June 13, 2005
LOOK, MA, NO WINGS:
Northwest stock price tumbles on wave of bad news (Associated Press, June 13, 2005)
Northwest Airlines Corp. shares plunged more than 12 percent today as investors in the nation's fourth-largest carrier were buffeted by several pieces of bad news.A $50 each-way fare increase aimed at business travelers failed when other carriers failed to match it. Regulatory filings show that Northwest chairman Gary L. Wilson has now sold nearly 60 percent of his stake in the company. And the Wall Street Journal highlighted Northwest's labor troubles in today's editions and reported the airline could be close to bankruptcy.
Northwest shares fell 80 cents, or 12.6 percent, to $5.53 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, after as falling as low as $5.05 earlier in the day. The shares are off from a high of $11.83 in December.
Wilson has sold about 2.5 million shares since mid-May, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company has said Wilson remains the airline's largest single private investor.
The attempted fare increase was the largest of several attempts by a number of carriers to raise fares this year. Making it stick would have demonstrated that Northwest has some pricing power.
No one has pricing power and man wasn't meant to fly. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 13, 2005 4:48 PM
No wonder the travel secretary switched me to US Air.
Posted by: Pete at June 13, 2005 8:47 PM[M]an wasn't meant to fly
Really ?
Then these folks must be nuts:
"I don't have a specific date, but sometime between 2015, which is the earliest we think we can do it, and 2020, which would be the latest," said Michael Griffin, the new administrator of NASA.
"We have enough money [in the NASA budget] to put people back on the moon in that timeframe," he said. "The model that I have is that we should build a lunar outpost similar to the kinds of multinational outposts we have in Antarctica." [Emph. add.]
Also:
[R]ocket launchings would take place from the group's facilities under development in Culberson County, Texas. The reusable launch vehicle (RLV) would haul paying passengers on suborbital jaunts.
The Bezos booster would be fully reusable, flying autonomously under control of on-board computers. There would be no ground control during nominal flight conditions.
Once the technology has been thoroughly tested, Blue Origin would begin passenger flight service using the RLV at a maximum rate of 52 launches per year. The RLV would carry three or more passengers per operation.
And within a few hundred years, quite probably sooner, we'll be visiting places like this, with probes at least:
Over the past decade, astronomers have found more than 100 planets orbiting nearby stars. But the vast majority have been gas giants several times more massive than Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet...
The ultimate goal is to find Earth-sized rocky planets...
Or:
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at June 14, 2005 6:29 AMOK, I give up.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at June 14, 2005 6:33 AMThjat's not flying. It's exploration.
Posted by: oj at June 14, 2005 7:06 AM"...and man wasn't meant to fly."
Which is why it is so much fun!
Posted by: WildWzl at June 14, 2005 7:13 AMOnce the exploration phase is over, how will we get to these places without flying ?
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at June 14, 2005 7:54 AMThere's no need to stay. Move on to the next.
Posted by: oj at June 14, 2005 8:24 AMMr. Herdegen;
OJ's right. Once the explorers have reached a location, they'll just create a telepresence clone to add to your collective intelligence and leave it there. You'll be here and there and exploring all at the same time, so there will be no need to fly. Now, I had thought that OJ opposed that kind of extropian technology but apparently I was wrong.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at June 14, 2005 11:03 AMMan wasn't meant to fly, but Herb Kelleher obviously was.
Most of America's business leader caste is just terrible though. The problems of the airlines and automotive industry has been well know for decades, yet the farce continues.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at June 14, 2005 11:36 AMoj:
You may stay in NH, I'm going to spend my golden years basking in the gentle embrace of Luna, or on one of the orbital space stations.
Earth is for the young: Strong enough to take the gravity, too poor to get off-planet.
AOG:
Splendid !
And possibly a true vision. It's certainly the best way to poke about Venus or the gas giants, to say nothing of frigid Pluto. (Not that I expect anything very interesting to come of exploring Pluto).
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at June 14, 2005 12:07 PMMichael:
People are going to hate space. Earth was Created for Man.
Posted by: oj at June 14, 2005 12:13 PMwhy stop at pluto when uranus is in range ?
Posted by: cjm at June 14, 2005 1:20 PMC'mon, flying is fun (most of the time, anyway). It is modern, but no more so than the telephone, the microwave, or the modem/digital/cable connection (ahem...).
Posted by: jim hamlen at June 14, 2005 4:26 PMthe telephone is a tool of Satan and the tv causes brain death.
Posted by: oj at June 14, 2005 4:32 PM" . . . man wasn't meant to fly."
With the exception of those urgent visits to Disneyworld, I suppose (see "LUCKY WE LEFT UNCLE REMUS AT HOME" below).
Posted by: Josh Silverman at June 14, 2005 4:40 PMIs Pluto still considered a planet?
Posted by: Dave W. at June 15, 2005 4:42 AMEarth was Created for ManI created a home for my children but I don't expect them to live there forever. Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at June 17, 2005 6:34 PM
No, you didn't.
Posted by: oj at June 17, 2005 7:09 PM