Honoring the Flight Crews That Died 20 Years Ago Today
Twenty years. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. We are now as far away from 9/11 as they were in 1981 which is fairly mind-blowing. I think the reason it’s so hard to believe is that it is...
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Reviewing Your 2021 Predictions and Making Your 2022 Picks
So, how did your predictions go this year? For most of you, the answer was… not well. This was one hard year to predict. But hey, there was some success in there, so kudos to those of you who...
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2021 Flying Summary
There’s another year in the books. My mileage wasn’t much higher than the year before, but my segment count? Well, that was 4x last year. I went back to the more normal pattern with more short-haul,...
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How You Can Attend the Cranky Network Awards, Get a Free Cranky Network...
The Cranky Network Awards are now less than 2 months away, and the program is shaping up quite nicely. Now, you have a chance to join the rock stars of the network planning world in person as we...
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What Matters in an Aircraft Livery? Not Much.
There is rarely a hotter topic in airline dork discussion circles than an airline’s livery. The livery is — in normal human terms — the airline’s paint job, and the term comes from the livery, or...
View ArticleHonoring the Flight Crews That Died 21 Years Ago Today
Does it mean we’re getting old when 9/11 is now old enough to drink? I think what’s most amazing to me is the number of people in this industry who have no recollection of that day at all because they...
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Reviewing Your 2022 Predictions and Making Your 2023 Picks
It’s been a lot of fun reading through predictions this year. It’s the first time in awhile we’ve started looking beyond COVID, at least a little. And this is no small feat since you wrote these...
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2022 Flying Summary
This map looks weird. Any year without Hawai’i is a sad one. Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz. Of course, this was primarily due to me doing the Oakland Corridor...
View ArticleHonoring the Flight Crews That Died 22 Years Ago Today
It’s a shift that can give you whiplash. Saturday was Cranky Dorkfest where hundreds of us gathered, ate burgers, watched airplanes, and celebrated the industry we all love. Today, it turns very...
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Break Time
Cranky Concierge is gathering this weekend for company meetings, and I won’t be back until early next week. To make life easier, I’ll be taking a break from posting here until next Thursday. Cranky...
View ArticleHonoring the Flight Crews That Died 15 Years Ago Today
It may be a Sunday, a day on which I rarely post, but today is no ordinary Sunday. Today marks 15 years since the US airline industry (along with the entire country) was flipped on its head. There are...
View Article2016 Flying Summary
I knew this wasn’t a good year for flying, but I didn’t realize just how terrible it was until I added the numbers up. Get ready for some embarrassing stuff. Miles: 13,391 (37,816 last year) Segments:...
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In Case It’s Not Clear, People Really Hate Airlines
When the images of a bleeding passenger being dragged off a United Express flight began to surface, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be good for United. But I don’t think anyone expected it to...
View ArticleHonoring the Flight Crews That Died 16 Years Ago Today
I know one year shouldn’t make a difference, but there’s something about this year’s anniversary that makes 9/11 seem more distant than it used to. Maybe it’s the hurricanes, the threat of nuclear...
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2017 Flying Summary
There’s no question 2016 was a bad year for flying for me, but 2017 was so much better. The only thing 2017 lacked was a long haul trip. I surprised myself when I looked back to find that I haven’t...
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Reviewing Your 2017 Predictions and Making Your 2018 Picks
It’s official, 2017 is over so it’s time to look back and see how you all did with your predictions. A year ago, I reviewed 2016 predictions and asked for your thoughts on 2017. There were a ton of...
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California Pacific Will Fly November 1, But For How Long?
The wait is over. California Pacific, an airline that has been around for years in theory, has finally taken flight. The airline is currently operating… from Denver to the bustling South Dakota...
View ArticleHonoring the Flight Crews That Died 17 Years Ago Today
It’s always worse when it falls on a Tuesday. Seventeen years ago, I remember going to bed on a Monday night, ready to wake up early for another day at work. But on that Tuesday, well, we all know...
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Dorkfest is Just Over a Week Away
Dorkfest is almost upon us. One week from tomorrow, I’ll be at the park across from the In-N-Out at LAX (9149 S Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045) from 11am to 1pm. Why? To do this: That’s a...
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Another Successful Dorkfest
If you didn’t come to Dorkfest on Saturday, you missed out on a great time. We had well over 100 people show up — probably closer to 150 — to eat burgers, watch airplanes, talk shop… and take home a...
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A New Book: 3 Feet to the Left
How about something a bit different today? It’s not uncommon for me to get requests to read a manuscript, and I will often do so if it’s related to the airline industry. But it’s not every day that...
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Reviewing Your 2018 Predictions and Making Your 2019 Picks
It’s the end of the year, and you know what that means. It’s time to look back at your predictions for 2018 as well as make you picks for what you think will happen in 2019. The 2017 review saw almost...
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2018 Flying Summary
I said I was going to leave North America in 2018, but that didn’t happen. For a variety of reasons (many work-related), I had to scrap trips that I had planned. In the end, I was left with another...
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Cranky on the Web: Via Goes Down
BHM confident in airport traffic growth despite losing Via Airlines – Birmingham Business JournalI realize this is behind a paywall that many of you won’t be able to access, but it gives me the...
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Cranky on the Web: An Interview With Me
Have We Reached Peak Airline Complexity? – kambr.mediaHere’s a wide-ranging interview I did with Kambr touching everything from my background to what’s new at Cranky Concierge… and of course, whether...
