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Airlines are introducing new technology and strategies to turn planes around faster as they look for ways to save on costs.
American Airlines is working to more efficiently assign gates to avoid parking delays and cut taxiing time.
A few saved minutes could mean big cost savings for a carrier.

Passengers make their way through the terminal as they travel ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, on Nov. 22, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

In air travel, minutes matter.
A few moments could be the difference between making and missing a connection for passengers — and could avoid delays that ripple across the schedule for airlines. Saved time could even lead to big savings for carriers as they scramble to get a handle on costs.

Major airlines are rolling out strategies that executives say could translate to lower costs and more efficient operations, even if the time savings on paper look negligible.
Some of these tools will be put to the test during what’s expected to be a busy holiday season, a year after a meltdown that stranded thousands of passengers at the end of 2022. Many of the improvements are being made behind the scenes.
American Airlines last year started using new technology to assign flight gates at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the world’s second-busiest airport and American’s biggest hub, where it operates out of 135 regional and mainline gates.
The new procedures, replacing a near-manual hours-long process, allowed the airline to avoid many of its planes crossing from the east side to the west side of the sprawling airport, saving an average of two minutes of taxi time per flight, adding up to about 11 hours saved a day, American said.
The technology helped reduce taxi time by 20% and halved gate changes and conflicts, according to the carrier.

“It took the nightly process of gating the airline from four hours to about 10 minutes,” said American COO David Seymour.
The so-called Smart Gating program has been expanded to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Miami International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and most recently, in May, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Seymour said, adding that the airline is considering using the technology in Phoenix as well.
The gating technology in other airports aims to avoid gate congestion that could delay flights from departing or parking upon arrival.
“If you try to do late-minute gate changes as planes arrive … you could get out of sync with your caterers and fuelers,” Seymour said, adding that the tools American built are tailored for each airport’s issues.
In the first eight months of the year, 76.4% of American’s flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival times, which the Transportation Department considers on time. That performance ranks American third among major U.S. carriers for on-time arrivals, an improvement from fifth place during the same time period last year.
Short taxi times and other improvements can help airlines save fuel, one of airlines’ biggest costs. American said its new gating program saves it 1.4 million gallons of fuel a year, equal to about $4 million based on fuel prices at major U.S. airports this month.

Faster boarding

American isn’t alone in looking to shave off a few minutes.
United Airlines last month launched a new boarding procedure for economy class, accommodating window-seat passengers first followed by the middle and then the aisle. United told staff the changes could save it up to two minutes per flight.
Southwest Airlines has also experimented this year with ways to expedite boarding, trying everything from better signage to music on the jet bridge to keep travelers moving. For years, Delta Air Lines flight attendants and gate agents have used digital messages during boarding, to send alerts for issues such as full overhead bins.
Discount carrier Frontier Airlines is aiming to speed up boarding and deplaning through pathways outside jet bridges. The company has started using stairs directly onto and off the plane, taking advantage of a second door on the carrier’s Airbus jets.
“If you want to board an airplane faster, use two [gates] instead of one,” CEO Barry Biffle said.
The Denver-based airline is in talks with several airports to increase that type of boarding, without a traditional jet bridge. Biffle estimated that the carrier could have a third of its flights using stairways for boarding and deplaning in about two years.
Biffle said that could save as much as 10 minutes off the turn time, the amount of time it takes for a plane to park, deplane, reload and depart.
Robert Mann, who has worked at several airlines and is president of aviation consulting firm RW Mann & Co., said how airlines use the time savings will be key. Baking it back into the schedule could mean airlines wouldn’t have to block off as much time for a flight, he said.
“When you actually plan shorter flight times, you have more airplanes available,” he said.
An American Airlines spokesman said that as the airline becomes more efficient, in future schedules, it could allot less time for each flight, increasing the airline’s ability to add more flights.

