Flight Wisdom

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 [...]

Reuters reports that JetBlue is looking for 1000 of its frequent fliers to show up at JFK on August 23rd for a trial test of its new terminal, set to open next month.
The volunteers would be expected to check bags given them by the airline, go thorugh security, and wait at the assigned gate for [...]

Delta is teaming up with Air Cell, one of the companies working to put Internet back on planes post Boeing Connexxion.
The system, Gogo™, will enable Delta customers traveling with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, to access the Internet, corporate VPNs, corporate and personal e-mail accounts, as well as SMS texting and [...]

It’s been a while since we’ve updated you on new routes. Life gets in the way. We’re trying to get back into the swing of things. Bear in mind, we don’t exactly do this for the money. The advertisements only pay for the web hosting.
JetBlue is one of our favorite airlines. Despite their meltdown a [...]

Over a week ago, Chris Elliott pointed out a recent fee applied by ultra-low-class Spirit Airlines. Spirit had hidden a $10 Convenience Fee in their Contract of Carriage for booking anywhere but at a counter.
Now, booking online is certainly convenient, but this fee seemed somewhat dishonest. Spirit’s site is, to quote Elliott, “awash in new [...]

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 [...]

ExpressJet announced last week that it would suspend flying of several at-risk operations. ExpressJet and Delta have agreed to terminate their agreement for ExpressJet operations under the Delta Connection banner on September 1st. ExpressJet will cease its branded commercial operation under its own banner on September 2nd. The 39 aircraft currently used for these flights [...]

The US Airline Industry, specifically 12 airlines including AirTran, Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Midwest, Northwest, Southwest, United, and US Airways, has called upon the public to help them lobby Congress about oil speculation.
The letter blames skyrocketing fuel for the thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service. They attribute the rise [...]

Midwest Airlines…the Cookie, which successfully fended off a takeover bid last year, is racing to avoid bankruptcy in the high-cost fuel environment that has hurt so many carriers.
It will ground 12 of its 37 jets, retiring its MD-80 aircraft, which will produce a reduction in overall flights. They are asking frontline employees to take pay [...]

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 [...]

This weekend, the International Air Transport Association(IATA) announced the industry’s conversion to 100% electronic ticketing. It was perhaps a bit idealistic.
In the 1930s, IATA developed the first standardized hand-written paper ticket. In 1972, with increased automation, the IATA neutral paper ticket was developed. Any travel agent could use this to ticket almost any airline. At [...]

The New York Post reports that a Manhattan lawyer is suing Delta Air Lines for one million dollars. He claims that their “absolute incompetence” ruined his elderly mother’s eightieth birthday celebration.
Richard Roth says that he’d arranged for his entire family, including several cousins, to meet in Argentina. Roth started planning the trip in September of [...]

Eos, the first of the luxury transatlantic carriers, followed MAXjet in declaring bankruptcy. The company’s financing to prevent this fell through, and ceased operations last night. They owe money to Servisair, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and JFK Airport, to name a few.
Eos boasted reasonable business class fares on an all business class plane flying from [...]

Delta and Northwest have put up a website, announced a merger, , and are scheduled to webcast their official press conference on Tuesday morning. Such a move can trigger a wave of additional consolidation within the industry, as airlines line up to compete with a new mega-carrier.
The consolidation of services, like with USAirways, once 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 [...]

We were never more disappointed as we were when we heard Skybus was starting flights. Our post on the subject was entitled, It’s the End of the World as We Know It. Why was this?
Skybus’s philosophy was not one we appreciated. Ten dollar fares sound good, but what was the real cost and quality of [...]

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, [...]

Effective May 5th, US Airways will charge a $25 service fee for checking a second bag. The fee is waived for qualifying frequent fliers and those who booked prior to today.
US Airways becomes the second legacy carrier to implement such a fee. United introduced such a fee on February 4th, referring to it as a [...]

New York based North American Airlines announced it will discontinue service between the United States and Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; and Georgetown, Guyana beginning May 19th, and redeploy the aircraft to its charter business, which is more lucrative.
North American will not be refunding full roundtrips, only the discontinued portion, which will inconvenience many travelers. For [...]

An anonymous source at Delta has reported that the rumored Delta-Northwest merger will be announced next week. The merger will use the Delta name, and retain the Delta headquarters in Atlanta, as well as the Delta CEO.
The consolidation, long rumored in the news, would unify the two carriers. The previous industry merger unified US Airways [...]

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 [...]

In a move we applaud, today JetBlue announced the availability of refundable fares. Personally, we never understood why many low-fare carriers offer no refundable fares. It is a value added service. If you are willing to shell out more money for a feature, why not offer it? We’d love it if all fares were refundable, [...]

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 [...]