The Battle of Airline Business Models: Southwest Is On A Rocky Mountain High

There are three main approaches to running an airline: those of international, full service trunk carriers, low cost, reasonably priced, user friendly carriers, and no frills, charge for every thing carriers. All three business models are competing head to head in the Denver market.  Southwest had long shunned Denver.  But the Wall Street Journal's Middle Seat columnist Scott McCartney tells how Southwest bit the bullet in 2006.  In Denver, it competes directly with the other two business models represented by United and Frontier.


Which business model will out?  Scott McCartney writes the whole airline industry are are follwing the battle of Denver which is a fascinating microcosm of the industry. By one measure, Southwest has moved ahead:

The Paris Air Show

What's big at this year's Paris air show? 

Bloomberg's Guy Johnson sees the show as a battle of the "wide-body" planes: Boeing's Dreamliner versus the Airbus 350.  With Airbus pushing Boeing for market leadership in the twin engine aircraft market, might that mean a price war?  On June 17th, Andrew Parker reported:
Just days before the show begins, Airbus held a public test flight of its new A350. EADS confident on profitability goal 4:46 PM From the Paris air show, EADS chief executive Tom Enders tells the FT's Andrew Parker he is confident that the group will hit its profitability targets.  Enders is bullish on the A350:

Is Boeing worried?  CEO Jim McNerney tells Bloomberg's Betty Liu he welcomes the challenge.  Boeing took orders for the 787-10, its biggest version of the Dreamliner. 

America's airfleet getting long in the tooth.

Carol Massar on Bloomberg TV reports the America has the oldest fleet of commercial aircraft:



The video was on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg Rewind," January 18th.

Someone Loves Ryan Air

Ann McElhinney tells the democratic side of Capitalism: