END OF THE LINE. PMM on Blogger. November 30th. 2025. NOW ON SUBSTACK

Well it has been a great ride here. But the reach is pretty poor on Blogger so I am moving Professor's Minute Minute to Substack.

You can find it here: https://professorsminute.substack.com/

This will be my last post here for the PMM. 

It’s pretty dire at SEATAC.

United Airlines is now refusing Seattle cargo because fuel shortages are that bad. An airport that anchors the Pacific Northwest shouldn’t be operating at the margins like a remote outstation — but here we are.

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/united-airlines-refuses-seattle-cargo-because-of-fuel-shortage

Not so great in the control towers either.

U.S. air-traffic controllers rejecting a $10,000 retention bonus tells you everything you need to know. The crisis isn’t about money — it’s about burnout, mistrust, and a system stretched far beyond its staffing limits.

https://guessingheadlights.com/air-traffic-controllers-reject-10000-bonus-as-insulting-amid-staffing-crisis/

Going, going, gone.

A nostalgic goodbye: a KLM 747 gets swallowed by time-lapse demolition. A reminder that even icons become scrap metal when the economics shift.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyZ9JwLMGTc

MD-11s and MD-10s likely to sit out for a while.

Freight operators are facing extended downtime for inspection cycles, and old tri-holers are the first to feel the pain. No quick return expected.

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/md-11-freighters-face-extended-grounding-for-inspections-airline-says

A320s are vulnerable to the sun?

Turns out heat cycles and exposure are stressing components faster than expected. Airbus may not like the headline, but the physics don’t care.

https://mailchi.mp/theaircurrent/pw-airbus-a320-rate-75-non-sub-14838637

Quirky: Helicopter-parenting is now literal.

A beautifully written piece about “flying” to check up on college-age kids — and what it says about us.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/2025/11/trailing-helicopter-parent-kids-college/684768/

📣 Don’t forget: Follow the full archive at https://t2ni.blogspot.com and look out for the Best of the Week recap every Sunday on LinkedIn and Instagram.

You can also read the Professor’s musings here: https://t2impact.blogspot.com

And explore the old archive: https://www.tumblr.com/professorsabena

Blogger Labels 

Aviation; Travel Industry; Airlines; PMM Daily; Disruption; Operations; Quirky

MOVING TO SUBSTACK December 1st 2025. PMM — Nov. 29, 2025: The 6 Stories That Matter

 

** NEW SUBSTACK LOCATION - https://professorsminute.substack.com/ **

Signals, scarcity, scrapped subscriptions, and one very quirky MiG.

L2B… not good.

Filip Filipov breaks down why L2B (Lead-to-Book) metrics collapse in an AI-driven world.

Agentic Travel is coming — and so are the side effects.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/signals-systems-11-agentic-travel-filip-filipov-cafwf/

A fascinating look into ULCC strategy.

Two ultra-low-cost carriers, two opposite trajectories.

Yield vs volume; structure vs stress.

https://weekly.visualapproach.io/p/a-tale-of-two-ulcc-charts

The USA has a new #2 regional airline.

Consolidation, re-fleeting, and a massive shift in who moves America’s passengers.

https://cmemailmarketing.co.uk/A05767353-CMP21428CON3555-RCP2I375487O32-4-TRK49741ENT21428-1-Z-Z-0-0-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z

Ryanair scraps Prime.

The subscription era meets a cold shower.

Prime wasn’t sticky, wasn’t cheap, and wasn’t worth the distraction.

https://www.reuters.com/business/ryanair-scraps-subscription-service-after-costly-trial-2025-11-28/

Slot news: the world’s scarcest resource.

If you want to know who’s winning in global aviation — follow the slots.

https://airserviceone.com/category/air-service-event-news/

Quirky: “Hey Russia — want one back?”

A captured Russian aircraft.

A sarcastic social media request.

The internet delivers the rest.

https://x.com/Daractenus/status/1993678410460357102?s=20

📣 Don’t forget:

Follow the full archive at t2ni.blogspot.com and look out for the Best of the Week recap every Sunday on LinkedIn and Instagram.

