Mesa Airlines announced an agreement with United Airlines to replace 8 50-seat CRJ-200 aircraft with two 66-seat CRJ-700 aircraft. United, as well as other airlines, are replacing the cramped 40-50 seater planes with larger more spacious regional planes which preserve the economy of smaller aircraft but add the comfort of mainline service.
San Francisco International Airport is making plans to renovate and eventually reopen the currently closed Terminal 2. Terminal 2 was formerly the airport’s international terminal until 2000. With the recent increase in service to the airport, including Virgin America, which is based at SFO, the airport has decided to accept bids to renovate the 1950s era terminal. When finished, it should have 14 gates.
Beginning September 23rd, Silverjet will add a second daily all-business round-trip flight from Newark to London’s Luton Airport. Luton, known as the London airport of discount carriers such as Ryanair and Easyjet, is an interesting destination choice for the carrier from Newark, as the All-Business service from JFK is offered to London’s Stansted Airport. Silverjet is apparently also looking to link up with an existing airline to get inroads into Heathrow airport, where it could likely undercut other Heathrow service.
Emirates may decide next month if it will choose Airbus or Boeing for an order of almost 100 planes, doubling its fleet by 2013. The order for 50 planes and 50 options for additional aircraft would either be for the 787 Dreamliner or the Airbus A350 aircraft. Emirate is also considering ordering ten 747-8, a stretched 747 aircraft meant to compete with the A380.
Alaska launched daily nonstop service from Portland to Orlando and Portland to Boston, operated by 737-700 aircraft, and expanding its presence on the East Coast.
Alitalia is trying, rather unsuccessfully, to dig itself out of its continual hole of doom. The Cranky Flier has a good synopsis of the situation. The airline is consolidating its hubs, increasing flights in Rome and decreasing them in Milan, while consolidating its cargo operations in Milan.
Orbitz is rolling out live airport updates from its customers, Upgrade Travel Better reports. The adoption of participation online, commonly called Web 2.0, shows that Orbitz, despite our criticism of them, they are trying new things. Perhaps next they’ll try some customer service.