Jetblue announced service from Boston to Charlotte and Washington-Dulles to Orlando beginning May 1st. The Boston flight will be once daily, the Dulles flight twice daily. It will also add once additional flight from Long Beach to Las Vegas, JFK to Portland ME, JFK to Charlotte, and JFK to Raleigh-Durham. Jetblue also announced increases in…
Reuters reports that Expressjet has reached a two year deal to use operate ten of its aircraft out of Delta’s LAX hub starting in June to and from Western ski markets. Last year former parent Continental Airlines cancelled a capacity purchase agreement that covered 69 of its 274 planes. Expressjet is using 44 of these…
The Chicago Tribune reports that on Saturday, a United flight, UA907, bound from Chicago to San Francisco, was left on the ground for seven hours before the pilots finally cancelled the flight. This comes after the Jetblue meltdown and in the midst of pressure and threat of federal action. At the last minute, the plane…
The Coalition for Luggage Security issued a press release today, commenting on RFID baggage tagging. The Coalition believes luggage should be treated as cargo and that it should not be shipped on passenger flights. They fail to truly comment though on RFID though. RFID, as we’ve mentioned in the past, has great potential for improved…
The European Union and the United States agreed yesterday on the outline for an Open Skies treaty. The provisional agreement will be presented to the EU transport ministers on March 22nd. The first-stage deal, if approved, would go into effect October 28th. The pact would allow European Airlines to fly from any EU city to…
American Eagle launched once-daily roundtrip service from Miami to Cozumel, Mexico yesterday using an ATR72 turboprop. Frontier Airlines launched nonstop service today to Cabo San Lucas from Sacramento(three flights per week) and San Jose(four flights per week) using A319 aircraft. Frontier also launched its new nonstop service from Denver to Hartford last night. It marks…
The last customer for the freight version of the Airbus 380, the United Parcel Service, has said it planned to cancel an order for 10 Airbus 380 freighters. It had considered waiting until 2012 for the aircraft, but when it learned that Airbus is diverting employees from the freighter version to work on the passenger…
On Wednesday, an American Airlines employee allowed the former vice president and two aides to circumvent security by taking Gore from the airline’s ticketing counter through a door in the baggage claim area where only “badged employees” can enter. The door led to a tunnel and then a ramp that got them to an American…
The Arizona Republic reports that the hope that the US Airways reservations system transfer would be seamless were dashed this morning. Due to the failure of self check-in kiosks, there were long lines in Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Las Vegas. The Charlotte Observer reported that conditions at Charlotte Airport were improved by the afternoon, but lines…
David Neeleman’s flight log reported on Saturday that they are working on producing the revised Contract of Carriage, which will include its revised Customer Bill of Rights. Originally, he intended to have it done by March 2nd, but it has apparently been delayed by weather issues that needed to be addressed first. The new Contract…
Reuters reports that BA Chairman Martin Broughton said today that the new Open Skies agreement risked ceding benefits to U.S. Airlines in return for only “miniscule concessions” from Washington. We can’t disagree with them, although we hope Open Skies comes to be. European carriers would not be allowed to fly domestically in the U.S., which…
With the recent Open Skies initiative referring to Fifth and Seventh Freedom rights, we decided it was time to review…courtesy of the Cranky Flier. Six through Nine though, according to him, are mostly unofficial. First Freedom – Airlines from Country A may fly through Country B’s airspace without landing Second Freedom -Â Airlines from Country…
Ben Mutzabaugh of Today in the Sky asked whether or not Southwest is trying to change its no-frills image. Now, Southwest’s product has remained consistent since the beginning. It has been consistent quality and customer service…not luxurious, but not what people come to think when they think no frills. For Europeans familiar with the likes…
Spirit has taken the first step to bringing Ryanair-like structures to the United States. In a press release entitled ‘Great News!!!’, Spirit is now offering the opportunity for passengers to ‘customize their travel experience and save’. While we understand the idea of “liberates customers from being forced into paying for services they do not desire…
This morning, we found out about the Spirit policy, which is set to take effect June 20th, and we were completely shocked. No one had taken notice of it yet, so we forwarded the news, which has widepsread implications, to some of our fellow travel bloggers, to get their two cents in. Upgrade Travel Better…
Alaska Airlines has announced it will offer seasonal service once-daily from Anchorage to San Francisco from June 3 through August 20th. Alaska Airlines’ summer schedule also offers daily nonstop service between Anchorage and Chicago; Denver; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and Vancouver, British Columbia. The service will be operated using 737-700s. Airtran Airways will introduce…
We’ve been checking Neeleman’s flight log waiting for the announcement of a new Contract of Carriage. It is finally up and we reviewed the new Contract of Carriage…and Controllable Irregularity is finally defined. “Controllable Irregularity as used in Section 36, means a delay, cancellation, or diversion that is not caused by Force Majeure Event. For…
Bloomberg reports that Jetblue is grounding their Embraer 190 aircraft starting on Thursday, March 8th to fix persistent software problems. Jetblue will be contracting with Expressjet to operate four ERJ145 50-seater regional jets to replace the 190s as they are grounded two at a time. All passengers will have the option of changing their flight…
Reuters reports that according to the EU Council’s legal service, the Open Skies vote must be unanimously backed by all 27 EU member states. While the EU decides on transport issues by qualified majority voting, the open skies agreement is a ‘mixed agreement’ involving the competences of both the Union and the member state…thus requiring…
An Iraqi man wearing wires and concealing a magnet inside his rectum triggered a security scare at LAX yesterday. USA Today reported that he was carrying a “suspicious item.” We suppose the truth was too shocking…His bags, however, made it onboard and the US Airways plane bound for Philadelphia was diverted to Las Vegas where…
Jetblue can’t seem to stay out of the news. We’d love a good Northwest story right now. We’ve always admired them, and continue admire them even after this…but our patience wears thin. So…we’re going to consolidate them. This in no way belittles the seriousness of the situations. An accidental fuel spill at Kennedy Airport left…
Boeing took the first step Friday in ending production of C-17 military cargo planes in 2009, by notifying suppliers it will no longer buy parts for the jet not under contract or firmly committed. Unless the U.S. or other government expresses interest in additional aircraft, Boeing will shut the production line. Embraer delivered the first…
Continental announced that it will launch daily flights from Newark to Mumbai beginning October 30th…subject to government approval. Continental has operated service to Delhi since 2005. The flights will be operated used 777-200 aircraft. Delta will add service from Ft. Lauderdale to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic(Eff. June 7th) and from Los Angeles to Belize City,…
ATA will be adding service from Chicago-Midway to Oakland and Ontario, effective May 11th. ATA will also add service three times per week from Oakland to Kona, Hawaii effective June 14th. On June 15th, they will begin service four times weekly from Oakland to Lihui, Hawaii and daily nonstop service from Las Vegas to Maui,…
American Airlines is setting aside money to pay its employees their first profit-sharing payments since 2001. This is subsequent to their ongoing labor issues. American avoided bankruptcy in the last decade through cost-cutting and concessions made by labor, and as the employees watch management receiving bonuses…they feel entitled to their fair share after the sacrifices…