Union Members Seek Federal Probe

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents flight attendants from American Airlines (AMR) convened last week to remove the voting rights of its laid off workers. The Constitutional referendum, if approved, would require those on furlough to begin paying union dues or risk having their voting rights extinguished.

The move comes during the union's heated negotiations with American Airlines amid fears its laid off workers would vote against a tentative agreement in retaliation for having their seniority stripped from them. The laid off workers are comprised entirely of former Trans World Airlines (TWA) flight attendants who lost their seniority and placed on the bottom of the seniority list by the union, APFA, in 2001, after American acquired TWA.

Robert Applegate, a former contract negotiator for the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) and past Business Agent for the International Association of Machinists (IAM) who is currently furloughed from the airline, blasted the union's actions.

"It has taken decades to cultivate union democracy in this country and only one rogue union to set it back light years. APFA has now embraced retaliation, in exchange, for monetary gain; a contract. APFA has taken (former TWA) seniority, jobs and now disguised as a dues assessment, the intent to take away the most valuable thing a man or woman can have: the right to vote." Applegate stated.

The former TWA flight attendants have asked the Department of Labor to investigate the matter and exercise the agency's authority to safeguard the workers against retaliation, improper discipline and dues assessment, a protection afforded by the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959.

Trouble Brews for Yank Pilots Across Pond
Ted Reed
11/12/09 - 08:53 AM EST

LONDON (TheStreet) -- U.S. pilots need to think twice about kicking back a few beers -- make that even one -- in jolly old England.

"Did you know that the aviation blood alcohol limits in Great Britain are one half of what the limits are in the US?" the U.S. Airline Pilots Association asked last month, in an email to its 5,200 members.

While the Federal Aviation Administration prohibits flying by a pilot whose blood alcohol concentration is at or above 0.04, the standard in Great Britain is roughly half that.
USAPA, which represents pilots at US Airways(LCC Quote), warned members to "use extreme caution" when overnighting in England, because the country has tougher aviation blood alcohol limits than the U.S. does.

A United(UAUA Quote) pilot learned about this difference first hand when he was arrested at London's Heathrow International Airport Monday after failing a breath test.

The pilot, Erwin Vermont Washington, 51, was arrested after a United employee reported him to the authorities, a spokeswoman for BAA Airports Ltd., Heathrow's operator, told The Associated Press. It was not immediately clear how much alcohol he had consumed.

Specifically, British law prohibits pilots from having more than 20 micrograms of alcohol for each 100 milliliters of blood in their system, or .02%. For an average-sized man, that is equivalent to about a half glass of beer.

A similar incident involving a pilot for American(AMR Quote) occurred in May. The pilot, Capt. Joseph Crites, 57, arrived for his flight aboard a Boeing 777 with alcohol on his breath as he was about to fly to Chicago. His blood-alcohol level was found to be twice the legal limit, and he was arrested.

In an October court hearing, the pilot said that he had had a few drinks with dinner the night before reporting for duty, according to The London Daily Mail. His lawyer told the court: "He did have some drinks, but the only thing he can suggest to explain this is that he had some unfamiliar beers, which were stronger than those he was used to." The pilot was fined and lost his job.

It was the American incident that prompted USAPA to warn its members about the law in Great Britain. USAPA's email also included these points: "British security screeners are not only trained but are required to report any suspicious behavior. You can be prosecuted for violating British law. Convictions can result in heavy fines and/or prison time. Failure to submit to a breathalyzer test will result in your immediate arrest. Think before you drink."

In the United case, passengers had boarded Chicago-bound United Flight 949, a Boeing 767 that was preparing for departure when the arrest was made.

"Safety is our highest priority and the pilot has been removed from service while we are cooperating with authorities and conducting a full investigation," the airline said in a statement. "United's alcohol policy is among the strictest in the industry and we have no tolerance for violation of this well-established policy."

A spokesman for the United chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association declined to comment.
Last month, two Northwest pilots, Capt. Timothy B. Cheney, 53, and First Officer Richard I. Cole, 54, overflew the Minneapolis airport in an Airbus A320. The National Transportation Safety Board said the two had lost track of time because they were using personal laptop reporters while discussing a new crew flight-scheduling system.

In that case, Lee Moak, chairman of the ALPA chapter at Delta(DAL Quote), went to bat for the pilots, defending their right to due process. Moak said the NTSB had committed a breach of trust by prematurely releasing self-disclosed information.

Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, says the series of incidents involving pilots is not random. "We have begun a long slide in terms of professionalism in the industry," he said. "This industry and its workers have been pushed to the limits, and I think they are a little ragged at the edges.

"You have an industry of professional pilots whose pay had been cut, their work hours extended and their pensions slashed in many cases," he said. "They are demoralized. They tell their kids not to come into the profession."

Mitchell said he will propose a solution Thursday when he appears on a panel at a U.S. Transportation Department forum on the state of the industry. "We have to put together a coherent national air travel policy instead of the patchwork we have now, overseen by Congress, the FAA and others," he said. "If we had a national transportation policy, the red flags would come up before there are incidents.

-- Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C. .

Furloughed ex-TWA flight attendants fight proposal to make them pay dues

by Terry Maxon Dallas Morning News

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American Airlines employees, is proposing a constitutional amendment that has outraged its members who formerly worked for Trans World Airlines.

APFA board members this week approved an amendment that would assess dues on all members if they want to remain in good standing and have the right to vote. Furloughed members or members on leaves currently don't have to pay dues.

Roger Graham, a furloughed ex-TWA flight attendant who is helping lead the fight against the dues changes, called the proposal "in a word, despicable."

He said the amendment is aimed directly at the ex-TWA flight attendants, since all 1,200 flight attendants currently on furlough are ex-TWA employees. They joined American when the airline bought Trans World Airlines' assets and hired its people in April 2001.

"We're the only group that it's going to hurt because we're the only ones that are indeed furloughed," Graham said.

APFA president Laura Glading denied that the dues proposal targets anyone. The union just has a lot of members who aren't working or paying dues, around 2,400 as of Dec. 1, and the union needs the money.

"We have no intention of harming anyone," she said. "It's just a matter of running an efficient union. You don't have to pay dues when you're on leave or on furlough if you choose not to. But you cannot vote."

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American Airlines employees, is proposing a constitutional amendment that has outraged its members who formerly worked for Trans World Airlines.

APFA board members this week approved an amendment that would assess dues on all members if they want to remain in good standing and have the right to vote. Furloughed members or members on leaves currently don't have to pay dues.

Roger Graham, a furloughed ex-TWA flight attendant who is helping lead the fight against the dues changes, called the proposal "in a word, despicable."

He said the amendment is aimed directly at the ex-TWA flight attendants, since all 1,200 flight attendants currently on furlough are ex-TWA employees. They joined American when the airline bought Trans World Airlines' assets and hired its people in April 2001.

"We're the only group that it's going to hurt because we're the only ones that are indeed furloughed," Graham said.

APFA president Laura Glading denied that the dues proposal targets anyone. The union just has a lot of members who aren't working or paying dues, around 2,400 as of Dec. 1, and the union needs the money.

"We have no intention of harming anyone," she said. "It's just a matter of running an efficient union. You don't have to pay dues when you're on leave or on furlough if you choose not to. But you cannot vote."

Here's where it gets complicated. There's a group called the Coalition for Union Principles, comprised of retired and furloughed TWA flight attendants, who have threatened to work American Airlines flights during any APFA work stoppage.

CUP is unhappy that the ex-TWA flight attendants all got lower seniority than all American Airlines flight attendants who had been hired prior to the TWA acquisition. You've got 40-year TWA flight attendants with less seniority than flight attendants hired by American in 2001.

Right now, about 1,200 flight attendants are furloughed, all ex-TWA. The rest of the approximately 4,000 ex-TWA attendants were furloughed years ago and have fallen off the recall list.

The 2003 APFA contract with American said that furloughed flight attendants would lose their right to recalled after they had been on furlough five years. A bunch fell off the recall list as a result.

Because of pressure from the ex-TWA flight attendants, the airline agreed several years ago to extend recall rights. But all employees who had already fallen off the recall list were gone forever.

The Coalition for Union Principles is continuing its fight to get APFA to change the way it merged the seniority lists of TWA and American flight attendants, the method that put all TWA members at the bottom.

Graham, who calls CUP "a rogue group of former TWA employees," said the coalition's actions have created a lot of animosity among APFA leaders, and the dues proposal is to keep the ex-TWA people from voting on any contract proposal.

The question of voting rights is important because the APFA is making a big push to get a tentative agreement by early 2010. Any deal would have to be approved by APFA members.

The NMB and American Airlines are very concerned that even if the union and airline reached agreement, "the TWA bloc vote would shoot it down," Graham said. "They [union leaders] intend to change the definition of union member in good standing to disguise the retaliation of a dues assessment which will be imposed to rid the TWA flight attendants of their voting rights."

Would the ex-TWA employees vote against a proposed contract?

"I can't guess or estimate," Graham said. "You know, it just depends on the contract all around. If there are things in there like an unlimited recall extension, things that would benefit everybody... But the union is determined to get a contract through and they're very concerned about the bloc vote."

Glading said the proposal is not a reaction to any group or threat to vote against a contract or work during a strike.

The union has set a goal to get a new contract with American sometime in January. If not, it wants the National Mediation Board to release the union from federal mediation and allow it to start job actions like strikes.

Glading said the dues proposal probably won't be voted on by members until December. If it is in effect by Jan 1, members can be delinquent 60 days before they'd lose their voting rights. The union would like to have a contract proposal out for a vote before that 60 days goes by. That means everybody would be able to vote on a proposed deal, whether they paid dues or not.
However, if the union does not wrap up a deal quickly, the people on leave or furlough would have to start dues if they want to retain their voting rights.

On Thursday, Graham asked the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate the APFA's actions, and he and associates are talking to lawmakers about getting involved.

"It has taken decades to cultivate union democracy in this country and only one rogue union to set it back light years," fellow furloughee Robert Applegate, a former contract negotiator for the Association of Flight Attendants and past business agent for the International Association of Machinists, said in a statement.

"They have now embraced upon corruption, in exchange, for monetary gain. They have taken their seniority, their jobs and now disguised as a dues assessment intend to take away the most valuable thing a man or woman can have - the right to vote," he said.

Airlines: Some Costs They Can't - And Shouldn't
by: Robert Herbst October 31, 2009

Today, like most every day, just over 44,000 of the world's most experienced airline pilots employed by the 9 largest airlines in the United States will accept full responsibility for over 1.5 million lives sitting on the other side of their locked cockpit doors. Over the next 24 hours, these pilots will make over 13,500 take-offs literally around the world. Through every imaginable type of weather, they will be in command of over 36,000 hours of flight time. And, if today is like most days, you will never hear or read about even one of those flights.

There is a perception that salaries are an important key to discretionary cost-cutting by the airlines. Charts below attempt to put that information in perspective as regards pilots.
So what does it really take to be a commercial pilot?

First, similar to a doctor taking years to get qualified in the operating room, there are no 'entry level' pilot jobs at the major airlines. Before being hired by a major airline a commercial pilot will likely have a college degree and either been trained as a pilot in the military or have spent several years acquiring thousands of flight hours experience on smaller aircraft.

Fully depending on the airline’s growth, it could take as many as 20+ years to move from a co-pilot to captain.

Airline pilot wages, benefits and working schedules are based on company seniority. If a pilot leaves one airline he/she will start at the bottom of the next airline’s seniority list as a new hire.

Once hired by a major airline, regardless of prior experience, a pilot goes through several weeks of training and testing before being qualified on that airline’s specific aircraft operations. Every time he or she moves to a different type of aircraft or moves from co-pilot to captain he will again require more weeks of training and testing.

Pilots have to pass a medical check every six months with an annual EKG required as they get older. Due to very stringent medical requirements, approximately 15% of airline pilots are forced to retire before they reach their mandatory retirement age.

The FAA has strict limits on the maximum number of hours pilots are allowed to fly: The maximums are 1,000 in a year, 100 in a month and 30-32 in 7 days (international flight limits are slightly higher than domestic). In order to actually get an hour of flight time, depending on your seniority and the airline’s schedule, you can expect to be away from your base from two to four times actual flight hours. For the most part, a pilot only gets paid when the aircraft is moving. (Note: Pilots do not get premium pay for working holidays or weekends.)

What is a pilot worth?
Actually the important question should be: In the future, is the job going to be worth it for those individuals you want and expect to be responsible for so much?

Since 9/11 and the bankruptcy or reorganization of every legacy airline, pilot hourly pay rates have been reduced to what they were almost 20 years ago. In addition, work rule changes force pilots to work more and longer days than they ever have. Pilots from United (UAL), Delta (DAL), Northwest (now merged with Delta) and USAir (LCC) all lost significant amounts of their pensions as those airlines went through bankruptcy after 9/11.

Recognizing the above, how much of the average passenger airline ticket fare is now used to pay pilots to accept the responsibility they do? Not very much!

Since 9/11, United, Delta, Northwest and USAir filed bankruptcy. American (AMR) and Continental (CAL) reorganized outside of bankruptcy in 2003.

In the past seven years, while inflation increased by 20%, the average hourly cockpit wage cost for the average passenger fare dropped by 29%.

When comparing year 2008 with 2002, Southwest (LUV) and JetBlue (JBLU) were the only two airlines that had their passenger fare ratio of cockpit wage costs increase. (In 2002, both of these airlines had the lowest fare ratios in the industry.) In figure 3 you can see how the average cockpit wage cost ratio of the average passenger fare per hour of flight changed for each selected airline since year 2002.

As you can see, on average, the coffee you purchased in the terminal before your flight cost more than what both pilots will earn from your passenger fare for each hour of flight they accept responsibility for your safety.

Whether it is in the operating room or an airline cockpit, if you want the “best” individuals there, you will have to provide the incentives to get them first.

The bottom line questions are: In the future, who do you want replacing these aging and very experienced veteran pilots? Is it worth a few dollars more to attract the “right stuff” to be responsible for such an important job?

Data source: SEC filings and BTS reports
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author and his family hold stock in AMR

Delta Flying Into Union Storm
By Ted Reed 10/07/09 - 04:16 PM EDT
ATLANTA (TheStreet) -- Delta(DAL Quote) is flying into the toughest, most crucial labor battles it has ever faced.

In October 2008, Delta merged with heavily unionized Northwest, bringing thousands of union members into the tent. The following month, Democrat Barack Obama was elected president, enabling him to alter the composition of the National Mediation Board, which oversees airline industry labor issues. Obviously, both events involve potential drawbacks for Delta.

Over the past few decades, unions have repeatedly made runs at Delta, an outlier in one of the country's most unionized industries. As an example, Northwest was 96% unionized at the time of the merger. At Delta, only pilots and dispatchers, or 15% of workers, are unionized.

Now, two of the airline industry's biggest unions, which for the moment continue to represent thousands of Northwest workers, are organizing at Delta and gearing up for a series of elections. The stakes are extraordinarily high, because if the unions lose, they not only fail to gain new members but also lose members they already have.

"If Delta is the largest airline in the world, then we are going to be the largest union at the largest airline in the world," says Robert Roach, general vice president of the International Association of Machinists. "With the support we have both from current Northwest members and from Delta employees who have shown interest in organizing, we think we have a good chance of winning these elections."

Unlike the IAM, the Association of Flight Attendants has a benchmark by which to gauge its prospects. It staged a union election at Delta in May and won support from about 5,300 of the 13,400 eligible flight attendants. "As in every organizing campaign, we built support and structure," says Ed Gilmartin, AFA general counsel. Now the list of eligible voters has expanded by about 7,000 Northwest flight attendants. "We are very optimistic," Gilmartin said.
Shares of Delta closed Wednesday at $8.28, down 17 cents.

It would be unwise, however, to underestimate Delta, which has been successfully executing its various strategies since entering bankruptcy in 2005. Before its Chapter 11 filing, Delta seemed bent on squandering the world's biggest hub in Atlanta on connections to Florida and a mystifying effort to match fares with low-cost competitor AirTran(AAI Quote).

But a restructured Delta utilizes its hubs to connect passengers to premium global destinations.
Delta did not rest on its laurels, but rather pursued a merger with Northwest, operator of a Tokyo hub that filled the biggest gap in its network. It enlisted its powerful pilots union as its chief ally, not only gaining support from a key constituency but also avoiding the pilot infighting that soured the 2005 merger of US Airways(LCC Quote) and America West.


Now Delta is betting that it retains enough of a genteel yet aggressively antiunion Southern culture to continue to ward off the labor movement. It is confident enough that Mike Campbell, executive vice president for human resources, is complaining of delays in the union representation voting, in effect telling unions to bring it on.

Union elections following an airline merger require the National Mediation Board to first declare that the airline has achieved "single carrier" status. In the case of the pilots, a joint request from the airline and the pilots for a ruling came quickly, in November 2008. But the other work groups have been slower.

The AFA filed July 27, while the IAM filed on Aug. 13 for fleet service workers, but has not yet filed for reservations agents and airport agents. Meanwhile, last month the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department wrote to the NMB, requesting a change in Railway Labor Act voting methodology, which requires that unions gain support from a majority of eligible voters, rather than a majority of actual voters, to win a union election.

It may be that consideration of the request is delaying action on the election filings, although it is impossible to know, given that the NMB has steadfastly declined to comment. Theoretically, the request could benefit from Obama's election, because Obama exercised his right to appoint a new Democratic member to the board, which historically has two members from the president's party and one from the opposition.

"There is no question that there is a delay going on," Campbell says. "The AFA filed for an election, admitted we are a single transportation system, and we agreed with them, and beyond that nothing has transpired before the agency." He said the delay restricts the ability of many flight attendants to benefit from their seniority in bidding for schedules they desire. Even if the NMB wants to change voting regulations, he says, the change "shouldn't apply to pending cases, filed under the current rules."

As for the IAM, Campbell says the union still has not filed for an election for airport and reservations agents, despite indicating in August that it was nearly ready to do so. Added Delta spokeswoman Gina Laughlin: "It doesn't make sense that the agents handling bags on the ramp are a single carrier but the agents putting the bags on the belt at the ticket counter are not." But Roach says that Delta has not reached single carrier status in regard to its agents because "a lot of computer systems are not merged."

Gilmartin says he doesn't believe the NMB is stalling. When Delta and the pilots filed on Nov. 4, he said, it took two months for approval, even though no disagreement was involved. Flight attendants filed 10 weeks ago. "By board standards, considering all of their workload, it's not long," he says. "But everybody has to wait their turn."


Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte,

BA cuts 1,000 jobs, will shrink Heathrow crews
British Airways says it is shedding 1,000 jobs, will reduce size of cabin crews at Heathrow
By Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press Writer

On Tuesday October 6, 2009, 2:21 pm EDT

LONDON (AP) -- British Airways PLC is shedding 1,000 jobs, putting 3,000 more employees on part-time work and reducing the size of cabin crews at Heathrow in an effort to get the troubled airline's finances back in order, a spokesman said Tuesday.

BA spokesman Paul Marston said the company was in "a very serious financial position" and was working hard to turn itself around with an aggressive cost-reduction program. The job losses and part-time work, which he said were voluntary, would be the equivalent of cutting 1,700 positions.

