Wall Street Journal: What It Cost to Fly Your Baggage

I may have played a role in this article in the Wall Street Journal.

What It Costs An Airline to Fly Your Luggage (11/25/08)

A researcher for The Middle Seat contacted me about my article on baggage handling published on my Kilroy Cafe blog (Zen and the Art of Baggage Handling). He was going to interview me for a WSJ blog but never did. Nonetheless, I think some of my info got into the article.

One interesting factoid:

One rough formula sometimes used in the airline business to approximate fuel costs is that it requires 3% to 5% of the weight of an object in fuel to fly it one hour. That means at current fuel prices, it would cost about $1 to $2 to fly a 40-pound bag on an average three-hour trip.

That may lead to an estimate of how much fuel my own airline uses to fly me across the country (maybe $10-20 per trip).

Airlines No Longer at Risk

It looks like the domestic airlines are not at risk even in an economic downturn, especially now that the price of oil has crashed....

Airlines ready for fewer travelers in 2009
(Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/5)

This is significant to me (as a furloughed airline employee) since my free flight benefits are only good if my airline survives. I want my airline to do well, but not so well that they hire me back.