American Airlines faller efter rapport – ser svagare marknad

New York-börserna handlades med måttliga nedgångar fyra timmar in i onsdagshandeln. Flera flygbolag sjönk efter en svagare rapport från American Airlines, samtidigt som en detaljhandelsduo lyfte efter oväntat starka delår.

American Airlines misstog 101-åriga Patricia för att vara ett småbarn. Bokningssystemet visar sig vara boven i dramat. ”Samma sak hände förra året, de förväntade sig också ett barn och inte mig”, säger hon till BBC.

Flera internationella flygbolag har ställt in avgångar till och från Ben Gurion-flygplatsen i israeliska Tel Aviv, till följd av lördagens attack från terrorstämplade Hamas. Bland bolagen noteras Lufthansa, Air France, Ryanair och American Airlines, skriver AFP. Lufthansa uppger att man ställer in alla avgångar till staden till och med måndag, medan konkurrenten Air France ställer in ”tills vidare”. Norwegian har dock en avgång till Tel Aviv på söndagen, som just nu ser ut att gå som planerat, uppger bolagets presskontakt Eline Hyggen Skari för norska Børsen. – Vi utvärderar situationen fortlöpande. Om det blir några ändringar tar vi direkt kontakt med kunderna.

De har flugit kors och tvärs över världen för att samla poäng och nu är de oroliga. Men varför ska SAS nya ägare bry sig om vad som tycks vara ett gäng välbärgade människor med ett miljöförstörande specialintresse? Svaret är att de är värdefulla, mycket värdefulla. Omni förklarar hur. Krisande flygbolaget SAS ska få nya ägare och störst är europeiska jätten Air France-KLM. I och med det händer det också saker i SAS så kallade bonusprogram Eurobonus. Ja, är man med i programmet får man bonuspoäng till exempel när man flyger. Poängen kan sedan användas för att köpa fler flygbiljetter, eller annat i särskilda poängshoppar. Särskilt idoga poängsamlare kan få guld- och diamantkort vilket ger tillträde till flygplatslounger och andra fördelar. Expressen har talat med ”Stefan” som berättar om en jorden runt-resa med stopp på tolv flygplatser där målet enbart var att få fler Eurobonuspoäng och nå guldnivån i British Airways poängsamlarsystem. Poängjagandet liknar till ytan andra specialintressen som samlande av frimärken eller Pokémon-kort. Skillnaden är att målgruppen förstås är en mer exklusiv och välbärgad skara. Men bonusmänniskorna verkar vara fler än man kan tro. Hela 20 000 svenskar är med i en Facebook-grupp med ”tips och trix för att maximera poängjakten”, skriver Expressen. På hemsidan eurobonusguiden.se går det också att hitta en ”bonusjägarskola” och recensioner av business class i olika flygplan hos olika flygbolag. Till att börja med – ingenting. Man skulle kunna tro att de nya ägarna tar tillfället i akt och stryker bonusägarnas alla poäng. De är ju ändå en slags specialvaluta som det går att köpa saker för. Men nej, bonuspoängen blir kvar, har SAS vd Anko van der Werff redan försäkrat. Förändringar kommer det däremot att bli. SAS ska byta allians. Ja, stora flygbolag har sedan länge delat in sig i olika samarbetsgrupper, och det betyder att bonuskunder kan köpa flygresor hos andra flygbolag för sina poäng. Finansiellt må SAS ha varit rangligt bygge under en lång, lång tid. Men SAS har ändå varit med i vad många ser som det ”finaste” sällskapet: Star Alliance med samarbetspartners som Lufthansa, Swiss och Singapore Airlines. SAS ska nu bli en del av Skyteam – som enligt TT har fått öknamnet ”Scary team” i vissa forum. Nu blir det i stället partners som rumänska Tarom, Vietnam Airlines och kinesiska Ziamen Air. – KLM och Air France håller dock väldigt hög klass, Virgin och Delta är väl helt okej, sedan går det dock snabbt utför, säger Mikael Robertsson, grundare av flygspårningssajten Flightradar 24, till TT. Att SAS tas ur Star Alliance har också fått en del på finansmarknaden att höja ögonbrynen. DNB-analytikern Ole Martin Westgaard säger till norska Dagens Naeringsliv att det är märkligt att SAS-köparna inte var intresserade av alliansen som bland kunder har betraktats som en av de mest värdefulla delarna av Eurobonus-programmet. – På sätt och vis kan man säga att budgivarna på SAS har beställt och betalat för en biff, men äter bara salladen, säger Westgaard till tidningen. Bonusprogrammen är big business och en riktig kassako. När Dagens Naeringsliv intervjuade SAS-chefen Eivind Roald före coronakrisen sa han rakt ut att bonusprogrammet var den mest värdefulla delen av företaget. Då fanns också planer på att bryta ut programmet och skapa ett separat ”livsstilsföretag” med ”skräddarsydda” upplevelser. Bonusprogrammens siffror är ofta hemliga, men när American Airlines och United Airlines var illa ute under coronakrisen blev de tvungna att offentliggöra hela deras räkenskaper. Själva flygdelarna av bolagen var helt värdelösa samtidigt som bonusprogrammen var mycket värdefulla, visade uträkningar som amerikanska Forbes då gjorde. Bonusprogrammen skapar förstås lojala kunder, och som fallet ”Stefan” visar, får dem också att flyga ännu mer. Men de kanske största vinsterna görs när flygbolagen kan sälja sina kunder till tredje part. Inte sällan är det kreditkortföretag. Ett vanligt erbjudande är att kunderna kan få extra bonuspoäng om de tecknar sig för ett särskilt kreditkort. Och kreditkortsföretaget måste då gå in och köpa dessa bonuspoäng av flygbolaget, skriver Forbes. Eurobonuskundernas värde talar för just det, att de nya ägarna vill försöka hålla dem så nöjda som det bara går. Det talas exempelvis redan om att norska Norwegian samt tyska Star Alliance-ledaren Lufthansa kan tänkas vilja locka över SAS tidigare trogna kunder. Men kanske blir de ändå blåsta på en del av den insamlade konfekten. Mikael Robertsson vid Flightradar 24 ser frågetecken kring konverteringskursen när tidigare Star Alliance-poäng ska bli Skyteam-poäng. Kan det bli en devalvering av SAS-kundernas poäng? – Ja, det är väl det nästan säkert att det blir, säger Robertsson till TT.

