Southwest’s President “Steps Down”
Southwest Airlines President Tom Nealon is leaving the company effective immediately. In his place, current COO Mike Van de Ven will take on both the COO and President titles.
This is in no way a surprising move since Nealon was passed over to replace Gary Kelly as CEO. Bob Jordan will take on that role next February. Once that was announced, it was only a matter of time before Nealon left the company. But don’t worry about him. He will become a “strategic advisor” focusing on the environment, which sounds like he gets to just collect a nice paycheck for awhile without having to do much.
Van de Ven has been with Southwest for 28 years, and this would seem to be a large promotion for the man who has risen steadily through the ranks. Then again, this may very well just be a placeholder until Jordan steps into the CEO role when he may have his own preference for the job.
US Government Investigating Airline Refund Complaints
As part of his July executive order, President Biden had asked the government to investigate the problems many consumers had with airline refunds during the pandemic. The Department of Transportation listened, and it put out a progress report on Friday, which is always a great time to release news when you want people to read it… or not.
DOT provided some staggering numbers. In the five years before the pandemic, it received an average of 17,420 complaints per year with a little over 1,400 about refunds. In 2020, DOT received 102,561 complaints with more than 85,000 related to refunds.
Much of the release was just DOT tooting its own horn about all the work it has done. But despite this “work,” there are still 18 out of 20 investigations open, and there could be more punishment handed out beyond just the fine levied against Air Canada for telling the government — in the most polite way possible — that it had no interest in following US laws.
Additional rules surrounding refunds when government restrictions don’t allow travel, another that would increase transparency around ancillary fees, and finally one around how to properly pronounce Secretary Buttigieg’s name are said to be in progress.
Qantas and Japan Airlines Denied In Their Quest to Dominate the Japan – Australia Market
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has handed down its ruling denying the enhanced cooperation between Qantas and Japan Airlines in the Australia – Japan market.
ACCC Chair Rod Sims did not mince words when he said, “The ACCC can only authorise an agreement between competitors if it is satisfied the public benefits would outweigh the harm to competition. The alliance did not pass this test.” Before the pandemic, the two airlines controlled 85% of the market between the two countries… which is a lot, for those keeping score at home.
After it became clear that this joint business was going down to defeat, Qantas tried to sweeten the pot by saying it would commit to flying from Cairns to Tokyo over time. The ACCC seemed unphased, noting that Jetstar is already planning to fly the route from February and that the route would happen even without the joint business. Nice try, Qantas.
- American is bringing hot nuts back to the premium cabin on some flights. If you can find a more useless bit of information, please let us know.
- American will, in slightly less useless news, begin selling access to its Flagship lounges for $150 per person per visit. If that sounds like a good deal to you, you probably have too much money to burn.
- Breeze has bumped its A220 orderbook up from 60 to 80 aircraft.
- Comair in South Africa has pulled in ~$19m both in money owed from South African Airways and by selling its lounge business.
- El Al is being offered another $50m in convertible bond purchases from the Israeli government if the current owner puts $43 of his own in, the airline sells some aircraft plus a large stake in its frequent flier program, and flight attendants start exclusively serving Manischewitz wines to all passengers.
- Eos is back! But this time it’s a completely unrelated float plane operator in Italy.
- FlyCoin is a new cryptocurrency rewards program for Ravn Alaska. We dare you to read this press release and find one concrete thing that makes any sense.
- Interjet — the Mexican airline that hasn’t flown in over a year — had its owner arrested on fraud charges. This is the second owner in a row to get in trouble with the law, putting the airline on par with Arizona governors from the late 1980s/early 1990s.
- SKY Express — a Greek airline that looks like it just took American’s tail and turned it 90 degrees — has signed an interline agreement with American, its first with a US-based carrier.
- Southwest will not resume alcohol sales until 2022 at the earliest. This is terrible news for everyone heading to the Florida Panhandle.
- Swoop has reached a tentative agreement with its flight attendants after 1.5 years of negotiations.
- Wizz Air appears to be closing in on an order for 100 new A320neo family aircraft.
- Yemenia — which, come to think of it, is probably harder to run than Ariana Afghan — is said to be restarting Airbus A330 operations.
Why did the company hire the Australian animal for the job?
He was best koala-fied for the post.