Author: Evan Sparks

Articles

My Big Fat Airline Merger

You might be forgiven for mistaking the pending privatization of Alitalia for the plot of a new romantic comedy–say, My Big Fat Italian Wedding. All the elements are there: the clumsy, unattractive bride to be, the parents desperate to marry her off to any suitor who can come up with a suitable dowry, the relatives anxious to make sure the dowry is large enough, the handful of frustrated suitors and the doddering grandfather who won’t let the bride marry a handsome foreigner.

Last week, Alitalia’s unions failed to come to terms with a bid for the airline by Air France–KLM. The $1.17 billion bid had been approved by Alitalia’s board and the Italian government. After weeks of negotiation and many concessions, Air France–KLM gave up and withdrew its bid. Stirring in trouble was former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who decried the notion of “giving our national airline to the French.” Continue reading “My Big Fat Airline Merger”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Reviews

Chasing the American Dream with $25

How’s this for a crazy idea: a guy moves to a randomly selected city with $25 and plans to have a place to live, a car, and $2,500 in the bank—all within one year. Adam Shepard performed this exact feat and then wrote a book about it, titled Scratch Beginnings. According to Shepard, his experience proves that the American dream can come true.

In college, Shepard read Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, which argues that only government intervention can rescue the working poor from what Ehrenreich portrays as a desperate plight. Shepard doubted her thesis and wanted to test it. So after graduating, he went to Charleston, South Carolina, with a sleeping bag, a change of clothes, $25, and a made-up tale of woe. He spent the first two months in a homeless shelter while he worked as a day laborer. He later found a permanent position with a moving company, which gave him a stable income. This allowed Shepard to buy a (very) used pickup truck, rent and furnish an apartment with a coworker, and start saving.

Continue reading “Chasing the American Dream with $25”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Reviews

Up, Up, and Away

The National Air and Space Museum seems to occupy a precarious position on the Mall in Washington. Not that it is in any danger of disappearing, but it seems to have less of an intellectual pedigree than its neighbors. Art, science, history, anthropology, and–whoa! cool planes and spacecraft! The Smithsonian’s 19 museums have over 21 million visits every year, and a quarter of them go to the National Air and Space Museum. It’s a favorite for families on vacation and school groups on field trips, and is always much more crowded than the sedate galleries nearby. But its new permanent exhibition illustrates that beautiful aircraft and a popular presentation can go hand-in-hand with intellectual rigor.

“America by Air,” which opened in November, records the story of commercial air travel in the United States, from the earliest postal pilots to the new planes just now entering the market. Continue reading “Up, Up, and Away”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Articles

Congress Fuels Airline Merger Madness

Merger mania has struck the airlines once again. A year after US Airways failed to buy Delta Air Lines in a hostile takeover (then, pundits heralded the long-awaited industry consolidation), the buzz is back.

Not long ago, a hedge fund with stakes in both Delta and United Airlines spun a rumor about a merger, causing the stock price to soar. Now, Delta’s board has decided to examine mergers with other airlines, principally United and Northwest Airlines. Northwest’s CEO announced that merger proposals would be weighed carefully, and United has made no secret of its desire in recent months to merge with another airline. And now may be just the right time to merge, thanks to a provision in the 2007 appropriations act requiring “fair and equitable” handling of labor issues during a merger. Continue reading “Congress Fuels Airline Merger Madness”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Articles

How to Fix Airport Delays

This past summer was another predictable nightmare for U.S. air travelers. With record-high passenger traffic, expanded schedules at many of America’s busiest hubs, and the cost-cutting policies of post-bankruptcy airlines, the slightest thunderstorm or security hiccup resulted in massive delays. Some flights, especially in the Northeast corridor, were delayed every day they operated.