Marston said BA, which expects to see a "significant loss" for the second year running, needed the cuts in order to secure its future in an airline market which is likely to remain grim for some time.

"We do not see any green shoots of recovery just right yet," he said.

Marston also announced a companywide freeze on basic pay and said cabin crews operating out of London's Heathrow Airport would be downsized -- so that the typical 747 jet flying from London's Heathrow Airport on a long-haul trip would take off carrying 14 members of crew instead of the usual complement of 15.

Marston said customers weren't likely to notice the difference. He added that changes would come into effect in the middle of November. He declined to say how much money BA hoped to save from cuts.

The job cuts and pay freeze have been discussed with staff for months, but negotiations with the unions have been deadlocked and BA said it needed to move now to ensure the company stayed alive.

"Without changes, we will lose more money with every month that passes," a company statement said. "It is essential we make ourselves more efficient if we are to ensure our long-term survival."

The airline added that it was "not altering anything that requires negotiation."

A call seeking comment from UNITE, Britain's biggest union, was not immediately returned.
The economic downturn has hit carriers like BA particularly hard as individual travelers and companies balk at paying for a seat in first or business class, particularly on short-haul flights. The airline posted a 94 million pound ($150 million) quarterly loss in July. Earlier that month, the airline announced plans to raise 600 million pounds to help it plug its deficits and convinced pilots at the airline to agree to a 2.6 percent pay cut.

U.S. airlines have also suffered amid the souring economy, higher fuel prices, and other issues.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc., the world's biggest airline operator, said in June that its staff levels would be down more than 8,000 jobs by the end of 2009 compared to spring 2008.

Associated Press Airlines Writer Harry R. Weber contributed to this report from Atlanta.

Flight attendants often deal with passengers' medical needs
By Charisse Jones, USA TODAY

Roy Harris usually was able to fly straight home to Nashville.

But on a chilly day in late January, Harris, 57, found himself waiting for a connecting flight at Chicago's Midway Airport. He took off his coat. He reached for his BlackBerry.

The next thing Harris remembers, he was lying in a hospital, recovering from a massive heart attack. Sitting beside him was Rachael Jacobs, a flight attendant for Southwest (LUV), who, back at Midway, called for the defibrillator that ultimately saved Harris' life.

"I wake up and … the first person I see is this flight attendant," says Harris, a minister. "If it hadn't been for Rachael, I wouldn't be alive."

Though the public too often thinks their chief duties are to find pillows and ferry soft drinks, the primary duty of the nation's more than 90,000 flight attendants is to ensure the safety, health and well-being of passengers. With up to 2 million people on roughly 25,000 domestic flights daily, an attendant somewhere in the skies over the USA is dealing with an incident each day. Many can be matters of life and death. And their responses are often heroic.

"I would say we have medical events every day, pretty much around the clock," says Dr. Thomas Bettes, corporate medical director for American Airlines, who estimates that his airline deals with roughly 20 to 25 life-threatening incidents a year. Neither the Federal Aviation Administration nor the Association of Flight Attendants has statistics on the number of medical emergencies that take place in-flight. But the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association estimates that more than 400 lives have been saved by automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, on U.S. carriers in the past decade.

The most extraordinary lifesaving events make headlines. In January, the nation heralded the heroism of the three US Airways flight attendants who led 150 passengers to safety after Captain Chesley Sullenberger landed Flight 1549 in the Hudson River.

Yet, more often than the public may know, attendants are called on to save a choking child, to resuscitate a passenger with a failing heart or to evacuate a plane forced to make an emergency landing. They can be called on before even getting on the plane to assist a passenger who falls ill in a lounge or near the gate.

Though their training programs may vary, all airlines must meet FAA guidelines that require flight attendants to be instructed in CPR and first aid.

Each year, they undergo retraining to demonstrate knowledge and skills in a range of tasks, from containing a fire in the cabin to getting passengers off a plane that has to land or "ditch" in water, says Corey Caldwell, spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants.

And since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, surveillance and self-defense have taken on greater emphasis, as flight attendants look out for passengers who may be a threat and identify those who can help in an emergency.

"The customer service angle is part of the job, but just a small part," Caldwell says. "When a flight attendant is actually called upon to serve the safety and security function that they have trained so long for, often it's in a heroic situation."

Quick action
The day started quietly at New York's JFK airport, Jodi Teitelman remembers. Teitelman, a flight attendant for American Airlines, was taking tickets from travelers boarding a Los Angeles-bound flight when a passenger suddenly rushed over and said a woman in the lounge had become ill.

Teitelman, 36, found Anna Tortorici, a grandmother, slumped over, unconscious. With the help of some passengers, Teitelman lay Tortorici on the floor, then ran onto the plane to retrieve the AED and emergency kit.

It was the first time Teitelman used the heart-jolting device on a passenger.

"It was … surreal," she says of that day in October 2006.

In April 2001, the FAA required U.S. airlines to equip all domestic and international flights with AEDs within three years. As with CPR, instruction on how to use the devices became mandatory for flight attendants and is reinforced regularly. American Airlines put the devices on board in 1997, the first U.S. carrier to do so. Since then, the device has monitored or been used on more than 1,900 people, and has saved 86 lives, according to Bettes.

Tortorici, now 78, is among them. She and her husband, Larry, were returning to their home in Woburn, Mass., from a 50th anniversary cruise in Hawaii. After going through customs at JFK, she briefly lost sight of her husband and became anxious.

She sat down, and, "I guess my heart stopped beating," she says.

Teitelman placed the defibrillator on Tortorici's chest. After a single jolt, Tortorici began to breathe on her own and thrash about. Paramedics soon arrived, taking her to the hospital. She later had a pacemaker and defibrillator placed in her chest.

"Of course, I'm grateful to her," Tortorici says.

In the early days of commercial aviation, the medical function of flight attendants was so front and center that they were required to be medical professionals.

"In the '40s and '50s, to get a job as a flight attendant, you had to be a registered nurse," Caldwell says. Passengers often got air sick in unpressurized cabins.

The stereotype of flight attendants as waitresses or waiters in the sky came later. In the 1960s, airlines began emphasizing their service function as a marketing tool, though they always focused first on safety. "The role has never changed," Caldwell says.

Robert Putman, 52, has been a flight attendant for roughly 20 years. In that time, he has dealt with passengers who've had medical situations ranging from anxiety attacks to strokes.
Most recently, in February, he performed CPR on a man who had stopped breathing on an American Airlines (AMR) flight from Tampa to Dallas/Fort Worth.

Putman says that he's well-versed in what a medical crisis requires, from alerting the pilot, to asking if there's a medical professional on board, to practicing the mantra "look, listen and feel" when evaluating a sick passenger.

"We're taught to do things," Putman says, "and rarely do we deviate."

Unscheduled landing
Occasionally, a medical emergency is serious enough that a flight has to be diverted to the closest airport.

That was the case in May for Virgin America Flight 67, on its way from Washington's Dulles airport to San Francisco.

A passenger felt sick, briefly passing out. Flight attendant Darryl Gregory, 45, alerted the plane's pilot and went on the intercom to ask if there was a medical professional on board. Meanwhile, another crewmember retrieved a container of oxygen.

Donald Olsen, the plane's captain, began communicating with MedLink, a service that allows the flight team to get guidance from physicians on the ground, and the airline's dispatch center.
"When you get on a plane, you don't know an hour into your flight someone is going to have a heart attack," says Olsen, 43. "That's when the teamwork comes into play, because there're so many things to do, so many questions to be answered."

A physician on board came forward. But two hours away from landing in San Francisco, the passenger had already used three bottles of oxygen. Following doctors' advice, Olsen decided to land in Denver.

Watching the crew handle a medical crisis can soothe the fears of other passengers.

Ravi Poorsina, 31, who was returning home to Walnut Creek, Calif., from a business meeting in Washington, D.C., says that she was initially worried the sick passenger could not get the help he needed in the air. But she soon learned he was well cared for.

"I guess it made me feel slightly more reassured," she said in an e-mail. "To know that the pilots and flight attendants are well trained and experienced is a good thing. You are not alone up there, and that becomes very clear in an emergency situation."

She also got a better grasp on the role flight attendants play. "It made me understand a little more the pressure they are under, and how tough it must be to keep a smile on your face."
In Denver, the sick passenger, whom the airline did not identify, was able to walk off the plane, Gregory says.

He admits such incidents are frightening for him as well as for the passengers. When he started out, "one of my biggest fears was … all the training I got, would it kick in when it's supposed to?" he says.

Each time, Gregory says, it has.

Sharing a moment
Rachael Jacobs did not think she had saved Roy Harris' life.

She knew she had tried. Jacobs was living in Chicago and waiting for a flight home to visit her family in Nashville in January.

Suddenly, someone said a man was sick. Jacobs found Harris foaming at the mouth, suffering an apparent seizure.

Not knowing if he was having a diabetic reaction or a problem with his heart, Jacobs yelled for oxygen, an emergency kit and an AED. A nurse and doctor who were in the area jolted Harris with the AED. Paramedics eventually arrived.

But Jacobs thought Harris would die. She grabbed a cab and followed him to the hospital.

'Miracle in Chicago'
"I knew he was somebody's somebody, and he didn't deserve to be by himself," she says. "And so I just got in that taxi and went." Jacobs stayed with Harris for eight hours. He eventually had quadruple-bypass surgery.

Since then, Harris has given speeches about what he calls "the miracle in Chicago." And Jacobs has become a close friend.

"I think you're forever connected by a life-saving event," Harris says. "She's a real hero."
In some ways, for Jacobs, it was all in a day's work. Still, "I didn't do this to be a good Southwest employee," she says. "My heart told me which way to go, and I just followed."

5 Tips on How to Avoid Germs on Planes
How to Keep You and Your Family Healthy While Traveling
By LISA STARK and SHEILA EVANS
Sept. 17, 2009

A two-day meeting beginning today at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., will examine how diseases spread on planes and in airports.

With the spread of the H1N1 virus, airlines have taken notice and stocked up on supplies such as gloves, masks and alcohol wipes and increased their cleanings. Although they are preparing themselves for a flu outbreak, airlines insist that it is still safe to fly.

"Going on a plane is no less safe than going to church, going to work, going to school," said AirTran spokesman Christopher White.

The airflow systems in planes are designed to help minimize the risk of the H1N1 flu spreading because the air flows across the rows of seats instead of front to back. It is continually exchanged with a combination of fresh air and recirculated air that usually passes through a series of filters.

"One of the most persistent myths is that everybody on the plane is breathing the same air and that germs just endlessly recirculate within the cabin. In fact, air on the airplane is probably cleaner than in most indoor spaces," said Katherine Andrus, assistant general counsel for the Air Transport Association.

Yet passengers are still confined to an enclosed space where contagious diseases could spread. James Bennett, a research engineer for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, completed a study of how contaminants move inside a plane.

"Contaminants, such as the small droplets emitted by a cough, do move to other areas of the cabin," Bennett said.

According to Bennett's research, within seconds of one person coughing the droplets have spread outward and nearby passengers get the biggest dose. After 15 minutes those particles could have traveled as far as 10 rows away.

Although exposure does not mean you will get sick, some passengers aren't taking any chances.
"I always have hand sanitizer with me and I always wipe that on me and on surfaces that [my son's] touching a lot," said Sarah Smith, who was travelling with her toddler.

5 Tips on How to Stay Healthy In the Air

Here are five tips from ABC News chief medical editor Dr. Tim Johnson on how to cut down on exposure and help keep you and your family healthy while traveling. If the person next to you is coughing or sneezing, ask to switch seats. It might not always be possible, but it's worth asking.

• Bring along a face mask.
• Bring alcohol-based hand sanitizer and anti-bacterial wipes.
• "Constantly wash your hands," Johnson said, but not in the airplane's bathroom. "Those surfaces are typically going to be contaminated."
• Bring your own pillow and blanket.
• Drink bottled water. "Bring along water and hydrate yourself," Johnson said, because it will make you "less susceptible to viral infections in general." It's also helpful because airplane air is very dry and dehydrating.

"Mostly be alert to people who might be sick and really isolate yourself," Johnson said, "or insist they be isolated."

And if you're the one who is feeling under the weather, do your fellow travelers a favor and stay home.

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

Bumped Passengers Learn a Cruel Flying Lesson
By SCOTT MCCARTNEY

Air travel has gotten a lot bumpier this year -- on the ground.

Passengers are getting bumped from flights at the highest rate in at least 14 years, even though the U.S. Department of Transportation last year doubled the penalties airlines have to pay passengers who have tickets but are denied seats. Among the reasons: Passengers are more reluctant to voluntarily give up seats when flights are oversold for fear of being stranded for a day or two. And some airlines have made their vouchers less generous to save money.

Bumping is still relatively rare, affecting fewer than two passengers out of every 10,000. But the rate at which passengers were bumped in the second quarter skyrocketed 40% compared with a year ago, and airlines say the higher rate will likely continue.

As carriers have slashed capacity, grounding airplanes and cutting flights from schedules, they have packed more people into their remaining flights -- sometimes too many people.

"It's pretty simple: It's just because planes are more full than last year," says Tom Trenga, vice president of revenue management at US Airways Group Inc., which had the highest bumping rate among major airlines, at 1.88 passengers per 10,000 in the second quarter.

This summer, the nine major airlines filled 85.5% of their seats, up from 84.1% last summer. The peak was July, with 86.7% of seats filled. This fall, airlines are aggressively cutting back capacity even further, worried that continued weak business travel could cripple them financially.


Is Bumping Passengers From Flights Right?

That means increased bumping will continue, Mr. Trenga says, until airlines see enough of a pickup in demand to begin bringing flights back into schedules, easing the logjam.
In the second quarter, the most recent reported by the DOT, 20,916 passengers, or 1.39 for every 10,000, were involuntarily denied boarding at major and regional airlines, up from 15,119, or 1.0 per 10,000, in the same period of 2008. (Ten times as many people gave up their seats voluntarily in return for airline vouchers toward future trips.)

If you do get bumped, you are entitled to cash compensation under the DOT's penalty rules, though the airline will likely offer you vouchers. You can insist that the airline pay you on the spot. Do it. Vouchers can have blackout dates, require you to purchase higher fares to use the voucher or even require you to cash in the voucher and buy a ticket in person at an airport rather than booking online.

Desperate for Revenue
Federal rules allow airlines to sell more tickets than there are seats on a plane because customers occasionally change flights or don't show up. Carriers have to balance the cost of compensating customers who get bumped with the cost of having an empty seat when a ticket could have been sold. With the economic downturn, airlines are desperate for any revenue and may be willing to take on more overbooking risk.

Several airlines say they have bumped more people from flights because they have had a harder time getting travelers to voluntarily give up seats. Because flights have been so full, a passenger who gives up a seat voluntarily in return for a voucher toward a future trip may have to wait a day or more to get a seat on another flight.

That means airlines end up refusing boarding to more ticketed passengers, Mr. Trenga says.
In addition, airlines often place heavy restrictions on vouchers. Sometimes vouchers worth $100 or $200 off a ticket can't be applied to the airline's cheapest fares, for example, or they have blackout dates or require customers to buy tickets in person at an airport instead of online.
Alaska Airlines, a unit of Alaska Air Group Inc., tried to cut the value of vouchers in December and saw the rate at which it bumped passengers soar 269% in the second quarter to 1.66 per 10,000, from 0.45 per 10,000 in the same period of 2008.

Before the change, Alaska and its Horizon Air regional-airline unit gave a free ticket to anyone voluntarily giving up a seat when a flight was oversold. But Alaska switched to a two-tier voucher system passengers got a $200 voucher to apply to a future ticket for giving up a seat on a shorter flight and a $400 voucher for a longer flight.

"The perception among those customers on shorter flights was that $200 wasn't enough to offer up their seats as a volunteer," a spokeswoman says. In June, Alaska upped the offer for volunteers on shorter flights to a $300 voucher, "and we've seen a steady decline in the number of involuntary denied boardings since," she says.

UAL Corp.'s United Airlines saw its bumped-passenger rate climb 73% this year to 1.71 passengers per 10,000, second only to US Airways. United says bumping increased because a greater number of leisure passengers have been filling planes than in the past as a result of the downturn in business travel. "They show up for their flight much more often than a business traveler typically does," a spokeswoman says. "As a result, we had fewer no-shows than what we typically see."

The DOT says it isn't concerned about the rise in bumping because the rates are still lower than historical highs. During the 1970s and 1980s, bumping rates were routinely four times as high as today's rate.

Penalties Doubled
Still, the agency doubled compensation penalties for denied boarding last year, the first change in 30 years.

Passengers who are involuntarily bumped will receive compensation equal to their one-way fare up to $400 if they are rescheduled to reach their destination within two hours of their original arrival time for domestic flights and four hours for international flights. The mandatory compensation, depending on ticket price, doubles to $800 if passengers reach their destination later than the two-or four-hour limits.

The best way to avoid getting bumped from a flight is to buy tickets only for flights on which you can reserve a seat and to print your boarding pass early to lay claim to that seat. Passengers should be especially vigilant with regional airlines, which generally have the highest bumping rates in the industry.

And if you're not in a hurry and want to game the system--as many passengers do--you should book flights with few open seats at peak travel hours and tell gate agents early that you are willing to give up your seat if volunteers are needed. For some passengers, vouchers can cut the cost of future trips dramatically. Just make sure you know what you are getting from the airline, what strings are attached, and when your next flight out will be.

Write to Scott McCartney at middleseat@wsj.com

British Airways May Join JAL Pursuit
09/15/09 - 03:13 PM EDT

DALLAS (TheStreet) -- As a strongly motivated AMR(AMR Quote) battles to ensure its continued partnership with Japan Air Lines, other partners in the Oneworld alliance are also considering investment in JAL.

Both British Airways and the Australian carrier Qantas are potential investors, said a person who is familiar with the negotiations between AMR's American Airlines and JAL.

In particular, British Airways is "deeply preoccupied" that JAL could partner with the SkyTeam alliance, which includes its rival AirFrance as well as Delta(DAL Quote), the person said, noting, "All of the members of Oneworld, led by American, are profoundly interested in intensifying the relationship with JAL.

"American is extraordinarily motivated to maintain a successful partnership with JAL that is more than 10 years old, to keep them in Oneworld and to move forward with more intensive joint operations," the person said. "American will always make an offer superior to whatever Delta wants to do." A British Airways spokeswoman declined to comment and a Qantas spokesperson was not immediately available.

Financially troubled JAL is seeking to restructure and to raise funding from banks, investment funds and others including airlines. It wants about $300 million to $500 million from an airline partner or partners, as a share of the $2.7 billion it reportedly needs. The airline investment is viewed as an industry vote of confidence that would inspire other investors to participate.
JAL has the largest hub at Tokyo Narita, Asia's key airport because of its importance to Japan and its web of connections throughout the continent.

FAA investigating American's MD-80 repairs

Federal regulators investigating American Airlines over repairs to MD-80 series jets
By David Koenig, AP Airlines Writer
On Friday September 4, 2009,

1:48 pm EDT DALLAS (AP) -- U.S. regulators are investigating American Airlines over structural repairs to its aging fleet of MD-80 series aircraft.

