Daily Archives: July 3, 2008

SeaPort Air Starts Service.

SeaPort Air initiated service recently from Seattle-Boeing Field, WA to Portland, OR. The airline provides all the advantages of private business travel to the commercial world of air travel. SeaPort operates 8 flights daily, Monday through Friday, and 5 flights on the weekends. The airline advertises a 90 minute flight between the destinations and gets travellers closer to downtown Seattle, giving travellers a better alternative offered by large carriers who chose to use the giant Seattle-Tacoma Airport.

SeaPort operates the pristine, turboprop PilatusPC-12 aircraft on its route. The PC-12 travels at a cruise speed of 312.5 mph, which is fairly quick. I have to give the CEO of SeaPort a pat on the back for choosing this aircraft. Due to its low capacity, travellers are not required to pass through security checkpoints, which makes hopping on the plane much easier.

Job Cuts.

In this past month, the airline industry has seen a good amount of proposed job cuts. In fact, American Airlines announced that they may cut as many as 900 flight attendant jobs and 8 percent of its management.  Additionally, United Air Lines announced that they will cut loose 950 pilots. The economy is going into a period of recession, and with oil prices rising airlines have no choice. However, in the long run, when the recession is over (which has yet to start, but most likely will), I hope that they will be able to hire them all back. Yet, I gasp when I think of the future and imagine a country with half of the number of airlines that we have today. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves…