Flight Wisdom

Today is the fifth anniversary of 2003 Blackout, the worst in U.S. history.

JetBlue will be adding daily nonstop service from Washington-Dulles to Tampa on December 18th and Saturday service to Cancun on December 20th.
JetBlue will be launching twice daily service using its 100-seat Embraer 190s on October 18th between Long Beach and San Francisco. A [...]

Reuters reports that American Airlines has accelerated its 737 delivery schedule, accepting six additional 737-800s in 2010, allowing more rapid replacement of its fuel-inefficient MD-80 fleet. The new schedule means American will get 76 of the new aircraft, 36 next year and 40 in 2010.
We applaud them for putting money into renewing their fleet, and [...]

With the announcement that Northwest would be charging for the first checked bag for all flights purchased on or after July 10th for travel on or after August 28th, it brings the total to four legacy carriers who charge for anything you put under the plane. The others are American, United, and US Airways(but they [...]

United Airlines matched American Airlines’ $15 fee to check a single bag today. US Airways announced the same on all reservations booked on or after July 9th.
US Airways will be charging $2 per nonalcoholic drink beginning August 1st. They’ve already rid themselves of free snacks in economy as of June 1st.
In addition, US Airways will [...]

A New York couple has filed a lawsuit against American Airlines for putting their son at risk. . Their four-year old son has a severe nut allergy, which they claim they made clear to American when making their reservation and then told by a gate agent that there would be no nuts served on the [...]

Airline passengers think that their ticket gives them the right to have themselves and their luggage transported to their destination. They are wrong on both counts. Most recently, the legacy carriers have now imposed a twenty-five dollar charge for the checking of a second bag.
Chris Elliott, in his blog, commented that United’s chief revenue officer [...]

American Airlines cancelled 200 flights today, 10% of its flights, in order to allow for the inspection of its MD80 fleet for potential wiring issues. The planes constitute 300 of American’s 655 aircraft. The planes were previously inspected as per an FAA security directive, but a recent audit raised questions that led [...]

We’ve been very behind lately. We keep saying we’ll catch up, but life happens. We are committed to providing the best in airline news and commentary we possibly can, but we do have day jobs, of course.

Delta received preliminary approval to fly from New York’s JFK Airport to Bogota, Columbia.
Spirit Airlines announced starting May 8th, [...]

We’d like to remind our readers that the links embedded in each article go to a press release or news article with more details than our news briefs. Each week we scour the press releases and such for these articles.

Regional airline SkyWest has sued Delta Air Lines over the airline’s withholding of $25 million [...]

US Airways will be adding service to three Gulf Coast cities from its Charlotte hub. Service will begin April 6th to Ft. Walton Beach, FL and Panama City. Service to Gulfport/Biloxi, MS will begin May 6th. Service will be operated by subsidiary PSA Airlines using 5-seat CRJ-200s.
Horizon Air will begin Santa [...]

Lot Polish Airlines has signed a deal for 12 additional Embraer 175 jets plus two options and ten purchase rights. The layout of the aircraft will include 82 elite seats, and the plan is to use them to ‘right-size’ aircraft based on seasonal or specific time-of-day influences on routes.
Jetblue inaugurated its St. Maarten-JFK service on [...]

Here we are, the last roundup of 2007…

Discounter Zoom Airlines will be operating new service from London Gatwick to both San Diego and Ft. Lauderdale. From next May, Ft. Lauderdale service will operate Thursdays and Sundays and will be the first scheduled service from Europe to Ft. Lauderdale in ten years. Service to San Diego [...]

We remained quiet about the issue of in-flight internet of late. Certainly, it is controversial. We think it is a better alternative than allowing voice communication on aircraft. Let people quietly text away, send email, etc.
Of course, people will abuse this service. We recently heard of a problem on a coach bus that provided [...]

