Several airline news stories caught my attention during the last week, and I’ve summarized the highlights below:

• United Airlines & Continental Airlines added three new routes from their hub at Houston’s Intercontinental Airport (IAH) this week. ExpressJet is operating daily nonstop flights to Cedar Rapids (CID) and Grand Junction (GJT) under the Continental Express name using Embraer ERJ-145 single class jets. Shuttle America is operating daily service to Montreal (YUL) under the United Express name using twin-cabin ERJ-170 aircraft. Those CID & GJT flights clock in at 845 and 978 miles respectively, so not necessarily my idea of fun flying on such a small aircraft with limited onboard service.
• Virgin Australia is now officially the rebrand from Virgin Blue and V Australia, done in part to pull itself up to the big leagues and capture a greater share of the lucrative business travel market within Australia. Richard Branson was on hand yesterday in Sydney to unveil two aircraft painted in the new livery, as well as show off the rather comfortable looking intra-Australia business class cabin.
• In separate but related news, Delta Air Lines has expanded their limited codesharing agreement with Virgin Australia adding the additional destinations of Adelaide, Auckland, Canberra, Christchurch & Perth to the already established cities of Brisbane and Melbourne. In the U.S., V Australia customers can now connect to Delta flights from Los Angeles to Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas & San Francisco, in addition to the pre-existing cities of New York and Orlando.
• The flight attendant union over at American Airlines is criticizing the carrier for a “Face of Your Base” contest, where flight attendants vote on who “looks best in the airline’s new scarves, ties and striped shirts.” The contest winners go on to appear as models in a photo shoot, but the union thinks it reinforces discrimination-based themes of young and thin flight attendants. My opinion? It’s totally fine, and was even created by a team of flight attendants and field managers.
• Finally, Delta Air Lines was granted a lucrative tax break from Georgia governor Nathan Deal, allowing up to $30 million in savings on jet fuel taxes over two years. Oddly, supporters are claiming the deal as necessary to “keep Delta in the state,” which I find hard to imagine Delta would ever leave Atlanta. The tax break itself began several years ago when jet fuel was at its highest, so since Delta has been in a better financial situation as of late, opponents think the tax break is unnecessary.

Here’s a recap of additional news from this week that caught my attention:

• Delta Air Lines introduces the ability to track your checked bags online, as well as at self-service kiosks at its largest stations around the U.S. These upgrades also allow you to submit a missing bag report electronically, where in the past you had to work directly with an agent at the airport, or fax the information in from home. Included with the service is a “Delayed Bag Fee Rebate” in the form of travel vouchers for $25/bag up to two bags if they don’t arrive within 12-hours.
• The battles between Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) and airlines keep making the news, now with US Airways suing Sabre. The carrier claims the GDS refused to allow them to pursue other distribution platforms & threatened to remove their flights from the system if they did. Given that 35% of US Airways revenues flow through Sabre, the carrier had no choice saying, “it would not survive long” without a presence in Sabre. American chimed in, happily pointing out that “American does not stand alone in trying to bring new technologies to the distribution of airline products in the 21^st century.”
• Hilton Hotels officially introduced a new lobby design to eventually be rolled out across the flagship brand. The Hilton McClean Virginia Tysons Corner Hotel has the honor of being the first with the new lobby, featuring community spaces designed to plug in and work on your mobile devices or meet with others in a comfortable lounge-type setting. An 18-hour bar is also prominent, offering time-of-day appropriate food and beverage options.
• As widely reported at most news outlets, American Airlines and United Airlines posted first quarter 2011 losses of $436 million and $213 million respectively, citing fuel costs and the events in Japan as major contributors. Additional capacity cuts are in the works at both carriers. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines did manage to eek out a $5 million profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2011.
• Finally, quite a bit of airline news in Australia has been interesting to monitor this week. There are hints at V Australia entering the San Francisco market after Qantas’ departure, Strategic Airlines is seeking approval to fly to the United States (likely Hawaii), and it’s looking as if the new Virgin Blue will take the name of Virgin Australia, as recent web domain ownership activity suggests.

Today, Virgin Blue revealed the new in-flight staff uniforms designed by the Australian Project Runway winner Juli Grbac, as well as provided additional information about expanding their fleet to offer business class. Trying to lure some of the higher-yield corporate traffic away from Qantas, Virgin Blue’s CEO John Borghetti said, “With our competitive pricing strategy, we believe this will be a compelling proposition for corporate travelers, whether they travel in business or economy class.” Meanwhile, Qantas last week announced increased capacity on the top two long haul flights from Perth to Sydney & Melbourne, and allocated internationally configured Boeing 747 and Airbus A330 aircraft to the routes.

Image courtesy Virgin Blue

Image courtesy Virgin Blue

Virgin Blue has ordered A330 aircraft that will be deployed first on the Sydney to Perth market. Offering two cabins, business class looks quite comfortable, and will feature leather seats with a 62-inch pitch in what will likely be a 2 x 2 x 2 arrangement. As I’m a seat map nut, I’ll be anxiously awaiting that full cabin configuration when it’s available. Delivery of the first two A330s won’t be until May this year, so Qantas will have a nice head-start in hopefully securing continued loyalty with their business class offering on the widebodies. As it stands presently, Virgin Blue offers a “Premium Economy” fare for seats in the first three rows of the 737s, for which they block the middle seat and provide a few inches of additional legroom. Virgin Blue is claiming business class will be introduced fleet-wide by December 31^st.

Lounge options are presently available for Virgin Blue domestic flyers in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Three additional lounges will be added by the end of the year, the first of which will open June 30 at Coolangatta airport on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

While the single-class concept worked initially for Virgin Blue, seeking higher revenue traffic makes total sense in today’s economy, and perhaps might make the carrier’s entry into Star Alliance even more of a possibility. I mentioned in a post back in December that I’d love to have a Star carrier in Australia, and Virgin Blue’s chief Borghetti was in attendance at the Star Alliance CEOs meeting. My fingers are still crossed!

Virgin Blue’s CEO John Borghetti was in attendance at the Star Alliance CEOs meeting this week in Queenstown, New Zealand. This is actually encouraging news, and something I thought wasn’t in the cards since they ended their limited codeshare agreement with United Airlines back in 2009, and have since partnered up with Delta. This newer Delta/Virgin Blue relationship did receive an unexpected setback earlier this year, though, when the DOT said it would reject an anti-trust effort between the carriers. (In sort-of-related news, Flying With Fish brings up similarly messy legal issues for a proposed Virgin Atlantic/Delta Air Lines merger.)

So, given the legal struggles Virgin Blue is having with furthering their relationship with Delta here in the US, it would be incredibly welcome news if suddenly Virgin Blue joined Star. Borghetti was quoted at the Star meeting as saying:

“We’ve got a lot on at the moment and we’re evaluating everything, and I mean everything, and certainly as we go forward we’ll see where that leads.”

Selfishly, as a frequent traveler to Australia, I hope they join! The former codeshare agreement was extremely limited and only allowed you to earn mileage on United for a select few flights, not their entire schedule. In 2007, I ended up flying from Perth to Sydney on Qantas and credited that to my less-preferred American Airlines account because the Virgin offering didn’t match up with my schedule. Here are the cities served in Australia by Virgin Blue and its regional carriers: