Things in the Sky

When I was at NBTA in San Diego, Capt. Sullenberger of US Airways Flight 1549 said that he would be returning to the cockpit soon, and US Airways put out a press release yesterday saying that in addition to flying, Sullenberger will become a management pilot and “will join the US Airways flight operations safety management team.” His return is great, but I’d like to focus on this part of the press release:

There will be a separate media advisory once the details of Capt. Sullenberger’s return to flight are confirmed. A pre-announcement of his return will be posted on Twitter @usairwaysnews.

Finally, the airline has entered the Twitterspehere!

It seems a bit odd to have the first official word about Twitter buried in a press release, but nevertheless it’s great to see the airline participating. Now, now every legacy carrier is now participating in some way, and the only other large U.S. carrier missing right now is AirTran, which plans to be on Twitter in the coming months. Hopefully US Airways will not just use the account as a news feed, but also as a way to connect with its customers as effectively as airlines like Alaska, EasyJet, JetBlue, and Southwest .