A Federal Aviation Administration official said Friday that the investigation centered on 16 planes.

The Wall Street Journal reported FAA officials suspect American rushed to retire one of the planes to keep it away from inspectors.

A spokesman for American denied the accusation and said mothballing the aircraft wouldn't let it escape FAA scrutiny.

"We retired the plane for economic reasons, tied to our decision several months ago to reduce capacity," spokesman Roger Frizzell told The Associated Press. "Any other assertion is incorrect and misleading."

FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford declined to say whether inspectors believed the airline had tried to hide the plane or whether they had examined it in the New Mexico desert, where it is now parked. He said inspectors examined "a number of planes."

Lunsford said the investigation centered on repairs to the rear bulkhead of the MD-80 series aircraft. As of May, American had 270 MD-80 series jets, or 44 percent of its fleet, according to the company's Web site.

Fort Worth-based American, a unit of AMR Corp., is slowly replacing the MD-80s with new, more fuel-efficient planes while it reduces capacity, or the number of flights, to deal with a decline in air travel.

Airplanes expand and contract as the cabin is pressurized for flight and then depressurized. That can lead to metal fatigue that requires close monitoring and sometimes repairs, especially around the rear bulkhead.

Improper rear bulkhead repairs were blamed for the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 that killed 520 people, still the worst single accident in aviation history.

The Journal reported that FAA inspectors believe at least 16 American jets may have flown for months or years with improper fasteners and poorly done repairs to structural cracks.

American spokesman Tim Wagner said the airline discovered the potentially improper fasteners used on the MD-80 bulkheads and told the FAA, identifying each aircraft with the questionable parts.

FAA investigations can lead to exoneration of the carrier or, as in recent cases involving American and Southwest Airlines Co., penalties that run into the millions of dollars.
Shares of American parent AMR Corp. rose 10 cents to $5.59 in afternoon trading Friday.

American to cut 921 flight attendants' jobs, including 228 layoffs, others taking leave, (all furloughees are former TWA flight attendants, ed.)
By David Koenig, AP Airlines Writer
On Tuesday September 1, 2009, 6:13 pm EDT

DALLAS (AP) -- American Airlines is cutting 921 flight attendant jobs as it deals with an ongoing downturn in traffic and lower revenue.

The airline said Tuesday that the cuts will take effect Oct. 1 and reduce its flight-attendant ranks by about 6 percent.

American, the nation's second-largest airline, said 228 employees will be furloughed -- laid off but with rehiring rights -- and the company will put 244 more on leave for two months. Another 449 will take voluntary options such as leave.

Nearly half of the flight attendants to be furloughed are based at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
The airline said it planned to cut 1,200 flight attendant jobs but was able to reduce the number by adjusting staffing requirements for the winter.

The airline said in June that it would cut jobs as it reduced flights to meet lower travel demand.
American said Tuesday that of the 228 furloughs:

105 would be at LaGuardia

67 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport,

25 in Boston,

17 in St. Louis and

14 at Reagan National near Washington

The workers' union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said it had worked with the company to avoid even more layoffs by offering employees voluntary leave and the two-month forced absences.

"What was going to be 1,200 jobs lost has been limited to 228," said union President Laura Glading.

The 244 employees who will be placed on "involuntary overage leave" won't work in October and November, when air traffic is expected to be very weak. They will return to work in December, the union said.

While off the job for two months, those employees will have to pay for their own health insurance although they can get it at American's lower group rate, according to the airline.

Those on involuntary leave can apply for unemployment benefits without American contesting the claim, said American spokeswoman Missy Latham. The airline would contest a claim filed by someone who took voluntary leave, she said.

American has 14,936 active flight attendants, Latham said.

American's traffic plunged 10 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period of 2008, as the recession grounded many travelers.

The airline's woes were compounded by a steep drop in high-paying business travelers. Second-quarter revenue at parent AMR Corp. tumbled 21 percent from a year ago.

Like other carriers, American has responded to declining traffic by cutting flights. American's capacity in the first six months of the year was nearly 8 percent lower than during the same time last year.

Airlines can cut capacity by operating fewer flights or using smaller aircraft that carry fewer passengers. With fewer flights, American doesn't need as many flight attendants, pilots and other workers.

Shares of Fort Worth-based AMR fell 23 cents, or 4.2 percent, to close at $5.23.

FAA investigates Southwest Airlines' parts, repairs
10:59 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 25, 2009
By ERIC TORBENSON / The Dallas Morning News
etorbenson@dallasnews.com

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Southwest Airlines Co.'s use of unauthorized parts and repairs on its older Boeing 737 planes just months after the carrier paid the agency $7.5 million to settle maintenance violations.

An FAA inspector working at a maintenance shop used by Dallas-based Southwest questioned whether some parts on Boeing 737-300 and 737-500 series planes were authorized for use.

The parts under examination divert hot engine exhaust away from the wings when the plane's flaps are extended.

As a result, Southwest grounded 46 aircraft Saturday, causing significant delays in its system and cut its on-time performance to less than two-thirds from its typical 90 percent.

FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said that the agency was still in the process of understanding how the unauthorized parts got onto the aircraft and that it was too early to comment on any possible enforcement against Southwest.

Southwest said the issue was about whether a vendor correctly documented the repair and parts used on the planes. Southwest also said it wasn't about whether the parts themselves were authorized to be used on the aircraft, said spokeswoman Beth Harbin.

Southwest and Chicago-based Boeing Co. worked on a solution to address the problem with the FAA, but Southwest chose to temporarily ground the planes Saturday. The FAA allowed Southwest to fly the aircraft for 10 days until a permanent solution is reached.

"We are all working toward that resolution now, but there are no conclusions or mandates at this point," Harbin said Tuesday night.

The parts in question – hinge fittings located near the jet engines – aren't considered critical enough to jeopardize the immediate safety of the airplane. If they don't work properly, they can put too much pressure on the flaps – wing panels used to help control the plane.

What's unclear is whether a new investigation would violate the terms of the settlement reached with the FAA on March 2 that lowered a proposed fine of $10.2 million for the carrier's failure to do required inspections on some of its planes.

That settlement stated that Southwest needed to comply with a series of new procedures in its maintenance department, including adding more staff and improving its training manuals.

Southwest flew nearly 60,000 flights in 2006 and 2007 on aircraft that weren't checked for cracks, and the airline had a relationship with regulators that an FAA whistleblower called too cozy.

The resulting congressional hearings created considerable embarrassment for Southwest and for the FAA.

More recent problems have continued to raise questions about Southwest's maintenance practices.

An unexplained football-size tear in a Southwest jet bound for Baltimore July 13 forced the aircraft into an emergency landing, though no one was hurt.

The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the cause of the rip in the top of the plane's fuselage.

Southwest, like many major airlines, pays other companies to do heavy maintenance on its fleet of 544 Boeing 737s.

Following the series of inspection issues at both Southwest and at Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc., the FAA cracked down on enforcement and has been substantially more aggressive in enforcing airworthiness directives designed to keep the flying public safe.

Surviving the dreaded tarmac delay

By HARRY R. WEBER, AP Airlines Writer Harry R. Weber, Ap Airlines Writer – Wed Aug 26, 2:06 pm ET

ATLANTA – You're tired, hungry, have a cranky baby on your lap and all you want to do is get off the plane, but you can't because it's been on the tarmac for hours waiting to take off.
While such delays are rare, they can be more common during the hot summer due to thunderstorms and, this year, because of fewer flights to get you to your destination if your flight is canceled.

A six-hour delay with 47 people aboard a small Continental Express plane at a Minnesota airport this month is the extreme. In June, the most recent month for which data is available, there were 278 tarmac delays of 3 hours or more. That was the most this year but still only .05 percent of the total number of scheduled flights that month.

Information is the best ammunition in such situations. Experts advise that passengers be prepared. Here are answers to some questions travelers may ask.

Q. Can't I just get off the plane?

A. No. The captain has ultimate control of the plane and generally will determine if and when to return to the gate and allow passengers to get off.
"It's not a democracy," says Robert Mann, an airline industry consultant in Port Washington, N.Y.

Passengers can request that the aircraft return to the gate, or if they have a cell phone they can call airline customer service or their carrier's frequent flier hotline and exert pressure that way. If you have a medical condition or are ill, notify the crew immediately. But taking matters into your own hands is ill-advised. An FAA spokeswoman says unruly passengers who make a run for the aircraft door could be arrested for interfering with the crew.

Q. Why would the airline choose to keep the passengers onboard rather than let them get off?

A. It takes a lot of time to get passengers off a plane and then back on again. If the weather clears up at the airport where you are heading, the crew may have a limited opportunity to take off. Tarmac delays often occur because of bad weather, congestion and air traffic control issues. Further delays could be caused by allowing passengers to get off, which also could mean passengers with connecting flights might miss those connections.

Airline operations also are a factor. Because of weak demand for air travel due to the ailing economy, airlines have taken large chunks of seats out of the air and are offering fewer flights and frequencies to some destinations.

"It may add to the reason there are the tarmac delays and not the cancellations," says Terry Trippler, an airline and travel expert based in Minneapolis. "The airlines realize that there aren't a lot of flights to get them onto alternate flights, and that's why they rather just wait and get them out."

Q. How long can the crew keep me on the plane before heading back to the gate?

A. There's no law or rule mandating that the crew allow you to get off after a certain period. Legislation introduced in the Senate in July would require planes delayed more than three hours to return to a gate. A rule proposed by the Department of Transportation would require airlines to have contingency plans for dealing with lengthy tarmac delays.

Some airlines have implemented customer commitments in recent years to try to appease passengers. JetBlue Airways vows to deplane passengers if an aircraft is delayed on the ground for five hours. That was instituted in 2007 after passengers on a JetBlue flight waited 11 hours on the tarmac at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Q. Will I get something to eat and drink while I wait?

A. Airlines generally only stock enough food and drinks for the length of the flight. Passengers on the Continental Express flight later complained about not being offered food and drink during their lengthy tarmac delay. Several airlines have procedures for dealing with onboard delays that include making sure the cabin temperature is appropriate and passengers have access to restrooms, and food and water.

After a recent AirTran Airways flight from Pittsburgh to Atlanta was diverted to Chattanooga, Tenn., flight attendants offered bottled water and pretzels to passengers during the 90-minute tarmac delay.

Delta Air Lines says on its Web site that in the event of onboard ground delays under certain circumstances, it promises to make timely announcements regarding the flight status, allow customers to use cell phones and laptop computers and provide snacks and beverages to customers when "reasonable and safe to do so." Experts advise that passengers should carry food and drink with them on flights in case of a delay while onboard.

"Instead of that extra pair of shoes in your carryon, you put an extra sandwich or an extra bottle of water," Trippler says.

Q. What can I do to pass the time during a tarmac delay?

A. On a long delay you might be hoping that you're not stuck next to someone who wants to share his life story. In that case on-flight TV or radio may be your salvation. What's more, it's always smart to carry something to read to get you through a delay no matter how long.
If you have a connecting flight that you might miss, use your cell phone to call airline customer service and rebook your next flight. The one thing experts agree on is that it is important to stay calm in those situations.

Q. What kind of compensation am I entitled to if I experience a tarmac delay?

A. Typically, circumstances beyond the control of an airline are not covered in terms of passengers being provided compensation, says aviation consultant Mark Kiefer of CRA International in Boston. However, airlines have discretion to help passengers out, and some even have policies for allowing for compensation when there are tarmac delays.

For instance, JetBlue customers who experience an onboard ground delay on arrival for two hours or more after scheduled arrival time are entitled to a voucher. The voucher is good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for their roundtrip ticket.

Q. Where can I get more information about airline policies regarding tarmac delays?

A. Airline Web sites are a good place to start. Check the airline's contract of carriage, which outlines its responsibilities to customers and the action it will take in various situations.

American Airlines retires Airbus A300 jets after 21 years
09:21 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 25, 2009
By TERRY MAXON tmaxon@dallasnews.com

American Airlines Inc. has flown its last flights with the Airbus A300, more than 21 years after it began flying the wide-body jet.

The last American flight flown by an Airbus landed shortly after midnight Monday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, ending the airplane's history with the Fort Worth-based carrier.

American spokesman Tim Smith said a combination of factors led to the decision to take the Airbuses out of American's fleet.

"One, we are in the process of cutting capacity. Two, these airplanes are a likely candidate for retirement, in that they are older than most of the airplanes in our fleet," Smith said Tuesday.
In addition, the A300 requires different training and maintenance from the other airplanes in American's fleet, he said.

All told, "it's a good time to take them out of the fleet," Smith said.

American ordered an initial 25 Airbus A300s in March 1987, to be leased from Airbus, and accepted delivery in 1988 and 1989.

It later bought another 10 that were delivered between 1991 and 1993.

One of the leased airplanes crashed shortly after takeoff from Kennedy in November 2001, leaving American with 34 before it made the decision to ground the Airbus fleet.

American placed an order for 15 Boeing 767-300ERs at the same time it acquired the 25 Airbus jets, and Smith noted that the two aircraft types were very similar, with two engines, two aisles and international range.

Even though American had no Airbus airplanes before the order, "we were in a growth mode," Smith said. "We needed wide-body aircraft for a broad number of missions, and we could not get 767-300ERs as quickly as we liked. All that came together to have us look at the A300."

While the Boeing model for years was the heavy hitter for American's international routes, Smith said, the Airbus "was in one particular way a better aircraft than the Boeing 767-300ER, and that's in its cargo capability."

Its huge cargo hold, combined with a lot of seating, made the A300 the perfect airplane for American's growing Caribbean network. The airplane primarily flew out of Miami and New York Kennedy, plus American's hub in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

American officials announced in July 2008 that they would park the entire Airbus fleet by the end of 2009 as part of its plans to reduce capacity.

Eventually, American plans to replace the Airbus with the Boeing 787, a new aircraft that has faced substantial delays. American expects to take its first 787 in the second half of 2013. American's first A300 jets joined the fleet in the late 1980s. Their huge cargo holds and seating capacity made them perfect for the airline's growing Caribbean network.

Delta plans domestic hub at LaGuardia
Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 9:31am EDT

Delta plans to start a domestic hub at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, thanks to an exchange of flying rights with US Airways.

Atlanta-based Delta (NYSE: DAL) reported a deal with US Airways (NYSE: LCC) to exchange certain flying rights and airport facilities at LaGuardia and Washington's Reagan National airports, allowing Delta to expand its New York customer service by creating a domestic hub at LaGuardia.

The agreement, which is subject to government approvals, calls for US Airways to transfer 125 operating slot pairs to Delta at LaGuardia and Delta to transfer 42 operating slot pairs to US Airways at Reagan National. The airlines also will swap gates at LaGuardia between the Marine Air Terminal and US Airways' Terminal C to consolidate all Delta operations -- including the Delta Shuttle -- into an expanded main terminal facility with 11 additional gates for Delta customers.

Delta plans a nearly $40 million construction project at LaGuardia to connect the current Delta and US Airways main terminals; rebrand US Airways' existing main terminal gates, ticket counters and lounges to Delta's standards; and create a new dedicated check-in area for Medallion, First Class, BusinessElite and Shuttle customers. The project will be completed in 2010.

Delta expects to more than double the number of nonstop destinations it serves from LaGuardia by adding or preserving service to more than 30 small- and medium-sized communities. Delta will add new flights to more than a dozen cities not currently served by US Airways. In every slot where US Airways operates small turboprops, Delta will operate larger jets. This will allow more than 2 million additional passengers to use LaGuardia each year without increasing the total number of takeoffs and landings.

"Increasing Delta's service in the world's most competitive and largest air service market is a key part of our long-term strategy,” said Delta CEO Richard Anderson, in a news release. “This transaction will provide substantial benefits to our customers, employees and shareholders in years to come."

Which Airlines Will Survive?

Tom Van Riper, 08.04.09, 12:00 PM EDT

Another losing quarter, despite painful cutbacks. Consolidation may be the only solution. How many more seats can the airlines pull from the sky? Apparently not enough to turn the industry around for a sustained period.

The nine largest U.S. airlines--those accounting for about 88% of all domestic traffic--lost a collective $1.5 billion during the recently completed second quarter. This despite per-seat traffic numbers (known in the industry as load factor) flying close to an all-time high, according to Robert Herbst, an independent airline analyst who complies industry statistics on his Web site, airlinefinancials.com.

His prognosis for the third quarter: a 20% or so decline in revenue for most big carriers from the same quarter in 2008, as business and leisure travelers continue to cut back. He predicts the July load factors that airlines are set to announce this week will show that planes were close to 90% full.

"To see this kind of load factor and still lose money is very unusual compared to the industry's history," Herbst says.

The problem? Too many airlines. With the economy already taking a bite out of demand, cutting the supply of seats only goes so far when they're spread among nine major carriers, plus regional competition. The industry is essentially engaged in an ongoing fare war, a tough way to price seats high enough to cover costs.
An improving economy, inevitable at some point, figures to push oil prices as much as customer demand. Will carriers ever be able to set prices optimally?

"Not unless you have major restructuring, including consolidation," says Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University who has long followed the industry. In other words, spreading out 88% of the domestic flying public among six airlines would work a lot better than spreading them among nine. Until then, "it's a dim future for as far as we can see in the future."

Herbst estimates that the majors will need to combine cost cuts and revenue increases by at least 15% in order to turn marginal profits while upgrading their aging fleets. The problem, as he sees it, is that most carriers have been through big restructurings either in or outside of bankruptcy, leaving little room for further cost cuts in an industry with a costly infrastructure that includes equipment, terminal rentals and expensive labor.

"Most carriers will cut capacity further, which will reduce some costs, but there are so many fixed costs to cover," he says. Meanwhile, price competition keeps the revenue side challenged.
Herbst does expect most major carriers, including Delta, JetBlue and Air Tran, to squeak out operating profits in 2009. But the razor thin margins offer little cushion against any one-time costs that might pop up.

The bulk of the operating losses figure to come from United, American and U.S. Airways ( LCC - news - people ), which he predicts finish 2009 a combined $1.7 billion in the red on an operating basis. AMR Corp. ( AMR - news - people ), American's parent, just privately placed $276 million in debt to finance equipment, on which it will pay 13% interest.

The biggest problems, though, are at U.S. Airways and United, both of which could easily land in bankruptcy in less than a year, both Herbst and Masters believe. Low market caps and a lack of unencumbered assets to borrow against makes raising cash a problem, Herbst notes.

"At least United has strength in its Asia-Pacific routes," he says. "U.S. Airways just has little to offer that you can't find elsewhere." Sounds like a reason to have at least one fewer airline.

A Frontier Air Pilot’s Take on Southwest Air’s Bid
By Michael Corkery

Southwest Airlines has said its potential purchase of Frontier Airlines Holdings out of bankruptcy-court proceedings would depend partly on whether it can obtain a labor agreement with Frontier’s pilots union.

What Southwest is looking for from Frontier’s 720 pilots is unclear. So Deal Journal spoke with John Stemmler (left), the Frontier Airline Pilots Association president, who is headed to Dallas on Monday to meet with Southwest management and its pilots’ union to start discussions. Stemmler spoke about his fears of the sale leading to job losses at Frontier and the phasing out of airline’s favorite animal logo.

And while Republic Airways Holdings, a holding company for regional airlines, has also bid on Frontier and said it wanted to extend the pilots’ contract by three years if it wins the auction for the company, Stemmler says.

Deal Journal: Would you be happy with Southwest Air buying Frontier?

John Stemmler: It’s too early to tell. We haven’t been formally approached by Southwest, but the company has said in internal communications that they are looking for some kind of labor agreement with the pilots. Absent that agreement, they might not go through with the deal.

DJ: Do you expect there will be any job losses from any acquisition.

Stemmler. There are roughly 2,500 back office people at Frontier in Denver that are what they call synergistic cost centers. (In other words, they are overlapping with Southwest operations and vulnerable to cuts). These aren’t the people whom I represent, but they are my friends. The Southwest deal would probably eliminate more of these jobs than a Republic deal because Republic doesn’t have the ticketing and back office operations that Frontier provides.

DJ: Do you expect that seniority of Frontier pilots in a combined work force with Southwest will be a major sticking point.

Stemmler. It’s the biggest issue. Seniority is life in aviation. There as many formulas for seniority as there have been mergers. The best-case scenario is that they phase out Frontier’s Airbuses and retrain Frontier pilots to fly 737s (the Boeing plane in the Southwest fleet), resulting in no net work-force reduction. The worst case is that Southwest ignores Frontier’s seniority and our pilots are put at the back of the list.

DJ: Will a sale kill Frontier’s corporate culture?

Stemmler. We are small airline. I’ve been at the company for nine years and we’ve all flown together. It’s much different at a bigger airline. Change is painful. We have done so well, recording a profit over the past eight months. It’s tough for employees to get their arms around the idea that we need a financial sponsor to get through bankruptcy.

The tails of Frontier Airlines planes decorated with wildlife portraits stand at the gates at Denver International Airport in 2003.

DJ: What about Frontier’s famous animal logos, will you miss that?

Stemmler. Kids go crazy about it (each of Frontier’s 51 planes has a different animal on the tail). Passengers will ask what animal is this plane. The experience of going through airports since 911 has been getting increasingly worse. But we are still trying to have fun.

DJ: Do you think your pilots will be able to integrate into Southwest’s own folksy culture?

Stemmler. It’s a very similar thing. They stress that this is not just about putting butts in seats and moving them. It’s about giving customers a pleasant experience. They seem to get it.

DJ: Some pilots would love to fly for Southwest because they pay so well.

Stemmler. There was a time when people when people wouldn’t dream about going to Southwest because you didn’t know if it would still be flying in a few years because it was such a small company. Now these are coveted jobs. It went from one of the lowest paying to one of the highest. Southwest has grown to point to where it’s really stable, which you can’t say about a lot of other airlines.

Southwest’s Bid for Frontier Is Bad News for United
By Scott McCartney

It’s hard to run a huge hub at an airport where Southwest Airlines becomes a strong number two in market share. So the biggest impact of Southwest’s potential bid to buy bankrupt Frontier Airlines may fall on United Airlines.

If Southwest is successful in acquiring Frontier in bankruptcy court, the two airlines together will have about 30% of the market at Denver International Airport, with UAL Corp.’s United hanging on to 50%. But United is shrinking, and struggling financially.

A bigger fight in Denver with a stronger number-two airline could well weaken United. It might not be long before Southwest could overtake United as the largest carrier in Denver.

Southwest has always been a shrewd, opportunistic player. When Midway Airlines shut down years back, Southwest dispatched a virtual SWAT team to the Chicago airport to move in quickly.

Southwest jump-started its growth in the west by acquiring Morris Air, and took out a potential irritating competitor in Texas by buying Muse Air. Buying assets of bankrupt ATA Airlines gave Southwest slots and gates at important East Coast airports–plus more gates at Midway–at fire-sale prices.

The company has had a keen sense at pegging weak carriers not up for big battles to defend markets (viz. US Airways in Baltimore). Southwest has eaten away at entrenched hubs, weakening Trans World Airlines in St. Louis, for example, and Delta Air Lines in Salt Lake City.

As Southwest has grown at Los Angeles International Airport, United has shrunk, from some 240 daily flights to fewer than 100 departures a day. Airline hubs can better compete when Southwest is at a secondary airport, like Houston, Dallas, San Francisco and Chicago. But when the competition is head-to-head, it’s a lot tougher on incumbents.

Bob Jordan, executive vice president for strategy and planning at Southwest, notes that Southwest’s growth has already been strong in Denver. The airline started flying to DIA in January 2006 and in three-and-a-half years has grown to 113 flights a day. But combining with Frontier takes that operation to a whole other level.

“We’re in this to win,” Mr. Jordan said in an interview.
Be careful about betting against them.

Southwest makes bid to buy Frontier Airlines

Southwest makes bid to buy Frontier Airlines
By DAVID KOENIG, AP Airlines Writer

DALLAS – Southwest Airlines Co. is seeking to trump a rival bid and acquire Frontier Airlines, a Denver-based carrier operating under bankruptcy protection.A court had already approved the sale of Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. to the parent of Republic Airways for $108.8 million, but that deal can be nixed if a better offer comes along.

Dallas-based Southwest said it submitted a nonbinding bid of $113.6 million. Southwest hopes that making the bid will allow it to talk with Frontier and get information to help shape its final proposal.

Southwest said it faces an Aug. 10 deadline for submitting a binding bid. If there is more than one qualified bidder, an auction will be held the following day."We are excited about the opportunity to submit a bid," Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in a statement. "We see a strong fit between our company cultures, a mutual commitment to high quality customer Service, and similar entrepreneurial roots.

"Southwest recently went back into the Denver market, where it competes against Frontier and United.Shares of Southwest rose sharply on the news. They were up 33 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $7.84 in afternoon trading.

Inside a flight attendant's not-so-glam life
Story Highlights

• Once considered glamorous, job now involves long hours, crowded planes
• Cost-cutting measures mean fewer flight attendants taking care of more passengers
• Flight attendants often battle hunger as airlines eliminate meals on shorter flights
• They're not paid for one of the hardest parts of their job: the boarding process

By A. Pawlowski
(CNN) -- As you encounter flights that leave you frustrated, hungry and tired this summer vacation season, chances are the person who greets you with a smile when you come on board could be feeling the same way.

A flight attendant serves beverages to passengers. A duty day can last up to 14 hours on domestic routes.

The glamour has long faded from the job of a flight attendant, but the occupation still captures the imagination of a public fascinated by the constant travel and work above the clouds.
Still, many people know little about the realities of a flight attendant's life, changed by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the efforts of a troubled airline industry to stay afloat and the recent economic downturn.

"When my mom was a stewardess in the 1950s, they wore white gloves and they learned to serve lobster thermidor table-side," said Rene Foss, a flight attendant for 25 years and the spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants.

"Instead of wearing white gloves, I'm wearing rubber gloves; and instead of learning to serve lobster thermidor, I'm learning to put handcuffs on passengers."

The chance to see the world while offering an important service still lures many men and women to the job, and the flight attendants who spoke with CNN said they enjoy what they do. But they also described work that can be draining and sometimes given little respect.

Long days
Many flights are now full as airlines park planes to save money, leaving passengers spread over fewer aircraft in the system. At the same time, layoffs, furloughs and other cost-cutting measures mean fewer flight attendants taking care of more people on board.

Meanwhile, pay cuts are forcing many to work more hours to offset the difference.
"I made more money in 1998 than I make today," said Kim Kaswinkel, a flight attendant for 22 years who holds a legislative committee chair position at the Association of Flight Attendants.

Flying realities

• About 99,000 flight attendants work in the United States

• Their mean annual wage is $39,840

• The Atlanta area has the highest concentration of workers in this occupation

• Major airlines are required by law to provide flight attendants for the safety and security of the traveling public

• Flight attendants must be certified by the FAA Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The days can be long -- up to 14 hours of duty time on domestic routes and even longer on international trips -- and the layovers short, sometimes shorter than the workdays.
Flight attendants say they often battle hunger as airlines eliminate meals for passengers on shorter flights, which also means fewer food options for them.

"There are days, specifically domestically, you go 7, 8, 9 hours and have not gotten anything to eat because there's no food on the airplane; and when they're trying to turn these airplanes around quickly, there's no time to run off and get food," Kaswinkel said.

She carries protein bars and apples with her to help fend off hunger.

Flight attendants fly 70 to 100 hours a month, but they're only paid when a plane's engines are running, Foss said. So they receive no compensation for one of the hardest parts of their job: the boarding process.

It's now more aggravating than ever as passengers bring more carry-on bags to avoid paying fees for checked luggage, sometimes resulting in confrontations and delays when there is no space to accommodate them. Kaswinkel called the carry-on situation "out of control."


Frustrated passengers often take it out on the crew and sometimes each other. As she tries to enforce rules and resolve conflicts, Foss said she sometimes feels like a police officer, a baby sitter and a referee.

Flight attendants say they try to create a friendly atmosphere, but sometimes get little response.

"A lot of passengers complain that flight attendants don't smile, but I can't tell you how many times I've stood at the boarding door with a smile on my face greeting people and they will just ignore me," said Heather Poole, a flight attendant for 14 years who writes for the travel Web site Gadling.com.

'Cart toe'
Seniority determines many aspects of a flight attendant's life, including what routes they fly and whether they work in economy, business or first class. Surprisingly, some flight attendants consider economy easier even though they serve many more passengers. Coach usually requires only a drink service, while flight attendants in the other cabins work almost nonstop serving meals and drinks.

Shoes wear out quickly at this pace. Poole, who mostly works in business class, says she buys a new pair every three months. A particular problem is "cart toe," leather that wears out on the nose of the shoe where she pushes the brakes on the carts that hold drinks and meals.
There are many tales of strange passengers. Foss recalled waiting on the tarmac to take off from Tokyo, Japan, when a woman suddenly took off all her clothes and began running up and down the aisles. The plane had to return to the gate, where police were waiting to remove her.
Kaswinkel is amazed that people still try to smoke on planes and recalled a recent incident in which a passenger offered her $5 to not write her a warning after she caught her sneaking a cigarette in the lavatory.

Poole still remembers the passenger who removed a fire extinguisher from the plane to take as a souvenir.

With all the travel they do, you might wonder how flight attendants choose to spend their vacations. Some continue to fly even in their free time, while others cherish "staycations" or find ways to globe-trot without getting on a plane.

Poole was a frequent traveler until she got married and had a child. Now that her son is 3, she's ready to start jetting off with him on vacation.

Foss considers it a joy to sleep in the same bed for a few nights, but also likes train travel.
Kaswinkel's ideal vacation after being away from home for 16 to 18 days a month is also staying put. But that's not fun for her family, so she does travel occasionally during her time off.
"We enjoy cruising the most because I can relax and do nothing by the pool with a frozen drink, while they go tour the destination ports of call. It's a great compromise," Kaswinkel said.

United Airlines Shows How Not to Run a Business
by: Shaun Rein July 26, 2009

This commentary originally appeared in Forbes

As the world now knows, last year a guitarist named Dave Carroll was sitting in a window seat on a United Airlines (UAUA) plane at O'Hare airport in Chicago when he looked out and saw baggage handlers hurling guitar cases through the air. He pointed it out to flight attendants; they responded with indifference. When he arrived in Nebraska, he found that his instrument had been smashed. After months of complaining to the airline and getting no response, he wrote and performed a song, "United Breaks Guitars," and posted it on YouTube. It was viewed more than 3 million times in its first 10 days.

Across the world in China, Wang Jianshuo, a famed blogger, posted about a United flight he took to the U.S. A surly flight attendant refused to help an elderly passenger stow his carry-on luggage. The audio on the movie channels didn't work. The overhead lights turned off and on the entire trip. His return trip was worse: The plane sat on the tarmac for three hours and then was cancelled until the next day because of a fuel leak.

How does a company perform so badly? United's stock price was tottering even before the financial crisis. Now that even stellar airlines like Southwest suffering, a weak player like United seems doomed to follow inGeneral Motors' and Circuit City's footsteps unless it makes major changes.

This week, United announced a quarterly profit of $28 million, but that included fuel hedges and other accounting gains, without which it lost $323 million. It also named a new president. The airline's missteps over the past decade provide a case study of what not to do when running a company.

Here are three key lessons we all can learn from United.

Create Brand Loyalty, Not Simply Satisfaction
It is doubtful that the millions who have watched Carroll's video or read Wang's blog will want to fly United anytime soon, unless they have no choice. That is terrible for the airline. It is fighting for every last passenger dollar, and trying to make inroads into the emerging Chinese travel market. Part of the problem is that the company, like many, makes satisfying customers part of its mission statement but fails to go nearly far enough beyond that.

Winning companies like Apple (AAPL) go past mere satisfaction to try to create true brand loyalty. Not only do loyal customers spend more, they are more likely to become brand ambassadors and bring along other customers. When everyone from the mailroom to the chief executive buys into the mantra of creating brand loyalty, the result is increased profits.
Consumers are more price sensitive in this economy, and they are trading down, but it's still a great time to capture loyalty. People don't want to waste money on brands that fail to meet their expectations. They're buying only what they trust, and they'll return to trusted brands repeatedly.

Instead of watering down its frequent flyer benefits to save costs, United should be taking the exact opposite tack. It should take a page from hotel stalwarts like Starwood and Marriott, which are offering more goodies than before to their most loyal clients. In consumer studies that my organization, China Market Research Group has conducted, we've found that the No. 1 reason people fly United regularly is because they have racked up points in United's Star Alliance loyalty program. Why would United want to disenfranchise its most loyal customers?
As consumers think harder about where to spend their money, aiming to satisfy them is not enough. Only striving to create true loyalty will work.

Don't Forget Why You're Here
Many companies forget their main purpose and become bogged down in just sustaining their operations. United forgets that it's not only selling a means of transportation that is faster than trains or cars. For vacationers, who make up most passenger traffic, it's selling dreams and memories. An airline flight is typically the first and last part of a newlywed couple's honeymoon, or a family's overseas trip in planning for years.

People remember such journeys forever. I fondly recall my own first flight on TWA when I was six years old, to Italy and Greece with my parents. Likewise, my childhood flights on Delta to see my grandmother in Florida. What United fails to get is that it is selling dreams, not just a form of transportation. Few United employees take pride in their jobs, and it shows.

One company that gets it right is Disney (DIS). A trip to Disney World is not simply an outing to an amusement park like Six Flags (SIX) or Universal Studios. It is a time when families can create memories that last a lifetime. Disney trains its employees, from the monorail drivers to the people selling fast food, to be more than just salespeople. They are weavers of dreams. That is one reason families repeatedly return to Disney World, according to research my firm has conducted with visitors from eight different countries.

Unilever (UL) got it right with its Axe deodorant. That company understands that it is not selling a way to stop sweat or to smell a little better. It's selling a way for young men to be more attractive. Axe put together a TV commercial that shows a dorky guy, who happens to use Axe, getting more glances from attractive women than Ben Affleck, the movie star. The spot uses humor to imply that you, too, can be as appealing as the Hollywood star who dated Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez and is married to Jennifer Garner.

To create real customer loyalty, you have to offer more than just functionality. And you have to train everyone in your organization to have the pride to sell an emotional connection, not just tools.

Don't Forget Employee Morale
United's workers have been a beleaguered group for years now. They have had their wages, pensions and benefits cut even as the chief executive officer, Glenn F. Tilton, has been paid nearly $20 million dollars over the last five years (despite United's stock dropping 43% during his tenure). Does that seem fair?

Employee morale has gone into the gutter. Unhappy workers mean terrible customer service--as Dave Carroll and Wang Jianshuo and millions of their followers know. The company may have no choice but to lay off workers and reduce benefits in the downturn, but it has to do so with respect and with effective communication to the rank and file about why such pain is necessary. Every company everywhere must have an effective strategy for ensuring that its remaining employees don't lose hope or happiness, just as it must maintain its focus on creating brand loyalty.

One thing to do is to make sure that all employees share the pain equally. If there are big cutbacks anywhere, senior management should take substantial pay reductions and limits on its privileges, such as fewer business class flights and trips on private jets. The troops look to senior management for direction. If those troops see the top brass caring for itself at the expense of others, the spirit of the entire organization erodes.

In today's economy you can't get by on decent prices or acceptable service. You have to stand out and win the hearts of your customers. To do that you have to go beyond satisfaction to true loyalty. You have to provide a compelling reason, beyond basic service and price, for consumers to choose you. And your organization must be unified in that mission. Otherwise, you may be the next to follow GM into Chapter 11.

Recession cuts Delta’s worldwide flight plan
Drop in international fliers revises timetable for global growth.
By Kelly Yamanouchi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, July 19, 2009

There’s nothing like a global recession to make the best-laid plans go awry.
A little over a year ago, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines was on an international growth streak started in 2005, rapidly expanding with more flights to Africa, Europe and elsewhere around the world.

Executives had their eyes on an even bigger prize: their merger with Northwest Airlines, whose expansive Asia network, including a Tokyo hub, would fill in an area where Delta was lacking. Delta looked forward to being the No. 1 carrier to Asia and touting itself as a “truly global airline.”

Fast-forward to today. International travel is slumping —- far more than domestic travel. Asia is one of the hardest hit regions. Delta is now cutting international capacity by 15 percent.
International flights have long been cash cows, but some have become burdens to be unloaded as quickly as possible as business travelers cut back, taking with them the high-end fares that subsidize tourist-friendly discounts.

In good economic times, international markets have higher operating margins than domestic markets where airlines like Delta face heavy competition from low-cost carriers, said airline consultant Robert Mann. Now, those international margins are shrinking.

Some of the highest-profile international route cuts Delta is making are in Asia —- including a much-ballyhooed Atlanta-Shanghai route, which will be discontinued this fall. Delta is also axing service between Atlanta and Seoul; Mumbai; and Cape Town, South Africa.

“Customer demand for international travel has fallen significantly,” Chief Executive Richard Anderson and President Ed Bastian said in a joint memo to employees last month. The capacity cuts target “routes that have experienced losses in the current economic climate and with higher fuel prices.”

Other international routes being cut include Cincinnati to Frankfurt and London-Gatwick; and New York’s John F. Kennedy International to Edinburgh, Scotland.

“Business travel in general is slowing and all international destinations are just much more difficult,” said Avondale Partners analyst Bob McAdoo. “Delta and every other carrier who flies internationally is having to look at how much capacity to actually offer this year.”
Anderson and Bastian aren’t admitting defeat in their international offensive.

“In keeping with our long-term business plan, we continue to grow the global footprint that is a cornerstone of our successful strategy,” Bastian and Anderson wrote.

Though Delta is cutting international capacity and eliminating routes, it is adding some new routes in other areas.

“Having this globally-balanced international network is what gives you a hedge to economic conditions around the world,” said Delta spokesman Kent Landers.

But even if Delta is still moving forward, the strategy’s execution has involved a running series of revisions. Last October, Delta said it was continuing to expand international capacity but would trim growth plans by about 2 percentage points from its previous plan for 15 percent international growth in the fourth quarter of 2008.

By December 2008, as the economy worsened, Delta’s forecast for 2009 was for an international capacity cut of 3 percent to 5 percent. In March, the outlook worsened to a 10 percent international capacity cut for this fall. And in June, Delta revised its plans again to a 15 percent slash of international capacity.

McAdoo said he doesn’t expect Delta to abandon its international push, which was born of concern that peers such as American, United and Continental were pulling bigger shares of the high-margin international travel market.

Once the economy turns, “I imagine Delta will go back and rebuild and increase frequency in those markets where it cut capacity, and reinstate international service it had for a while before the economy fell apart,” he said.

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is inextricably tied with Delta and its international growth plans. Delta, which has its biggest hub at the airport, is in talks with the city over a new multiyear lease for its operations at the airport.

Hartsfield-Jackson is also building a new $1.35 billion international terminal to accommodate expected growth in international flights, particularly at Delta. The airport got city council approval this month for an $800 million bond deal to complete the terminal and plans to go into the market for financing in August.

International traffic at Hartsfield-Jackson is down about 5 percent this year.
“Taking the long view, we know this is a very good decision,” said Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Ben DeCosta. “We’re confident that the local economy will sustain and traffic will return.”

Delta said that though it is cutting back flights in some areas and downgauging to smaller aircraft in others, it is maintaining roughly the same level of about 1,000 daily departures from Hartsfield-Jackson it had a year ago. It’s unclear what effect Delta’s international slowdown could have on the plans for the international terminal.

“Maybe it’s delayed a year or two in terms of when it gets fully utilized,” McAdoo said.
Last month, as Delta executives made a presentation at an investor conference, Bastian said “we’re building a plan not anticipating any consequential recovery for the balance of this year.”
Along with the impact of the recession, Bastian said Delta also expects a $125 million to $150 million drop in revenues due to H1N1 flu concerns. “And we did see bookings in the month of May fall off in a very dramatic manner across Asia,” Bastian said.

Delta had underestimated how large the traffic drop in Asia would be. In June, Delta’s traffic in its Pacific region fell 17.3 percent —- the largest drop among its regions —- even though it had only cut flight capacity by 5.9 percent in the Pacific.

But Delta has not been alone in rushing to keep up with the fall in passenger traffic, according to the International Air Transport Association. Other airlines’ cuts have also trailed behind declines in traffic.

Benefits from lower fuel costs have been outweighed by drops in traffic and fares across the airline industry, according to the report. “The expectations reported for the next 12 months have dipped into pessimism once more,” according to IATA’s business confidence index.
Although analysts have speculated about the solvency of some airlines, Delta has been seen as stronger than some of its competitors.

That’s partly because of Delta’s moves to cut back flights amid slow demand.
“They have been far more proactive eliminating flights that are not paying for themselves,” McAdoo said.

Continental CEO Kellner to step down at year end and be replaced by company president Smisek
By David Koenig, AP Airlines Writer
On Thursday July 16, 2009, 9:47 pm EDT

DALLAS (AP) -- Chairman and CEO Lawrence W. Kellner will leave Continental Airlines Inc. at the end of the year to return to the private-equity business and will be replaced by company president Jeffery Smisek.

Continental, the nation's fourth-largest airline, announced the change late Thursday.
Kellner, 50, has spent 14 years at Continental, including the last five as CEO. His tenure included discussions with United Airlines over a combination, but talks collapsed last year when United's finances worsened.

In one of Kellner's last achievements, the company this month won antitrust immunity from federal officials for its plan to work closely with United Airlines and other partners in setting prices and schedules for international service.

"It is the right time for this transition," Kellner said, citing the antitrust immunity, which he said "will allow us to continue as an effective global competitor."

Smisek, 54, will take over both of Kellner's jobs on Jan. 1. He has been president and chief operating officer.

Smisek has been responsible for overseeing flight operations, maintenance, labor relations and other duties. A corporate finance and securities lawyer, he joined the airline in 1995 as general counsel and was promoted to president in 2004 and chief operating officer in 2008.

Henry Meyer, the lead director on Continental's board, said it was Kellner's decision to leave.
In recent years, Continental has performed financially better than many other so-called legacy airlines, those that date back before 1978, when carriers were closely regulated by the federal government. It earned profits in 2006 and 2007.

"Larry, Jeff and their team have run the best-performing network airline with the best labor-management trust relationship in the business," said Robert Mann, an airline industry consultant in Port Washington, N.Y.

But like others, Continental was hurt last year by record-high fuel prices -- it lost $585 million -- and this year by plunging demand for air travel, especially among high-ticket business travelers.
Mann said Kellner was leaving at a difficult time in the airline industry. But, he said, the company was in good hands with Smisek and others who helped manage through the fallout from the 2001 terror attacks and a restructuring.

Kellner faced one of his toughest decisions last year whether to merge his airline with UAL Corp.'s United.

Delta Air Lines Inc. was in the process of buying Northwest to become the world's largest carrier, and some analysts believed other carriers needed to consolidate too. But Kellner broke off the talks.

"He made the right call," said Darryl Jenkins, an airline consultant who knows executives at both companies. "Continental's product is much better, and it would have been very difficult to integrate the two products."

Continental under Kellner tried to preserve amenities including food service in coach and free blankets, which he believed set his airline apart.

Although Continental and United did not merge, they will soon be partners in the Star Alliance. This month, the U.S. Transportation Department approved antitrust immunity for the airlines to work together on setting prices and schedules on many international routes. The arrangement could be a precursor to a later merger.

United CEO Glenn Tilton said of Kellner that he "appreciated his leadership as we partnered to gain antitrust immunity to the benefit of our customers and the communities we serve."

When Kellner took over as CEO from Gordon Bethune in 2004, Continental was still recovering from the recession and terror attacks of 2001 plus increasing competition from low-cost airlines such as Southwest, JetBlue and AirTran.

In a restructuring, he extracted concessions from labor groups while avoiding bankruptcy.
Before joining the airline, Kellner was executive vice president and chief financial officer of American Savings Bank, owned by a member of the Bass family investors in Texas. He had also been CFO of real estate and construction firm The Koll Co.

Kellner will leave Continental to lead a new Houston-based private investment firm called Emerald Creek Group LLC.

According to the company's proxy filed with regulators in April, if Kellner resigned other than for "good reason" he would get a lump-sum supplemental retirement benefit estimated at $5.3 million last Dec. 31, plus health insurance and lifetime family travel benefits on Continental.

Last year, Kellner was paid a salary of $296,875, down from $712,500 the year before. The company valued his compensation package at nearly $5 million, but it could be worth much less today because his stock and option grants have lost value as Continental's stock price has tumbled.

Smisek is well-known to Wall Street analysts and industry insiders, who expect a smooth transition.

"Smisek is an airline guy that has touched many facets of the company's functions during his professional growth," said William Swelbar, a director at Hawaiian Airlines' parent and an airline-industry researcher at MIT.

Mike Boyd, an airline consultant in Colorado, said the switch from Kellner to Smisek should be just as smooth as the one that brought Kellner in five years ago.

"It's a very rough job, being an airline CEO," Boyd said. "You might sometimes get a vacation, but you never get a day off."

TWA Flight 800 For Those Who Never Had the Chance to Say Goodbye

Pilot Of TWA 800 Just Before Fateful Flight Questions Official Conclusions
http://twa800.com/news/cimisi-9-6-00.htm
Associated Retired Aviation Professionals
Post Office Box 90, Clements, Maryland 20624 USA


It is no surprise to anyone on either side of the TWA Flight 800 controversy that the National Transportation Safety Board declared at its final, just concluded hearing that the doomed plane that exploded four summers ago was brought down by an electrical spark which had ignited vapors in the empty or near empty center wing fuel tank.

Unfortunately, the NTSB said, its investigators have not been able to locate the spark or wire that originated the explosion.

Among the many who contest the NTSB scenario is the last pilot to fly the 747 and live to talk about it.

In a phone interview some days after the NTSB hearing, now retired TWA pilot Al Mundo, who had brought the plane into New York from Athens late on the afternoon of July 17, 1996, explained not only the fuel system of the plane, but detailed his reasons why the center wing fuel tank would not have been the initiating cause of the explosion or explosions that destroyed Flight 800.

"We had left Athens that Wednesday morning," said Mundo. "The center wing tank would have been full."

The center wing fuel tank is just that: a tank of fuel that is directly in the middle of the plane, beneath the passenger cabin.

Before going into the reasons why the fuel in that tank would not have been full on arrival in New York, Mundo explained the fuel system of the 747.

"There are four main tanks of fuel, and two reserve tanks, to feed into four engines. If you're sitting in the cockpit, from left to right, you have on the edge of the left wing, the number one reserve tank. Then, in sequence, you have the number one main tank, number two main tank, number three main tank, number four main tank, then on the tip of the right wing, the number four reserve tank."

Mundo went on to say that the fuel flow of the plane is maintained so that the weight of fuel throughout the wing span will be balanced. Fuel is normally fed from each tank to its corresponding engine, although, said Mundo, when the combined fuel in the number one main tank and its reserve, and the number four main tank and its reserve equals 25,000 pounds (the fuel is measured in pounds, not gallons), cross feeding fuel procedures are initiated.

"We turn on both of the center wing tank fuel pumps. The center wing tank has two pumps, which work at twice the capacity of the other four main tank pumps; their fuel flow is at fifteen pounds per square inch (psi), the center wing tank pumps put out fuel at thirty psi.

"The cross feed valves are open, which allow fuel from the center wing tank pumps to go to the number one, two, three and four engines. We shut off the pumps from the number one main and its reserve and the number four main and its reserve. We leave the pumps on from two and three as back up, though because they are working at a rate only half that of the center wing tank, it's the center wing tank that is supplying fuel to the engines. At that point the two and three main tank feed is there as a backup. Anyway, at this point the center wing tank is supplying fuel to all the engines.


"Eventually, as the center wing tank burns down to about 3,000-4,000 pounds of fuel, the fuel begins to feed from the number two and three main tanks."

When the fuel quantity in the center wing tank gets low, a light for each pump begins to blink on the flight engineer's panels. "When the light gets steady," said Mundo, "you turn off the pump for that light.

"Then you turn on the fuel/water scavenge pumps in the center wing tank to drain any liquid remaining. "

With the feed from the center wing tank now turned off, all four engines are being fueled from the number two and number three main tanks. At the point where there are about 25,000 pounds of fuel in each of the main tanks (again, with number one main and reserve tanks and number four and reserve tanks totalling 25,000 pounds each), so there is an even balance across the wing. Cross feeding is terminated so that main tank one and its reserve will be going into its respective engine, number two into its respective engine and so forth.

Mundo went on: "When the plane landed in New York, the center wing tank guage in the cockpit would have read zero pounds. It is possible that the underwing center wing tank fuel gauge could have read 300 pounds, which would be about fifty gallons. This is not an unusual discrepancy."

In the first few days after the Flight 800 investigation Mundo asked a TWA official what exactly the fuel use log had shown in regards to the quantity of fuel in the center wing tank upon arriving in New York. "He told me," Mundo said, "that the log, which is placed in the Flight Document Envelope and normally kept for ninety days, could not be found. This was an abnormality."

He added that whatever level of fuel existed in the center wing tank at that time would not be entirely composed of fuel. "All fuel contains some water. It's the same with the gas in your car. Fuel is 6.7 pounds per gallon; water is heavier, 8.34 pounds, so the water goes to the bottom of the tank. This combination of water and fuel is what the scavenger pumps transfer to the number two main tank."

Mundo said, "When 747's undergo a heavy maintenance check, and the nose wheel strut is deflated which tilts the plane downward, all the liquid in the center wing tank fuel goes to the front of the tank where it is drained out. The amount drained is usually close to fifty gallons or around 300 pounds."

In sum, the center wing tank of the plane that was about to become Flight 800 was empty or nearly empty before leaving New York in the late afternoon prior to its evening takeoff to Paris.

Because of prevailing winds, planes usually carry more fuel when going west than when going east. "And then," said Mundo, "you also have to consider the distance youâ ¬!"re travelling. Athens to New York is a lot farther than New York to Paris."

Now we get to one of the crucial points of the NTSB theory about the volatility of the center wing tank. Mundo said, "There is the assumption by the NTSB that the fuel was heated by the air conditioning packs below the plane to a temperature that caused the fuel and fuel vapors to reach an explosive level."

This is an assessment with which the majority of the media concur. A New York Times article from Wednesday, August 23, the day after the NTSB hearing began, stated, "the nearly empty tank, which had been heated to an explosive state while the twenty-five year old jet sat baking in the sun for nearly three hours before taking off."

Mundo said, "I left two of the packs running, as was common practice." He added that with the flight time between Athens and New York at about ten hours, "for at least nine and half hours the metal of the tank was, at the altitude we had been flying, exposed to temperatures that were about minus fifty-five degrees Celsius. Now metal will cold soak when your car is outside through the night in January you know it takes the metal some time to warm up.

"This is something they should have tested, but they didn't, exactly. The NTSB flew a plane across the continental United States, trying to duplicate the conditions of the Athens to New York flight, but in the summer the air over the land would be warmer than over the North Atlantic and of course the plane would not be in the air for as long as on an Athens to New York run. Nobody knows exactly what the temperature in the fuel tank was when Flight 800 took off from New York. Commander Donaldson took a reading from a 747 at Kennedy the summer after the accident, and he found the temperature of the fuel drained from the center wing tank which had been on the ground an equivalent amount of time as 800 was, to be a degree above the ambient [outside] tempertaure." (Retired Navy Commander William S. Donaldson has been a longtime critic of the government's investigation of Flight 800.)

"Flight 800 took off for Paris at about 8:15 p.m. on the evening of July 17, 1996. A nearly empty tank has more fuel vapor than a tank that is full. Government investigators speculate that the vapor-ridden center wing full tank was ripe for an explosion instigated by the as-yet unfound electrical source.

But Mundo pointed out that the center wing fuel tank is vented to relieve the pressure inside the tank. "With an aircraft in flight," Mundo said, "you have a Venturi effect over the vent outlet. The more the speed, the less the pressure. When you're in a car and someone's smoking and you open a window, the air pressure outside is less than the pressure inside and the greater pressure inside pushes the air outside; the smoke will be sucked out of the car. The air rushing outside the plane would create a great suction that should have decreased or eliminated any buildup of vapor in the tank." _____

Former TWA pilot Al Mundo then talked about another aspect of the electrical spark theory: on Good Friday, 1995, when he was flying the plane that would become Flight 800 in July, 1996, the aircraft was struck not once but twice by lightning.

The plane did not explode.

"We were descending into Rome. We were at about 13,000-11,000 feet. There were two strikes of lightning, about three minutes apart. There was a loud bang, and a yellow flash; initially there was no indication of anything wrong in the cockpit."

But a photoelectric cell activated an inerting gas whose purpose was to smother any fire or smouldering that could be caused by an electrical spark. This was done on the first lightning strike.

Mundo said, "Upon landing it was discovered there was not only substantial damage to the right wingtip, it was also found that an electrical charge had gone all the way into the wing area, causing circuit breakers in the cockpit to pop and the wheel brake temperature indicators to register full scale when the brakes had scarcely been used. It is quite evident from this that a strong surge of electricty went through the wing.

"The damage incurred was extensive. The plane was out of service for a week," said Mundo.

But despite the damage that had been inflicted by the two lightning strikes, the plane was able to land safely. The inference is obvious: if the plane that expolded fifteen minutes out of JFK in the summer of 1996 was brought down by an electrical spark igniting the center wing fuel tank, why didn't two lightning strikes, which would certainly supply infinitely more voltage to the electrical system of the plane than the theorized stray spark, cause the aircraft to be blown apart?

Early on in the Flight 800 investigation, Mundo learned that there had been sooting found on the right wing vent system. "It seemed strange to me that if the explosion was initiated by the center wing tank, why would there not be sooting on both sides of the wing? I contacted personnel in the investigating team and suggested they check those records from the 1995 flight to determine if the sooting came from the lightning strikes. I was later informed that the records could not be located."

Mundo was questioned by investigators "about five days after Flight 800," he said, but the extent of the questioning was solely on the character of the Athens to New York Flight. The former pilot continues to feel that government investigators have not pursued the obvious lines of inquiry raised above or, if they have, such tests or studies have not been made public.


© 2000 William S. Donaldson III. All rights reserved

US Airways to cut 600 airport positions
US Airways cutting 600 positions at airports this fall, saying economy is forcing cost-cutting
By Joshua Freed, AP Airlines Writer
On Tuesday July 14, 2009, 4:38 pm EDT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- US Airways is cutting 600 ground jobs this fall as it continues to struggle with the slow economy.

The airline said on Tuesday that the biggest cut will be 340 customer service agents around the U.S., who will lose their jobs on Sept. 14. Other layoffs come from closing its Las Vegas US Airways Club on Sept. 13 and reducing staffing at its club in Phoenix.
The airline will also shut its walk-up ticket counter at its headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, its last counter outside an airport.

US Airways also said it will shift to outside contractors for ramp service work at nine airports around Oct. 5, mostly those served by US Airways Express regional carriers.
Capacity cuts combined with a more efficient operation will make it possible to operate with fewer customer service agents, US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant said.

"We're running a more efficient airline than we have in years past," he said.
Employees who will lose their jobs were informed on Tuesday, according to a memo laying out the cuts written by Chief Operating Officer Robert Isom.

He wrote that the company had hoped staff numbers would fall through retirements and departures for other jobs. But he wrote that attrition has fallen sharply from last year, and the airline needs to shrink faster.

Cuts to the flight schedule and the addition of fees beginning last year have helped, he wrote. "Today's economy demands we continue to look for ways to control costs."

US Airways is also asking 400 flight attendants to take voluntary furloughs in an effort to avoid layoffs in that group.

Airlines in the U.S. have been struggling with plummeting business travel, and US Airways executives have said passenger revenue has fallen further than after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

U.S. carriers are expected to report another round of losses beginning with American Airlines parent AMR Corp. on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are expecting US Airways Group Inc. to report a second-quarter loss of some $88.5 million, or 80 cents per share, on July 23.

US Airways shares fell 7 cents, or 3.3 percent, to close at $2.04.

London Financial Times
Virgin America plans shake-up
By Justin Baer in New York

Published: July 9 2009 21:39

Virgin America, the carrier founded by Sir Richard Branson, is seeking US approval for a new slate of domestic investors it expects will end a rival’s bid to challenge the company’s ownership structure.

Under the plan submitted to the Department of Transportation, the airline would receive new capital from a group of investors that includes Cyrus Capital Partners, people familiar with the matter said. Cyrus, a New York hedge fund, was one of Virgin America’s original shareholders.

Virgin America began service in 2007 after a battle in Washington over rights to operate domestic flights and its ties to Sir Richard’s Virgin Group, which owns 24 per cent of the US airline.

Alaska Airlines, which competes with Virgin America on routes to Seattle and other west coast cities, has questioned the carrier’s “US citizenship” and petitioned transport regulators in February to investigate its ownership structure. Federal laws cap foreign ownership of domestic airlines at 25 per cent.

“This is a meritless petition,” Virgin America said at the time. “Nothing has changed in our ownership structure, which was approved by the DOT.

“Should our ownership structure change in the future, we will of course notify the DoT in advance, so they can confirm our continuing compliance.”

