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Airline pilots and their extremely rigorous training
Rathke A few of you may have had the privilege of visiting the flight deck of a commercial airliner, and found yourself fascinated by the myriad levers, buttons, and other mechanisms surrounding the captain and co-pilot. After seeing that instrument panel, have you ever wondered what kind of training a pilot has? Of course, they must have a flight license, but how do you study for it? How long does it take? Are there other requirements along with flight training itself? Here's a quick…
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Already the Low Fare Leader, Spirit Becomes the Transparency Leader by Providing Customers Detail about Fuel Usage Cost, Delivering the Fairest Fare in the Air
MIRAMAR, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Spirit Airlines today announced an innovative approach to ensure transparency in fuel costs, making sure customers know how much of their fare is fuel cost. Customers will now have this important information available to make smart travel decisions. For example, when a fare is $137 and fuel makes up $78 of that fare, customers can decide if the remaining $59 makes this a good time to buy.
“With this new approach, our customers will see exactly what they are paying for in fuel rather than guessing. We are not just the low fare leader, but now also the transparency leader.”
Beginning today, customers can visit www.spiritair.com/howmuchismyfuel to see how much of their ticket is for the fuel to cover their trip. Spirit provides a table that illustrates the amount of fuel used for various trip lengths, the current price of fuel and how much this translates per one-way passenger.
Spirit saves customers millions of dollars a year through its low fares, and some of this savings comes from its highly efficient fleet. Thanks to these modern Airbus aircraft, Spirit is among the most fuel-efficient airlines per seat in the Americas. For example, Spirit’s Airbus A319 is over 30 percent more efficient per passenger than a McDonnell Douglas MD80 with 136 seats.¹ Spirit passes these savings on to our customers in the form of lower fares. Spirit’s miles per gallon per passenger is not only among the best in the airline industry, but compares well against some of the most fuel efficient cars on the road today. This allows customers to be green and price conscious at the same time.
“Everyone sees the effect of oil price movements when they fill up their car, but rarely do customers have any idea how much of their fare is comprised of fuel cost,” said Barry Biffle, Spirit Airlines Chief Marketing Officer. “With this new approach, our customers will see exactly what they are paying for in fuel rather than guessing. We are not just the low fare leader, but now also the transparency leader.”
*Assumes Spirit Airbus A319 at 80% load factor. For the mileage range of up to 399, 200 miles is used to calculate the average fuel burn, and for each of the other mileage ranges, the lowest number of the range is used.
**U.S. Gulf Coast kerosene type jet fuel prices according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration – www.eia.gov.
***Distribution, handling, security, federal excise taxes, etc.
For details on this exciting new approach, visit www.spiritair.com/howmuchismyfuel.
¹Source: Spirit Airlines operation of MD80 aircraft through 2006.
About Spirit Airlines
Spirit Airlines (www.spiritair.com) is the largest Ultra Low Cost Carrier (ULCC) in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. As the unbundling leader in the industry, Spirit allows consumers the option of paying only for the features they value without subsidizing the choices of others. Its all-Airbus fleet, the youngest in the Americas, flies more than 150 daily flights to 40 destinations. The company is based in South Florida.
The report also noted:
"Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have a policy where "oversize" people need to buy a second seat and can claim a refund if the plane is not full. This followed complaints from adjacent passengers."
Do you think this kind of policy addresses the issue sufficiently?
December 3, 2009
(Forimmediaterelease.net) According to the ITB World Travel Trends Report, commissioned by the world’s leading travel trade show and compiled by the consultancy IPK International, a short- to mid-term rise in the price of airline tickets is to be expected worldwide. Travelers will have to bear the cost of anticipated increases in taxes and charges by paying extra for tickets, according to the report.
The ITB World Travel Trends Report states that in order to become profitable again, airlines will have to significantly adjust their ticket prices. The findings are based on the assessments of 60 tourism experts from 30 countries, on a special IPK International trend analysis undertaken in leading source markets and on core data supplied by the World Travel Monitor®, recognized as the largest ongoing survey of global travel trends in some 60 source countries. The report notes that “current airline prices are clearly too low to allow airlines to become profitable again."
Despite the worldwide recession, the ITB World Travel Trends Report expects commercial aviation to grow dynamically over the next two decades. The Chinese market is predicted to expand annually by around 8.4 percent, followed by the Asian-Pacific region (6.9 percent), and South America (estimated at 6.4 percent). The European market is forecast to grow by 3.4 percent, lagging significantly behind the expected global average growth rate of 4.9 percent.
Dr. Martin Buck, vice president, CompetenceCenter Travel&Logistics, Messe Berlin, stated: “The currently unanswered question facing the world’s airline industries is whether price-conscious consumers will continue to drive the downgrading trend we are seeing in bookings or whether we will witness a return to the situation we had before the worldwide economic and financial crisis began. It also remains to be seen whether companies will limit their business travel to a minimum and how video conferences and other new forms of communication technology will influence travel behavior."
According to Dr. Martin Buck, the recession has already had a positive effect, “The over-capacity of the world’s airline industries has been reduced and older planes, which consume large amounts of kerosene, have been taken out of service." In the short term, a full recovery of demand is unlikely. Describing the situation he added that “flat is the new growth."
From December 15, 2009 the ITB World Travel Trends Report 2009/2010 can be downloaded free of charge from www.itb-berlin.com/media centre/publications .
Messe Berlin: Michael T. Hofer Spokesman & Director Press and Public Relations ITB Berlin/ITB Asia: Astrid Ehring Press Officer Messedamm 22 D-14055 Berlin Tel: + 4930 3038-2275 Fax: + 4930 3038-2141 Email: ehring@messe-berlin.de Web: www.messe-berlin.com IPK International: Barbara Postel Senior Consultant Gottfried-Keller-Straße 20 81245 München Tel:+ 49 89 82923713 Fax: + 4989 82923726 Email: postel@ipkinternational.com For additional details: www.itb-berlin.com www.itb-kongress.com
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