Yearly Archives: 2006

Disturbing Trends in Overbooking Air Travel

As Today in the Sky reports, more than 185,000 passengers were involuntarily bumped off airline flights during the second quarter of 2006, a 40% increase over the same period in 2005. It is the highest second-quarter figure since 2000. The number of fliers who gave up seats on flights rose 10%. We suggest you read…

Wright Amendment Reform Act Approved by Congress, President, and FAA

As Southwest reports in a press release, Southwest Airlines this morning celebrated the phased-out repeal of the Wright Amendment with the rollout of new connecting service for Love Field. By this Thursday, passengers can take full advantage of 25 new destinations on Southwest from Dallas Love Field Airport: Baltimore/Washington, Chicago Midway, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Detroit,…

Jetblue Wins Victories

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…

Flight Wisdom 2.0

Today we are proud to announce the first phase of a new Flight Wisdom main website. It is a tremendous improvement over the old website in various ways and uses state-of-the-art content management software to autoindex and arrange our content. Bookmark it, as we will be adding new material and updates to it over the…

We’re So Wonderful…We’ll Pay You to Fly Us – Or Close

As Upgrade Travel reports, Brataslavia-based discount airline SkyEurope is offering negative fares. This promotion, which started today and runs through the 22nd, prices their fare at -1 euro. Thus, not only do they make no profit, but they’ll pay one euro of your taxes. Even SkyEurope refers to it as the “most crazy promotion ever.”…

TSA sends out Religious Advisory

We are always hunting around the net looking for blogs with interesting articles to bring to our readership. Six Kids and a Full Time Job provided the below TSA Statement of Guidance, sent from the TSA about a recent Jewish religious observance. “STATEMENT OF GUIDANCE: Succot is a significant religious holiday for Jews. It is…

Jetblue Inaugurates New Service from Boston

Today, Jetblue began nonstop service between Boston and Raleigh-Durham as well as Boston and Columbus, OH. These services, complementing Jetblue’s service from its New York hub, operate once daily with Jetblue’s 100-seat Embraer 190s. For more information including the timetable, Jetblue’s press release is available here.

Boarding Pass Faxing Service

Northwest announced today that customers may now print their boarding passes at international fax machines after checking in for flights over the Internet, in addition to the domestic faxing added in July 2005. We have never taken advantage of this service, preferring to print our boarding passes directly to our printers. It is a valuable…

CNBC’s Inside American Airlines Documentary

This evening, October 18th, CNBC aired Inside American Airlines: A Week In The Life. American granted access to documentary crews on all levels, allowing them to talk to passengers, position cameras in flight, and in many private areas. They covered, to name a few: Frequent Flyers Cargo Maintenance Reservations Management Union Issues We found it…

Delta Announces Nonstop Service Between Boston and Chicago-Midway

Delta announced on Monday they would be inaugurating service from Boston’s Logan Airport and Chicago-Midway effective January 11, 2007. The service, operated by Comair, will offer three flights on weekdays and two on weekends using 50-seater regional jets. Chicago-Midway Airport is where the majority of the low-cost carriers operate their service. Airtran already operates Boston…

747 Bolt Falls from Plane

A Singapore Airlines 747-400 lost a bolt over Sydney, Australia yesterday. the 10-inch-long bolt fell through a man’s roof while he was eating breakfast. The airline has grounded the aircraft for a full inspection and will be working with Boeing to investigate how such a thing might have happened. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and…

Boeing Stretches 747 to Increase Capacity

The Associated Press reports that Boeing will be lengthening the new version of its 747 widebody to compete with the Airbus 380 and squeeze in 17 seats. The new 747-8 Intercontinental will seat 467 people and will be 250 feet, 8 inches long. The current 747-400 seats 416 people. The 747 still is a far…

Qantas Offering San Francisco to Vancouver Service

One doesn’t normally think of Qantas as flying service from the United States to Canada. But during the busy travel season in December and January, they are offering fares starting at $119 each way and do not require round trip travel. The fares are only valid on Qantas Flight 73, departing San Francisco at 12:00PM…

Music for Flight

We were quite amused when someone showed us a link to MusicAirport.com. The site is an airport themed internet radio station that chooses music based on the atmosphere of “those beautiful airport lounges.” The musical selection looks reasonably good if you need some generic background music. Just click…and imagine you are at the airport in…

Halloween Disaster

As reported elsewhere, a man in California has set up a Halloween display in his front yard simulating the crash of a G3 Gulfsteam. Steve Chambers, a 25-year old aviation mechanic, got the spare parts from his place of business and plans on trying a crashed 747 for next year. The tableau was apparently realistic…

More A380 Woes

We were recently reading the 24/7 Wall Street blog, and discovered their take on the Boeing 747 refit. Since the 787 has been such a success in orders due to its fuel-saving design, the 747-8 has incorporated those new designe elements. It is 11% lighter than the A380, comparing the total weight to the number…

In Flight Ads

As the Detroit Free Press reports, Spirit Airlines is planning to sell advertising inside its new Airbus planes. We reported on our thoughts on this practice with European discounter Ryanair. Spirit’s Chief Marketing Officer said that customers should expect ads from travel-oriented businesses, like rental cars, or high-end brands aimed at fliers with disposable income. …

Porter Airlines Inaugurates Service

Not long ago, we reported on Porter Airlines and its unique philosophy of service. This morning, the inaugural flight of Porter Airlines left Toronto’s City Centre Airport just after 7AM EST. Despite issues with its base at City Centre, due to the airport’s location, Porter wants to expand over the next few months to more…

New Developments at Jetblue

The New York Times reports that Jetblue is expected to announce service between Stewart Airport in Newburgh, NY in about two months. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that Senator Charles Schumer(Dem-NY) confirmed this, and that he is expected to be at Stewart Wednesday morning to announce this, with a daily roundtrip flight to Ft. Lauderdale and…

El Al Reduces Fuel Surcharge

In an inspiring note, an airline has actually reduced its fuel surcharge for all US flights. Usually, even though airlines raise their surcharges as fuel prices rise, they don’t give passengers the courtesy of reversing that when prices lower. El Al Israel Airlines announced it is lowering its prices due to a decrease in the…

Airbus 350 Delay could affect USAirways

Reuters reports that a delay in the launch of the A350 could affect USAirways in its long-term expansion plans for international service. Airbus invested in USAirways in exchange for a commitment to purchase 20 A350s. Since Airbus has no firm delivery dates for the A350, this commitment may not bear fruit in line with the…

Where Do You Want Airtran to Go Next?

In a press release today, Airtran asked its customers to voice their input on where they’d like to see the airline fly next. The list of possible cities includes: Albany, N.Y. Albuquerque, N.M. Allentown, Pa. Austin, Texas Baton Rouge, La. Boise, Idaho Burlington, VT Charleston, S.C. Charleston, W.Va. Chattanooga, Tenn. Chicago (O’Hare), Ill. Cincinnati, Ohio…