Det amerikanska flygbolaget American Airlines är det senaste i raden av flygbolag att sänka sina prognoser för det tredje kvartalet. Sänkningen görs bland annat med hänvisning till högre bränslekostnader.

Flygbolaget American Airlines för samtal med flygjättarna Airbus och Boeing om att beställa minst 100 nya flygplan. Det rapporterar Bloomberg News som har pratat med en talesperson för företaget.

NEW YORK. American Airlines flyger högt över förväntningarna. I torsdagens rapport slår bolaget förväntningarna för passagerarintäkter, omsättning och vinst. Även rivalerna Delta och United har presenterat urstarka siffror och lyfter rejält på New York-börsen.

Flygvapnet, flottan och... rymdstyrkan? Sedan 2019 jobbar en ny del av den amerikanska militären med rymden som ett potentiellt slagfält. De har redan en logga och ett motto. Men exakt vad de ska göra vet de inte ens säkert själva, skriver Washington Post. (Svensk översättning av Omni). By Christian Davenport 2 july, 2023 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The uniforms resemble costumes from the television series "Battlestar Galactica," and the logo is right out of Star Trek. Even the name given its members, "guardians," seems born of science fiction. But three years after it was established as the sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, the U.S. Space Force is very much a reality. It has a motto, "Sempra Supra" or "Always Above," fitting for an agency whose future is outside Earth's atmosphere. It has an official song, a short, melodic anthem about guardians "boldly reaching into space" that's not as catchy as "The Army Goes Rolling Along." It has a budget ($26 billion last year, similar to NASA), bases across the country and a mission to transform the military's relationship to the cosmos at a time when space has moved from being a peaceful commons to a crucial front in military conflict. "We are very much clearly in the next chapter of the Space Force," Gen. David Thompson, the vice chief of space operations, said during a recent event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The mission of the Space Force now is to become an "enterprise that really makes sure that we're ready to deliver warfighting capabilities." What that means in practice is still unclear: The Space Force remains one of the least understood arms of the federal government. Its culture and identity are still being molded, as its leaders push to set the department apart from the Air Force, Navy and Army by arguing that as a new, smaller service it is free to do things differently. While the Air Force has more than 300,000 service members, there are only 13,000 guardians. Internally, Space Force officials are still debating its priorities, analysts say: Is it to support warfighters on the ground? Or should it focus primarily on protecting assets in space? Or both? And despite all the talk of starting fresh and moving nimbly, the Space Force still exists within the rigid walls of the Pentagon, the world's largest bureaucracy, which is often faulted for resisting change. When Space Force Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, introduced tenets to guide the force, he labeled them "A theory of success," rather than a doctrine because he wants them to continue to evolve. "I'm proposing this theory so that people will debate with me," he said during an event earlier this year at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "So we'll get better at figuring out what are the nuances that matter, what are the details that we to continue to refine." A glimpse of what the Space Force has become, and aspires to, can be seen on the Florida Space Coast, where the Space Age was born in the United States and where a new space era, driven largely by a growth in the private space industry, is taking hold. Propelled largely by Elon Musk's SpaceX, the number of launches here has not only increased, but the topography of the place has changed. Landing pads for SpaceX's reusable rockets and historic launch sites - like pad 39A that launched the Apollo astronauts to the moon - are now in private hands. New companies, such as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, are taking over launchpads that had sat vacant for decades, trying to get their rockets into orbit as well. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Even the official name has changed: It is now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The growth is remarkable. In 2021, 31 rockets blasted off from the facilities run by NASA and the Space Force. Last year, the number jumped to 57, and this year it's expected to exceed 90. With some thinking that number will eventually exceed 200, 300 or even more, a top Space Force general decided he needed help managing the traffic. So last spring, Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the commander of the 45th Space Wing, which oversees the base, arranged a meeting for a couple dozen of his staff at a place where many loathe to go but that is used to sending large numbers of vehicles into the sky at a regular