as an industry, air transport (people, cargo, etc) is fascinating for a lot of reasons. there's something for everyone...people who just like to travel and see the world or who love flying (ie. flightcrew) lawyers (aviation/transport law, as well as labor) math people and MBAs (pricing, route planning, scheduling, finance, investors, etc) training, mechanics, or just people who love being around airports and airplanes. You can take any number of career fields and tie them somehow to aviation. Here's a link about the CNBC program: http://www.aweekinthelife.cnbc.com/main.html I thought one of the more interesting facts was that one flight on one of the routes they profiled only resulted in a net profit of $200. (I think it was the wide-body New York-Los Angeles flight). And they did a good job at describing pricing, which is as much art as science, to help explain the widely varying airfares passengers on any given flight pay. Ray Bradley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I really do mean this with absolutely zero sarcasm, but it's hard to convey that through plain text - that is ridiculously fascinating. I guess one olive over the course of thousands of flights each could really mean something eventually.
What other bizarre airline facts have you learned, or was this all from CNBC? - Ray the Suddenly Engrossed In A Subject Matter That Had Never Occured to Him Until This Very Message. --- In [email protected], Diane Lochner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > at the risk of boring everyone, airlines study *everything* to shave time, minutes, weight, etc to maximize the amount of time their aircraft are in the air (airplanes in the air make money...airplanes sitting around do not) I know that recently, in the last year or so, a few airlines experimented with different boarding procedures and as I recall, there wasn't a staggering difference in time-to-load figures for different schemes (ie boarding in groups, boarding all at once, by row, etc.) > > Most airlines who have first class cabins allow those passengers, people with kids/needing assistance, exit row, and elite-status passengers to board earlier. Southwest's system of boarding zones lets them "turn" a plane at an airport very quickly and get it back in the air. > > I think it was American that at once time learned they could save something like $30,000 a year by reducing by one the number of olives in a salad. If anyone out there is REALLY curious, CNBC did a fascinating 2 hour behind the scenes look at American Airlines earlier this fall. > > Yes, I am a huge airline nerd. > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
