Now that the
Open Skies agreement has been in effect for a week, international travelers are enjoying drastically slashed airfares, huge increases in route options, more variety in carrier choice, better customer service from a range of competing airlines, and ... oh forget it, of course I'm joking. In fact, Open Skies — which allows European carriers to fly to and from the US and any European city, rather than only the carrier's home country — hasn't substantively affected prices because of soaring (har!) fuel costs. But there are so many more planes flying around, surely volume will exceed demand and depress prices? Supposedly, London's Heathrow Airport alone is already seeing an
additional 100 trans-Atlantic flights per week. Barring discovery of a giant oil reserve in Arkansas or Belgium, fuel prices won't seasonably drop until fall 2008, if then. Fuel surcharges will compensate for most volume savings. And don't forget that airlines knew exactly how this would play out, and they planned it quite carefully to avoid long-term price reductions. They will most certainly screw you. And by "they," I mean Europe, and by "you," I mean everyone.
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Gridskipper
Hey, it's Gridskipper's last day at the parent company! Who knows what will happen at our shiny new home. I, for one, will be bowing out of my relatively specious remaining duties, and for all we know, Adam's housecat will be in charge after sundown. But there's been lots of speculation — OK, some occasional speculation — regarding who or what might have tried to pry Gridskipper out of Gawker Media's warm, supple, sticky tentacles. Here's the exclusive behind-the-chiffarobe report on what really went down in Nick Denton's smoke-filled lavatory.
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Abbe Diaz, noted NYC ex-maître d', posts a long 