Meeting with senior officials at the White House last week, President Bush identified the chief problems as customer service and congestion. He instructed Transportation Secretary Mary Peters to devise a solution by Christmas, which will no doubt be a short-term fix. But because of the interconnected structure of air travel, any real solution needs to be system-wide. Continue reading “How to Fix Airport Delays”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Reviews

Edit Thyself: A Maxim for the New Media

There are today more than 100 million blogs; 175,000 are begun each day, and 1.6 million posts are added daily. There are thousands of magazines of all varieties. Almost 300,000 books were published in 2006; self-publishing has harnessed cheap printing technology to take off in recent years. People are increasingly producing their own journalism, literature, and entertainment for themselves, their friends, and random virtual passersby. More and more people are writing today for the public than ever before. And therefore, more and more people need editors than ever before.

Fortunately for all the bloggers out there, veteran editor Susan Bell has written a fine new book, The Artful Edit, to help writers learn to “self-edit”­—not bypassing traditional editors altogether, but improving their writing through dispassionate revision. Continue reading “Edit Thyself: A Maxim for the New Media”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Articles

Wrong of Way

On August 3, New York governor Eliot Spitzer signed a “bill of rights” for air travelers in New York state. The law provides that passengers who have boarded a plane but have been delayed from takeoff for three hours or more must have access to “amenities” like fresh air, power, lavatories, food, and water. The law also sets up an official “Airline Consumer Advocate” to handle complaints. Penalties for failing to provide these services can be steep: up to $1,000 per passenger.

This comes on the heels of a woeful summer, spring, and winter of airport delays and passengers trapped on immobile planes, most notoriously JetBlue’s February fiasco at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which saw passengers stuck in planes for up to eleven hours. Continue reading “Wrong of Way”

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Articles

Boeing, Airbus: Prepare for Turbulence

On the apposite date of July 8, 2007, Boeing will unveil the first assembled 787, its long-expected widebody jet. But with so much attention on the Boeing’s heated competition with Airbus, new developments in aerospace are slipping by unnoticed—especially in emerging-market countries like China, where some of this century’s big aviation action may well take place.

Later this year, the Chinese state-owned company ACAC will unveil China’s first “homegrown” commercial jetliner: the ARJ21, a regional jet seating 70-100 with a range of 1,800 miles. When the ARJ21 takes flight, it will be for China a prouder moment than the 787’s unveiling will for Boeing. China’s aerospace ambitions are bigger than the ARJ21, and they may have big global consequences.

The weeds of nationalism grow well in aviation’s garden. Continue reading “Boeing, Airbus: Prepare for Turbulence”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Articles

A Valuable New Airline Service You May Not Have Noticed

The last time I flew on Ryanair, Europe’s scrappy low-cost airline, I sensed some message confusion. Its garish blue-and-yellow planes and spartan terminals bear slogans such as “The Low Fares Airline,” “The On Time Airline,” “Fly Cheaper,” and even one that read “Europe’s Favourite Airline”—an obvious dig at its larger rival British Airways, whose longtime slogan was “The World’s Favourite Airline.”

Ryanair gets its share of bad press, and while I’ve never had an unpleasant flight on the airline, I’ve never had a particularly pleasant one either. It is a truly no-frills experience—no window shades, no reclining seats, charges for checked luggage, everything on the plane for sale. So can it really be Europe’s favorite airline? Can it be anybody’s favorite airline? Continue reading “A Valuable New Airline Service You May Not Have Noticed”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Reviews

Friendly Fire

After the Republicans’ “thumpin’,” as President Bush described it, in the 2006 midterm elections, the recent host of books offering a scathing conservative critique of the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled 107th, 108th, and 109th Congresses look prescient.

It’s getting hard to keep the titles straight: In 2003 and 2004, left-wing critics offered Worse than Watergate, American Dynasty, The Price of Loyalty, Losing America, and The Politics of Truth. Beginning with Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy, by former Reagan administration official Bruce Bartlett, conservatives and libertarians are catching up, venting their pent-up frustration with the Bush White House and the Republican leadership in Congress in book form. Continue reading “Friendly Fire”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks