I figure January is a much better time than December to look into the patented OTR Looking Glass ™ to pull predictions out of my ass (er…closely analyze the airline industry) to see what the next year is going to look like.  My thoughts:
- Wi-fi, Wi-fi, Wi-fi.  Wi-fi will be widely available on US airlines [...]

Frontier Airlines announced that it will now charge $75 for same-day confirmed standby. This is an improvement over the old system, where you paid the difference in fare (ie, the Southwest Airlines policy), which was typically more than $75. Though it’s worse than the system most airlines used to have where you could [...]

I thought it might be useful/depressing to pass along a quick overview of the horrible/annoying/depressing things we’ve seen happen since the fuel hike:
Northwest/Delta merger (less service + higher fares = unhappy flyers in Minot)
American’s $15 first bag fee
Everyone else’s $25 second bag fee
US Airways removes snacks from domestic flights
American cuts domestic capacity 12% and decimates [...]

(Thanks to IAH-PHX for passing along the best story of the week)
Frontier has updated their list of fees they charge for various things (checked bags, unaccompanied minors, antlers) and they…um…wait. Did I just write “antlers?” Yes I did. Those bastards at Frontier are going to charge me $100 to send my [...]

(Thanks to longtime reader IAHPHX for the heads up on this):
AirTran’s stock collapsed by about 1/3 on Friday after Frontier announced its bankruptcy and caused unfounded speculation that AirTran would face a cash crunch.  As IAHPHX points out, AirTran actually has one of the strongest financial positions of any carrier, and the airline put out [...]

I already wrote one (very, very) long post this week, so I won’t again, but just know that with Frontier’s announced bankruptcy yesterday, I officially nominate this as the worst 10 days in the history of aviation (excluding accidents, of course).  In case you’ve been elsewhere, here’s what’s happened:
– Aloha shutdown
– Skybus shutdown
– Champion shutdown
– [...]

The modern-day US airline industry, which allowed people to fly all over the country for roughly the same price as a couple of steaks at Morton’s, died last week after a long illness. It was 30 years old.
The cause of death was oil. And irrational pricing. And low fare carriers. And [...]

An odd one:  During some congressional testimony yesterday, witnesses discussed an incident in 2004 where both the pilot and the first officer of a red-eye flight from Denver to Baltimore fell asleep 45 minutes before landing.  The pilot was flying his third overnight in a row.
They were awakened by "frantic" calls from air traffic control [...]

Frontier Airlines recently conducted a survey and found that its passengers were 17 pounds lighter on average than the rest of Americans, resulting in a $3 million annual fuel savings for the carrier.  The airline suggests that people in Denver are in better shape than other Americans (which, I suppose, sounds about right).  No word [...]

(Thanks to the guys at SEO Speedwagon for this heads up):
The FBI arrested a man when his Frontier Airlines flight arrived in San Jose because passengers had observed him writing in a notebook that had the words "Suicide Bomber" on the front of it.  Oh, and he was supposedly "acting suspiciously," whatever that means.  After [...]