You can also read the Professor’s musings here: https://t2impact.blogspot.com

And explore the old archive: https://www.tumblr.com/professorsabena

Suggested Tags:

#TravelTech #Aviation #Airlines #AirlineStrategy #ULCC #OfferOrder #AgenticAI #PMM #AviationNews #AirlineSlots #Distribution #AviationHistory

MOVING TO SUBSTACK DEC 1. The Professor’s Minute Minute — November 28, 2025

Cancellations, short stories, grounded eVTOL dreams, healthy snacks (apparently), airport innovation, and WhatsApp meets the law.

The real reason your flight was cancelled.  

AirInsight digs into what airlines *don’t* tell you about operational cancellations — and why the official story is often a smokescreen.  

https://mailchi.mp/4450339fc639/airinsight-weekly-10962767?e=35e9b25991

Especially for Thanksgiving.  

Six-Word Memoirs returns with another round of perfectly condensed human truth. Bite-sized brilliance for the holiday weekend.  

https://www.sixwordmemoirs.com/

Finally, someone is being honest about eVTOL.  

A rare moment of realism in a hype-filled sector: eVTOL dreams meet infrastructure, economics, and physics.  

https://cmemailmarketing.co.uk/A05767353-CMP21433CON3560-RCP2I375487O32-4-TRK49840ENT21433-1-Z-Z-0-0-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z

Now he wants us to eat healthy. Hmmm.  

Congressman Sean Duffy thinks he can improve airline snacks. The public… let’s say the jury is still out.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/us/sean-duffy-healthier-plane-snacks.html

Innovation in airports.  

ACI World and Amadeus unveil the “World’s Most Innovative Airports” list. Some surprises — and a few glaring omissions.  

https://aci.aero/2025/11/26/aci-world-and-amadeus-announce-the-worlds-most-innovative-airports-at-2025-technology-innovation-awards/

Quirky: Not even WhatsApp escapes the long hand of the law.  

Italy expands its antitrust probe into WhatsApp’s AI integrations. Europe never sleeps.  

http://globalcompetitionreview.com/article/italy-expands-whatsapp-ai-tying-probe-amid-eu-interest

Abstract: 

• Abstract blue geometric illustration representing aviation, travel and technology, used as the daily PMM visual identity.

📣 Don’t forget: Follow the full archive at https://t2ni.blogspot.com and look out for the Best of the Week recap every Sunday on LinkedIn and Instagram.  

You can also read the Professor’s musings here: https://t2impact.blogspot.com  

And explore the old archive: https://www.tumblr.com/professorsabena

Aviation, Airlines, Travel, Airports, EVTOL, Innovation, Regulation, Antitrust, Technology, PMM

PMM — Nov. 27, 2025: The 6 Stories That Matter

***NEW HOME FOR PMM STARTS DECEMBER 1 2025 ON SUBSTACK

Today’s mix: Surveys, shaky numbers, shifting power, broken search economics, phantom aircraft orders, and a cold splash of antitrust reality.

Travel Weekly’s big industry survey — can we actually use the data?

The annual Travel Weekly Industry Survey is out, and as always it’s a mirror of how suppliers want to be seen as much as how they actually behave. But there are nuggets worth mining — segmentation, spend trends, distribution pressures. The question is: how much of this can be operationalized without falling into self-reported fantasy?

https://www.travelweekly.com/Industry-Survey-2025

A number that feels wrong. Very wrong.

The headline claim in this report looks glossy, but I struggle to accept the math at face value. Assumptions drive everything — and here the assumptions appear… optimistic. Before buying the narrative, you may want to check the model.

https://alphacomm.io/fmdg-2026/fmdg-2026-webinar-travel#sign-up-form

“Asia as the new global centre” — a fine thesis, but incomplete.

This piece argues the West has ceded dominance and that Asia now anchors the global order. A compelling narrative — but sweeping geopolitical models age about as well as airline celebrity ads. Worth reading, but not worth betting the portfolio on.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-asia-new-global-centre-dr-parag-khanna-darmc/

Search is broken — performance marketing is in structural decline.

Google’s NUM100 changes have upended the entire economics of performance marketing. CPC up, ROI down, conversion loops disrupted. This is not a cycle. It’s a structural reset that hits travel harder than most industries.

https://searchengineland.com/google-num100-impact-data-462231

A firm order is not a firm order.

