- 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 money.
- Midwest Airlines will launch new service from Kansas City to Colorado Springs(three roundtrips daily, four on weekends) and Madison(two roundtrips daily, three on weekends) on July 1st. The same day, it will add one additional roundtrip from Kansas City to Pittsburgh and to San Antonio. All flights will be operated with 50-seat CRJ-200s.
- US Airways is increasing the number of gate and ticket agents at Charlotte airport by more than 10% after the serious delays during its computer reservations system switchover last month, as well as increased passenger loads through the airport
- Delta may be looking to make changes in its regional partners, including selling off subsidiary Comair after it leaves bankruptcy protection. Comair and Atlantic Southeast(which Delta sold in 2005 to Skywest), ranked near the bottom of an airline quality survey. If the current carriers cannot correct their issues and improve their image, which uses Delta’s brand and thus affects Delta’s reputation, changes might be made.
- TAM received authorization to fly to Caracas, Venezuela from Sao Paulo, connecting in Manaus. It will begin the route within sixth months. Flight inauguration date and schedules have yet to be announced.
- Skybus will have ads from Nationwide Mutual Insurance covering the inside and outside of one of its planes, both companies announced today. Out of the two planes it will inaugurate service with in May, one will have its logo and slogan on its fuselage, as well as advertisements on tray tables, overhead bins, restroom doors, and refreshment carts. The contract is going to last for at least one year, and the going rate is $500,000 for the year.
- American Airlines has launched its new regional service from New York’s LaGuardia to Cincinnati and is offering an introductory roundtrip fare of $238. We have hopes they will be able to grow the route to mainline service, thus providing much needed competition on the New York to Cincinnati route.
- American also has a sale on service from Miami and Ft. Lauderdale to the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and select destinations in Latin America. We wonder if this is an attempt to build brand loyalty in response to Spirit Airlines and its challenging of American’s Latin American to South Floridean dominance.
- Airtran announced today it would be expanding service out of Las Vegas, with daily service to Milwaukee, four times weekly service to Bloomington-Normal IL, and four times weekly service to Moline, IL. We wonder if the Milwaukee service is not in response to its attempts to takeover Midwest Airlines.
- Terminal 4 at New York’s JFK airport, the International Arrivals Terminal and US gateway for many international carriers, will be implementing BagManager by SITA, which will hopefully improve its baggage handling. The terminal processed 5.5 million bags last year.
