Joe Sharkey At Large

American Airlines Flight 268 from Seattle to JFK was diverted to Chicago today after experiencing electrical problems in flight. The 757-200 then skidded off the O’Hare runway as it landed. There are no reported injuries.

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Continental Airlines has overturned a boneheaded decision earlier this month that greatly PO’d many of its elite-status members and seemed, to me at least, not to offer any concurrent real cost benefit to Continental itself.

The 500-mile minimum credit provision for trips of less than 500 miles has been reinstated, Continental said in an e-mail message today to many of its elite-status members. Several other airlines had earlier whacked the 500-mile minimum, but Continental frequent fliers expected better — and got it.

Nice to see an airline admit a mistake and,  mirable dictu, actually fix it. Here is the Continental e-mail:

“Earlier this month, we announced that OnePass members will earn the actual miles flown rather than a minimum of 500 miles per flight for tickets purchased on or after Nov. 15, 2008.

We’ve listened, and our Elite members think this change unfairly dilutes the benefits of the OnePass program. Therefore we are exempting you from this change, and Elite members will continue to earn the 500 mile minimum on all segments flown under the current policy.”

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Incremental news on air taxis may be pretty small beer on a day that begins with me reading the following sentence in the Wall Street Journal: “With the move, Wall Street as it has been known will cease to exist.”

Excuse me while I grab another mug of coffee and assimilate that.

Anyway, a group of air-taxi providers who mostly use Cirrus SR22 propeller planes says it can fill the service gap left in the Southeast by DayJet, the pioneering air-taxi company that suddenly ceased operations on Friday.

Here’s the Wikipedia entry on the Cirrus SR22, which is best known for a unique feature, a parachute designed to ease the plane — which has only one pilot — to the ground in a dire emergency.

DayJet, which had 28 Eclipse 500 very-light jets and had orders for about 1,400 more, had established a market in Florida and nearby states with its on-demand, per-seat model. But DayJet badly needed investment capital to expand in order to make its business model work, and the dry-up in the credit markets finally brought the company down. Meanwhile, with the collapse of its major customer exacerbating growing production and other problems, Eclipse Aviation, maker of the Eclipse 500, has an uncertain future.

Still, given service cutbacks by major airlines that make a simple trip from, say, Tampa to Tallahassee an day-ordeal, usually with a stopover in some place like Atlanta, it’s apparent to me that the air-taxi business has a market. The question is, will that market be served by small jets like the Eclipse 500, or will it be served by propeller planes and turbo-props, with proven reliability, known availability and better fuel efficiency?

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At least 40 people and probably more were killed today in what initial reports are calling a terrorist suicide car-bomb attack at the Marriott Islamabad hotel in Pakistan. The 280-room, 5-story hotel is popular with American tourists and is a popular meeting and dinner location in the Pakistan capital with Americans and others.

Here is Marriott’s statement this afternoon, in the company blog written regularly by Bill Marriott, the CEO, who is the son of the founder and the man who built Marriott into a major worldwide presence in the hotel industry. Marriott’s statement also lists phone numbers for information on guests at the Islamabad hotel.

I remember meeting a palpably grieving Bill Marriott not long after the 9/11 attacks. At least 50 of the nearly 3,000 killed in Lower Manhattan that day were inside the Marriott at 3 World Trade Center, which firefighters were using as a staging area before the towers collapsed . The hotel, which  sat between the Twin Towers, was destroyed along with the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center on 9/11.

(I also remember that my neighbor, employed by a Wall Street investment firm, was working out in the rooftop gym at the Marriott World Trade Center when the first plane hit on 9/11. He staggered home that night to a distraught wife and family who had no idea whether he was alive, after wandering in shock for hours through the maelstrom. To this day, he doesn’t know how he got out of the hotel or how he made his way home, covered in grime and soot, his suit pockets stuffed with bits of paper containing phone numbers jotted down by New Yorkers who had offered him help and a place to stay.   In the New York area, memories of 9/11 are often personal and still quite raw.)

Here’s a Web site with basic information about the Islamabad hotel.

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There’s been another fatal business jet crash, late last night, involving a Learjet 60 that apparently went off the runway on takeoff at an airport in Columbia, S.C.

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DayJet, the most ambitious of the new “air-taxi” services, has ceased operations. DayJet was the chief customer for Eclipse 500 very-light jets, and Eclipse itself has been struggling with production and other problems

The credit crunch, which had earlier caused DayJet to curtail expansion plans and lay off half of its 250 employees in May, was cited as the main reason for halting operations. The trouble at Eclipse Aviation was another.

DayJet is based in Boca Raton, Fla., and operated flights in Florida and adjoining states.

The news of DayJet’s closing is stunning to those in the industry who envisioned a new era of personal air transport on cheap little jets like the Eclipse 500s, with air-taxi companies that served smaller regional airports with point-to-point on demand flights, selling tickets either by the seat (as DayJet’s extremely complex business plan did it) or by the entire plane, as a kind of charter-service.

Here is the sad announcement from DayJet, and here is the FAQ notice the company sent out this afternoon.

At its closing, DayJet had taken delivery of 28 Eclipse 500 aircraft and had about 1,400 outstanding orders, which accounted for more than half of Eclipse’s total order book.

Customers holding tickets purchased through credit cards (and not debit cards, which don’t carry the same legal protections in the event of a service not rendered) can their contact credit card companies for refunds.

And whither Eclipse Aviation? Here’s a report with some links for background on Eclipse’s troubles.

{Update Sept. 20 — The Albuquerque-based aircraft manufacturer issued a statement today saying that “while DayJet was Eclipse’s largest customer, Eclipse’s business model and success has [sic] never relied solely on DayJet. Eclipse still has hundreds of orders to fill independent of DayJet, and existing customers will be happy and eager to move up in line. Eclipse also anticipates ongoing interest in the United States as well as fulfilling the strong demand for the Eclipse 500 in the global markets.”}

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Days after a tin-eared United Airlines doubled the fee for a second checked bag to $50, Air Canada gains major customer-service points by eliminating the fee, citing the drop in fuel prices.

Go, Air Canada!

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Holy cow, here’s Saudi Arabia, abetted by some American profiteers, trying to position itself as the ‘new Dubai.’

Hold on before you rush to get that visa, though. Nothing really has changed in Saudi Arabia except the desire for more outside investment.

The current State Department Travel Warning on Saudi Arabia says that Americans are “strongly advised to avoid staying in hotels or housing compounds that do not apply stringent security measures …”

Also, before you head off to a fun-filled holiday in the jolly desert kingdom, remember that, as the State Department advises: “Married women need the permission of their husbands to leave Saudi Arabia … This is true regardless of nationality.”

All things considered, I’d rather be in Atlantic City.

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The Wall Street pirates are scaring the bejabbers out of us honest citizens, while the price of oil has dropped below $100 a barrel.

What better time, then, for United Airlines to demonstrate just how big its tin ear really is?

United quietly upped the one-way fee for checking a second bag to $50, for tickets bought starting tomorrow for travel starting Nov. 10.

In an announcement sent on the PR Newswire, United spoke of the “challenging economic environment.” Apparently with a straight face. Here’s the announcement.

The fee for the first checked bag remains at $15. For now.

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