Alaska’s petition came as Black Canyon and Cyrus, Virgin America’s two US shareholders, exercised an option to recall their $150m investment in the company.

Virgin America had hired Lazard, the investment bank, earlier in the year to recruit new domestic investors.

The new round of capital may be less than $150m, reflecting the steep falls many US airline stocks have endured as demand slumped. Shares of Delta Air Lines, the world’s largest carrier, have lost half their value since the start of the year.

People familiar with Virgin America’s structure note that its agreement with the DoT enabled it to keep Black Canyon and Cyrus as stakeholders and remain in compliance with foreign-ownership rules even if the two firms recalled their capital.

Virgin Group plans to transfer the two firms’ stakes to its new US investor group once the structure plan is approved.

By May, Virgin America was in talks with at least five US funds. Virgin America and Cyrus did not return calls.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

United Denies Claim For Broken Guitar, Passengers Sings for Revenge
By Scott McCartney
July 8, 2009, 1:48 PM ET

Musician Dave Carroll watched in horror as United Airlines baggage workers at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport manhandled his $3,500 guitar last year. When he and his band arrived in Nebraska, the guitar was broken.Thus began Carroll’s sad song.

Filing a claim for reimbursement for the guitar proved futile; airlines often exempt “valuables” including musical instruments from damage coverage in their contract of carriage. So Carroll and his band, Sons of Maxwell, decided to seek revenge instead of reimbursement. He told the last person to deny his claim, Ms. Irlweg, that he “would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world.”

He put together a catchy song and cute video describing his nine-month hassle and posted it. Although United saved $3,500 by denying his broken guitar claim, the music video likely will generate far more than that in negative publicity for the airline.Many travelers can relate to Carroll’s frustration.

Even if you don’t like country music, you probably can appreciate his video.

Here is the link for his song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Boeing to buy plant from 787 supplier

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Boeing Co (BA.N), the world's second-largest plane maker, said on Tuesday it will pay $580 million for a plant that makes part of the fuselage of its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner.

The South Carolina facility is owned by Vought Aircraft Industries and release it from obligations to repay money previously advanced by Boeing, the company said in a statement.

The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, may give Boeing more control over its supply chain. Boeing last month announced a further delay of the first test flight of the carbon-composite 787. The latest delay was caused by a structural flaw, while previous delays have been related to suppliers.

"Integrating this facility and its talented employees into Boeing will strengthen the 787 program by enabling us to accelerate productivity and efficiency improvements as we move toward production ramp-up," said Scott Carson, chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Boeing will buy the plant, its assets and inventory and will assume operation of the site. After the transaction, Vought will continue its work on several Boeing programs, Boeing said.
Vought is owned by Carlyle Group (CYL.UL).
(Reporting by Kyle Peterson; Editing by Derek Caney)

British Airways to severely cut capacity, delay new A 380 aircraft and mothball others
Fri Jul 3, 3:09 pm ET

LONDON – British Airways PLC announced Friday it will ground aircraft, slash seat numbers and postpone taking delivery of a dozen new Airbus A380 superjumbos as it faces a recession-driven decline in passengers.

The airline said it carried 2.93 million passengers in June, 5 percent fewer than in June 2008.

BA said that in response to the "challenging economic conditions" it was cutting its summer capacity by 3.5 percent, rather than the originally forecast 2.5 percent. Capacity for October through March 2010 is expected to be down by 5 percent.

The airline said it would ground three Boeing 757 aircraft in mid-2010, and three Boeing 747-400s the following winter.

BA also said it was postponing by an average of five months delivery of its first six A380s, the first of which is still due to arrive in 2012. Delivery of a second batch of six is being delayed by an average of two years, with the final plane due to arrive in 2016.

BA's planes were 79.6 percent full last month compared with 81.4 percent a year earlier. The steepest falls were in first- and business-class traffic and on routes between London and Asia.

"Market conditions continue to be very challenging with trading at levels well below last year," BA said in a statement. "However, on an underlying basis both premium and non-premium volumes and seat factors have now been stable for more than three months."

The airline is seeking to cut 3,500 jobs and bring in a pay freeze as part of a cost-cutting package. Talks with unions have failed to reach agreement, and more negotiations are planned next week with a government-backed mediator.

British Airways, which employs 40,000 people, is looking to cut 2,000 flight attendants and 1,500 ground workers.

The airline's shares rose 6.5 pence to 125.5 pence Friday on the London Stock Exchange.

Clear airport security fast-lane program shuts down

Clear security system allowed passengers to use different security lines
Clear was operating in 18 airports and served 250,000 passengers
Air Transport Association said the program offered few benefits to travelers
"It's going to cost me time," says one traveler who relied on the Clear program

By Stephanie Chen CNN

(CNN) -- Verified Identity Pass Inc.'s Clear security system -- the program that expedited airport security line waits for paying customers -- ended operation Monday night because the company couldn't reach a consensus with its senior creditors, according to its Web site.

Clear promised to help passengers avoid security lines like this one at San Francisco International Airport.

The New York-based company founded by entrepreneur Stephen Brill targeted business flyers, promising passengers that they would whisk through tedious airport security lanes more rapidly by being placed in private lines.

Verified Identity Pass officials couldn't be reached for comment.

Clear's fast-lane program began at Orlando (Florida) International Airport in 2005. By the time the company shut down, it was operating in more than 18 locations, including major airports in Atlanta, Georgia; Denver, Colorado; San Francisco, California; and Washington. USA Today reported that the company had about 250,000 members.

With nearly 700 million passengers traveling domestically in 2006, Clear company officials touted their program as a way to help avoid bottlenecks and, in some instances, reduce the wait time in security lines to as little as five minutes.

Passengers using the Clear program doled out more than $200 a year. After announcing the shutdown, the company released no information on whether customers would receive refunds.
John Harrington, a freelance photographer in Washington, renewed his Clear membership for the next two years about a month ago. He said he was disappointed to receive an e-mail from Clear officials saying the program had been terminated.

Harrington relied on the quicker lanes when he traveled for assignments out of Reagan National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport.

"With Clear, I could get into my gate in less than 15 to 20 minutes," said Harrington, who is flying to San Francisco next week and will now have to arrive at the airport an hour earlier. "Try that with regular airport security. It's going to cost me time."

The Clear program required applicants like Harrington to provide information such as a Social Security number and previous address for a background check. The applicant's fingerprints and iris were scanned. The information was placed into a credit-card-size pass and for scanning at an airport Clear booth.

After checking in at the Clear booth, customers were shuttled into a separate line overseen by the Transportation Security Administration. In some airports, Clear members were taken to security lanes reserved for them. In other airports, they used employee security lanes.
Clear members went through the same security procedures; they had to take off their shoes and take out laptops.

Clear arrived at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest airport in the United States, last fall, officials said. At the same time, the airport added 12 security lanes, cutting the average security wait time to 10 minutes, airport spokeswoman Katena Carvajales said.

"Clear shutting down is not impacting our passengers at this airport," Carvajales said, adding that customer service officials are stationed near the Clear booths to instruct members on where to go.

Some critics argued that the Clear lines were no faster than regular security lines.
The Air Transport Association, the industry representing the major U.S. airlines, said the program didn't enhance security. Spokesman David A. Castelveter said airlines already offered frequent travelers and elite members separate lines with no charge.

In 2008, the TSA also began expanding its free Black Diamond Self-Select Lanes program to Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, Orlando and Spokane (Washington) International Airport.

The program features a series of lanes broken down into categories for expert business travelers who fly frequently, casual travelers who don't fly as often, and skiers or families with strollers who need special assistance.

The program has helped decrease wait times at pilot locations in Denver and Salt Lake City, Utah, according to a TSA statement.

"Clear was a personal decision by travelers," Castelveter said. "If they could afford it, then they could buy it, but it didn't offer anything that wasn't already there."

Seven years ago, Congress approved the creation of a speedier airport clearance system that would make the skies safer after September 11 rattled the travel industry. Government officials wanted to vet passengers and put those with a clean history into a separate, quicker line. But government officials worried that potential terrorists could sneak onto the approved list.

The government program was handed off to private companies, like Verified Identity Pass, that saw the convenience factor as something they could sell.

Delta to cut capacity more than expected as declining revenue overtakes merger benefits
Harry R. Weber, AP Airlines Writer
On Thursday June 11, 2009, 12:29 pm EDT

ATLANTA (AP) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. will shave additional capacity later this year as it warns that more than $6 billion in benefits it expected from lower fuel prices, its merger with Northwest Airlines and previous capacity reductions will be overtaken by declining revenues.

The reduction in available seats could mean further job cuts at the world's largest airline operator.

Delta also said it projects it will take a $125 million to $150 million revenue hit in the second quarter because of the impact on air travel from the swine flu virus. The quarter ends June 30.

Delta executives told employees in a memo Thursday ahead of a presentation at an investor conference in New York that Delta will reduce system capacity by 10 percent this year compared to 2008. That is up from Delta's previous plan to cut system capacity by 6 percent to 8 percent.

Delta also will reduce international capacity 15 percent, up from a previous plan to cut it by 10 percent.

Delta said capacity reductions will begin in September. Some routes will be suspended, while the number of weekly flights to other destinations will be reduced.

"The additional capacity reductions mean we again must reassess staffing needs," Chief Executive Richard Anderson and President Ed Bastian said in the memo. "While the challenges of the current environment preclude us from making guarantees, our goal remains to avoid any involuntary furloughs of frontline employees."

Delta said staff levels will be down more than 8,000 jobs by the end of 2009 compared to spring 2008. It was not immediately clear if that was the total of previously announced cuts involving Delta and Northwest, or if it includes yet to be announced cuts.

Delta, which acquired Northwest in October, has already shed thousands of jobs over the last year in connection with previously announced capacity reductions.

The rise in unemployment and hits Americans have taken to the value of their homes, coupled with the meltdown in the financial markets, has caused a significant slowdown in air travel. Airlines also have lost business from the swine flu, which has caused some people to cancel travel plans to Mexico. The swine flu scare also has hurt Delta sales to customers in Asia, who may be worried following the global outbreak of SARS in 2003, executives said. The overall drop in demand has coincided with a recent increase in fuel prices.

The Delta executives said industry passenger revenues have declined nearly 20 percent in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2008. That trend is expected to continue in the near term, they said. Delta said in slides it prepared for Thursday's investor conference, which it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that the airline has seen a significant reduction in demand for premium class seats. Corporate travel also is down significantly.

"On top of this, cost pressures from rising jet fuel prices up more than 20 percent since the start of the year -- coupled with softer travel demand due to the spread of the H1N1 virus, have created a difficult business environment," the executives said in their memo to employees.

At Thursday's Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference, Bastian said that if fuel prices continue to climb into the fall, airlines will be under pressure to raise prices or cut more capacity to cover their costs. He said Delta has made a decision not to "put seats out into the marketplace if we can't recover the cost of that seat."

Delta now expects to end the second quarter with $5.3 billion in total liquidity, compared to its previous projection of $5.6 billion.

Delta said its fall capacity reductions will target routes that have experienced losses in the current economic climate and with higher fuel prices.

Among the reductions, Delta will:
--suspend nonstop service from Atlanta to Seoul and Shanghai and instead route customers for those flights over Detroit or Tokyo, or on nonstop partner flights.
--suspend nonstop flights from Cincinnati to Frankfurt, Germany, and London-Gatwick.
--reduce weekly frequencies connecting Atlanta and Detroit to Mexico City and postpone some previously planned seasonal service between non-hub cities and Mexican beach destinations due to the impact of the swine flue virus on customers' travel plans.
Delta said it is still adding more than 20 new markets to its international network in 2009.

A330 airlines distance themselves from sensors
Airlines seek distance from speed sensors suspected in crash, others say working on retrofits
Adam Schreck, AP Business Writer
On Tuesday June 9, 2009, 1:45 pm EDT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Several airlines flying the type of plane involved in the Air France crash said Tuesday they use a different brand of airspeed sensor than those aboard the doomed flight, distancing themselves from instruments seen as a possible factor in last week's accident.

At the same time, other carriers that use probes similar to those on the flight -- including Delta Air Lines Inc. and the Middle East's Qatar Airways -- said they are working to upgrade the devices on dozens of Airbus planes.

The plane disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean while on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing 228 people on board.

Focus on the sensors known as Pitot tubes intensified after Air France issued a statement last week saying it was in the process of replacing the instruments on the Airbus A330 model.

The cause of Air France Flight 447's crash on May 31 remains unclear. But one theory is that the sensors became iced over and gave incorrect readings. That could have caused the plane to fly either too slow or too fast.

The sensors aboard the plane were made by France's Thales Group and had not yet been replaced. Thales spokeswoman Caroline Philips confirmed the company made the Pitot tubes on the jet that crashed. The defense and aerospace manufacturer did not provide details on the devices or say how many other planes use them.

Emirates, the Middle East's largest airline and one of the biggest A330 operators, said the Pitot tubes aboard its planes were made not by Thales but by U.S. manufacturer Goodrich Corp. of Charlotte, North Carolina.

"We have not experienced any issues with our probe units," said Adel al-Redha, Emirates executive vice president for engineering and operations. "Emirates is in full compliance with all standard operating procedure recommendations issued by aircraft manufacturers, as well as with requirements stipulated by international air safety and regulatory authorities."

The Dubai-based carrier operates 29 of the A330-200 variant, more than any other airline. The model is the same used on Air France Flight 447.

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways and Australia's Qantas Airways said their A330s are also equipped with Goodrich speed sensors.

"We are not concerned because it's a different system in our aircraft," Qantas General Manager for Government and Corporate Affairs David Epstein said.

A Goodrich spokeswoman could not be immediately reached for comment.
Pitot tubes and accompanying sensors feed crucial airspeed data and other information into cockpit computer systems. The sensors work in the same basic way, but may be designed differently depending on the plane type and manufacturer.

"It's like (aircraft) brakes. Some people use carbon, some people use steel," said independent airline consultant Bob Mann.

Concerns over the Thales sensors led an Air France union Monday to urge its pilots not to fly Airbus A330s and A340s unless at least two of the three Pitot sensors had been replaced. The Alter union represents about 12 percent of Air France pilots.

In a reflection of the growing concern surrounding the instruments, Qatar Airways posted a statement on its Web site Tuesday saying it is completing an "Airbus-approved modification" of Thales probes on all of its Airbus A319, A320, A321, A330 and A340 aircraft. The over 50 planes account form the bulk of the carrier's fleet.

Qatar Airways said the retrofit began last year, with 21 planes modified so far.
Atlanta-based Delta is currently installing new Pitot tubes from Thales on its A330 aircraft per the manufacturer's recommendation, spokeswoman Betsy Talton said.

"Until these installations are complete, we are communicating with our flight crews to reiterate the correct procedures to be used in the event of unreliable airspeed indications," Talton said.
Delta subsidiary Northwest Airlines also has installed new Pitot tubes on its A319/320 aircraft, Talton said.

Delta, the world's largest airline operator, owns 11 A330-200s and 21 A330-300s. It owns or leases 57 A319-100s and 69 A320-200s.

Tempe, Arizona-based US Airways, the other major U.S. A330 operator, has begun replacing the Pitot tube component on its A330s out of an abundance of caution, spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said, though she declined to identify the manufacturer. Nine of the carrier's 11 A330s are in regular service.

In Brazil, the private Agencia Estado news agency said the country's largest airline, TAM Linhas Aeras SA, has already replaced the Pitot tubes on its Airbus jets. TAM made the replacements after a 2007 recommendation from Airbus, Chief Executive David Barboni told Agencia Estado.
Brazil's air force, meanwhile, said that technicians would replace the Pitot tubes on an Airbus A319 used by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva because of a recommendation from the jet's manufacturer more than a month before the Air France crash.

Air force Col. Henry Munhoz said the tubes will be replaced during regular maintenance now under way, but insisted the work was not being performed because of the crash.

About 70 airlines operate versions of the 600 twin-engined A330s in use around the world.

Associated Press Writers Greg Keller in Paris, Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Alan Clendenning in Sao Paulo and Harry R. Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Airlines: Coach Class Becomes Cattle Class
Scott Reeves Jun 05, 2009 2:40 pm
Passengers given less space than average pig on the way to Baconland.

Suck in your hips, travelers, because some airlines are squeezing more seats into existing planes in an effort to boost revenue. But wedging your bovine butt into a smaller space on the redeye may be offset by another marketing trend: The size of many food products, such as candy bars, continue to shrink as the price rises. This may cause some to gobble fewer calories and, with luck, to leave their clothes untorn when squeezing into an airline seat in cattle class. American Airlines (AMR) recently added 12 seats to its new jets, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Some airlines have removed galleys to install extra seats. This may mean that semi-putrid airline meals can no longer be microwaved; only a sociologist could crack the profound implications of that tactic. Here’s a guess: Cold airline food won’t taste any worse than warm airline food.

In fact, no taste probably beats any taste. In some instances, airlines have moved the rows of seats closer together to increase capacity. This means you’re in greater danger of being knee-capped if the 300-pound lummox in front of you suddenly reclines - assuming you’re not already sitting with your knees under your chin. Other airlines are installing slimmer seats.

The irony: many discount carriers now offer more space than some legacy airlines. JetBlue (JBLU) offers a whopping 34 inches of space in each row, including the seat, while Southwest (LUV) typically offers 32 to 33 inches in its Boeing 737s. It appears that United (UAUA), Delta (DAL) and Continental (CAL) are slimming down to 31 inches in domestic coach. Note: The American Meat Institute requires that every hog on its way to Bacon-land get at least 6 square feet of space. A 150-pound sheep must be given 5 square feet.

Your average interstate commuter? 31 inches is more than enough, says the FAA.Conspiracy buffs will say the great seat squeeze is part of an effort to encourage coach passengers to upgrade and get more space while dropping more moola in the airlines’ grubby mitts. This seems an odd bet in a downbeat economy, even for grassy knoll habitués.

Smaller seats for broader bottoms plays out against the proliferation of extra fees for checked bags, seat location, flight changes, blanket, pillow - you name it. If airlines keep nickel and dime-ing their customers -- well, $10 and $15-ing -- more people may decide to stay home. The upside: That would mean lot of folks will have more bucks to spend on those tiny little candy bars.

Air France jet likely broke apart above ocean
AP
By FEDERICO ESCHER and BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writers Federico Escher And Bradley Brooks, Associated Press Writers – 24 mins ago

FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil – Military planes located new debris from Air France Flight 447 Wednesday while investigators focused on a nightmarish ordeal in which the jetliner broke up over the Atlantic as it flew through a violent storm.

Heavy weather delayed until next week the arrival of deep-water submersibles considered key to finding the black box voice and data recorders that will help answer the question of what happened to the airliner, which disappeared Sunday with 228 people on board. But even with the equipment, the lead French investigator questioned whether the recorders would ever be found in such a deep and rugged part of the ocean.

As the first Brazilian military ships neared the search area, investigators were relying heavily on the plane's automated messages to help reconstruct what happened to the jet as it flew through towering thunderstorms. They detail a series of failures that end with its systems shutting down, suggesting the plane broke apart in the sky, according to an aviation industry official with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the crash.

