Continental Airlines, based in Houston, TX, officially switched from the SkyTeam alliance to Star Alliance. The move isn’t a surprise, as Continental’s intentions to switch were announced over a year ago. Star Alliance is the world’s first and largest airline alliance, consisting of founding members: Air Canada, Lufthansa, SAS, Thai Airways, and United Airlines. A day following failed merger talks with United, Continental CEO Larry Kellner received a call from United’s Glenn Tilton, asking fo... Read Full Story

As airlines struggled this past third quarter, good news came from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). After surveying airline chief financial officers, the industry trade group reported an increase in market confidence from airline CFOs, with over 73 percent of them expecting profitability to improve over the next twelve months. How will airlines stack up with this prediction? It’s not too difficult for airlines to improve – it seems as though they’re at their worst. Profitab... Read Full Story

The nation’s cheapest, ancillary revenue friendly airline, Allegiant Air, reported a profit of $13.8 million this past quarter, making them the nation’s most profitable airline for this quarter. In a period of weak demand for air travel, Allegiant successfully boasts higher profit margins than any other carrier in the United States. What are they doing right? (see post) Nothing’s changed drastically. The Las Vegas based company continues to make money from food, beverage, and souvenir sales. ... Read Full Story

In an effort to increase the amount of experience required for airline pilots, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3371, the “Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009.” Many organizations, including the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA), applauded the bill’s passing by the House, but not everyone is happy. The primary element of the bill requires all pilots to hold an FAA Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) license and have a minimum of 1,500 hours of flight... Read Full Story

Germany’s largest airline, Lufthansa, announced plans to bring back WiFi and phone services. Within forthcoming months, the carrier said they would bring back the service, beginning with flights between the United States and Europe. The service will likely be fleet-wide by mid 2010. You might recall Lufthansa offering WiFi three years, however the airline removed the service citing weak demand. The price of WiFi used to be $10 per hour, or $27 for the entire flight; in-flight calls tended to ... Read Full Story

Online social networking quickly became the primary way we communicate and stay-in-touch with others. Through status updates, “tweets”, or blogs, we’re readily updated on friends, family, co-workers, and now… airlines too are on-board with social media. In the past few years, many airlines launched blogs, Twitter accounts, and Facebook fan pages aimed at keeping consumers in-the-loop of airline news, sales, and general day-to-day flying information. Just recently, I spoke with Mr. Christopher... Read Full Story

Chicago based United Airlines said traffic for the month of September fell by 1.1 percent, primarily due to the declining number of passengers in North America. Additionally, United priced $659 million worth of debt, most of which will be used to pay off remaining debt from 2001. For the month of September, paying customers flew 9.25 billion miles, down from 9.35 billion miles in Septbember 2008. The carrier reported that North American traffic fell 6.1 percent to 4.48 billion RPMs (revenue p... Read Full Story

Japan’s first ever passenger jet, the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), received a 100-plane order from U.S. regional airline Trans States. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a outsourced supplier for the Boeing 787, is still continuing development on the 70-90 seat airliner. The company declined to say how much the order was worth, but the catalogue price for the order is valued around $400 million. In 2008, the MRJ received an order from launch customer ANA (All Nippon Airways) for up to 25 pl... Read Full Story

Airbus has decided to proceed with the winglet program for the A320 family, a move that will improve performance on all models. Additionally, Airbus is expected to decide whether to re-engine the A320 series, as CFM international said they’re ready to advance their schedule for the LEAP-X program for Comac’s C919 (the new Chinese airliner) – opening the door for a possible re-engining of the A320 series, as well as the Boeing 737. Back to winglets. Winglets for Airbus A320 s... Read Full Story

The pilots of US Airways flight 1549, the airliner that miraculously landed safely on the Hudson river, will be back together in the cockpit on Thursday. It has been over eight months since the incident, which took place on January 15, when Sullenberger and Skiles piloted the aircraft for a safe landing on the Hudson River in New York City. Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles will fly the same flight they were supposed to: New York-LaGuardia to Ch... Read Full Story