Is the Volcanic Disruption Over? Or is this Merely an Interlude?

The previous eruption of the Icelandic volcano which has been disrupting air travel for a week now was in December 1821 and continued until January 1823. Hopefully it will quiet down much sooner this time. The cloud seems set to disperse enough to permit aviation to resume tomorrow in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. A new ash cloud which is heading toward Europe may keep London’s airports closed, however. French airspace has reopened, but the reopening will be gradual and controlled. Lufthansa has already resumed some limited service and extra planes are flying to bring home stranded passengers.

EU vs the Volcano: Round Three

This is your latest Volcanic Update. The closure of most of European airspace continues. Today, out of nearly 25,000 flights, only 4,000 are expected to operate. Closures include Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, most of France, most of Germany, Hungary, Ireland, northern Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, north Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK.

EU vs the Volcano: Round 2

European airspace continues to be shut down as conditions in the skies continue to remain dangerous. The following areas will likely have all flights cancelled:  Ireland, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, the north of France including all Paris airports, parts of Germany including Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin and the airspace…

Flight Wisdom Briefing 16

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Our parent, the Weneca Media Group, unveiled its own custom URL shortener for our blogs, n9n.us. All of our posts will now feature n9n.us URLs. We are looking for bloggers wishing to do editorials on the briefing. If you are interested, please contact us.

EU vs. the Volcano

Large portions of European airspace are closed today due to volcano ash due to the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Many airports in Europe have been closed till tomorrow, and thus there is much chaos as stranded passengers struggle to find their way home.

If you are flying to/from/within Europe today, please check with your carrier.

More on this later.

The Cookie is Gone But the Cookies Live On

Republic Airways Holdings, owners of Frontier and Midwest Airlines, has advised that the two carriers will merge, operating as Frontier Airlines. It means that the distinctive animal mascot tails of Frontier will remain. For those of you afraid about the loss of the signature cookies, Midwest’s signature fresh-baked cookies will be rolled out to Frontier soon. Repubican CEO Bryan Bedford promised that Frontier would add a plane with Wisconsin’s state animal, the badger, but this will take time as “it’s hard to find a cute badger.”

Flight Wisdom Briefing 14

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[caption id="attachment_1706" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Lavatory - Virgin America A320"][/caption] This is the Flight Wisdom Guru with Briefing #14, once again reporting in from Flight Wisdom HQ…We ran a little long today, and will try to have a second briefing out tomorrow afternoon, to catch up before the weekend rush. Show Notes Virgin Atlantic to Launch…

Spirit Airlines Beats Ryanair at Bottom Feeding – Charges for Carry-Ons

Effective July 1st, for travel beginning August 1st, Spirit Airlines will now charge for carry-on bags. You will still be able to take your small personal item onboard, but if you wish a carryon bag in the overhead, that will be $30 before departure. If you are member of their $9 Fare Club(which oddly enough costs $39.95 a year), you get to pay only $20. And if you forget or miss notice of this new rule, you can pay $45 at the gate.

Flight Wisdom Briefing 11

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We’re reporting in this week from the birthplace of Flight Wisdom, affectionately known as the Flight Wisdom Summer Palace. Flight Wisdom began in the summer of 2006, when a bunch of us decided to get into the habit of subject-based blogging. I, your usual host, the Editor, also known as the Flight Wisdom Guru, hope to give you the chance to hear some of the other voices of Flight Wisdom this week.

More Developments in the Delta-US Airways Slot Swap

Back in August, Delta Air Lines and US Airways announced a deal to give Delta dominance at LaGuardia in exchange for Delta helping US Airways dominate Washington-National. The DOT advised that in order for them to approve the transaction, the airlines would have to divest a certain number of slots at each airport in order for it to be approved. This week, the two airlines shot back with their own proposal. They will transfer up to five slot pairs each to AirTran, Spirit, and Westjet at LaGuardia. And at National, they will transfer five slot pairs to JetBlue.

Virgin America Suffers its First Major PR Issue

Virgin America Flight 404 circled JFK till it was diverted to Stewart Airport in Newburgh, which is also run by the Port Authority of NY & NJ, as is JFK, Newark, and LaGuardia, to refuel and wait out the weather. This is hardly out of the ordinary. But as the hours passed, supplies grew slim, tempers frayed, and things started to come to a boil.