On October 13th, as USAToday reports, The Gillette family…a couple and their 22-month old, were removed from a flight from Burlington, Vermont to New York. The flight, a Freedom Airlines(ironic name considering the circumstances) flight operated under the banner of Delta, is a relatively short one on a somewhat small aircraft. As they waited to…
Perhaps overshadowed by today’s offer by US Airways on Delta…yesterday Airtran and Frontier Airlines announced a marketing alliance. Members of Frontier’s EarlyReturns program will be able to earn mileage points when flying on Airtran and members of Airtran’s A+Rewards Program, which is based on the number of flights taken, can choose to earn credit while…
Delta inaugurated its new service between New York’s JFK Airport and London’s Gatwick Airport this evening at 7:05PM. Delta is the first major U.S. carrier to enter the market since 1991, since United Airlines purchased the route rights from Pan Am. Delta purchased the route rights from United earlier this year. United had been serving…
We awoke this morning to the news that US Airways had proposed to buy Delta out of bankruptcy by paying Delta’s creditors $4 billion in cash and 78.5 million shares of stock, worth approximately another $4 billion. Delta has not accepted the proposal, commenting that it would review it but plans to emerge from bankruptcy…
Reuters reports that airline passengers will soon be able to connect their Ipods to in-flight entertainment systems as Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM, and United will offer Ipod seat connections for viewing and charging. Apple’s Ipod dominates the digital music player market, and thus an Ipod charger would be a popular item on planes.…
As we’ve mentioned before, Farecast is an intriguing product that uses statistics and historical data to predict trends in fares. Now, the company if offering to lock in ticket prices against an increase for one week for $1 during the initial release. It will eventually increase to $10. The product, Fare Guard, guarantees that if…
The New York Daily News reports that officials at the Port Authority, which runs the three New York area airports, are considering a billion dollar rebuild of LaGuardia Airport’s Central Terminal Building. The building is the second oldest of the terminals, surpassed only by the airport’s original terminal, now known as the Marine Air Terminal.…
As BTOnline reports, last week Jetblue signed an agreement with Amadeus, which gives it representation in all of the major Global Distribution Systems(GDS), including Sabre, Worldspan, and Galileo. Jetblue had left the GDS world and been somewhat successful with 100% direct booking. But, as Jetblue has concluded, opening itself up to GDS bookings has gotten…
Bloomburg reports that Airbus plans to increase spending to $12 billion, a 20% increase to develop the A350 jet. The current design is its sixth attempt to come up with serious competition for the 787 Dreamliner. Airbus is seriously behind in the A350 project, partially due to the problems with its A380 project. With the…
New York City has recently been involved in a controversy over the possibility of banning trans-fat from restaurants, among other things. Jetblue, New York’s hometown airline, has gotten into the act. Today, Jetblue announced that effective December 15th, Jetblue will offer a 100% trans-fat free selection of snacks and beverages with the addition of Chocobilly…
Not long ago, a fellow blogger accused us of having a singular point of view in regards to Boeing vs. Airbus. Now, it was not long ago Boeing had its problems, and it has succeeded in turning them around for the most part. Right now, Airbus is in the midst of serious problems, and the…
The New York Times reported the other day on the cleanliness of airplanes, focusing on Delta. Delta had let its schedule for deep cleaning its aircraft go to every 15 to 18 months. Essentially, planes are used as many hours of the day as are practical, which means thousands of hours in flight. In a…
A few days ago, we reported El Al had reduced fuel surcharges. Cheapflights.com reports that two additional airlines have reduced the cost of fuel surcharges. It shows that two more airlines are willing to keep fuel surcharges linked to fuel increases and decreases. We salute them in that regard and reiterate…it is not a fuel…
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…
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…
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…
As expected, this morning Jetblue unveiled its new Chicago service, beginning January 4th. The service will include five daily flights on Jetblue’s Embraer 190 aircraft to Jetblue’s East Coast Hub, JFK in New York, and two daily flights with A320s to Long Beach, CA, their west coast hub. In honor of this, they are offering…
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…
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…
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. …
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…
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…
We reported that Southwest launched fares to 25 new cities that it can now make available with one-stop connections out of Dallas-Love Field. We expected American to either downscale or even discontinue its Love Field operations and retreat to its fortress at DFW Airport or make a go with connections out of Love Field competing…
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…
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…