cadence: Orlando International Airport. During the visit to the Orlando airport, "our folks got a lot of good ideas," he said in an interview in his office at Patrick Space Force Base. "Because these are people they don't normally talk to. So they do things in a different way. They think a different way." What Purdy - and the Space Force as a whole - is trying to do is far more than just create airline-like operations. They are focused on redefining how the military uses space, and attempting to transform it into a domain where the U.S. can exert the kind of tactical dominance it now displays on land, air and sea. That is easier said than done. Much of the military's infrastructure in space was developed at a time when space was considered a peaceful place. Satellites, for example, were built to be big and robust and last for years, even decades, without interference. But then China and Russia showed such fat targets were sitting ducks. China blasted a dead satellite with a missile strike in 2007, and Russia did it in 2021 - shows of force that shook the U.S. military leadership and polluted Earth orbit with dangerous debris for decades to come. So the Space Force is pivoting, relying on constellations of small satellites that can be easily replaced and, to an increasing degree, maneuver. That's just one example of how the Space Force intends to ensure the U.S. maintains "space superiority," as its leaders often say, to protect the satellites the Defense Department relies on for warnings of incoming missiles, steering precision-guided munitions and surveilling both friendly and hostile forces. It also could deter conflict in space - why strike a satellite if there are backups that would easily carry on the mission? In the interview, Purdy gave a tour of some of the roles the Space Force could play, offering a glimpse into its future. Soldiers and Marines already pre-position supplies and equipment on the ground, he said. Could the Space Force start storing supplies in space and then fly them to hot spots on Earth as well? "In theory, we could have huge racks of stuff in orbit and then somebody can call those in, saying. 'I need X, Y, Z delivered to me now on this random island.' And then, boom, they shoot out and they parachute in and they land with GPS assistance," he said. "It's a fascinating thought exercise for emergency response - you know if a type of tidal wave or tsunami comes in and wipes out a whole area." The military is also working to harness solar energy in space, and then beam it to ground stations. Could the Space Force use that technology to beam power to remote areas to support soldiers on the ground? Another idea: If the cadence of launches really does double or triple and the costs continue to come down, could the Space Force start using rockets to deliver cargo across the globe at a moment's notice? Soon there could be commercial space stations floating around in orbit. "Can we lease a room?" Purdy said. "Can we lease a module?" The idea is to use space as if it were any other theater of war, with supply lines, logistical oversight and tactical awareness of what's happening day in and day out. But all of that is more difficult in a weightless vacuum that extends well beyond the largest oceans. "In no other military domain would you take a tank, or an aircraft or a jeep or a ship and gas it up and then say . . . 'Okay you will never refuel it again,'" Purdy had said earlier this year in an interview with the Aerospace Corporation. The military also has the ability to repair tanks and jets. But the vehicles the Space Force depends on - satellites - are different. Refueling and servicing them are difficult and so every movement has to be considered carefully. "Am I going to need this fuel 10 years from now?" he said in the Aerospace Corporation interview. Some of these concepts may become real. Some may not. But Purdy at least feels free to pursue new ideas because "we're not bound by years of tradition within the Space Force or the previous Air Force command," he said. "It didn't exist. And so we can define our own concepts of how operations will work." Two years ago "we weren't thinking of any of this stuff, none of it," he added. "The on-orbit space storage of logistics, we weren't thinking of six months ago. And so we've been able to think rapidly, get with industry and rapidly move the ball forward on all those pieces." The fact that the idea of the Space Force is still somewhat in flux is to be expected, said Douglas Loverro, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy. After it was founded in 1947, "it took the Air Force 25 years to figure out their mission," he said. "We shouldn't expect that the Space Force is going to be able to figure it out the day after we stand them up. It's going to take a little while, and that's okay." When it was established by President Donald Trump at the end of 2019, the Space Force was widely mocked - derided as a political ploy for a politician desperately trying to project strength and the butt of alien jokes for late-night comedians. But as