Our guest for this episode is Anthony Davis, a British broadcaster, aviation journalist and private pilot who provides airline industry analysis for TV, radio and print. He regularly appears on Sky News, Al Jazeera, Channel 5 News, Good Morning Britain, ITV News, and MSNBC and is the resident aviation analyst for the Daily Mirror newspaper. Across London his late night LBC radio news talk shows earned him a reputation on the airwaves for almost a decade. He currently presents the drivetime show on Smooth Radio.
Tragedy has struck again in aviation, with the Metrojet A321 crash in northern Sinai killing all 224 on board. Anthony, who has closely tracked developments, shares his thoughts on why there is "a lot of distance between this tragedy and the facts at the moment and it's obviously quite a political race here as to who wants to be first with the information". Indeed, there has been a steady flow of contradictory statements from Russian, Egyptian and Metrojet officials, and an apparently relaxed approach to the physical handling of the flight data recorder and even Metrojet management's attire at press briefings. Anthony also shares some important info about the security situation at Sharm el Sheikh.
Next, it’s clear that the ultra low cost carriers are giving legacies a run for their money with American announcing recently that it will offer more fare options to compete with Spirit Airlines’ pricing. People are clearly booking with carriers that offer less than ideal #PaxEx. Co-hosts Max Flight and Mary Kirby talk to Anthony about whether passengers really care about the experience or if it is just about a cheap ride. Regular listeners of the podcast might be surprised at Anthony's perspective (he doesn't buy into the notion that an extra half-inch of seat width matters).
Last but not least, we ask Anthony about an area of particular speciality – the Red Carpet Route between London and Los Angeles. Seven airlines are working the same track, and he shares some colour on how they're differentiating. We ultimately address Open Skies and the US3 versus M3 debate, and Anthony shares why he believes "American carriers can't handle the competition".