Its called “yield management” or “revenue management”. Its not that difficult a concept to grasp – the airline is merely trying to get the best revenue possible from every seat whilst trying not to end up with lots off empty seats. Often business travellers do not want to stay over a Saturday night or several days, so the airline can charge more for that type of travel. Leisure passengers, as has been said, are more price sensitive so the airline can use cheaper fares to drive such passengers to flights on which they are unlikely to sell all the seats at higher fares – off peak flights, flights going against the predominant flow of traffic, or simply just charging more on flights that they know they will sell higher fares on.

And for anyone who doesn’t like the concept of airlines charging more to travellers who don’t stay a Saturday night (or several days), consider this – the higher fares paid by some travellers often “subsidise” the really cheap fares. If anyone takes a look at the fare breakdown on a really cheap fare, often the fare is next to nothing and most of the charges are taxes. An airline flying [say] NCL-AMS will NOT make any money on a base return fare of £20 (obviously though somewhat more once taxes are added).

Andy

PS: The Saturday night rule often works well for me when I go to the US west coast on business. If I stay on over a Saturday night, the fare saving versus coming back on Friday is often so much that the company will pay for my Friday and Saturday nights and STILL save money – so we do a deal, I stay longer, the company pays for the hotel, I get a couple of days “vacation” and its still cheaper than coming back Friday (which I would insist doing if the company didn’t pay for the hotel).

You need to take the subway from the airport to Barajas (one stop IIRC) – that reduces the walk substantially and the fare is very cheap.

Andy

Well… You did ask! Airlines with number of one-way flights on each! This is about a year out of date – there’s another 80 odd airline flights to add, but I don’t have the latest version of the spreadsheet here.

British Midland (b.m.i.) 385
Swissair 103
United Airlines 60
Lufthansa 58
Delta Airlines 54
British Airways 37
Scandinavian 27
Emirates Airline 25
Busy Bee 22
Lufthansa Cityline 21
bmi British Midland Regional 18
American Airlines 17
Maersk Air Ltd (British Airways) 17
Singapore Airlines 13
U.S. Airways 12
Virgin Atlantic 12
London City Airways 11
Air France 10
British Airways Citiexpress 10
Swiss International Air Lines 10
SN Brussels Airlines 9
bmi Baby 8
FlyBE (Air France) 8
Continental Airlines 8
S.A.A. Historic Flight 8
Cathay Pacific 7
CityJet (Air France) 7
Crossair 7
Garuda Indonesia 7
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 7
Augsburg Airways (Team Lufthansa) 6
easyJet 6
Northwest Airlines 6
American Trans Air 5
Avianca Colombia 5
Dan Air Services 5
Duo Airways 5
FlyBE 5
Lloyd Aereo Boliviano 5
South African Airways 5
Aeroflot 4
Alitalia Express 4
All Nippon Airways 4
British Airtours 4
Duo Airways (British Airways) 4
Manx Airlines 4
TAP Air Portugal 4
Ted 4
Alaska Airlines 3
Aurigny Air Services 3
B.A. Connect 3
Comair (Delta Connection) 3
CTA 3
Eurowings 3
Gulf Air 3
Interflug 3
Qantas 3
Skywest (Delta Connection) 3
Aer Lingus 2
Aer Lingus Commuter 2
Air Algerie 2
Air Atlantique 2
Air Mauritius 2
Air New Zealand 2
Air Toulouse 2
Aires 2
Airtours International 2
Airworld 2
Ansett Australia 2
Aviogenex 2
British Air Ferries / Manx (British Midland) 2
British International 2
Brussels Airlines 2
Manx Airlines (British Midland) 2
Brymon Airways 2
Brymon Airways (British Airways) 2
Buffalo Airways 2
China Northern 2
CSA 2
easyJet Switzerland 2
First Air 2
Fred Olsen 2
Go Fly 2
Icelandair 2
Kenya Airways 2
KLM Cityhopper 2
KLM UK 2
La Tur (Garuda Indonesia) 2
MyTravel Lite 2
Orion Airways 2
Starair 2
Swissair Asia 2
United Air Services 2
United Express (Shuttle America) 2
Aero Peru 1
Air China 1
Air Colombia 1
Air Nippon 1
Amiskwi Air 1
ATESA – Aero Taxis Ecuatorianos S.A. 1
British Asia Airways 1
Swedair (British Midland) 1
British World 1
China Southern 1
China Xinhua 1
CityJet 1
CORAL – Coronado Airlines 1
Court Air 1
Dakota National Air 1
Eastern Airways 1
Eurocity Express 1
Fuerza Aerea del Peru 1
Grand Canyon Airlines 1
Hainan Airlines 1
Horizon Air 1
Iberia 1
Kenmore Air 1
LOT Polish Airlines 1
Lufthansa Regional (Contact Air) 1
Oman Air 1
Sabena 1
SAETA 1
SAO – Servicio Aereo Oriental 1
Scandinavian Eurolink 1
Skyways 1
Southwest Airlines 1
Spanair 1
Swiss European Airlines 1
TAVIC – T.A. Virgen de Carmen 1
United Express (Chautauqua A/L) 1
Universal Avia / Air Ukraine 1
Venture Pacific Airways 1
Zimbabwe Express Airlines 1

