Flight Wisdom

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, [...]

Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to fly a plane on biofuel, as it partnered with GE, Boeing, and Imperium Renewables. If babassu and coconut oil is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than jet fuel, then we’re all for it.
Alitalia will launch nonstop Rome-Los Angeles service on June 1st. The service, the only nonstop between [...]

Happy Eighth Birthday to JetBlue Airways. Who would have thought they’d grow so fast so quickly? Remembering the good old days when we flew them between Rochester, NY and JFK…

Alaska Airlines and Horizon have announced they have selected Seattle-based Jones Soda Co as their new drink partner. The airlines will offer customers complimentary canned Jones [...]

JetBlue announced a major expansion of service, and a new destination in the Western United States. JetBlue will be taking aim at Virgin America, along with the other carriers trying to eliminate the fledgling Virgin carrier.
Beginning May 21st, JetBlue will add Los Angeles International Airport(LAX) as its fourth LA area airport. It will fly thrice-daily [...]

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 [...]

We were intrigued when Southwest announced it will be testing inflight internet access hopefully this summer on four aircraft. The service, in partnership with Row 44 will give its passengers full access to Internet including e-mail, music, shopping, and work through a virtual private network(VPN).
But why is Southwest doing this? Their press release on the [...]

British Airways Flight 38 from Beijing to London Heathrow landed short of the runway on arrival, injuring almost 20 people.
The pilot indicated there was a complete failure in the plane’s electronic systems, forcing the plane to make an unpowered landing. It is currently unknown what caused the situation, but more information will no doubt be [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Lots to cover…never enough time…

United Airlines announced new service from Los Angeles to Des Moines, IA and Austin, TX effective February 13th, and will be operated by Skywest’s CRJ-700 regional jets with 6 first class and 60 economy seats, including Economy Plus.
Beginning on March 3rd, Delta will be offering flights from Lawton/Ft. Sill, Oklaholma to [...]

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 [...]

American Airlines will add a daily flight from Chicago-O’Hare and Gulfport-Biloxi beginning December 13.
Pittsburgh International Airport has expanded its free wi-fi service to both pre and post-security areas of the terminal.
Continental has announced a major expansion at its Cleveland hub. The airline will grow its capacity at Cleveland by 40% in the next two years, [...]

Mesa Airlines announced an agreement with United Airlines to replace 8 50-seat CRJ-200 aircraft with two 66-seat CRJ-700 aircraft. United, as well as other airlines, are replacing the cramped 40-50 seater planes with larger more spacious regional planes which preserve the economy of smaller aircraft but add the comfort of mainline service.
San Francisco International Airport [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Security officials at Cairo airport were horrified when the search of a 22-year old passenger’s carry-on revealed live snakes, baby crocodiles, and chameleons. Transporting live reptiles out of the country is illegal in Egypt and the animals were confiscated. The Saudi man claims he was unaware of the ban and was transporting the reptiles for [...]

Frontier Airlines announced new nonstop service from Memphis to Ft. Lauderdale on November 15th. Service from Las Vegas will increase to five days per week on September 6th. On November 15th, a third flight to Denver will begin. Finally, on December 15th, a second flight to Orlando.
San Francisco has rolled out the red carpet for [...]

Northwest CEO Doug Steenland continues to apologize for Northwest’s flight cancellation. Northwest continues to blame the problem on pilots, however, instead of blaming their own practices. Northwest Airlines and the Airline Pilots Association confirmed an agreement on contract issues and work rules to help improve the problem, the agreement implements contractual changes on work [...]

China…land of a thousand aviation opportunities…and a lucrative destination to gain for an airline. The DOT is once again accepting bids for new service to China. We’ve put off talking about these developments…but it is time to review the candidates.

American Airlines has applied to operate Chicago to Beijing service. They even have a website, www.flytochinaonaa.com. [...]

We’re catching up on our backlog of exciting news…While we do that…why don’t you head over to our new spinoff, Infrequent Flier, for a bit of sage advice…namely Don’t Book with Cheapoair.

Cathay Pacific announced a third daily flight from New York’s JFK Airport to Hong Kong to begin November 15th. Currently, they operate one nonstop, [...]

American Eagle will add nonstop service from Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport and Raleigh-Durham beginning November 4th with six day a week service operated by 37-seat ERJ-135 jets.
American Eagle will also add service between Santa Fe, New Mexico and both Dallas/Ft. Worth and Los Angeles. Service will be operated with 44-seat Embraer 140 regional jets. Daily [...]