to as many as 50 planes over time, as the carrier seeks to widen its reach in neighboring Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. Scoot’s fleet accounts for about a quarter of the wider Singapore Airlines Group’s 200 aircraft. The budget unit currently operates Airbus SE A320neo and Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner jets.<br/>