Dubai’s order announcements looked spectacular… until you read the footnotes. Aviation Week’s analysis shows the narrowbody backlog is thinning and that “firm” often means “politically convenient.” Reality is far less shiny than the press releases.

https://aviationweek.com/awin-knowledge-center/data-narrowbody-firm-orders-run-dry-dubai

Quirky: Antitrust is about to get very real.

He promised he’d go after big corporations. Many assumed it was rhetorical theatre. This piece suggests otherwise — and if enforcement doesn't ramp up, a lot of travel companies should be nervous.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/opinion/trump-antitrust-corporations-consumers.html

📣 Don’t forget: Follow the full archive at t2ni.blogspot.com and look out for the Best of the Week every Sunday on LinkedIn and Instagram.

You can also read the Professor’s musings here: https://t2impact.blogspot.com

And explore the old archive: https://www.tumblr.com/professorsabena

#Aviation #TravelTech #Airlines #SearchMarketing #Distribution #Economics #PMM #TravelIndustry #AsiaPacific #Antitrust #AgenticAI

PMM — Nov. 26, 2025: The 6 Stories That Matter

 

Well, this is bold.

Schiphol is planning a €10B terminal expansion—an eye-watering investment for an airport still operating under political and environmental capacity caps. The ambition is enormous; the ROI is… harder to see.

https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/airports-networks/schiphol-sets-out-massive-eu10b-investment-new-terminal-plans

A real look at the TSA inspection changes.

The National Academies report on U.S. airport security enhancements is finally out. It’s dense but important—especially for anyone who thought the screening revisions were cosmetic. The operational impact is deeper than it looks.

https://www.nationalacademies.org/publications/29288

Somehow this feels very hollow.

IATA’s call for “strengthened industry partnerships” reads like something written by a committee staring at a clock. The problems are clear, but the solutions offered here feel recycled.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iata-industry-partners-call-strengthened-smcje/

Too good to be true? Someone checked.

Frontier’s Go Wild pass promises unlimited travel. AwardWallet broke down the actual economics so you don’t have to. Spoiler: if something sounds impossible… it probably is.

https://awardwallet.com/airlines/frontier-go-wild-pass/

Quirky: When AI chatbots fight back.

The New York Times’ Letters to the Editor section delivered a gem: humans annoyed that chatbots are “too opinionated.” The future is weird.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/science/letters-to-the-editor-ai-chatbots.html

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A clean, modern, abstract geometric background in a blue palette used for the Professor’s Minute Minute daily edition. No text, no symbols—just layered shapes evoking motion, direction, and complexity.

📣 Don’t forget:

Follow the full archive at https://t2ni.blogspot.com and catch the Best of the Week every Sunday on LinkedIn & Instagram.

More musings here: https://t2impact.blogspot.com

Old archive: https://www.tumblr.com/professorsabena

#Travel #Aviation #Airlines #PMM #TravelTech #AviationNews #Airports #AgenticAI #OfferOrder #AviationPolicy #AirlineStrategy #AviationSafety #TravelIndustry

PMM — Nov. 25, 2025: The 6 Stories That Matter

 

The regulator steps in.

Portugal has reminded Ryanair that refusing passengers with paper boarding passes is not just rude — it’s illegal. A rare case of a regulator showing teeth.

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2025/11/14/portugal-warns-ryanair-cannot-refuse-passengers-with-paper-boarding-passes

Give us another chance, please.

Canadian airports would really like you to stop avoiding them. Hard to blame passengers for hesitating — reliability is everything.

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/waterloo-region-record/20251121/281728390804739

A gift horse? Maybe not.

Delta’s “bonus miles” on gift cards… are still gift cards. A clever revenue trick, but not exactly consumer-friendly.

https://awardwallet.com/news/delta-skymiles/bonus-miles-gift-cards/

Air Transat turbulence.

Pilots have opened a strike vote and are picketing in Montreal and Toronto. Canada’s leisure market does not need more instability.

https://www.paxnews.com/news/airline/air-transat-pilots-open-strike-vote-picket-montreal-toronto

5G/6G interference is real — and expensive.