it has taken form, the culture of the Space Force "is building, and I think that's good," retired Air Force general John Hyten, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview. "We just have to change the process along with the culture because you can have a new culture and the old process, and you still run into a brick wall." In Congress, Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.) and former congressman Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) advocated for the establishment of a Space Corps as part of the Air Force, the way the Marine Corps exists under the Navy. The effort was driven by a desire to make space a priority for the Pentagon at a time when other nations, particularly China, were catching up. "We have lost a dramatic lead in space that we should have never let get away from us. So that's what gave us the sense of urgency to get after this," Rogers said in 2019. Since then, the threat has only grown. In its annual "Space Threat Assessment" report, the Center for Strategic and International Studies recently reported that "China continues to make progress toward its goal of becoming the world leader in space. Over the past year, China has continued to grow its space and counterspace assets, maintaining its status as the second-most-capable space nation after the United States." In April, The Post reported that space would likely be a key part of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. China would seek to jam communications and intelligence satellites as well as "destroy ballistic missile early warning satellites," as part of a military strike on Taiwan, according to documents allegedly leaked to a Discord chatroom by Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. China is now able "to hold key U.S. and Allied space assets at risk," according to the documents, which were obtained by The Post. In March, Saltzman gave a speech titled "Guardians in the Fight" in which he unveiled a plan he called "competitive endurance" that is designed to compete over the long-term with China and other actors. The goal is initially to deter any conflict from reaching space, but "if necessary to achieve space superiority." As part of the plan, the Space Force would work to ensure that the United States avoids "operational surprise," by keeping track of other countries' satellites and movements in space while also being able to "identify behaviors that become irresponsible or even hostile." But he acknowledged the difficulties of operating in an area hundreds of miles off the surface of the Earth. On the ground, battle lines can be drawn, delineating zones of conflict. "Our domain is a little different," he said. "In space, you cannot leave the war zone." There is also no way, he added, "to physically separate civil, commercial, military satellites from one another because the laws that govern orbits are immutable." And low Earth orbit also is polluted with debris, traveling at 5 miles per second, so fast that even a small piece, a bolt or even a fleck of paint, can cause enormous damage. While the Navy patrols vast oceans, the Space Force's "area of responsibility" is "defined as 100 kilometers above sea level extending outward, indefinitely," Lt. Gen. John Shaw, the deputy commander of the U.S. Space Command, said during a recent talk with the Secure World Foundation. "So, a huge AOR. Do the math." Another problem, Hyten said, is that so much of what the Space Force does remains classified. "And because it's overclassified, it's very difficult to talk about specifics," Hyten said. "And when you can't talk about specifics that makes it one of the most misunderstood elements of our government. . . . We fundamentally need to normalize the classification, so we can have a conversation with the public, with the American people." © 2023 The Washington Post. Sign up for the Today's Worldview newsletter here.

Det var på fredagskvällen som olyckan skedde – en anställd på San Antonios internationella flygplats dog efter att ha sugits in i motorn på ett flygplan, skriver The Guardian. Den amerikanska myndigheten National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) utreder nu händelsen. Liknande fall – bara 6 månader tidigare Ett Delta Airlines-flygplan hade rest från Los Angeles i Kalifornien till San Antonio i Texas och åkte mot en gate med sin ena flygplansmotor fortfarande igång, enligt uppgifter. Enligt källor verkade det som att den anställde medvetet hade ställt sig framför den aktiva motorn, skriver The Guardian.  Då ska han ha "sugits in" i flygplansmotorn och dött.  Den avlidne mannen arbetade för Unifi Aviation, ett företag som tillhandahåller marktjänster för bland annat Delta Airlines. I ett uttalande uttrycker företaget sin sorg över den tragiska händelsen, men att den inte var relaterad till Unifi Aviations säkerhetsrutiner, skriver The Guardian. Enligt den brittiska tidningen inträffade ett liknande fall som detta på nyårsafton 2022. Den olyckan ska då ha påträffat i Alabama, USA. Vid den händelsen ska det då ha handlat om ett American Airlines-flygplan.