Flight Wisdom

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

On the lighter side of travel…teacher Dave Barclay flew from Toronto, Canada to Cardiff, in Wales to attend a wedding, only to discover that the wedding was scheduled for next July. Barclay, who spent $1015 on his flight, commented that on the bright side, his error has assured him a mention in the speech next [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Investigators say that fatigued air traffic controllers contributed to four aviation mishaps in recent years…including the Comair crash. They are calling on the FAA to revise work schedules and take other action. Their union jumped on the report as validation of its own claims that air traffic controllers are overworked and understaffed. Details available here.
The [...]

Spirit today announced nonstop service from its hub in Ft. Lauderdale to Guatemala City, Guatemala once daily effective May 10th.
Commercial passenger service will be terminating in Lake Havasu City, Arizona effective May 6th. Mesa Airlines, which provides service from the airport to Phoenix and Las Vegas. A Mesa analysis on the Havasu airport showed that [...]

The Associated Press reports that a United flight from Chicago to Portland, Oregon was diverted to Salt Lake City on Friday after Kenneth R. Bullard of Jacksonville, FL attacked his son during an argument about the son’s girlfriend.
Bullard had been drinking before and during the flight, and the flight attendants had to restrain him. The [...]

The United States debut of the Airbus A380 Superjumbo jet was today, with two planes touching down on opposing sides of the country. New York won the title of the first city to receive an A380 by twenty minutes.

Frankfurt to New York - operated by Lufthansa as Flight 8940, carrying around 500 Airbus and [...]

On April 1st, American Eagle will discontinue service from Boston to Newark Airport, which it operates four times daily. On June 1st, the carrier will end twice-daily service from Chicago O’Hare to Washington-Dulles.
With United operating nine flights a day between O’Hare and Dulles, and Continental operating twelve flights from Boston to Newark…it seems that both [...]

Upgrade Travel alerted us to this developing situation in Chicago. Apparently, a group of Chicago’s alderman(city council members), are proposing a bill that would block airlines landing at either of Chicago’s area airports if they fail to have a passenger bill of rights in place.
Mark Ashley, who runs Upgrade Travel, happens to be a resident [...]

Effective February 15, Delta is increasing its service between Chicago and New York. Delta’s domestic routes of late seem to be paralleling their competition. Jetblue expands to Chicago, Delta follows. US Airways makes a bid for Delta, they announce first New York to Phoenix service and then Salt Lake City to Charlotte service.
Delta will be [...]

As expected, this morning Jetblue unveiled its new Chicago service, beginning January 4th. The service will include five daily flights on Jetblue’s Embraer 190 aircraft to Jetblue’s East Coast Hub, JFK in New York, and two daily flights with A320s to Long Beach, CA, their west coast hub.
In honor of this, they are offering a [...]

As Today in the Sky reports, The FAA approved Jetblue’s application for four daily flights from Chicago-O’Hare, arrival authorizations at 8:30, two at 11, and 4. However, Jetblue must initiate service by October 28, and flight operations by January 27, 2007. Jetblue is likely to operate at least some of the flights to its Kennedy [...]

As Crain’s Chicago Business reports, the FAA has dismissed objections by American and United Airlines in regards to Jetblue’s proposal to serve Chicago-O’Hare Airport. Thus, it can allow Jetblue or any new entrant to gain access to the airport under a system that will be modified on October 29th. The FAA thus has said that [...]

As USAToday reports, this week, New York discounter Jetblue asked the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to operates eight flights a day to Chicago’s O’Hare airport. The FAA limits the number of flights that can arrival hourly at O’Hare, but has been known to allow airlines inroads into the fortress hub of both American and [...]