The pilot sent a manual signal at 11 p.m. local time saying he was flying through an area of "CBs" — black, electrically charged cumulonimbus clouds that come with violent winds and lightning. Satellite data has shown that towering thunderheads were sending 100 mph (160 kph) updraft winds into the jet's flight path at the time.

Ten minutes later, a cascade of problems began: Automatic messages indicate the autopilot had disengaged, a key computer system switched to alternative power, and controls needed to keep the plane stable had been damaged. An alarm sounded indicating the deterioration of flight systems.

Three minutes after that, more automatic messages reported the failure of systems to monitor air speed, altitude and direction. Control of the main flight computer and wing spoilers failed as well.

The last automatic message, at 11:14 p.m., signaled loss of cabin pressure and complete electrical failure — catastrophic events in a plane that was likely already plunging toward the ocean.
"This clearly looks like the story of the airplane coming apart," the airline industry official told The Associated Press. "We just don't know why it did, but that is what the investigation will show."

French and Brazilian officials had already announced some of these details, but the more complete chronology was published Wednesday by Brazil's O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, citing an unidentified Air France source, and confirmed to the AP by the aviation industry source.

Air France spokesman Nicolas Petteau referred questions about the messages to the French accident investigation agency, BEA, whose spokesman Martine Del Bono said the agency won't comment. Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim also declined to comment, saying that the accident "investigation is being done by France; Brazil's only responsibility is to find and pick up the pieces."

Other experts agreed that the automatic reports of system failures on the plane strongly suggest it broke up in the air, perhaps due to fierce thunderstorms, turbulence, lightning or a catastrophic combination of events.

"These are telling us the story of the crash. They are not explaining what happened to cause the crash," said Bill Voss, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va. "This is the documentation of the seconds when control was lost and the aircraft started to break up in air."

Voss stressed that the messages alone were not enough to understand why the Air France jet went down, noting that the black boxes will have far more information to help determine the cause.

One fear — terrorism — was dismissed Wednesday by all three countries involved in the search and recovery effort. France's defense minister and the Pentagon said there were no signs that terrorism was involved, and Jobim said "that possibility hasn't even been considered."

A U.S. Navy P-3C Orion surveillance plane, a French AWACS radar plane and two other French military planes joined Brazil's Air Force in trying to spot debris and narrow the search zone.
Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said debris discovered so far was spread over a wide area, with some 230 kilometers (140 miles) separating pieces of wreckage they have spotted.

The floating debris includes a 23-foot (seven-meter) chunk of plane and a 12-mile-long (20-kilometer-long) oil slick, but pilots have spotted no signs of survivors, Air Force spokesman Col. Jorge Amaral said.

"Oil stains on the water might exclude the possibility of an explosion, because there was no fire," Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told reporters Wednesday.

The new debris was discovered about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of where searchers a day earlier found an airplane seat, a fuel slick, an orange life vest and pieces of white debris. The original debris was found roughly 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast, an area where the ocean floor drops as low as 22,950 feet (7,000 meters) below sea level.

Brazil lacks the equipment needed to reach the ocean floor. If the black boxes are at the bottom of the sea, their recovery will have to wait for the arrival early next week of a French research ship with remotely controlled submersibles that can explore as deeply as 19,600 feet (6,000 meters).

The sturdy black boxes — voice and data recorders — are built to give off signals for at least 30 days, even underwater, and could keep their contents indefinitely.

But the head of France's accident investigation agency, Paul-Louis Arslanian, said in Paris that he is "not optimistic" about recovering the recorders — and that investigators should be prepared to continue the probe without them.

"It is not only deep, it is also mountainous," he said. "We might find ourselves blocked at some point by the lack of material elements."

Arslanian said investigators didn't have enough information to determine whether the plane broke up in the air or upon impact with the sea, and that in the absence of black box data, they are studying maintenance and other records.

"For the moment, there is no sign that would lead us to believe that the aircraft had a problem before it took off," Arslanian said.

He said investigators did not know the exact time of the accident or whether the chief pilot was at the controls when the plane went down. Pilots on long-haul flights often take turns at the controls to remain alert.

If no survivors are found, it would be the deadliest crash in Air France's history, and the world's worst civil aviation disaster since the November 2001 crash of an American Airlines jetliner in the New York City borough of Queens that killed 265 people.
___
Bradley Brooks wrote from Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press writers Alan Clendenning in Sao Paulo; Marco Sibaja in Brasilia; Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Belgium; Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin; Emma Vandore in Bourget, France; and Angela Charlton in Paris also contributed to this report.

Updated: 4:42 p.m. May 28, 2009
Delta, pilots agree on severance deal
By Kelly Yamanouchi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, May 28, 2009

The pilots union at Delta Air Lines has agreed to a program offering incentives for pilot retirements to help the company cut pilot staffing.

Delta management had proposed the retirement incentive program to the Air Line Pilots Association at Delta to address “what management perceives to be a pilot staffing overage,” according to the union.

The union’s leadership voted Wednesday to approve the retirement incentive program. It will be offered from June 1 until July 15 to active pilots with at least 10 years of service and whose years of service and age total at least 55.

Pilots with less than 20 years of service will get six months of severance pay, while pilots with 20 years of service or more will get nine months of severance pay. The program also includes certain coverage of COBRA or retiree health care, as well as retiree travel benefits.
Delta pilots were not eligible to participate in the company’s buyouts this year and last year, which Delta used to cut about 6,500 employees.

The airline said in a written statement that it “continues to take every step possible to avoid involuntary reductions of front-line employees as a result of current economic conditions.”
Delta has about 12,000 pilots, including pilots from Delta and merger partner Northwest. Delta closed its deal to acquire Northwest in October.

US Airways pilots' seniority fight goes to jury
Dawn Gilbertson - May. 13, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

The bitter seniority dispute pitting some US Airways pilots against their new union is now in the hands of a federal jury.Jurors began deliberating late Tuesday after a day of closing arguments in the two-week trial in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

The trial featured detailed background on how the dispute developed after the America West-US Airways merger in 2005 and the intricacies of union merger policies and politics. The case even offered a little star power in the testimony of the pilot and co-pilot of the US Airways plane that landed in the Hudson River in January.

At issue for the jury to decide: whether the year-old US Airline Pilots Association (USAPA) has been fairly representing all 5,000-plus pilots of the new US Airways.A group of six former America West pilots, representing their 1,800 co-workers, filed the lawsuit last year, alleging that the new union is ignoring their interests by pushing for date-of-hire seniority instead of a seniority system issued by an arbitrator two years ago.

The union says it is being fair to all because it has proposed several job protections for America West pilots in its new seniority proposal, some that go beyond those on the arbitrated list. America West pilots have packed the courtroom every day during the trial, some accompanied by spouses.Seniority is critical to pilots because it determines their pay, promotions, work schedules.

A big theme in the America West pilots' case is that the arbitrator's decision was final and binding and that pilots from both America West and US Airways and their then union, the Air Line Pilots Association, knew that from the start.

They say the new union was formed to try to get around the decision because pilots of the former US Airways didn't like the outcome. They generally fare better on a date-of-hire system because US Airways has been around so much longer than America West.

"No one said, "I'm willing to sign up for these rules but only if it goes my way," pilots' attorney Marty Harper said in his closing arguments.Harper used a gambling analogy, noting that you never hear the losers in a poker game say they were all in only if they won."That's sort of what's happening here," he told jurors.Harper took a swipe at the testimony, for the defense, of Capt. Chesley Sullenberger from US Airways Flight 1549.

Sullenberger told a story on the stand about how his daughter asked in grade school about the meaning of integrity, and he replied that it's doing the right thing if it's not convenient.Harper suggested that that's what the pilots of the former US Airways aren't doing by ignoring the arbitrated list."You can go back on your word under (a) certain set of circumstances," he said.Lee Seham, the union attorney who delivered its closing arguments, said the former US Airways pilots thought the arbitrated seniority list was "terribly, terribly unfair."

They didn't like the fact that many America West pilots were ranked ahead of US Airways pilots with much more seniority and that US Airways pilots out of work at the time of the merger were put at the bottom of the list.

There was such a strong sentiment against the arbitrator's decision that US Airways pilots would never ratify a contract that included that seniority list, Seham told jurors. The old union tried to get the two sides together to work out their differences, he said, with the added encouragement of US Airways executives, but the America West side wouldn't budge, he said.

"It takes two to tango," he said, suggesting that it could be argued that it was the America West pilots that were acting in bad faith.Seham said USAPA was acting in good faith because it was formed to resolve the impasse over seniority and get a long-awaited joint contract for all pilots of the new US Airways.

The two sides are still operating separately, under different pay rates and can't fly each other's planes. He said the pilots did not need USAPA to get rid of the arbitrated list because the old union was effectively doing that with its policies. Harper said the union has tried to downplay the sole reason it was formed - to get around the arbitrator's seniority list - because attorneys they consulted early on said it could land them in legal trouble.

He noted that an e-mail union officials brought up to show that they were balancing the interests of both pilot groups with the protections for America West pilots was sent after the lawsuit was filed. There are nine members on the jury, and their verdict must be unanimous.

Southwest Airlines sells 3 planes for $104 million, then leases them back
Thursday May 21, 2009, 3:25 pm EDT

DALLAS (AP) -- Southwest Airlines Co., trying to pad its cash balance amid a downturn in travel, said Thursday it sold three planes for $104 million and leased them back.
It was the second such transaction in just over a month at Dallas-based Southwest, bringing to six the number of planes it has sold.

Southwest said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that on Tuesday it closed a sale-leaseback deal with a third party aircraft lessor involving three Boeing 737-700 jets. It immediately leased the planes back for 16 years.

Southwest said it will make monthly payments of about $4.4 million for the first six months of the leases. It didn't identify the lessor in the transaction.

The low-fare airline had a string of profitable quarters from 1991 until last year, the longest streak in the U.S. airline industry. But it has lost money the last three quarters, with falling traffic hurting its results so far in 2009.

Airlines have had a difficult time borrowing money to finance aircraft purchases and other purposes. The chief executive of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. said, however, that the credit squeeze seems to be easing.

Southwest shares fell 18 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $6.75 in afternoon trading.

May 11, 2009, 9:32 AM ET
Captain’s Training Faulted In Buffalo Crash That Killed 50

By WSJ Staff
The captain of a commuter plane that crashed Feb. 12 near Buffalo, N.Y., had flunked numerous flight tests during his career and was never adequately taught how to respond to the emergency that led to the airplane’s fatal descent, according to people close to the investigation, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Reporter Andy Pasztor writes:
All 49 people aboard were killed, as well as one person in a house below, when the plane crashed just a few miles short of the Buffalo airport en route from Newark, N.J. The Bombardier Q400 turboprop in the crash, which will be the subject of a National Transportation Safety Board hearing Tuesday, was operated by commuter carrier Colgan Air Inc., a division of Pinnacle Airlines Corp.

Capt. Marvin Renslow had never been properly trained by the company to respond to a warning system designed to prevent the plane from going into a stall, according to people familiar with the investigation. As the speed slowed to a dangerous level, setting off the stall-prevention system, he did the opposite of the proper procedure, which led to the crash, these people said.
Additionally, his 24-year-old co-pilot, Rebecca Shaw, had complained before takeoff about being congested and said she probably should have called in sick, according to people who have listened to the cockpit voice recording.

The circumstances surrounding Continental Connection Flight 3407 have prompted investigators and regulators to examine Colgan’s hiring and training practices. At the NTSB hearing, witnesses are expected to provide new allegations about training shortcomings, as well as the prevalence of chronic pilot fatigue and lapses in cockpit discipline. The NTSB also is expected to be critical of the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of the airline. The FAA, which has said it is investigating the airline over pilot scheduling, declined to comment on issues likely to be raised the hearing.

Pinnacle has said its pilot training programs “meet or exceed regulatory requirements for all major airlines” and crews “are prepared to handle emergency situations they might face.” On Sunday, spokesman Joe Williams confirmed in an email that Capt. Renslow had five “unsatisfactory” training check rides in his career — including two at Colgan — but passed a subsequent series of training tests and was “fully qualified in the Q400″ aircraft.

In recent weeks, Colgan’s top two training officials resigned; Mr. Williams has said their decisions were voluntary and not connected to the accident. Darrell Mitchell, Colgan’s departing director of training, is slated to testify at Tuesday’s hearing.

At the start of Tuesday’s hearing, the NTSB will open its public docket on the Colgan accident. Readers will be able to download the file, which includes reports, interview transcripts, cockpit voice recorder transcripts, flight data recorder information and other documents, once the hearing gets underway.

An agenda for the three-day hearing is available here.

Airlines bank on fees in down times
By Kelly Yamanouchi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, May 10, 2009

The onslaught of more airline fees on everything from checked bags to seat assignments is helping airlines bring in more cash, but for travelers it can mean muddled comparison shopping when seeking the lowest cost for a flight.

Add-on fees have become an effective way for airlines to boost revenue at a time when recession-weakened travel demand compels them to drop fares.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines in July starts charging passengers on international flights a $50 fee each way for checking a second bag. Other airlines are studying the move but have not yet matched. That means travelers who check two bags may find a lower fare on Delta compared with other carriers, but their cost for traveling could end up higher.

Various airlines have baggage charges that can add up fast. Pack a third bag on an international flight and Delta will tack on another $200 fee each way, for example. Overweight bags on a Delta international flight would each cost at least $300 extra round trip and oversized bags would each cost $350 extra round trip.

Even on domestic flights, “your $78 airplane ticket can be $600 or $700 in a New York minute just because you didn’t pay attention” to fees for extra, overweight and oversized bags, said Tom Parsons, founder of Bestfares.com.

The fees enable airlines to win bookings from customers using travel Web sites to compare prices and choose the lowest fare, then collect more revenue when travelers arrive at the airport with extra bags or seek other services.

Bill Swelbar, a researcher at the International Center for Air Transportation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said airlines have had to look for other revenue sources because fares alone don’t cover the cost of travel.

“The airline seat is a commodity product,” Swelbar said. Airlines believe they must offer the lowest fares “because so many decisions on travel are based on price and price alone.”
AirTran Airways chief financial officer Arne Haak has said travelers will spend hours searching for fares online to save $8, then “come to the airport and spend $20 to buy a soda, a bag of chips, a candy bar and a magazine that they could have bought for half the price.”

Parsons said “John Q. Traveler” seems much more concerned about finding the lowest base fare. “All the other incidentals they don’t seem to be upset with,” he said.

While most airlines already charge for checked bags on domestic flights, baggage rules have been more liberal for international travel, where longer trips may require more bags and fares often are already much higher.

“Now they’re telling you you’ve also got to pay for bags,” Parsons said. “I remember when they used to give you bags. Where’s my old PanAm bag?”

Delta, which reported a $794 million loss for the first quarter, said it took in more than $160 million from baggage fees in the quarter. It expects the new international second checked bag fee to generate about $100 million annually.

Chicago-based United Airlines said it takes in about $14 in ancillary revenues and fees per passenger.

One carrier —- Southwest Airlines, which does not fly to Atlanta —- has held back on charging many of the extra fees, and it promotes the difference.

But other discount airlines, including Spirit and Allegiant, have gone further than the big carriers, including a fee for bookings made online and charges for non-alcoholic beverages.

And US Airways is adding a fee on top of a fee. On July 9, the carrier plans to begin charging $5 for paying checked bag fees at the airport instead of online. US Airways also charges for international checked bags to and from Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, but not to and from Europe and Asia.

A consumer’s only defense at this point is careful research and adjusting plans to avoid fees.
Technology is in the works to make it easier for travelers to compare prices. The technology is being developed for reservations systems that airlines and travel agencies use to sell airline tickets.

Some travel Web sites also offer fee comparisons. TripAdvisor in February launched a flight search engine with a fees estimator that asks travelers how many bags they will check, whether they have elite frequent flier status —- which can affect which fees apply —- and if they will want food, drinks or entertainment in flight.

Other travel sites, including Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity, offer charts that compare different airlines’ fees. Another site, flyingfees.com, compares airline fees.

According to a TripAdvisor survey, 36 percent of respondents said they have been surprised by the cost of checked baggage fees at the airport.

“I thought there would be more backlash from the traveling public over the payment of fees than there has been,” Swelbar said.

American Airlines global alliance soon to be OK'd?
12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, May 9, 2009
By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News dmichaels@dallasnews.com

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation looks poised to approve antitrust immunity for American Airlines' alliance with British Airways, Iberia and other carriers.

"These alliances are life savers for airlines," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Friday. "That is the premise from which we start. We believe it. The airlines believe it. And so we are going to continue to pursue those kinds of opportunities where we have them."
Two other global alliances have antitrust immunity, allowing them to cooperate on schedules, fares and cargo prices.

House Democrats are much more skeptical than LaHood of airline alliances, saying they are anti-competitive and drive up prices for international routes. Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has said immunized alliances amount to a "de facto merger" of airlines.

American says alliances have resulted in more trans-Atlantic service and better frequent-flier benefits for travelers.

Legislation to fund the Federal Aviation Administration passed Oberstar's committee in March and included a provision that would retire existing antitrust exemptions after three years. It also would direct government auditors to study whether such alliances have hurt competition and whether applications should be subject to a merger analysis by the Department of Justice.
However, LaHood on Friday supported the idea that alliances are needed to achieve efficiencies in today's market. Last month, his department proposed to grant antitrust immunity to Continental Airlines for its participation in the Star Alliance, which includes United Airlines, Air Canada and Lufthansa Airlines.

"When I called the chairmen of United and Continental and told them our department was going to move ahead with their alliance, you know what they said?" La Hood said. " 'This is a life saver for us.' "

Parties interested in the Oneworld application have until May 18 to submit comments about it. American and British Airways have until May 28 to respond. The department would make a preliminary ruling after that and has until Oct. 31 to issue a final ruling.

The European Union recently began investigating the Oneworld and Star alliances for possible violations of antitrust rules.

May 6, 2009, 10:47 AM ET
Artist Allegedly Swigged Hand Soap, Tried to Bite United Flight Attendant
By Matt Phillips
Wow. It’s been a while since a tale of poor passenger behavior grabbed our attention as much as this one.

The Chicago Tribune’s Julie Johnsson reports:
United Airlines diverted a recent flight bound for London after an incoherent and disruptive passenger, apparently woozy from a combination of pills, alcohol and lavatory hand soap, allegedly tried to bite a flight attendant in the leg.

Galina Rusanova, a British citizen, was charged with interference with a flight crew and assault for allegedly disrupting United Flight 934 from Los Angeles to London Heathrow Airport on April 29, forcing the plane to land in Maine.

She could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In a Monday hearing in U.S. District Court in Bangor, Maine, Rusanova agreed to be detained pending trial.

Rusanova is described by the British press as a Russian-born artist, actress and author who rubs elbows with the rich and famous. She was returning home to the United Kingdom after traveling to California to visit a man she had met over the Internet, according to court documents.

“What wasn’t disclosed through the affidavit is that Ms. Rusanova is a very intelligent, charming woman,” said her attorney, Matthew Erickson. “This comes as a shock to her.”
Erickson added: “Her mistake was to mix prescription drugs with alcohol. After that, all bets were off.”

