American Airlines has a lot on its plate these days, and it's a huge company. An internal team focused on startups helps the airline earn goodwill among entrepreneurs, and the team can put startups in touch with the right people at the airline who can lend a hand.
Market forces eventually will have to force improvements in regional airlines' pilot wages. And mainline airline partners are going to have to kick in some money for pilot training, and ensure that lowly paid regional pilots will find an easier path to the big payday at major airlines.
Delta will argue that Windows Phones provided the mobile point of sale offering that its flight attendants require, as unsexy as the choice was. Let's see how it all works out for Delta the contrarian (at least in this choice).
Interactive, multi-media, and unusual, this project will likely be a fascinating look at the under-examined American destinations. And a bit of a thrill for excellent reporter/airplane buff Fallows.
More than a decade of cheap, government-backed financing has built up the fleets of foreign airlines as well as the business of domestic manufacturers. It's also forced the early retirement of a lot of perfectly good planes.
Middle-ground options have fallen by the wayside as economics demand airlines emphasize super-cheap and super-fancy options for disparate passenger types.