Airinsight's Podcasts

News has just come out that Airbus has a big announcement set for Monday. Apparently Airbus is considering moving the A330 program to the USA. This is huge news as the A330 program is Airbus' most successful widebody program. It is a very important statement by Airbus. It also demonstrates the value of the USAF tanker program - if the KC-30 does not win anything the whole deal could fall apart.

The AirInsight team speaks with Scott McCartney, journalist for the Wall Street Journal and whose column “The Middle Seat” has become famous. We discuss the news of Delta’s interest in starting negotiations with both Northwest and United about mergers. Scott McCartney thinks that United is a good choice and does not see Northwest as the "natural" first choice. We also review briefly the green movement in the US.

Mark Dunkerley, President & CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, discusses his airline's recent fleet renewal process - selecting Airbus over Boeing. He also explains the engine selection process; new routes for the fleet and the consideration of new narrow body planes over the next two years. This podcast confirms the race between Boeing's 787 and the Airbus 350 is not as straightforward as many think.

Ernie Arvai, Addison Schonland and Erkan Pinar discuss the breaking news about the stake Lufthansa has or is taking in JetBlue.

The AirInsight team reviews news that Airbus' senior executives believe the company is facing a "life threatening" threat from a weaker US dollar. Today Airbus also announced a 160 plane order from China - now there's a nice threat. Boeing's Scott Carson was quoted as talking of a 2015 (give or take) time frame for the 737RS. This news clearly does add pressure to Airbus' own A320 replacement plans. These items create an intriguing confluence in terms of impacts on Airbus.

We speak with Ron Kuhlmann, editor in chief of the Unisys Scorecard. Sign up at www.unisys.com/transportation. Ron explains why the e-commerce environment is so challenging for legacy airlines - they cannot show their advantages to customers because the booking systems do not allow them to demonstrate their better value proposition. This is a novel way to looking a how legacies are being beaten by LCCs. If a legacy carrier costs only 10% more but gives you meals, space and real ambiance, why not fly it? The problem is that in the current booking systems you only see the 10% price difference - you never know about the other side of the deal - unless you're an industry insider.

The AirInsight team invited Jon Ostrower from Flightblogger to discuss stories both sources put out on the 787-10. Our podcast is based on Scott Carson from Boeing's comments in Dubai that airlines were approaching them for a 380-425 seater 787. This really big jump in the plane's potential size impacts not only Boeing's premier 777-300ER program, it even impacts the 747i.

The AirInsight team takes a quick look at the news of a possible A380-900 - the team likes this plane more than the -800 and wonders how Boeing will respond. We discuss Southwest's new boarding process and its new fare structure. Overall it Southwests new fares seem to be a little out of whack with the airline's image - but then they need to money, don't they?

The AirInsight team reviews the show and its impact. The news was amazing in terms of order sizes.

Scott Hamilton and Addison Schonland speak with Puget Sound Business Journal correspondent Stephen Wilhelm who published a story about the FAA's Seattle office's involvement in the 787 flight test program.