Low Cost | Market Psychology | Air Wisc.

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THE DARK SIDE OF LOW COST

Airport worker fired over complaint

By DAVID KOENIG

AP BUSINESS WRITER

DALLAS -- A fired airport worker claims that Southwest Airlines relied on untrained cleaning crews to conduct security searches of its planes after September 2001.

Loretta Fullington, 37, said she was fired by a Southwest contractor last year after complaining that many planes at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas received the flimsiest of searches for hidden weapons, and sometimes no search at all.

Dallas-based Southwest denies the charge. A Las Vegas court was scheduled to hear the worker's claim under a federal whistle-blower law next week, but the hearing has been postponed until December.

Fullington was a fast-food manager before getting a crew leader's job at AVSEC Services, which cleans Southwest's planes overnight at the Las Vegas airport.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?H13C22706

MARKET PSYCHOLOGY ALTERNATIVES TO GOLD SPINNING BUSINESS YARNS BY THE COMMUNISTS THEMSELVES

Chinese airline pays big money for 'lucky' number

A Chinese airline has paid £170,000 for the phone number 8888-8888, saying it hopes to make its customers happy.

Many Chinese consider the number eight lucky because it sounds like the Chinese word for getting rich.

"Everyone at the company believes the number was worth the price we paid," said Xing Bing of Sichuan Airlines' corporate culture department.

Xing said the number, to be used as a customer service hotline, had already had a "good advertising effect".

The use of traditional practices like choosing lucky numbers and consulting feng shui experts has become common for Chinese businesses in recent years, though communist authorities frown on what they call "feudal superstitions".

The auction was officially sanctioned, however, with the proceeds going to charity.

Buying the number was not a way of promoting superstition but of pleasing customers, Xing said.

"The number is easy to remember," she said. "It is a number that will make customers happy when they call."

http://www.ananova.com/business/story/sm_810728.html?menu=business.businessquirkies

RECOVERED HISTORY OF AIRLINE SAFETY CARDS

Before 'Coffee, tea or me' became 'Drop that nail file'

Design for Impact: Fifty Years of Airline Safety Cards; Eric Ericson and Johan Pihl; Princeton Architectural Press: 174 pp., $30 Come Fly With Us!: A Global History of the Airline Hostess; Johanna Ome

By Joe Queenan, Joe Queenan is the author, most recently, of "Balsamic Dreams: A Short but Self-Important History of the Baby Boomer Generation."

Ask your average aeronautical kitsch buff what's the hardest thing about participating in this esoteric hobby and he's sure to say, "Not enough printed material about airline safety cards." Though these ubiquitous communication materials would seem to be a natural collectible in a post-eBay society, airline safety cards, until now, have never truly had their day in the sun. Princeton Architectural Press aims to change all that with a remarkable new publication titled "Design for Impact: Fifty Years of Airline Safety Cards."

http://www.latimes.com/la-bk-queenansep21,1,6259985.story

FINALLY, YOU CAN GET THERE FROM HERE, SORT OF

"United Airlines lures large Portland-area business travel accounts with the Star Alliance, the world's largest airline ticketing and booking alliance. The alliance allows passengers to earn and use frequent-flier miles on any of its member airlines, including Air Canada Jazz, Lufthansa and Mexicana Airlines, which started nonstop flights between Portland and Mexico in May. "

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/106440486799250.xml

REGIONAL OPERATIONAL STAKE INCREASES OVER BOTH LEGACY AND LOW COST

Air Wisconsin to expand operations at O'Hare

Appleton-based Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp., a United Express carrier, said it will take over ground-handling service for all United Express flights at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago beginning in November.

Air Wisconsin will hire an undisclosed number of additional employees to expand its ground-handling operations. Ground-handling services include the unloading and loading of supplies, baggage, fuel and the performance of minor maintenance services.

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2003/09/22/daily35.html?jst=b_ln_hl

More regional backgrounder:

http://www.charleston.net/stories/091403/bus_14regionals.shtml

LOW COST SECTOR RELYING ON SHARE OFFERINGS "BENCHMARKING"

Note: "Benchmarking" means to copycat in business parlance.

AirTran expects to net $132 million from share offering

By RUSSELL GRANTHAM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A stock offering of up to 9.9 million shares by AirTran Airways was priced at $16 after Thursday's market close.

The Orlando-based discount airline said it expects to net about $132 million from the offering of about 8.7 million shares. AirTran's investment bankers have the option to sell an additional 1.3 million shares.

AirTran, which is the second largest carrier at Hartsfield International, plans to use part of the proceeds to repurchase about $47 million in debt and stock warrants held by a Boeing subsidiary. It said it will use the remainder for working capital and costs related to its planned aircraft fleet expansion.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/delta/0903/26airtran.html

DOWN UNDER AIR INDUSTRY TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

Fuel shortage hits Sydney airport

Sydney airport was expecting one of its busiest weekends of the year

Thousands of passengers are facing delays at Sydney Airport, because airlines are being forced to postpone, divert or cancel flights due to fuel rationing.

The airport, the busiest in Australia, introduced the measure on Thursday, because low production by Sydney oil refineries and a delayed shipment of fuel meant that the airport could only supply one-third of the normal fuel demand.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) estimated that about 2,500 people had been affected by mid-morning on Friday, with the number expected to rise later in the day.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3141568.stm

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