Gotta love Air Canada:  The airline announced that in response to lower fuel costs, they wil drop their 2nd bag fee (previously $25).  And in another consumer-friendly announcement, they will build fuel surcharges into base fares, so that if you see a $159 flight, it actually costs $159 (rather than $159 plus $30 in fuel [...]

I’ve seen a bunch of articles this morning suggesting that Qantas has canceled its plans to offer Internet access on the A380 due to fears that passengers will spend the whole flight surfing porn (American Airlines flight attendants are asking the airline to put filtering software on their Internet service.  For its part, the airline [...]

Spanish authorities have released a preliminary report about the Spanair crash that killed 154 people last month.  As a government official notes, aircraft accidents tend to happen for multiple reasons.  In this case investigators are pointing to two concerns:  a cockpit alert system failed to notify pilots that the wing flaps had not extended correctly; [...]

United has heard your griping about checked bag fees and in response they’ve made some changes.  Specifically, the response was “Go Screw Yourself, We’re Doubling the Fee.”  United has joined Delta in charging $50 for a second checked bag.  As today’s Wall St Journal points out, Southwest hasn’t gained any extra business because they aren’t [...]

Passengers on an Air Berlin flight from Nuremberg to Faro, Portugal, forced the airline to change their aircraft after 2 unrelated delays.  The plane was originally delayed and returned to the terminal after a cockpit display was broken.  The plane was fixed and taxied again, only to have a flight attendant pass out.  Passengers, who [...]

I was away over the weekend, so I wasn’t going to write anything today, but as one of my kids was up in the middle of the night Sunday I checked the news and saw that the writer David Foster Wallace had killed himself.  If you’re familiar with him, you’ve likely already read any number [...]

The impending arrival of Hurricane Ike has caused Continental to close its Houston hub operation until Sunday morning.  Some flights will also be canceled on Sunday, so check with the airline if you have travel on Sunday on Continental.  You can make a one-time change for free or, if your flight has been canceled, get [...]

British leisure tour (and airline) operator XL Leisure shut down, stranding about 85,000 people around the world (about 10,000 people were flying their airline, XL Airways).
Bookmaker Paddy Power had put out a list on Wednesday of airlines it thought would shut down, and XL wasn’t on the list - but bettors put so much money [...]

In response to US criticism of Venezuela’s airport security, the Venezuelan government has told US carriers that they must reduce the number of flights to Caracas by the end of September.  Schedule changes have not yet been announced, but if you’re traveling to Caracas after September, you’re going to want to call your airline to [...]

In case you were wondering how big a difference it makes when airlines add a first checked bag fee, Continental has given us a bit of a clue:  The carrier says that the new fee will generate $100 million in revenue and cost savings (the cost savings come from people not checking as much baggage [...]