USA Today’s Today in the Sky blog has a good roundup on the new British Airways luggage fees. Many will be surprised about these fees, as the press confirms that BA actually failed to instruct its sales staff to advise customers of the new baggage policies when they booked their tickets. Thus, those who didn’t…
Not to be outdone by Jetblue’s recent Bay Area Trifecta, Southwest has announced its intention to resume service to San Francisco International Airport. Southwest operated at SFO from 1982 to 2001. At the termination of service, Southwest offered 14 daily departures to San Diego and Phoenix. Southwest credits its return to the airport to the…
We commented last week on the Spirit Airlines plan to charge $10 for the second bag, $100 for each additional bag above that. The Coalition for Luggage Security had even more interesting things to say than we do. The coalition is in favor of further separation of the cost of the ticket and the cost…
This week brings a bunch of new service offerings. American Eagle will add nonstop service between Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Shreveport, Louisiana beginning April 10 using a 50-seater Embraer regional jet once daily. Delta is adding five new nonstop destinations this summer from Atlanta: Fort Smith, Arkansas(June 7); Halifax, Nova Scotia(June 7); Kalispell, MT(June…
Delta’s return to Stewart Airport in Newburgh produced this newsbrief on Today in the Sky. In response to Delta’s plans to expand to New York’s Stewart International Airport near Newburgh, AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson offered this response: “We apparently do the route planning and scheduling for two airlines — AirTran Airways and Delta Air Lines. …
A German court rejected an attempt to prevent the closure of Berlin’s historic airport. The closure is part of a plan to build a new international airport. The closure for Tempelhof airport is scheduled for October 2008. Tempelhof Airport was the site of the Berlin airlifts. Tempelhof’s terminal is known as the largest built structure…
Jetblue announced today it has entered into a marketing partnership with Cape Air. Cape Air will provide connecting service from Boston…a Jetblue hublet, to Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Provincetown, and Hyannis. Cape Air operates this service using small Cessna 402 aircraft. The alliance will begin March 19, 2007. Cape Air might not seem like a good fit…
ABC 7 New York reports that at least four Jetblue planes were stuck on the runway fully loaded with passengers and children for hours. JetBlue said the passengers were held on the flight because “we were operating as if the aircraft would be able to fly.” The airline says it was relying on forecast models that indicated…
This evening, we reported that Jetblue had stranded passengers on several planes for more hours than even they thought were accepted, and followed up on American’s response to their similar situation. Our counterpart at Upgrade Travel reported on their attempt to take the wind out of the sails of the Passenger Bill of Rights…the way they…
Spirit announced nonstop once-daily service from Atlantic City to Las Vegas beginning May 3rd. Also, on May 1st, Spirit will resume connecting service through Detroit to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Frontier asked today: “What is better than roses or chocolates or jewelry on Valentine’s Day? Low fares and new air service!” Frontier has…
We received unprecedented response to the Jetblue post of yesterday, detailing Jetblue’s failure to care for its passengers. Jetblue itself issued the following statement: “JetBlue apologizes to customers who were impacted by the ice storm at our home base of operations in New York, specifically at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Of the 505 daily…
Air Canada is launching seasonal nonstops from Halifax to Holguin, Cuba. Air Canada operates twenty-seven flights to Cuba each week, including five to Holguin. For US Residents, visiting Cuba is illegal. Airtran announced effective May 8, they will introduce new nonstop service between Orlando and both Memphis and Kansas City, and will launch a second…
CBS New York reports that two seventeen year old girls from Queens, Cally Nikolis and Alexandra Moshouris, shot a video documenting their isolation stuck on the ground at Kennedy on a Delta flight to Greece that they never took that night. They insist they were stuck on the plane for 11 hours with little food,…
Coming on the same day the news announced passengers were trapped on planes at JFK for hours on end, the FAA’s press release on the subject records, the Next Generation Air Transportation System Financing Reform Act of 2007 would “replace the decades-old system of collecting ticket taxes with a cost-based, stable and reliable funding program…
ABC News reports that Kate Hanni, one of the passengers of the American Airlines flight that was held in Austin in December for an excessive period and has been advocating a Passenger Bill of Rights will be in Washington next week to do just that. Hanni will be pushing a bill that Representitive Mike Thompson(D-Ca)…
An American Airlines plane enroute from Tokyo-Narita to Dallas-Forth Worth diverted to Honolulu, Hawaii. The airline blamed the diversion of the Boeing 777 on a squirrel that stowed away on the flight. Pilots feared the squirrel would chew through wiring or cause other problems. The squirrel may have boarded in New York, the plane’s previous…
“I don’t blame our customers for being upset with this,” David Neeleman, CEO of Jetblue commented about the recent events plaguing the airline. For Saturday and Sunday, it pre-cancelled 23 percent of its schedule in order to reset their operation. That includes all flights to and from: Austin, Bermuda, Charlotte, Columbus, Houston, Jacksonville, Nashville, Pittsburgh,…
Icelandair is celebrating its 70th anniversary and is offering a hundred dollar discount off four packages to Iceland. Icelandair began in 1937 as a domestic carrier. In 1945, Icelandair initiated its first flights outside of Iceland to Scotland. By 1948, they served Scotland, Copenhagen, and Oslo. On August 26, 1948, the airline made its first…
For those of you who haven’t heard, the Airbus 380 is scheduled to touch down in JFK on March 19th as part of a trial flight for Lufthansa. Los Angeles, which had expected to have the honor of hosting the first A380 landing in the United States. The superjumbo’s arrival into the United States has…
Jetblue has its advantages and disadvantages, as we’ve said. So, let’s review what is necessary for Jetblue to avoid this in the future… A Secondary Base It lacks a secondary base outside of the winter weather zone. Jetblue’s coverage in the middle of the country has aways been lacking. Places for a mid-America base have…
We are not sure if it is better for the government to regulate the airlines or for the airlines to regulate themselves…popuar opinion varies…but if an airline does hold itself to a standard, we are in favor of it. Jetblue announced today that it would unveil its own Bill of Rights after its meltdown this…
Bombardier, maker of the Canadair Regional Jet(CRJ) announced today it has added a 100-seater option to its lineup after receiving 38 firm orders for it today, which included the conversion of previous CRJ900 orders. The CRJ1000 is a stretch version of the CRJ900(90-seater aircraft and originally referred to as the CRJ900x. It is 3 meters…
The Boston Herald reports that 20 students from Waltham High School outside of Boston had their trip grounded in New York because Delta Airlines gave their seats away. The students planned and saved for a year so they could spend the week practicing their Spanish in Madrid. Delta stranded the students for nearly 12 hours…
David Neeleman apologized in a Youtube message on the Jetblue website, promising reform. He assures the public that the events of last week and the way they transpired will never happen again. In the future, all Jetblue employees who do not work at the airport will be badged and trained to report to the airport…
Carl Howe, of Blackfriar’s Communication, posted the following(courtesy of SeekingAlpha), noting that: The difference between bad and good companies is how employees are empowered and respond to problems. Southwest Airlines (LUV) empowers its employees to break rules so long as they are doing right by their customers, and it has been the most profitable airline…