As the pandemic hopefully turns a corner, it is time for airlines to really get back to competing with each other. One place they’re going to have to do that is with loyalty programs, which are and will continue to be useful tools to drive repeat customers and build brand loyalty. AirlineGeeks recently had the opportunity to pick the brains of the folks at Qatar Airways and understand their plan to Privilege Club, their frequent flyer program, to provide greater…
The long and overly drawn-out saga of Air India’s privatization might come to a close soon. The Indian government has been trying since 2017 to privatize the airline but has had trouble finding a buyer of the dumpster fire of an airline. In late 2019, the Indian government moved a…
The global decrease in air travel in 2020 created a glut of aircraft, many of which were sent to storage to ride out the pandemic with the hope that demand returns. This meant that aircraft manufacturers, which had enjoyed orders hand over fist in the years preceding 2020, were in…
Many of the airlines in the United States got their start decades ago hauling mail across the country. It was only much later when enterprising individuals realized they could add some seats onto their planes and bring people along as well. This led to the birth of passenger airlines in…
Over nearly two decades, the United States and the European Union (EU) have been engaged in a tit-for-tat battle over allegations that each was providing unfair subsidies to their respective aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus. This conflict has been the world’s largest ever corporate trade dispute. In recent years, the…
Late last year, the impending arrival of vaccines for COVID-19 stood as a glimmer of hope for the travel industry. Many thought vaccines would help travel return and begin down the path toward normalcy for airlines. But even now, with multiple vaccines beginning distribution, that optimism has quickly soured. There…
Over the past several years, airlines in the U.S. have gorged on easy business, many making money hand over fist. This led to some brazen liberties taken by three of major U.S. airlines to devalue their loyalty programs. The logic was simple: they were making tons of money, so what…
It’s pretty obvious Boeing has had it rough for quite some time now. It first started with their first Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed and in October 2018. No plane crash is good for an aircraft manufacturer but for the time being, it was thought that there wasn’t a systemic…
Artificial intelligence is making gains in various fields and just this past week it hit another milestone, this one in aviation. The United States Air Force flew the first test flight where artificial intelligence assisted the pilot of a Lockheed U-2 spy plane. The test was conducted at Beale Air…
Air travel has been significantly curtailed due to COVID-19, with international travel, in particular, being a shadow of what it once was. The international flights that have lasted through the pandemic, however, are posing an unforeseen set of challenges for airlines as they try to make it out to the…
