- Spirit Airlines today announced nonstop service to San Pedro Sula, Honduras from its Ft. Lauderdale hub. Service will be offered three times a week from July 20th through November 15, when it will become daily.
- Southwest announced four daily nonstop flights in six cities. Beginning August 26th, one new daily nonstop from Manchester to Phoenix and an eight roundtrip between Phoenix and Salt Lake City. Beginning October 4th, a second nonstop between Las Vegas and Raleigh-Durham and a fourth roundtrip between Seattle and Las Vegas.
- American Airlines has received the 2007 Fatherhood Award tonight from the National Fatherhood Initiative for its father-friendly marketing in its commercial depicting a father using his frequent flyer miles to take his daughter with him on a business trip to London.
- L’Avion Airlines announced statistics from its Newark to Paris Orly since it launched in January. They have had a load factor of 60%, on-time departures and arrivals 98%(impressive for Newark), and higher than anticipated sales and recurring passengers.
- American Airlines has introduced its first test of txtSAAvers, fare sales texted directly to your cell phone. The test will be only for the Dallas/Fort Worth area and its flight specials. It will eventually be rolled out beyond this.
- American, according to Today in the Sky, wants to fly more routes from the Dominican Republic. It has applied with the country to fly from San Juan, PR to Samana, Santo Domingo to Port au Prince, Haiti, Curacao, and Caracas.
- Alaska Airlines vowed to protect its turf as its competitors ramp up service from the West Coast to Mexico and that it would “do whatever it takes” to preserve its regional dominance. Whatever happened to when they used exist to serve Alaska?
- Alaska has also announced it will convert a fifth 737-400 to carry passengers and cargo simultaneously on the main deck, called a “Combi” Each Combi carries up to 72 passengers in the rear and up to four cargo pallets in the front. The airline’s cargo operation carries 30 million pounds of fresh Alaskan seafood from Alaskan fishing towns to Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond each year.
- US Airways said today it plans to put 1000 workers in airports this summer to help passengers. It says it has begun an aggressive hiring plan and will bring in 600 new self-service kiosks with first deliveries in May. It went into the specifics in a press release, where it details that it will also create Passenger Operations Centers at Philadelphia, Charlotte, Boston, and Washington National similar to the existing one at Phoenix to monitor inbound hub activity and work to assist passengers who might miss their flight, allowing them to reprotect passengers before they even land, allowing them to meet the plane with the new information.
- Emirates Air may order up to 15 more A380s, in addition to its 43 on order…despite the fact they have yet to get one…
- Delta is cleared to enter bankruptcy on April 30th and will issue new shares. Old shares will be cancelled and worthless.
- Midwest Airlines is adding service to six cities through a codeshare agreement with Air Midwest, which operates as US Airways Express. The codeshare agreement is currently in place for connecting service to Little Rock, Arkansas. and Dodge City, Garden City, Great Bend, Hays, Manhattan and Salina, Kansas. On May 6th, it will be expanded to allow passengers to connect via Kansas City to and from Columbia/Jefferson City, Joplin, and Kirksville, Missouri. and Grand Island, McCook and Omaha, Nebraska.
- El Al began an in-home baggage service in the hopes it would boost passengers The service will cost $49 for up to four people to save Israeli passengers time waiting at the airport. As part of the service, El Al representitives will visit customers at their homes, offices, or hotel rooms and collect their luggage, undergoing the same security procedures they would at the airport.
- Jetblue will begin new service on July 27th from Salt Lake City with once daily service to San Diego and to San Francisco using its Airbus 320 aircraft.
- Frontier Airlines will be launching service from Denver to Baton Rouge, LA on August 15th. This service, operated by Republic Airways, is the first new airline service to the city in 21 years, and the first low-cost carrier service.
- David Neeleman, CEO of Jetblue, is reportedly considering in-flight text messaging options for passengers…as onboard cell phone use is still banned.
