@southwestair Anybody who knows me knows that I’m a huge fan of Southwest Airlines. Recently, I had an experience that proves why Southwest does something right that most airlines have wrong. My travel plans for next weekend have changed. Josh’s closing got pushed back due to a problem on the seller’s end. That means I’m… Continue reading Spreading the LUV
Category: Aviation
Merger
The news is out that Delta and Northwest plan on merging. If you follow the aviation industry, this is hardly a headline. The merger has been in the works for months. What is really fascinating here is the labor relations aspect. Delta said all along that it wouldn’t go through a merger without the support… Continue reading Merger
Three
ATA Airlines announced today that they’re going belly-up as well. If you’re keeping count, that’s three airlines in a week. Keep in mind that none of these airlines have been solid performers, so it comes as no surprise here. Frankly, I’m waiting to see if any of the big carriers start to flounder. ATA had… Continue reading Three
Another one bites the dust…
Charter carrier Champion Air announced today that it is going call it quits, according to the Dallas Morning News. Champion will be grounding its fleet of 14 Boeing 727 aircraft. That’s right, I said Boeing 727 aircraft. According to Wikipedia, the first 727 flew in 1963 and the 727 family continued to be made until… Continue reading Another one bites the dust…
More on Aloha
Aloha Airlines will soon be a footnote in aviation history. They’ve been blaming “illegal” competive practices by Go!, a unit of Mesa Air. Aloha claims that Go! was selling seats below cost. I call bullshit. According to their own site, they were operating the following aircraft: 11 Boeing 737-200 Passenger Advanced 3 Boeing 737-200C 4… Continue reading More on Aloha
Aloha
Aloha Airlines filed for bankruptcy today. (link) It’s not surprising, and you’re going to see some more airlines going down if oil prices continue to rise. This really isn’t a big deal. What I found funny about this article is that both times I visited the page, the banner ad at the top was for… Continue reading Aloha
Delta’s New Safety Video
I read in a recent blog post that Delta is premiering their new safety video. It’s awful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgpzUo_kbFY If the cheesy acting isn’t bad enough, the flight attendant wagging her finger while telling me that smoking is not allowed on any Delta flight is just too much. Maybe I’m just nitpicking the aircraft, but they… Continue reading Delta’s New Safety Video
Too Close for Comfort
If you’ve ever flown into San Francisco, you might have gotten a little warning announcement from your captain about seeing another plane out the windows. You see, San Francisco has two parallel runways that are 750 ft apart, which I believe is the minimum distance allowed between runways. As you’re landing, it sometimes appears as… Continue reading Too Close for Comfort
VS12
I was out walking Reggie tonight when I heard a “heavy” taking off. After a while, you can tell when a widebody aircraft is taking off, and this was certainly one of them. What I saw was a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-600 on its way to London. All I could say was “Wow.” Watching the… Continue reading VS12
Almost Famous
This photo made me almost famous. Click Here to view the photo Several years ago, after I had posted this picture to airliners.net, I got an e-mail from somebody in the 737 program at Boeing. He was asking if they could use this picture (I think it was that one, but it could have been… Continue reading Almost Famous