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Call it the “Burning Man” theory of tech. Every so often, the hopes and dreams of a technological visionary are almost torched by those who surround them. In 1985 Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, the company he fathered, and did not return for 11 years. In 2000 Elon Musk’s co-founders ousted him as CEO of X.com, the firm that went on to become PayPal, a digital-payments platform. In 2008 Jack Dorsey’s fellow creators of Twitter ended his short reign as chief executive of the social-media app. On November 17th Sam Altman looked like he would become the Bay Area’s next burnt effigy, ousted from OpenAI, the artificial-intelligence (AI) firm he co-founded in 2015, by a board that accused him of lacking candour. But on November 21st, after four days in which he, his employees and OpenAI’s investors, such as Microsoft, wrangled feverishly for his reinstatement, he was back in control of the firm. “Wow it even took Jesus three days,” one wag tweeted in the midst of the drama. Instead of Mr Altman, three of the four board members who gave him the boot are toast.It is not the first time in his 38 years on Earth that Mr Altman has been at the centre of such an imbroglio. He is a man of such supreme self-confidence that people tend to treat him as either genius or opportunist—the latter usually in private. Like Jobs, he has a messianic ability to inspire people, even if he doesn’t have the iPhone creator’s God-like eye for design. Like Mr Musk, he has ironclad faith in his vision for the future, even if he lacks Tesla boss’s legendary engineering skills. Like Mr Dorsey, he has shipped a product, ChatGPT, that has become a worldwide topic of conversation—and consternation.Yet along the way he has irked people. This started at Y Combinator (YC), a hothouse for entrepreneurs, which he led from 2014 until he was pushed out in 2019 for scaling it up too fast and getting distracted by side hustles such as OpenAI. At OpenAI, he fell out with Mr Musk, another co-founder, and some influential AI researchers who left in a huff. The latest evidence comes from the four board members who clumsily sought to fire him. The specific reasons for their decision remain unclear. But it would not be a surprise if Mr Altman’s unbridled ambition played a role.If there is one constant in Mr Altman’s life, it is a missionary zeal that even by Silicon Valley standards is striking. Some entrepreneurs are motivated by fame and fortune. His goal appears to be techno-omnipotence. Paul Graham, co-founder of YC, said of Mr Altman, then still in his early 20s: “You could parachute him into an island full of cannibals and come back in five years and he’d be the king.”Forget the island. The world is now his domain. In 2021 he penned a Utopian manifesto called “Moore’s Law for Everything”, predicting that the AI revolution (which he was leading) would shower benefits on Earth—creating phenomenal wealth, changing the nature of work, reducing poverty. He is an ardent proponent of nuclear fusion, arguing that coupled with ChatGPT-like “generative” AI, falling costs of knowledge and energy will create a “beautiful exponential curve”. This is heady stuff, all the more so given the need to strike a careful balance between speed and safety when rolling out such world-changing technologies. Where Mr Altman sits on that spectrum is hard to gauge.Mr Altman is a man of contradictions. In 2016, when he still led YC, Peter Thiel, a billionaire venture capitalist, described him to the New Yorker as “not particularly religious but…culturally very Jewish—an optimist yet a survivalist” (back then Mr Altman had a bolt hole in Big Sur, stocked with guns and gold, in preparation for rogue AIs, pandemics and other disasters). As for his enduring optimism, it rang out clearly during an interview he recorded just two days before OpenAI’s boardroom coup, which he did not see coming. “What differentiates me [from] most of the AI companies is I think AI is good,” he told “Hard Fork”, a podcast. “I don’t secretly hate what I do all day. I think it’s going to be awesome.”He has sought to have it both ways when it comes to OpenAI’s governance, too. Mr Altman devised the wacky corporate structure at the heart of the latest drama. OpenAI was founded as a non-profit, in order to push the frontiers of AI to a point where computers can out-think people, yet without sacrificing human pre-eminence. But it also needed money. For that it established a for-profit subsidiary that offered investors capped rewards but no say in the running of the company. Mr Altman, who owns no shares in OpenAI, has defended the model. In March he told one interviewer that putting such technologies into the hands of a company that sought to create unlimited value left him “a little afraid”.And yet he also appears to chafe against its constraints. As he did at YC, he has pursued side projects, including seeking investors to make generative-AI devices and semiconductors, which could potentially be hugely lucrative. The old board is being replaced by a new one that may turn out to be less wedded to OpenAI’s safety-above-all-else charter. The incoming chairman, Bret Taylor, used to run Salesforce, a software giant. On his watch the startup could come to resemble a more conventional, fast-scaling tech company. Mr Altman will probably be happy with that, too.Mercury rising If that happens, OpenAI may become an even hotter ticket. With the latest version of its AI model, GPT-5, and other products on the way, it is ahead of the pack. Mr Altman has a unique knack for raising money and recruiting talented individuals, and his task would be all the easier with a more normal corporate structure. But his ambiguities, especially over where to strike the balance between speed and safety, are a lesson. Though Mr Altman has been welcomed into the world’s corridors of powers to provide guidance on AI regulation, his own convictions are still not set in stone. That is all the more reason for governments to set the tone on AI safety, not mercurial tech visionaries. ■ More

Many retailers struck a cautious tone when they provided their holiday forecasts during third-quarter earnings reports, spelling trouble for the shopping season right as it kicks off.
Holiday spending growth is expected to slow this year after seeing outsize gains during the Covid-19 pandemic years.
Companies aren’t sure just how much consumers will spend this year in the face of persistent inflation and rising interest rates.

