Continental will cut 3,000 jobs and reduce capacity by 11% due to the ongoing “crisis” in the airline industry.
Continental chief executive Larry Kellner and the company’s president, Jeff Smisek said in a message to employees: “The airline industry is in a crisis. Its business model doesn’t work with the current price of fuel and the existing level of capacity in the marketplace. We need to make changes in response.”
Both announced that they would not take salaries for the rest of this year.
3,000 Continental Jobs, Capacity To Be Cut [WNBC]
(Photo: Zonaphoto )
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@nedzeppelin:
The subsidy Amtrak gets is very small compared to the billions the federal government spends on highways and air transportation subsidies.
I feel bad for the employees that bust their ass. The fat cats who lose an extra summer home I could care less about.
@dragonfire81: You know, at least they’re doing it. I can’t count how many stories I’ve seen where CEOs make tons of money, not only in salary but in bonuses, stock options, etc., all the while the companies they’re supposed to be running fall apart around them.
@tricky69: Since the 1990s Continental has been one of, if not the best, managed airlines out there.
@BlackFlag55: I agree that the dollar is contributing the the (half) illusion that gas prices are higher. However, one other factor is contributing to higher gas prices- demand. China and India are creating greater demand.
BUT, part of the problem is that through our “dimplomatic decisions” we’ve reduced the amount of oil available on the global market. So, even though we didn’t buy from Iraq or Iran, other countries have. But since we’ve f*cked up the middle east a bit, they have to buy from other suppliers as well (the ones we use). In addition, we’re threatening Chavez and that’s actually giving him power power than he previously had (because when outsiders attack, we tend to rally around our leader, no matter how wrong) and its jepordized that oil through nationalization. Analysts consider that when making reccomendations to buy oil at at what price.
So, in fact Bush, his war, and his cowboy diplomacy, did HELP (read: not sole cause, but a big contributor) raise prices.
@ARP: Also, the US dollar’s slide has had a huge role in our current accounts deficit to OPEC.
The currency markets not being particularly stupid, they look at the policies that the GOP has followed post-9/11 and have voted that the inmates are in charge of the asylum.
It’s pretty amazing what Republicans can do in seven short years when they control the three branches of government.
On the bright side, at least Terry Schiavo was saved!
Oh. Wait.
Airline or Airplane expert question:would it be better to have many shorter routes with smaller planes even though it will mean more connecting flights?-would 2 smaller planes to the same location be more efficient than one larger one.
And personally I think the airline industry died by the mid 90s.To me that’s when the service started tanking and prices started creeping up.Anyone who flew before the early 90s realizes what the customer has lost in the way of service,food,fees,flight times etc.
@ringo00:
Haha, that’s cool – great minds…
Get your act together. Quit crying. Take personal responsibility for your life. Don’t ever blame anyone but yourself for your situation. Take all the credit and take all the blame.
In other news, NBC announces water is wet, sky blue.
I think Mr. Garrison summed it up best: AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! AIRLINE MOTHERFUCKERS!!! YOU PIECES OF SHIT!!!! COCKSUCKING SONS OF BITCH AIRLINES!!!!!!
Arp – absolutely. BORROWING to pay for military operations is not just absurd, but suicidal. Borrowing to pay for national security is just flat out insane. We borrow our own currency when we have the Constitutional right to print it without cost of interest. Then … we borrow stupendous sums to pay for an ever expanding entitlement society that draws from the economic engine without ever putting anything in. THEN … when real trouble comes and must be met sword on sword we have to BORROW again to meet that demand. And we end up like Ed McMahon, a one time multi-millionaire who now cannot work and took the wrong bet on bad borrowing advice and is about to lose his house. Not one dime of your tax money goes to operate the government. It all goes to pay the interest on the funds we borrowed to run the government.
Whether or not the military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan were warranted (and I’m to the right of Ghengis Khan politically), the economic facts are the US Economy cannot carry the dead weight of an entitlement society + the dead weight of extended military operations indefinitely on borrowed money.
Now, consider our enemies … like Russia and Saudi Arabia, brimming with leviathan amounts of what was our cash … wouldn’t this moment in our economic picture be the moment to wage war on the dollar and eliminate us as a competitor on the global power scene? They don’t have to fight us on the ground. They can simply spend our cash on guerilla operations and terror tactics to bleed us and bleed us until we can no longer afford to stay in the theatre of operations. Kill our dollar and we no longer can influence the world. Costs them very little since its OUR MONEY they’re using to stymie our clear cut victory. Our money, as in out of your wallet through the gas pump and into their hands. In every real sense, we’re paying for the terror we fight because of Congress’ refusal to allow us to break free and become energy independent.
Again, Congress is the enemy because it is Congress that won’t allow the military to deliver the killing blow right off the bat. Congress will only allow itty bitty incremental hand slapping, not the one time OMG Don’t Screw With America killing blow that is not only cost effective but keeps the world stable.
How about just honestly raising your prices to reflect increased fuel costs instead of continuing to offer artificially low prices and then screwing your customers out of every dime possible over unmentioned “fees.”
Sure, higher prices might slow sales a bit, but letting your customers not feel ass-raped might actually make people want to fly again, rather than avoid it like the plague. Security delays are bad enough, I don’t want to be surprised by having to pay an extra $150 because my wife packed an extra pair of shoes. Raise your prices to cover costs and treat your customers better than a begging refugee.
jcoltrane:great idea-just raise prices to reflect fuel costs.How much money do you think just an additional 5$ per ticket would generate.
I think what happens is that they try to cover fuel costs by all those fees but then they start using them to cover other things and before you know they become more dependent on fees than a junkie on crack.
Then for PR sake and legal reasons they wind up refunding a huge amount of fees they do collect.Your right,just raise the ticket prices-a little.
With the help of the now-federalized and unionized TSA (you can’t even fire the incompetent workers if you wanted to), and with their increasing number and amount of fees for amenities, the airline industry is shooting themselves in the foot with a tommy gun… with a 50 round drum magazine… in full-auto.
Just as we only have two bus lines left — Greyhound and Trailways (do they still exist?) — and only one rail line (Amtrak) we will eventually have only a couple airlines left. And the airlines will make bus travel look like riding in a Cadillac.
@ianmac47: amtrak is only one company
if continental or delta received over a billion dollars from the govt every year, i bet you’d be concerned
yes, the highway bill is an unimaginable inflated piece of pork. iraq war = 100 billion a year, annual highway budget? over 300 BILLION a year!! you can’t spend 300 billion dollars in a year repaving a few roads. let’s assume building materials cost 100 billion (the cost of the entire international space station), and the other 200 billion is labor – if we assume highway workers get a generous $20/hr wage, that would mean the govt employs 4.8 million people to repave roads?
it goes to teapot museums, bridges to nowhere, and unnecessary labor, because in big govt, if you don’t spend all your budget this year, you may not get as much next year. and everyone’s fighting for their piece of the pie. so even when inflated budgets aren’t warranted, they still find a way to flush it all down the toilet
maybe they wouldnt lose so many customers if they didnt cram us all in like sardines. Full plane, my seat was jammed in the upright position for a trans atlantic flight and Im 6’2″. I can still remember the aches.