We’ve never been particularly fond of fifty seater regional jets. They don’t have the comfort that we desire in an airline experience. It is not that we object to a smaller aircraft, but merely the idea that a smaller aircraft has to be a significantly less pleasant experience than a larger one.
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Helper Monkeys, new site developments, and a Fly Girls editorial….this time on the Flight Wisdom Briefing
Image via Wikipedia On Friday, we posted about two JetBlue Embraer 190s that made emergency landings due to smoke and fire situations. In addition to Flight 654, which last Monday made an emergency landing at Kennedy after taking off for Rochester due to smoke in the cabin, and Flight 1781, which made a landing with…
We waited for JetBlue’s response to this incident, which occurred yesterday. Flight 1781, with 89 passengers onboard, departed Orlando at 12:34, scheduled to arrive at 1:35. A fire broke out in the left-hand side engine, and the plane made an emergency landing at its destination of Nassau, Bahamas. The plane taxied under its own power…
Image via Wikipedia Boeing is expected to conduct the maiden flight of the 787 Dreamliner this month. The plane has been plagued by delays. When the A380 was plagued by wiring problems, we said that Boeing had to make sure that it got the Dreamliner out on time to ensure the lead it got was…
Midwest Airlines has added the option to purchase a customized Travel Guard single-trip travel insurance policy specifically for Midwest customers during the ticket purchase process on the Midwest Airlines website and through their other distribution means. We love trip insurance….it protects you from the horror stories we often collect about horrible situations that have happened…
Airtran has signed a new three year contract with Coca-Cola. Onboard, you can get Coca-Cola Classic®, Diet Coke®, Sprite®, Sprite Zero(TM), Coca-Cola Zero(TM), Minute Maid® Lemonade, Dasani® Water, Cherry Coke(TM), Cherry Coke Zero(TM) and three types of Minute Maid® juices. Poor Pepsi. Has anyone signed with them lately? Air France-KLM announced last week they would…
Today in the Sky reports that, unannounced, Delta raised fees on August 1st. Same-day confirmed standby has doubled to $50, the direct booking fee has doubled to $20, their $50 change fee is now a $75 change fee. $75 is now also the charge for redepositing unused frequent-flier miles and for booking frequent flier tickets…
Easyjet is promoting its vision of a shorthaul aircraft that will generate half as much carbon dioxide and can be delivered by 2015. They are working with aircraft manufacturers to make their dream a reality. US Airways won’t be allowed to serve alcohol once again in New Mexico, after being refused an extension on its…
There’s a lot to catch up on… Qantas is expanding its flight schedule to the United States, effective March 2008, bringing total flights to 46 flights per week. The increased schedule includes daily service between Los Angeles and Brisbane effective March 27th; Increasing to 17 weekly flights between Los Angeles and Sydney, effective March 30th;…
The organization that runs LAX Airport(LAWA) has lost the lawsuit brought against them by several airlines involving the increasing of maintenance and operation fees to airlines not under a long-term lease. The Cranky Flier has a great synopsis of the situation. “Sounds like they’re just trying to get the airlines in T1/T3/TBIT to cover some…
US Airways and Northwest Airlines have received temporary liquor licenses from the state of New Mexico and are once again selling alcohol on flights to and from the state. Expressjet, which just opened its service, plans to sell alcohol in the air before it gets its license, taking the same view as other carriers that…
Avianca, the flagship carrier of Colombia, announced an order for 10 787s. Later this week, Air Canada will be picking up its first Boeing 777, which will kick off its wide-body modernization program. Over the next two years, Air Canada will receive 19 777s, as well as 45 100-seat Embraer 190s. Delta announced service from…
Boeing took the first step Friday in ending production of C-17 military cargo planes in 2009, by notifying suppliers it will no longer buy parts for the jet not under contract or firmly committed. Unless the U.S. or other government expresses interest in additional aircraft, Boeing will shut the production line. Embraer delivered the first…
Bloomberg reports that Jetblue is grounding their Embraer 190 aircraft starting on Thursday, March 8th to fix persistent software problems. Jetblue will be contracting with Expressjet to operate four ERJ145 50-seater regional jets to replace the 190s as they are grounded two at a time. All passengers will have the option of changing their flight…
Alaska Airlines has announced it will offer seasonal service once-daily from Anchorage to San Francisco from June 3 through August 20th. Alaska Airlines’ summer schedule also offers daily nonstop service between Anchorage and Chicago; Denver; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and Vancouver, British Columbia. The service will be operated using 737-700s. Airtran Airways will introduce…
We’ve been a fan of the Embraer 190 regional jets since long before we had the pleasure of flying on them. Recently we decided to take a few regional jet trips with Embraer products, so see how the experience rated. We hopped a US Airways Express flight on an Embraer 145, and then a Jetblue…
The Embraer 190, popular as the second aircraft model used by low-cost carrier Jetblue, has recently been added to the US Airways fleet. The 190 will be operated as a mainline jet, with 11 first class seats and 88 in coach. It will be serving niche markets too large for a regional jet and that…