Jetblue will be inaugurating service from Buffalo and White Plains to Ft. Myers. Both routes will operate once daily from January 8th through April 30th, using the E190 regional jets. This continues Jetblue’s philosophy of this year of route-building by connecting existing stations. Jetblue has many deficiencies in its network. These include: No Midwestern focus…
The last time we spoke of Southwest, they were changing their open seating policy. Pre-boarding for families now comes after the A group, passengers are numbered within their letter class in order of check-in. Families were upset. Suddenly, they were told they were not as important anymore. But…now they’ve made another bunch of rapid changes.…
Airlines have, with few exceptions, adopted the hub model. They establish a hub, or a focus city(aka hublet – little hub), and build service to and from it to the point that you know if you want to fly with them, you’ll be passing through there. The hub model has many logistical issues as it…
USA Today has an article on three cities losing airline service after subsidy cuts. On October 1st, Hagerstown, MD, along with Lancaster, PA and Brookings, SD lost scheduled commercial service because they were deemed ineligible for subsidies because they are too close to bigger airports. The article goes into the calculations…but we are not surprised…
Air Canada will be offering nonstop service from Ottawa to Frankfurt beginning June 1st as well as nonstop service from Toronto-Dusseldorf six times weekly beginning May 1st…and a second daily nonstop from Calgary-Frankfurt on April 14th. American Eagle began nonstop service today from Flint’s Bishop International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Service will be…
It’s time here at Flight Wisdom to review the latest in airplane manufacturing… Airbus Airbus delivered the first Airbus 380 to Singapore Airlines last month. After delivering the first four superjumbos to Singapore Airlines, Airbus will have to redesign cabins and electrical layouts for Emirates Airlines and Qantas. It is scheduled to hand over 13…
Lots to cover…never enough time… United Airlines announced new service from Los Angeles to Des Moines, IA and Austin, TX effective February 13th, and will be operated by Skywest’s CRJ-700 regional jets with 6 first class and 60 economy seats, including Economy Plus. Beginning on March 3rd, Delta will be offering flights from Lawton/Ft. Sill,…
A few months ago, we here at Flight Wisdom spun off a new blog/site, Infrequent Flier, which we hoped to do some advice stories for the less frequent traveler. One of our posts was on Cheapoair, entitled You Get What You Pay For – Cheapoair. We have never patronized Cheapoair, so we went out onto…
Southwest…the Love Airline…based at Dallas’s Love Field…with the symbol LUV…An airline that once dressed flight attendants in hot pants and declared Racquel Welsh its ideal employee type has hit middle age. “That’s the day that the airline built on buxom tops, lanky legs, hot pants and go-go boots told a 23-year-old college student that she…
ATA will be ending all flights to Washington-National and New York’s LaGuardia Airport by January 7th. The aircraft will be redeployed on charter routes until their planned 2009 international expansion. Not only will this be a significant reduction in ATA’s East Coast operations, as well as denying Southwest’s opportunity to codeshare on these flights into…
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…
Breaking News Today, Boeing announced a delay in the schedule for the 787 Dreamliner. We had faith in Boeing…especially after the troubles Airbus had with the A380 putting the plane almost two years behind schedule, we thought Boeing would smartly throw some money to avoid the same media issues. To build the 787 Dreamliner faster,…
US Airways will reduce the number of flights in January from its Pittsburgh hub, a move that will cut 450 airline jobs. It will reduce the number of daily mainline flights from 31 to 22 and regional service from 77 to about 46. It mid 2005, it had over 200 daily flights. The move means…
ExpressJet, an airline we hope to fly someday, is expanding once again. ExpressJet announced service to three new cities in time for the holiday season. We’d love to fly ExpressJet, if not for the fact they don’t come to the Northeast under their own brand. Perhaps someday we’ll find an excuse. Until then, we continue…
We’ve been a bit occupied of lot, and have a lot to catch up on. Rest assured, that while this is not our primary responsibility(we have jobs), we hope to be back on top of things soon, bringing the best in air travel developments in a timely fashion. Hagerstown Airport, 80 miles northwest of downtown…
American Airlines will add a daily flight from Chicago-O’Hare and Gulfport-Biloxi beginning December 13. Pittsburgh International Airport has expanded its free wi-fi service to both pre and post-security areas of the terminal. Continental has announced a major expansion at its Cleveland hub. The airline will grow its capacity at Cleveland by 40% in the next…
Airlines have been making many changes in management of late. It inspired us to do a little review of what airline management has been saying, as well as some new initiatives. Westjet Westjet CEO Sean Durfy thinks the Canadian discounter could control as much as half of the domestic Canadian market by 2013. The airline…
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…
One can be shocked by the repeated stories of woe and disaster…here are some that are not to be believed. Airline complaints in the United States overall are up this year, increasing 47.2% in the first six months of 2007, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In order…the top five complained about U.S. airlines…
According to the Washington Post, officials at Nepal Airlines sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairib, the Hindu Sky God, after problems with one of their Boeing 757s. The goats were slaughtered in front of the plane at Kathmandu International Airport in accordance with Hindu traditions. It is common in Nepal to sacrifice animals like…
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…
The Labor Day weekend is upon us…our spin-off blog, The Infrequent Flier, has its travel tips for the holiday season. For us here at Flight Wisdom, we wish you happy travels. Operators of some CRJ-100, 200, and 440 jets have until Friday to comply with new restrictions issued by the Canadian and US governments. Increasingly…
Midwest Airlines is adding a fifth roundtrip to service from Milwaukee to both Philadelphia and Omaha beginning October 1st. The new service will be offered on 50-seat CRJ-200 regional jets, featuring brown leather seats, chef-prepared buy-onboard Best Care Cuisine meals and baked-on-board chocolate chip cookies. Continental Airlines has upgraded its website to allow passengers who…
Boeing announced today the delivery of its 3000th widebody airplane from its Everett, Washington plant. The plane was a 777-200ER delivered to Korean Air. The plant, celebrating its fortieth anniversary, has made 747, 767, and 777 models. Boeing widebody aircraft have flown more than 34.5 million flight, logged more than 148 million flight hours and…
We first defended Spirit, despite some negative aspects of its record, then blasted it when it transitioned to an “ultra-low-cost carrier” the likes of Ryanair(which we frequently blast). Buzzing around on the Internet is the tale of what happens when a CEO accidentally emails his internal comment on a customer complaint back to the customer(We’re…