Of course the detail of this episode that really stands out is the hand soap. According to court documents filed May 1, a flight attendant approached Rusanova after passengers said the artist was being disruptive, “at which time she observed her drink a bottle of liquid soap that she had apparently removed from the bathroom.”

An affidavit also cites a written statement from a flight crew member “in which she reports that at one point while Rusanova was in the galley, she fell to the ground and began ’snapping like a dog’ and trying to bite flight crew member Donoho’s leg.”

Johnsson reports that while Rusanova could face a long stint in jail, guidelines for sentencing in cases like hers suggest jail terms ranging from time served to about six months, according to the artist’s lawyer.

Airlines: Where Capital Goes to Die
The big U.S. carriers have a broken business model and little relief in sight. Some long held assumptions about the industry could soon be upended
By Justin Bachman

As U.S. banks grapple with federal "stress tests" on their balance sheets, a similar process is playing out in the airline industry. Mix a deep recession with tight credit and fear of an influenza pandemic, and there's plenty of stress on airline balance sheets this spring. That has carriers conserving every last penny and hoping the summer travel months provide a sufficient cushion to last through to an economic recovery.

But what if the summer is not bountiful, or the global recession turns nastier? What if another health or terror scare further depresses flying? For most of their history airlines have been growth enterprises, with heavy capital needs but plenty of people willing to invest. That was then, however; today a share of most airline stocks costs less than a six-pack of microbrew.

Those shares serve as little more than a proxy for the price of crude oil—a trading stock that can turn a quick profit. Legacy airline debt yields a 20% or better return, but only because the risk is so high. The current times are sapping cash; maintaining liquidity has become a central job for airlines. "We have in this business been able to fund long-term losses with outside capital … and that is going to be harder to do in the future," US Airways (LCC) CEO Doug Parker said on May 4, citing "fundamental" changes for airlines' financial partners such as banks, aircraft makers, lessors, and other suppliers.

All Eyes on the Baby Boomers
So where will operating capital come from? It's a crucial question for airlines. If demand doesn't return to the same degree as in past recoveries—indeed, if in coming years aging baby boomers wracked by stock losses and shaky home prices fundamentally change their spending habits and don't travel as much as predicted—revenues could be severely crimped. That might combine with two rising expenses: higher payments to underfunded pension plans that cover older airline workers, and more capital to update aging jet fleets.

Yet as the recent experience of troubled American banks and car companies has shown, once far-fetched scenarios can quickly morph into solutions for vital yet ailing industries. U.S. taxpayers have been summoned repeatedly for aid, as have investors abroad. Uncle Sam has also offered enticing terms to spur certain investments—similar incentives could be devised for the airline industry. And for practical purposes, the Obama Administration has been managing General Motors (GM), Chrysler, and American International Group (AIG). Why not an airline or two?

If airlines are eventually forced into bankruptcy, pensions may be jettisoned, as US Airways, Delta (DAL), and United (UAUA) have all done in Chapter 11. But federal officials could require more funds from companies that wish to do so. As for aircraft, the U.S. lags Europe and Asia in terms of commercial fleet age because cash-strapped U.S. airlines have bought very few of the latest models (zero of the jumbo Airbus A380s, for example). Airbus and Boeing (BA) are themselves scrambling to keep business and tend to offer large customers attractive financing and other breaks, but that would hardly cover the needs of an industrywide order for 1,000 or more new planes.

Consolidation Among the Big Five?
"Looking ahead, with credit tight, where will capital—affordable capital—be found unless it is from another participant in the same industry?" Bill Swelbar, a research engineer with MIT's International Center for Air Transportation and a Hawaiian Airlines (HA) director, wrote recently on his blog. "If companies are struggling to realize any return on invested capital today, then what happens as interest rates continue to increase in lockstep with capital scarcity?"

As Swelbar suggests, the logical answer would be consolidation among the five big carriers. A new round of bankruptcies might even see one or more of a large airline's best bits sold off to a rival, or outright liquidations—steps that were largely avoided during the reorganizations that followed the 2001 terrorist attacks. Even after the capacity cutbacks spurred by crude oil's spike in the summer of 2008, many observers say far more—25% to 35% of the current capacity—must be removed before any meaningful profit-margin improvements will be realized.

"There are too many airlines," says Vicki Bryan, a senior bond analyst with Gimme Credit in New York. "Even last year when they were all just getting killed, slaughtered, massacred on fuel … the net reduction in capacity was just not significant."

Ownership Issues Coming to a Head
But airline consolidation remains a minefield that encroaches on union and political interests. Ditto for another potential source of capital, healthier European and Asian carriers. U.S. law restricts foreign airline ownership in U.S. carriers to a minority stake, but the International Air Transport Assn. and big European airlines have made that issue a central part of the debate over further liberalization in U.S.-European air links, with the matter coming to a head in 2010 when a second phase of the "Open Skies" treaty is set to be negotiated.

"From California to the eastern banks of Europe, this should be one market, and we should treat it as one market," Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber said Apr. 29 in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. Lufthansa has been on the forefront of consolidation in Europe, taking controlling ownership since 2005 in various carriers: SWISS, Austrian, Belgian, and bmi, and a 19% stake in JetBlue (JBLU).

The long argument against foreign control of U.S. carriers, dating from the 1940s, has been based on national security and the government's ability to gain access to the civilian fleet in emergencies. Others worry that European or Asian operators would slash jobs and decline to serve small, less profitable U.S. cities. But nationalistic arguments may hold diminishing sway at a time when an Italian industrial group, Fiat (FIA.MI), is negotiating to acquire one of Detroit's iconic Big Three automakers, and the largest U.S. bank—Citigroup (C)—has sold a nearly 9% stake to investors in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.

Going Private Not Likely
One other option that might apply in other industries—going private—is unlikely to come to airlines. Jesup & Lamont analyst Helane Becker raised the question with United's management during a recent earnings call: With their public equity virtually worthless, why don't airlines seek funds from public debt? But to go private, airline executives would have to borrow heavily to buy their shares—and even if they did so, they'd be spending those funds on a severely distressed asset.

That's not a scenario lenders would care to see. As for an outside takeover, private equity firms have lost the financial firepower they deployed in 2006 and 2007 as the worldwide credit markets seized. And even if they had escaped the market collapse unscathed, an airline would be among the least favorable places to invest. Moreover, the legacy carriers already have substantial leverage on the books, leaving a takeover artist no space to add debt. "It becomes an opportunity cost, too," says Ben Baldanza, chief executive of privately held Spirit Airlines. "If you got a billion dollars are you going to go buy an airline?"

For cash-strapped airlines, the looming crisis could produce relief in many forms: a new European owner, a government-overseen industry consolidation that forces travelers to pay more, or the sort of terms that may make a large investment fund scramble for its checkbook. As recent history demonstrates, old problems in this environment have a way of attracting new solutions.

Bachman is deputy news director for BusinessWeek.com.

Will Southwest Lose Some of the LUV?
By WSJ Staff
Journal reporter Mike Esterl writes:Those famously cheerful smiles aboard Southwest Airlines could become a little more strained in the coming months.

The giant discount carrier has long had a feel-good vibe on board and at the check-in counter, partly because the company has never had layoffs in its 38-year history. Or any bankruptcy filings, which have caused other airlines to slash employee wages and benefits.

Southwest struck pay-hike deals with unions in recent weeks with a minimum of fuss. Contrast that with American Airlines, currently mired in protracted and poisoned negotiations with most of its workers.

But Southwest management is finding it tougher to be generous now that it has posted three straight quarterly net losses. On Thursday the airline said it plans to reduce staffing and will offer voluntary buy-outs, available to almost all of its 35,500 employees. It’s the third such offer in the past five years; a bit more than 1,600 took buyouts in 2004 and 2007.

CEO Gary Kelly, known for dressing up in funny outfits to keep spirits up at Southwest’s Love Field headquarters, says management hasn’t set a firm number for workers it must shed. Offer terms have not been made public and will reach employees in early May. But it’s quite possible a lot of them won’t be willing to walk in the midst of a prolonged recession.

That could force some tough decisions. Southwest management has long held that treating employees well means they’ll treat customers well and business will do well as a result, making shareholders happy.

Mr. Kelly says layoffs remain a last resort, but he also acknowledged in a conference call Thursday that all options are on the table during a dramatic downturn in travel.

Mr. Kelly said he could envision a scenario of forced layoffs if the company has to cut its fleet size by around 10%. Southwest isn’t there yet. But it has put fleet expansion plans on indefinite hold. That’s in contrast to previous industry downturns, when Southwest used the opportunity to aggressively gain market share. He also said if conditions continue to deteriorate, he could at some point ask workers for pay concessions.

Southwest’s overall cost structure remains low, thanks in part to the simplicity of its business model. But its labor costs — adjusted for capacity — were second only to American among 13 big carriers last September, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation. In the first quarter of this year, its workforce grew 2.1% and its labor costs rose 4.5% over the same period in 2008, even as capacity shrank 4.1% and revenue fell 6.8%.

Those kinds of numbers don’t usually put smiles on the face of shareholders or employees.

American Invests in Its Future With First Deliveries of New Boeing 737-800s
Despite Challenges, American Continues to Invest for the Long-Term With Fuel- Efficient Aircraft
Monday April 13, 2009, 12:30 pm EDT

CHICAGO and TULSA, Okla., April 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Airlines today took an important step toward a significant investment in its long-term future by welcoming two Boeing 737-800 aircraft into its fleet on the eve of their maiden passenger flights.

As American begins the process of replacing its MD-80 fleet, employees, customers and public officials commemorated the arrival of its first new 737- 800s since December 2001 with ceremonies at company facilities in Chicago and Tulsa. The new airplanes, which go into service April 14, are the first of 76 737-800s that will arrive through the first quarter of 2011.

"Even as we battle many significant challenges, we must remain focused on our long-term future, which is what these new 737s represent," said Gerard Arpey, Chairman and CEO of AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle. "While our MD-80s remain an important part of our fleet and continue to serve our company and customers well, our new 737s are a vital investment that will benefit our customers, employees, shareholders and the communities we serve. They will help keep our product competitive while offering cost, environmental and operational benefits.

"With today's economic realities causing many companies, including American, to cut back, we must continue to find ways to control costs and boost revenues. While it is a big decision to spend money on new airplanes, especially in tough times, not doing so could be more expensive in the long run."

Arpey noted that the two locations chosen for today's ceremonial events also hold a special significance.

"Chicago, which is one of our vital network hubs, is where these two new airplanes -- and many other new 737s -- will be based," Arpey said. "Tulsa is one of our important maintenance bases and employment centers, and, unlike other airlines that outsource maintenance work and jobs, it is where our own employees will maintain and service these new airplanes for many years to come. This delivery represents the very essence of Made in America, Maintained by American."
AMR employs 7,000 people in Tulsa and 10,000 in Chicago, contributing $14.6 billion to the local economies of the two metropolitan areas.

In spite of an increasingly challenging credit market, Arpey noted that American has been fortunate to be able to secure financing commitments to cover the majority of its expected 737 deliveries. "With the financing commitments we have in place, we now have the ability to finance our expected 737 deliveries well into the fourth quarter of 2010, and we continue to pursue a number of additional financing opportunities," Arpey said.

The new airplanes, which will carry 160 passengers, offer many cost, environmental and customer benefits. They include numerous upgrades and enhancements from previous airplanes and a configuration aimed at improving the passenger experience and operational efficiency.

"Boeing is pleased to be a part of this new chapter in American Airlines history and we look forward to seeing these state-of-the-art airplanes in the skies," said Kevin Schemm, Vice President, North America Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "We're proud of the relationship we have with American Airlines, and we're excited about the superior product American's passengers will soon enjoy."

New First Class and coach seats will provide improved living space and comfort. In addition, new "big bins" for overhead storage will significantly increase passenger cabin luggage storage capacity by allowing roll-aboards to be loaded wheels first, increasing standard roll-aboards storage capacity by almost double.

Inflight entertainment will include 20 drop-down LCD monitors mounted in passenger service units under overhead storage bins. The new planes have 110V AC power available to all passengers -- a first in American Airlines fleet history and a customer convenience that ends the need for power adapters. Travelers can now plug in laptops and other portable electronic equipment just as they would at the home or office.

There is one power port per seat in First Class and two ports per three seats in coach class. Over time, American plans to equip these aircraft with AirCell's Gogo® Inflight Internet service, which will allow passengers to surf the Web, check e-mail, and send instant messages conveniently from the air.

The 737-800s will burn 35 percent less fuel than an MD-80 on a seat-mile basis. They will also be outfitted with Blended Winglets(TM), similar to those installed on American's current fleet. These wing tip extensions provide significant operating, fuel efficiency and environmental benefits, such as reduced noise on takeoff and approach and lower emissions through lower cruise thrust.

The new deliveries will be added to American's current fleet of 77 737- 800s and are intended to eventually replace American's fleet of approximately 270 MD-80s.

Continental Move to Star Alliance: Will it Heighten Competition with Delta?
April 8, 2009, 10:46 AM ET

By WSJ Staff
The U.S. Transportation Department on Tuesday gave Continental Airlines preliminary approval to join a global alliance that cooperates on scheduling and revenue sharing, a sign the Obama administration may not support a congressional effort to limit such alliances, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Journal reporters Christopher Conkey and Paulo Prada write:
The administration’s decision will allow Continental to join the Star Alliance with UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, Air Canada, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and other carriers. It also grants the alliance antitrust immunity, in essence giving the carriers permission to act as a single airline on international routes. The approval was expected and is consistent with policy under previous administrations.

But the Continental action comes as Rep. James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who serves as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is pushing legislation that would curtail international airline alliances.

The agreements, especially when fortified by antitrust immunity, enable airlines to act in ways that would otherwise be considered collusive. Mr. Oberstar, who couldn’t be reached to comment, says these alliances limit competition and hurt consumers.

A DOT spokesperson declined to comment on Mr. Oberstar’s proposal…
For Houston-based Continental, the switch to the Star alliance will give it a bigger and more strategic role than it currently has in SkyTeam, where many of its routes overlapped with Delta, which flies to many of the same markets in Europe and Latin America as Continental.

By aligning itself with United, whose main international routes lie across the Pacific, and Lufthansa, one of the biggest carriers in Europe,the airline is expected to enjoy a greater volume of transfer traffic and broader international reach than it does now. Continental expects to make the switch to Star later this year, after it modifies sales and reservations systems so they can communicate directly with those of its new partners.

As we noted in a previous post, it’ll be interesting to watch how Continental’s move to the Star alliance will play out in the New York market. For instance, Delta recently has touted its promotional links to the New York Yankees and Mets, while it opted not to renew its sponsorship of the Atlanta Falcons. Some said part of that decision might be an effort at Delta to try to connect with Continental fliers — who frequent the carriers major New York-area hub in Newark and have gotten used to SkyTeam — and keep them from switching to Star with Continental.

Southwest Airlines set to upset its NYC rivals
Discount carrier offers low prices for its first routes from LaGuardia
By Christopher Hinton, MarketWatch
Last update: 12:27 p.m. EDT April 7, 2009

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- New Yorkers who make frequent flights to Chicago and Washington, D.C., are about to find themselves paying less for airfare.

On Tuesday, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (LUV:
LUV 6.84, -0.50, -6.8%) said it would begin eight daily flights from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Chicago Midway and Baltimore-Washington airports, beginning June 28.

The low-cost carrier also offered historically low ticket prices on its LaGuardia routes, with one-way flights to Chicago for $89 and to Baltimore-Washington for $49. That's bound to put pricing pressure on rivals like AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and UAL Corp.'s United.
UAUA 5.53, -0.33, -5.6%) United and JetBlue Airways.

Many carriers out of New York City have offered similar fares during sales over the past three months to increase demand in a recessionary economy, but the "Southwest effect" of bringing permanently lower prices is well known across the industry, analysts said.

"They most definitely bring in a lower cost structure," said Vaughn Cordle, chief analyst with AirlinesForecast LLC.

More groundbreaking have been Southwest's walkup fares for LaGuardia, priced "substantially lower" than competitors at a range of $225 to $425, according to Rick Seaney of Farecompare.com.

"This may be in part to compensate for the legacy airlines' advantage with frequent nonstops to several popular business destinations out of New York where Southwest must connect with a one-stop," Seaney said.

Southwest announced last year that it would purchase LaGuardia time slots from bankrupt ATA.

At the time, Chief Executive Gary Kelly said he was confident his airline could maintain its high standard for on-time efficiency despite the airport's reputation as a traffic bottleneck.

Shares of Southwest were down 6% at last check to $6.94. Christopher Hinton is a reporter for MarketWatch based in New York.

Here is information to assist the (former TWA) AA flight Attendants who were recently furloughed again.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE, SO DO IT NOW! DO YOUR HOMEWORK AND READ EVERYTHING. ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IS RIGHT HERE IN THESE LINKS.

PBGC Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (USA)
https://egov3.pbgc.gov/mypba/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fmypba%2fprivate%2fcustomer%2fhome.aspx

Links to HCTC Health Care Tax Credit
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=109960,00.html

IRS Partial Coverage of Cobra
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=109956,00.html

Seniority issue could be expensive for Delta

APSeniority issue could be expensive for Delta
Friday March 20, 5:00 pm ET

Seniority issues could force Delta Air Lines to hire workers it doesn't need

ATLANTA (AP) -- Delta Air Lines may be in the costly position of hiring employees it ideally wouldn't need, spending precious cash the carrier wants to preserve in the uncertain economy.
That's because two key work groups haven't resolved seniority issues resulting from the combination of Delta and Northwest Airlines into the world's biggest airline operator.

Seniority determines schedules, vacations, work rules and the way employees bid for flights. Pilots have a merged seniority list and joint contract, but flight attendants and ground workers, such as baggage handlers and reservation agents, don't.

In April, Delta will begin flying its planes in Northwest markets and vice versa. This cross-fleeting is about using the right size aircraft on a specific route based on the demand in that market, and Delta has said one of the key benefits of its acquisition of Northwest was the flexibility to use each carrier's aircraft on the other's routes.

However, flight attendants from one carrier won't be able to work on the other's aircraft because of outstanding seniority and representation issues.

For example, a new international flight on a pre-merger Delta aircraft may require flight attendants who speak a particular language. If Delta attendants aren't available, the airline may need to hire people with that capability even if pre-merger Northwest flight attendants who spoke the language were available. And Delta wouldn't necessarily switch to a Northwest aircraft on that route because it may be inefficient to do so.

Delta currently can't estimate the cost, and experts won't speculate without wage data from the airline and the number of employees to be hired.

Passengers may not notice much right away, but eventually friction between workers could affect morale and, perhaps, hurt customer service.

Jerry Glass, a former US Airways executive who is now president of human resources and labor-management relations consulting firm F&H Solutions Group, said Delta wants to resolve seniority for business reasons, and customer service is a part of that.

If there is a lengthy battle over seniority at Delta "there may be enhancements they want to make that may take them longer and there may be workarounds they may have to do to get that completed," Glass said.

Delta has publicly urged the two groups to resolve the integration of the seniority lists soon. Unions that represent the flight attendants, baggage handlers and reservation agents who worked for Northwest before the Oct. 29 buyout have resisted.