View ArticleHonoring the Flight Crews That Died 18 Years Ago Today
It’s hard to believe that the terrorist act that completely turned our industry upside down is now old enough to vote. It’s been 18 years since that fateful day in 2001. As always, following the lead...
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Reviewing Your 2019 Predictions and Making Your 2020 Picks
The year is almost done, and that means it’s time to go back and see how you did on your 2019 predictions. Some were right on, some were not, and some were truly ridiculous. (I’m talking to you,...
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2019 Flying Summary
It’s the last day of the year, so that means it’s time to look at the year in flying. Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz. Miles: 33,378 (19,406 last year)Segments:...
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A Recipe for Coronavirus Panic That Is Very Bad News for Airlines
Coronavirus panic has reached a fever pitch as cases outside of China continue to tick upwards. We appear to be seeing a perfect storm of airlines, governments, and passengers all feeding off each...
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A Letter to New Airline Employees About This Industry We Love
Dear Newbie, I’m sure this has been a really challenging month for you. After all, since you were hired in the last decade, you’ve never seen anything like this before. Take a deep breath and get...
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All of a Sudden, The Airline Industry Disappears
Every post I had in the hopper suddenly seems irrelevant. I was working on a story about growing capacity in a small town, and I had been digging into Contour’s model. Now none of it matters thanks to...
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Subscribe to the New Cranky Coronavirus Daily Update
With the airline industry nearly grinding to a halt, Cranky Concierge has taken a hit as well. We’ve been working hard to help customers handle changes and refunds, and we’ve found a way to cut 20...
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Get Your Favorite Airports On a Cranky T-Shirt
If you’ve been following along on Twitter, you know I’ve been feverishly working on creating individual shirts for as many airports as I can. I’m proud to announce that the first round of The Airport...
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Vintage Airport Shirts Are Now Available… And We’re Taking Requests For More
For those of you who like to kick it old school — damn, I sound like an old guy trying to pretend to be cool — we now have vintage airport t-shirts available. It’s not a huge list yet, because it’s a...
View ArticleHonoring the Flight Crews That Died 19 Years Ago Today
It’s that day again, but this year it just feels different. The economic carnage that followed 9/11 now pales in comparison to what COVID-19 has wrought. And when you think about the 3,000 people who...
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Reviewing Your 2020 Predictions and Making Your 2021 Picks
Who’s excited for the annual tradition of seeing how you did with your predictions for the year? Anyone? ANYONE? No, you shouldn’t be excited, because they were nearly all wrong. I mean… seriously. I...
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2020 Flying Summary
Happy New Year everyone. Last year, shall we say, did not go as planned. But hey, at least I wasn’t shut out, and I squeaked past 10,000 miles on the year. We’ll call it a victory, and I’ll just have...
View ArticleHow to Watch Tonight’s Cranky Network Awards
At long last, the big day is here. Tonight is the Cranky Network Awards presented by Ontario International Airport, Southern California’s easiest airport. Join us for the YouTube Premiere tonight, or...
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How We Chose the Conrad Punta de Mita For a Pandemic Vacation (And Mostly...
Since this post isn’t about flights, I’m putting it up on a Wednesday. I will have a regular trip report on the flights themselves in the next couple weeks. The last time I took an actual vacation was...
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2022 Cranky Network Awards Are Coming to You Live on February 24
When the first Cranky Network Awards aired earlier this year, I promised we’d do it in person in 2022. And now, it’s happening… The 2022 Cranky Network Awards will be held on February 24, live with...
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2023 Flying Summary
I’m done for the year, so might as well get this party started. Another year, another weird-looking map. The multiple short haul trips are somewhat obscured by the Atlanta and Kahului runs. Maps...
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Reviewing Your 2023 Predictions and Making Your 2024 Picks
It’s the most wonderul time of the year… when we get to go over all your predictions from last year and see how you did. Of course, we need to remember that when you all wrote down your predictions...
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The Quiet Genius of ICAO Airport Codes
I usually have a couple of these kinds of evergreen posts ready to go in case I’m not able to finish a more newsy post in time, so, here we are…. I’ll have the currently-unfinished post ready for...
View ArticleHonoring the Flight Crews That Died 23 Years Ago Today
Some years, this just sneaks up on me, and this is one of those years. It’s September 11, and that means today we honor those who were killed when hijackers brought down four airplanes in an act of...
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Play Airlines Plans to Play in the Sand Instead of the States
Things don’t appear to be going all that well for Iceland-based Play Airlines, the heir to the WOW Air legacy. With results coming in worse than expected, the airline is shifting its plans away from...
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Czech Airlines is Not OK as It Fades Away
There aren’t all that many airlines that have been around for over 100 years, and now, that exclusive club has lost a member. Flight 767 from Paris to Prague marked the last flight of Czech Airlines —...
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Join Me and Other AvGeeks On Bluesky
It’s now been over a month since I stopped regularly posting on X/Twitter, and I’m now feeling confident enough in that decision to talk about where to find me. The key for me was finding another...
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2024 Flying Summary
It’s time to look back at my year of flying, and it was a good one. I finally crossed an ocean again for the first time in awhile. The biggest shame of the year is that I had no new aircraft to...
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Reviewing Your 2024 Predictions and Making Your 2025 Picks
Happy new year, everybody! Now that we are squeaking into 2025, it’s time to look at how many of your 2024 predictions came true and then think about what this coming year will bring. As always, I’m...
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