APEX Editor's Blog

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a colourful way of describing the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). “NextGen is the transformation of how airplanes traverse the sky,” says the agency, and represents “a new era of flight”. But creating a new era of flight, which entails transitioning from a decades old ground-based system [...]

There are plenty of tales lamenting the race to the bottom in amenities and service for passengers in the United States. But that is not the entire story. Indeed, there are some markets where competition amongst carriers is working to increase the options available to travellers. Not only are there more choices now in these [...]

Once American and US Airways combine to produce the “new American”, inflight product is set to take on an unprecedented eminence as a distinguishing competitive factor among the country’s big three carriers. Current US Airways CEO and future chief of the merged American Doug Parker stressed the new paradigm during the recent Phoenix Sky Harbor [...]

PHOENIX: US Airways admits it lags behind its peers in mobile technology, but aims to close that gap in the near future with the launch of a new mobile phone application for customers. The app would put the carrier on par with it US legacy airline rivals American, Delta and United who all presently offer [...]

PHOENIX: US Airways could receive a small kickback from the sale of ‘red flower’ organic wellness products featured in the new amenity kit available for customers travelling in the carrier’s Envoy international business class beginning in July. Each kit will feature a romance card containing a code that passengers can use on the red flower [...]

Etihad Airways’ new television commercial features the voice of the late Bobby Darrin crooning the smoky jazz club standard, Beautiful Things, as Etihad’s beautiful passengers visit beautiful places around the world. The commercial began airing on television stations in Australia, China, Germany, India, Japan, Nigeria, the UK and the United States on 4 March, after a [...]

US Airways’ entire domestic mainline fleet will offer Gogo’s inflight Wi-Fi solution by this summer. The Embraer E-Jets that operate regional service on behalf of US Airways will also be equipped with Wi-Fi by that time, US Airways executive VP and CFO Derek Kerr tells the APEX editor’s blog. No decision has been taken on [...]

It is a commonly held view that “complimentary” inflight meals rarely impress. Virtually every passenger has something to say about airplane food and the bad seems to outweigh the good. A Facebook friend of mine recently flew with a Middle Eastern carrier from London to Singapore and complained to me: “The food is awful, nigh [...]

Weaved into the proclamations by top brass about the network superiority that American Airlines and US Airways will achieve once their merger is complete are mixed messages as to how the merged carrier will approach the passenger experience. It also appears that the fate of American’s hyped new livery and re-branding efforts remain highly uncertain. [...]

NEW YORK: Change is sometimes necessary, sometimes feared. In the case of American Airlines, a change to its iconic 45-year old livery seems to be out of necessity, though public response has been extremely mixed. The old livery – designed by Massimo Vignelli and featuring red, white, and blue strips on bare aluminium with a [...]