Flight Wisdom

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

Virgin America….the airline that has faced numerous hurdles in its certification due to foreign control concerns…began selling tickets today. Tickets are available for sale at 1-877-FLY-VIRGIN(877-359-8474) and at the Virgin America website. Tickets are on sale from August 8th through February 12th.
From its hub at San Francisco International Airport, Virgin America will inaugurate:

Twice daily service [...]

For the first time, this Roundup was written while our editor was sitting at an airport, awaiting a flight. Hmm…perhaps a story on Airport Wifi is in order?

The Coalition for Luggage Security….don’t you love their press releases as much as we do? They reported(and we use the term lightly) on the 13th about a British [...]

There’s a lot to catch up on…

Qantas is expanding its flight schedule to the United States, effective March 2008, bringing total flights to 46 flights per week. The increased schedule includes daily service between Los Angeles and Brisbane effective March 27th; Increasing to 17 weekly flights between Los Angeles and Sydney, effective March 30th; increasing [...]

Northwest has exited bankruptcy…its shares have started trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning. Unlike Delta, Northwest has kept a low-profile during bankruptcy and is moving forward with plans to eliminate its oldest and most costly planes now that it has exited. However, Northwest employees are less than happy with the situation…as new [...]

A man desperate to keep his girlfriend from boarding a flight from Ft. Myers to New York called in a bomb threat for her airplane Wednesday afternoon. Christian G. Mejia, age 23, was arrested after he dropped off his girlfriend and her travelling companion to an airport and drove to a pay phone and called [...]

The organization that runs LAX Airport(LAWA) has lost the lawsuit brought against them by several airlines involving the increasing of maintenance and operation fees to airlines not under a long-term lease. The Cranky Flier has a great synopsis of the situation. “Sounds like they’re just trying to get the airlines in T1/T3/TBIT to cover [...]

Qatar Airways will be launching a national advertising campaign in the United States today, with service to New York on June 26th, and to Washington on July 19th.
Continental Airlines will be moving up the start of Newark to Mumbai service to October 1st due to positive market response to the proposed flights.
Aer Lingus will be [...]

Airtran will be the first to serve Cherry Coke and Cherry Coke Zero onboard all flights effective this month. We just love the fact that it is big news which soft drinks an airline has…probably bigger for the airlines that don’t give you any.
United raised fares on popular business routes by up to $50 each [...]

After United announced it would impose a $10 fare surcharge to all passengers travelling through Los Angeles International Airport(LAX), the Los Angeles World Airports(LAWA), the parent agency of the airport, issued a press release condemning the action as “exploiting a justified increase in its maintenance and operations costs in order to dramatically increase profits on [...]

United will add a $10 surcharge for all passengers out of LAX to offset a $10 million rent increase imposed by the Los Angeles World Airports effective immediately. United is one of several airlines suing LAWA, which runs LAX, over the increase and has decided to encourage public outrage by making the passenger pay the [...]

On Monday, April 2, Expressjet and LA/Ontario International Airport will join together to announce the beginning of scheduled service, which is considered the largest expansion in the airport’s 84 years.
United’s service from Washington-Dulles Airport to Rome will be beginning this weekend. Flight 966 will depart Dulles on April 1, and return as flight 967 on [...]

Qantas announced it will increase services from New York effective August 14th to offer daily flights to Sydney via Los Angeles. The new schedule will include seven flights per week from New York to Sydney via Los Angeles. Thirty five flights per week from Los Angeles, with an additional three from June 19th-July 28th. Five [...]

For those of you who want to feel like you were there…which alas we here at Flight Wisdom could not be….The Cranky Flier was present for the arrival of the LAX A380 earlier today.
Click here to catch a look at his report…
“It’s definitely not the best looking plane around, but man is it big…The plane [...]