I am glad for the result of the event. I still don´t know, if the pilot was a hero…

I agree with what Kaltic said. Whilst it may well prove to be that the pilot did an incredible job, I tto believe that the media (and even the mayor of New York) are perhaps a little premature. I well remember the Kegworth incident (for example), where Kevin Hunt was originally hailed as a hero for getting G-OBME as far as he did, and then within a few days villified for supposedly shutting down the wrong engine. If it transpires during the official investigation that this guy in New York did something wrong – saw the birds and flew anyway, was warned about the birds and ignorred the warning, only lost one engine due birds and shut down the other… Well lets just say that there are plenty of scenarios that could result in a very hard landing for a pilot that the armchair accident investigators are currently acclaiming as a hero. The time for praise is after the official investigation, when cause and actions have really been assessed.

Andy

If they win this lawsuit the world will have officially gone insane!

The problem is that as stated in the original item, in the USA bar staff ARE held legally accountable for serving (or indeed not serving) intoxicated people – and in law risk consequences including a degree of liability for the resulting actions of intoxicated customers if they serve those customers too much alcolhol.

[For example, a year or so ago I was sat in a bar in Sacramento CA, and having had a couple of beers, before being served another the bar staff asked if I was driving. Replying “no” I got another beer, but when I asked why they asked they said that had I been driving they would not have given me another beer because the consequences had I been in an accident whilst DUI (driving under the influence) would have in part been on the bar staff]

So whilst I totally agree with the sentiments of 1L above, opinion has to be framed in the context of the local laws, which in this particular case at least point to the passengers having some degree of a cause for complaint.

Andy

Using points or vouchers for upgrades is the only sure fire way of getting into a higher class of travel other than actualy paying for it in the first place. Some programmes are simpler than others. AA has a voucher system for its top tier fliers which works very nicely. I’m on a £300 ticket to San Francisco in a fortnights time and I am in First and Business Class all the way through because of the level of business I give AA. Works for me! 😎

Likewise myself… I am 1K (Gold) with UA, and I’m doing LHR-LAX and return in March, paid £321, upgrades to business class already confirmed both ways by way of two of my “systemwide upgrade” (SWU) e-vouchers! 😀

Andy

Boeing now officially admitting that the Plastic Pig (more like the “plastic pig in a poke”) won’t fly until Q2 2009 and customer deliveries won’t be until 2010!!! 😀

Haven’t you heard the name has been revised..it’s now called the lemon!!

One analyst now calling it the 7-late-7. Me, I still prefer “plastic pig”!

Andy