A man desperate to keep his girlfriend from boarding a flight from Ft. Myers to New York called in a bomb threat for her airplane Wednesday afternoon. Christian G. Mejia, age 23, was arrested after he dropped off his girlfriend and her travelling companion to an airport and drove to a pay phone and called…
We’ve never hid our disdain for Skybus…but since they launched the other day…we thought it was time to review… Perhaps ABC News’s Scott Mayerowitz has it the best…with his article…”The Greyhound Bus of the Skies – Skybus Airlines: where Lunch Costs More Than a Plane Ticket.” To compare Skybus to Greyhound is to insult Greyhound.…
Virgin America has been approved to launch service. Now that the company has been formally approved, the next step will be to seek a waiver to start selling tickets. The company is planning a mid-summer launch. Virgin America’s first flights will be between its home base of San Francisco (SFO) to New York (JFK). The…
US Airways plans to eliminate more than 20 daily flights out of Pittsburgh this summer. US Airways has been Pittsburgh’s dominant carrier for many years. It downgraded Pittsburgh’s hub status after Southwest went into its fortress hub at Philadelphia. The airline will cancel service to: Baltimore Altoona Seattle San Diego. It will reduce to one…
Southwest, which has long been a holdout on working with global distribution systems(GDS), and only maintained the most limited participation in them…today announced a 10-year content distribution agreement with Galileo. Kevin Krone, Southwest’s VP of Sales, Marketing, and Distribution, commented that the GDS environment has evolved to the point where it has become cost effective…
Jetblue announced today that David Neeleman…Jetblue’s founder and CEO, will step down as Chief Executive immediately, a position he has held since he founded the airline. He will remain as non-executive Chairman of the Board and plans to focus on issues like developing JetBlue’s Live TV unit, alternative sources of jet fuel, new forms of…
On April 24th, American Airlines suffered diversions and cancellations as thunderstorms hit the Dallas Area. American and American Eagle diverted 129 flights. The most they have ever diverted were 133…on September 11, 2001. Of the 13 flights diverted that sat at various airports for more than four hours, only the passengers of Flight 556, from…
Airtran will be the first to serve Cherry Coke and Cherry Coke Zero onboard all flights effective this month. We just love the fact that it is big news which soft drinks an airline has…probably bigger for the airlines that don’t give you any. United raised fares on popular business routes by up to $50…
We hope Greyhound and other bus companies are prepared to object to the bad name Skybus is giving to bus travel in this country. It has never been luxurious…but it’ll get you there. Upgrade Travel has some things of interest about this airline. For one, be careful if you try booking a vacation package on…
We’ve spent some time contemplating this issue…trying to come up with something to say on it. On April 12th, Flight International magazine announced that in an interview with Ryanair head Michael O’Leary plans to launch a new transatlantic serving the East Coast. He expects to serve secondary airports such as Baltimore, Providence, and Long Island…
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…
We recently read a fascinating article dated April 5th on the subject of Jetblue and its service issues from the perspective of the recently hired CIO, who went through it. We heartily recommend it. It attributes the bulk of Jetblue’s problems to issues with its information infrastructure…systems that had not previously been tested under these…
After United announced it would impose a $10 fare surcharge to all passengers travelling through Los Angeles International Airport(LAX), the Los Angeles World Airports(LAWA), the parent agency of the airport, issued a press release condemning the action as “exploiting a justified increase in its maintenance and operations costs in order to dramatically increase profits on…
Four fighter jets, two F-15s and two F-16s, were dispatched to inspect a Continental Airlines Boeing 777 today from Newark to Tel Aviv which failed to make contact with Air Traffic Control and comply with international regulations as it approached Israeli airspace. The fighters incepted the Flight 90, carrying 251 passengers, once it reached the…
ATA announced last week that it would acquire World Air Holdings, which owns charter carriers World Airways and North American Airlines. North American, based at JFK, offers some regularly scheduled service. World Air Holdings did not acquire North American that long ago itself. The airlines would be operated as three separate airlines under one corporate…
Northwest regional affiliate Pinnacle is suspending flights from Kalamazoo to Minneapolis until May 2nd to give the airline time to hire and train additional pilots. Apparently 20 of their pilots took jobs with larger, mainline carriers and they are trying to find replacements. Meanwhile, Northwest has also been cleared to begin operations at Compass, its…
Northwest cancelled flight 1190 from Las Vegas to Detroit yesterday over the behavior of its captain. The captain was on a cell phone, and at some point during the boarding process, left the cockpit and went into the lavatory, locked the door, and continued his conversation. The conversation could be heard through the door by…
The Cranky Flier has a featured interview between him and Josh Marks, the Senior Vice-Preisdent of Planning and Development for MAXjet. MAXjet is a business-class only airline that started service between New York-JFK and London-Stansted airport in 2005. They offer the “perks of international Business Class (fast check-in and security clearance, spacious departure lounges, deep-recline…
Southwest Airlines has reupped for another three years of serving Coca-Cola company products, which will extend their offering through 2011. Under the terms of the agreement, Coca-Cola North America will continue to be the beverage provider for Southwest, supplying soft drinks including Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite and Sprite Zero, Seagram’s mixers, and Minute Maid juices…
A flight from Philadelphia to Rome had to return to Philadelphia two hours into the flight because of a computer glitch in a backup navigation computer. The passengers are being reaccomodated as best possible to their final destinations.
United Airlines and bmi have applied to the United States Department of Transportation to combine their transatlantic operations. The two carriers have no overlapping nonstop service and would take advantage of the open skies pact. Both carriers are members of the Star Alliance. The agreement would only merge their transatlantic operations. Other operations would remain…
The Coalition for Luggage Security once again sounded its trumpet call to require travellers to voluntarily ship their luggage from domestic air travel prior to departure. To be fair, we had a look at Universal Express’s Luggage Express pitch. They plan to charge $70 per piece of dropped off luggage of $85 per pick-up. In…
Some days in the airline industry, it seems a neverending stream of negative publicity. Here are a few things we caught over the last few days. It fails to inspire us. (Note: In every one of our roundups, links to a news source are provided for each item. Feel free to click through for more…
The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. Airlines are expected to start making announcements this summer about the offering of in-flight internet connections. While Aircell is temporarilly out of the game for in-flight cellular communications due to the recent FCC decision not to adjust its ban, Aircell plans to install equipment to establish a wi-fi…
Spirit today announced nonstop service from its hub in Ft. Lauderdale to Guatemala City, Guatemala once daily effective May 10th. Commercial passenger service will be terminating in Lake Havasu City, Arizona effective May 6th. Mesa Airlines, which provides service from the airport to Phoenix and Las Vegas. A Mesa analysis on the Havasu airport showed…