A person walks past a sales advertisement at Saks Off 5th department store ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday sales in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 21, 2023.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

There’s a dark cloud hanging over Black Friday.
A slew of retailers have issued tepid, cautious or downright disappointing fourth-quarter outlooks over the past few weeks, casting a pall over the crucial holiday season right as they gear up for the biggest shopping day of the year.

The companies, which include everyone from luxury goods giant Tapestry to big boxer BJ’s Wholesale Club, cited a host of dynamics that led them to reduce their outlooks or issue forecasts that came in below expectations. 
Some, such as Best Buy and Nordstrom, cited the uncertain state of the consumer following months of persistent inflation, while others, such as Hanesbrands, said demand is simply drying up for its basic T-shirts, socks and underwear as wholesalers look to keep inventories in check.
Even Dick’s Sporting Goods and Abercrombie & Fitch, which both raised their full-year guidance on Tuesday after strong third quarters, managed to underwhelm with their holiday forecasts. 
If there’s one theme that captures the commentary, it’s caution, and while some retailers may have been overly conservative with their outlooks, the resounding lack of confidence spells trouble for the holiday quarter and raises questions about the overall health of the economy. 
“Consumers are still spending, but pressures like higher interest rates, the resumption of student loan repayments, increased credit card debt and reduced savings rates have left them with less discretionary income, forcing them to make trade-offs,” Target CEO Brian Cornell told analysts on a call last week.

“As we look at recent trends across the retail industry, dollar sales are being driven by higher prices with consumers buying fewer units per trip. In fact, overall unit demand across the industry has been down 2% to 4% in recent quarters, and the industry has experienced seven consecutive quarters of declines in discretionary dollars and units,” he said.
When asked about the upcoming holiday season, Cornell said it was too soon to weigh in on early sales, saying only that the company was “watching the trends carefully.”

Ho-hum growth for holiday spend

The holiday shopping season over the past couple of years has seen outsize growth brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, which gave consumers stimulus payments and an opportunity to pad their bank accounts while they were stuck at home and unable to travel or dine out. 
In 2020, holiday spend was up 9.1% from the year prior, according to the National Retail Federation. In 2021, spend was up 12.7% year over year, and in 2022, it was up 5.4%.
As 2023 comes to a close, savings accounts dwindle and consumers continue to face inflation and high interest rates, that growth in holiday spend is expected to slow to 3% to 4%, according to the NRF. That’s consistent with the slower growth rates seen between 2010 and 2019 in the lead up to the pandemic. 
The expected slowdown has led many retailers to approach the holiday season with more caution than Wall Street anticipated.
On Monday, Bank of America’s consumer team found that out of 43 retailers that issued earnings forecasts, 37, or 86%, came in light of Street expectations. 
Take Walmart, for example. The retailer struck a cautious tone with its outlook, which came in below expectations, after it saw consumer spending weaken toward the end of October. Last week, it said it expects adjusted earnings per share of $6.40 to $6.48 for the year, lower than the $6.48 analysts had projected, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv. 
“Halloween was good overall,” Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said on a call with CNBC. “But in the last couple of weeks of October, there were certainly some trends in the business that made us pause and kind of rethink the health of the consumer.”
For some retailers, even good news wasn’t cheery enough.
Dick’s Sporting Goods raised its forecast Tuesday after posting strong top- and bottom-line beats and said it now expects full-year earnings per share of between $11.45 and $12.05, compared with the $11.27 to $12.39 range that analysts had projected, according to LSEG.
But compared to its strong third-quarter results, the outlook came off as tempered.
The retailer said it was “excited” for the holiday but couched that optimism with executives repeatedly noting they were looking forward to the things “within our control” — a refrain heard four times during the hour-long call. 
“We are very excited about what we have within our control for Q4. Our products are in stock. We’ve got tremendous gifts … and the teams are pumped to deliver an amazing holiday experience,” CEO Lauren Hobart said on a call with analysts. “We’re balancing all of that with caution about the macroeconomic environment and the consumer, because we know that consumers are going through a lot right now. So, I think, we’ve been reasonably cautious in our guidance.” 
— CNBC’s Melissa Repko contributed to this report.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Apple is making another push for Academy Award glory with acclaimed director Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” opening just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Even with critical praise for Joaquin Phoenix and Scott, Apple faces steep competition for nominations, as a slew of Oscar contenders flood the market, even from its own studio.
The film generated $3 million in Tuesday evening showings and is expected to tally around $22 million for the five-day Thanksgiving frame, which runs from Wednesday through Sunday.

Vanessa Kirby and Joaquin Phoenix star in AppleTV+’s “Napoleon,” directed by Ridley Scott.
Apple Original Films

LOS ANGELES – Apple Original Films is a new player on the Academy Award scene, but it’s already left an indelible — and historic — mark.
The studio, which has only been releasing films since 2019, won best picture in 2022 for “CODA,” the first time a streaming service has ever won the top award. In total, Apple has received Oscar 10 nominations in the last three years, winning four.

With acclaimed director Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” opening just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, Apple is making another push for Academy Award glory. The two-hour and 38-minute epic stars Joaquin Phoenix as French leader and military commander Napoleon Bonaparte, who rose to prominence during the French Revolution. Sony is distributing the film.
Early reviews indicate that the film is “slyly funny,” striking a balance between playful humor and gruesome battle sequences. However, the dichotomy might be polarizing for some and some critics said the long run-time can make the film feel like a “chore.”
Even with critical praise for Phoenix and Scott, Apple faces steep competition for nominations, as a slew of Oscar contenders flood the market, even from its own studio.
Heading into November, the Academy Awards race appeared to be dominated by Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer.” The combined “Barbenheimer” entered theaters ahead of the writers and actors strikes and captured critical attention as well as record box office receipts.
With actors unable to promote films, many studios opted to postpone theatrical releases until later in the year or even push until 2024. Warner Bros. and Legendary Studio’s “Dune: Part Two” won’t be part of this year’s Oscar race after departing to March of next year.

Now, in the last few weeks of the year, Academy Award hopefuls are arriving en masse.
That includes Apple’s other major Oscar contender is Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” a three hour and 26-minute Western crime drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.

Potential best picture nominees for 2024 Academy Awards

“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
“American Fiction” (MGM)
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
“Maestro” (Netflix)
“The Zone of Interest” (A24)
“Origin” (Neon)
“May December” (Netflix)
“Napoleon” (Apple Original Films/Sony Pictures)
“Ferrari” (Neon)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
“Air” (Amazon MGM Studios)
“Saltburn” (Amazon MGM Studios)
“Priscilla” (A24)
“Sound of Freedom” (Angel Studios)

“The short list of potential Oscar favorites is filling up fast,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “And with the actor strike settled and stars now able to actively campaign for their films, these latest Thanksgiving entries will benefit not only from the freshness of their release, but also the ability of the talent to become involved in the promotion of their films as worthy and viable Oscar contenders.”
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Phoenix is no stranger to acting nominations at the big ceremony. He won best actor for his role in “Joker” during the 2020 Academy Awards and has previously been nominated for roles in Scott’s best picture winner, “Gladiator,” and later releases “Walk the Line” and “The Master.”
Scott has earned three best director nominations for “Thelma & Louise” in 1992, “Gladiator” in 2001 and “Black Hawk Down” in 2002. His 2015 film “The Martian” was nominated for best picture.
“Napoleon” could also be in contention for best production design, costume design, sound and editing.
Box office analysts are also hopeful that the film will bring out the coveted adult moviegoing audience that has been slower to return to theaters. The film generated $3 million in Tuesday evening showings and is expected to tally around $22 million for the five-day Thanksgiving frame, which runs from Wednesday through Sunday.
“Napoleon is an intriguing position with its marquee cast and director, a well-known historical figure, and a story that’s fit for the cinematic canvas,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst BoxOffice.com. “It arrives as older segments of the adult audience remain part of a challenging equation for Hollywood to solve. Some clear successes have shown that those moviegoers will prioritize theatrical viewings, but it’s more quality-and content-driven than ever before.”
Universal’s “Oppenheimer” is a prime example of a film for mature audiences, based on real events, that was able to capture audience attention. The film generated more than $300 million domestically during its run in theaters and tallied more than $950 million globally.
Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film was billed as a must-see picture on the big screen, driving moviegoers across demographics out to cinemas.
“Napoleon” likely won’t reach the lofty heights of “Oppenheimer,” but it doesn’t have to. In the last decade streamers like Netflix, Apple and Amazon Prime Video have used the prestige associated with Hollywood award nominations and critical acclaim at the box office to encourage subscriber sign-ups or sign top talent.
Industry insiders see Apple, which has long partnered with the biggest names in showbiz, using the prestige of Apple TV+ offerings to sell Apple products — not necessarily to garner hundreds of millions of subscribers.
Though streaming services generally provide limited metrics, Apple has been particularly quiet since it launched its streaming video platform in November 2019. Unlike many others in the space, the company does not disclose data about financial performance, content spending or subscriber numbers for individual shows or the service as a whole. 
“Apple’s ability to draw amazing creative talent is undisputed and given the financial resources and creative freedom that they bestow upon some of the best creatives on the planet, it should come as no surprise the company has become an awards season powerhouse in recent years,” said Dergarabedian.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal distributed “Oppenheimer.” More