Horizon Air announced new nonstop service from Los Angeles to Loreto, Mexico. The flights will be operated by a CRJ-700 and begin January 19th. The flights will supplement Alaska’s existing service on the route.
United Airlines inaugurated Los Angeles-Frankfurt on Saturday.
American Airlines had a lot of new routes beginning this week

Miami to:

Barranquilla, Colombia
Phoenix
Savannah
Sarasota/Bradenton

Ft. Lauderdale to:

Santo Domingo
San [...]

Things have been incredibly busy here at ‘Blog Central’. Fortunately, the holiday season is upon us, hopefully bringing lots of time for us to catch up on all the airline news thats fit to blog. So here we are in no particular order(although newest ones will be first).

Jetblue is reminding people of its 144 [...]

Air Canada will be offering nonstop service from Ottawa to Frankfurt beginning June 1st as well as nonstop service from Toronto-Dusseldorf six times weekly beginning May 1st…and a second daily nonstop from Calgary-Frankfurt on April 14th.
American Eagle began nonstop service today from Flint’s Bishop International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Service will be six [...]

Midwest Airlines has added the option to purchase a customized Travel Guard single-trip travel insurance policy specifically for Midwest customers during the ticket purchase process on the Midwest Airlines website and through their other distribution means. We love trip insurance….it protects you from the horror stories we often collect about horrible situations that have happened [...]

We’ve been a bit occupied of lot, and have a lot to catch up on. Rest assured, that while this is not our primary responsibility(we have jobs), we hope to be back on top of things soon, bringing the best in air travel developments in a timely fashion.

Hagerstown Airport, 80 miles northwest of downtown Washington [...]

One can be shocked by the repeated stories of woe and disaster…here are some that are not to be believed. Airline complaints in the United States overall are up this year, increasing 47.2% in the first six months of 2007, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In order…the top five complained about U.S. airlines [...]

Airtran has signed a new three year contract with Coca-Cola. Onboard, you can get Coca-Cola Classic®, Diet Coke®, Sprite®, Sprite Zero(TM), Coca-Cola Zero(TM), Minute Maid® Lemonade, Dasani® Water, Cherry Coke(TM), Cherry Coke Zero(TM) and three types of Minute Maid® juices. Poor Pepsi. Has anyone signed with them lately?
Air France-KLM announced last week they would reduce [...]

The Labor Day weekend is upon us…our spin-off blog, The Infrequent Flier, has its travel tips for the holiday season. For us here at Flight Wisdom, we wish you happy travels.

Operators of some CRJ-100, 200, and 440 jets have until Friday to comply with new restrictions issued by the Canadian and US governments. Increasingly [...]

Midwest Airlines is adding a fifth roundtrip to service from Milwaukee to both Philadelphia and Omaha beginning October 1st. The new service will be offered on 50-seat CRJ-200 regional jets, featuring brown leather seats, chef-prepared buy-onboard Best Care Cuisine meals and baked-on-board chocolate chip cookies.
Continental Airlines has upgraded its website to allow passengers who have [...]

The FAA has ordered the inspection of all wing slats on newer Boeing 737s based on findings about a fire that destroyed a China Airlines plane in Japan last week. Investigators have discovered that a bolt from a right wing slat had pierced the fuel tank. Thus, within 24 days, all US planes must have [...]

Alaska Airlines opened a new reservations call center in Phoenix, replacing a facility in Tempe operated since 1989. It specializes in serving elite frequent fliers and Spanish-speaking customers. We are currently unaware where the facility for most customers is located.
American Airlines will offer new service to Buenos Aires, Argentina from Chicago-O’Hare effective December 13th.
Jetblue is [...]

We’ve been away for a few days and there is a lot to catch up on…

Northwest has announced its new regional subsidiary, Compass Airlines, will launch its new Embraer 175 regional jets this coming Tuesday with a flight from Minneapolis to Omaha. Compass, which was created uses the assets of Independence Air, which Northwest [...]