IATA’s latest release underscores what engineers have been warning for years: the interference issues with altimeters are not theoretical.

https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/2025-releases/2025-11-20-01/

Quirky: Lawyers frequently win.

The saga of Charlie Javice continues. If there’s one certainty in America, it’s that litigation outlives all logic.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/business/charlie-javice-jpmorgan-legal-bills.html?nl=From+The+Times

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📣 Remember: Best of the Week every Sunday on LinkedIn + Instagram.

Suggested Tags

#Travel #Aviation #Airlines #Regulation #Canada #Delta #IATA #5G #PilotUnions #Quirky

PMM — Nov. 24, 2025: The Stories That Matter Today

Textron brings the Bonanza and Baron era to a close.

A quiet ending to two of general aviation’s most iconic workhorses — aircraft that trained, transported, and defined generations of pilots. Legacy fleets rarely fade loudly, but this one deserves attention.

https://aviationweek.com/business-aviation/aircraft-propulsion/textron-aviation-halt-baron-bonanza-production

Google launches a travel booking engine — just don’t call it an OTA.

This is Google tightening its grip on travel intent. Their new agentic-style booking tool looks, behaves, and smells like an OTA. But of course, officially, it isn’t. The semantics won’t comfort anyone in the industry.

https://www.phocuswire.com/google-agentic-travel-booking-ai

Delta rolls out “Locals.”

An airline launching a community platform is… unusual. It feels like Delta wants to become a lifestyle brand for the neighborhoods it serves. Could work. Could also become the next Clubhouse.

https://deltalocals.com/

TSA volumes this week will tell us everything.

Thanksgiving traffic is the annual X-ray of the U.S. travel system. Infrastructure, staffing, airline scheduling discipline — it’s all laid bare. Watch for spikes, bottlenecks, and political noise.

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/passenger-volumes

A stretched A220? The idea refuses to die.

Technically feasible. Commercially attractive. Politically complicated. The market keeps nudging Airbus toward the A220 that airlines really want — even if it threatens the A320 family.

https://mailchi.mp/theaircurrent/scherer-a220-dubai-non-sub?e=188028c67b

RIP Wing Commander Namansh Syal.

A reminder that aviation is built on the dedication and risk of real people. Wing Commander Syal, a respected Tejas pilot, died in service. His loss is felt far beyond India.

https://shop.ssbcrack.com/blogs/blog/meet-wing-commander-namansh-syal-brave-fighter-pilot-killed-in-tejas-crash

📚 Archives

Full archive: https://t2ni.blogspot.com

Main blog: https://t2impact.blogspot.com

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Suggested Tags

#Aviation #TravelTech #Airlines #AgenticAI #GoogleTravel #A220 #DeltaAirLines #TSA #Aircraft #PMM #ProfessorSabena

The Professor’s Minute Minute — November 23

 

PhocusWright 2025 wrapped up this week, and The Professor was on site — low on voice, high on observation. Here’s today’s quick take on what mattered.

PhocusWright 2025 ran at full buzz, with the usual promises, projections, and hallway revelations.

https://www.phocuswrightconference.com/Program/Conference-Program-Overview

The global travel outlook is shading gloomy, as financial expectations dip and demand signals lose clarity.

https://platform.airfinanceglobal.com/Articles/3598543?from=weekly

Moody’s delivered a rare upbeat moment — upgrades for several, including a well-earned nod to United.

https://www.moodys.com/researchandratings/region/004001/005000002

The hidden cost burdens of travel retailing continue to mount — search, servicing, and the invisible infrastructure strain nobody talks about.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/most-travellers-think-a-flight-or-hotel-price-share-7397545519486586880-v9WK

Data lovers: this week delivered a deep and fascinating document filled with segmentation, ratios, and behavioural insight.

https://app-na1.hubspotdocuments.com/documents/4944247/view/1536696414

Quirky: the simple joy — and surprising psychology — of watching the world drift by in “third places.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/04/third-places-meet-new-people-pandemic/629468/

📣 Don’t forget:

Follow the full archive at https://t2ni.blogspot.com

Best of the Week recap every Sunday on LinkedIn & Instagram

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PhocusWright 2025, Travel Industry, Aviation, Airline Finance, Moody’s, Travel Costs, Travel Data, Third Places, The Professor’s Minute Minute, PMM Daily, Blue Period Series

PMM — Nov. 22, 2025: The 6 Stories That Matter

 Today’s set: Boeing’s lost win, a leap into air taxis, space tourism’s status, France enforcing disruption, airport queue oddities, and the development funding retreat.

Why Boeing lost FlyDubai.

A “please don’t mention us” URL pushes the story — why did Boeing lose the FlyDubai order? Questions around timing, risk, and reputation.

🔗 https://cmemailmarketing.co.uk/A05767353-CMP21410CON3533-RCP2I375487O32-4-TRK49303ENT21410-1-Z-Z-0-0-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z

Someone takes the plunge.

Dubai rolls out its role as the birth-place of air taxis. Bold vision meets complex execution.

🔗 https://gulfnews.com/business/aviation/why-dubai-is-the-birthplace-of-air-taxis-1.500351821

Is Space Tourism a thing? Perhaps.

Singapore Airshow’s Space Summit poses the question — is space tourism going from hype toward real utility?

🔗 http://spacesummit.singaporeairshow.com/agenda/

France does what should have been done a while ago.

New French enforcement: delay or disrupt a flight and you may pay. Regulation catching up with airline behaviour.

🔗 https://simpleflying.com/disrupt-a-flight-pay-the-price-france-fines/

A NEW CATEGORY… Weird.

Virtual queues for aircraft: planes stay at gate until take-off slot? It’s viral, unusual — but airports don’t work that way.

🔗 https://viewfromthewing.com/viral-virtual-queue-idea-says-planes-should-stay-at-the-gate-until-their-turn-to-take-off-but-thats-not-how-airports-actually-work/

Quirky: Sad but fixable.

The world’s richest nations are reducing global development aid. The drop is unfortunate, but reversable.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/worlds-richest-nations-are-pulling-back-global-development-efforts-study-show-2025-11-20/

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Tags (standard PMM set):

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PMM — Nov. 21, 2025: The 6 Stories That Matter

 

Today’s mix: Japan wants digital nomads (but fewer tourists), Iberia pushes the A321XLR, Europe takes stock of itself, Florida becomes launch country, a dramatic moment in an NTSB report, and a Quirky uncertainty spike.

Japan wants you. Just not as a tourist.

Japan is exploring ways to attract digital nomads — even as the country struggles with overtourism. The contradiction is almost elegant: “Please come, but also… don’t come too much.”

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3329326/japan-eyes-boost-digital-nomads-despite-overtourism-crisis

Iberia says great. The flight attendants not so much.

Iberia is expanding long-haul operations with the A321XLR. Management is thrilled. Cabin crew… considerably less so. Narrow-body long-haul remains a very mixed blessing.

https://www.travelmole.com/news/iberia-strengthens-its-long-haul-network-with-a321xlr/

Europe: State of the State.

The annual State of European Tech is out, and it’s a sobering snapshot. Capital concentration, talent scarcity, and uneven national policies dominate. Europe is stable — but fragile.

https://www.stateofeuropeantech.com/

Space is booming in Florida.

Space launches in Florida are accelerating fast. Infrastructure, investment, and manufacturing are surging — and the state is quietly becoming the world’s most important launch corridor.

https://app.go.informamail03.com/e/es.aspx?s=966913078&e=1369728&elqTrackId=dbba9200e2ab48d88739356db370e303&elq=13e2bd1d778b4aa9b4a8cd227a91bfd6&elqaid=58959&elqat=1&elqak=8AF5475D40399535EFE7316D05A32EB9F2AD2063ACC90E20BAD77768A4D066AC099B

Dramatic.

The NTSB’s preliminary UPS crash report includes a hair-raising moment when an engine separates from the aircraft. A reminder that even in 2025, aviation’s safety margin is earned, not assumed.

https://leehamnews.com/2025/11/20/ntsb-issues-preliminary-report-of-ups-crash-with-dramatic-moment-engine-leaves-airplane/

Quirky.

The future of airfinance? Unsettled. Capital, rates, and geopolitics are reshaping expectations — and none of it agrees on the next 24 months.

https://platform.airfinanceglobal.com/Articles/3598543?from=weekly

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