Sky Talk

American delays launch of Chicago-Beijing flight again

American Airlines said it is delaying the launch of its Chicago-Beijing flights again.

This is the second-time the Fort Worth-based carrier has pushed back the start of its new service to China as the company says it does not have "commercially viable" landing and take-off slots at Beijing Capital International Airport.

American was supposed to launch the new service on April 26 but delayed it until May 4 as it continued to work with Chinese officials on slots.

Now, the carrier says it does not plan to start service between Chicago and Beijing until May 25.

-Andrea Ahles

How they tried to save Braniff

For those who remember the orange 747 of Braniff International, former executives of the defunct airline will be talking about how they tried to save it.

On Saturday at Dallas' Frontiers of Flight Museum, located near Love Field, Howard Putnam, Sam Coats and Philip Guthrie will discuss the final days of the Texas carrier. The museum will also be showing a documentary that was filmed during the carrier's bankruptcy in 1982.

The presentation is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on May 1 and admission for the program is $10 for museum members and $15 for non-museum members. For more information about the program, visit www.flightmuseum.com

-Andrea Ahles

Continental and United expected to announce merger on Monday

The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon that Continental Airlines and United Airlines are expected to announce their merger on Monday.

The boards of both airlines are meeting on Friday and then Continental's board is scheduled to meet again on Sunday.

According to the WSJ, Continental has agreed "in theory" to have the combined airline be based in Chicago and to retain the United brand.

-Andrea Ahles

Tarmac rule goes into effect today

The day that Kate Hanni has been waiting for has arrived.

Hanni, who spent close to 10 hours on the tarmac in Austin during thunderstorms back in 2006, has been pushing for passenger rights bill for years with her group, FlyerRights.org. And today, the Department of Transportation's new tarmac rule goes into effect.

The new federal rules require airlines to let passengers get off a plane after three hours' delay. And if the plane has been delayed two hours, airlines are required to provide food, water and working toilets to passengers. If they don't airlines face stiff penalties: up to $27,500 per passenger per flight.

The new rules have a few loopholes: International flights and flights at small airports are not covered, and the clock doesn't start ticking until aircraft doors close.

Here's the full story on the new rules that appeared in Thursday's Star-Telegram.

-Andrea Ahles

When airlines merge, what happens to consumers

USA Today ran a guest column from Bill McGee, who works at Consumer Reports, that basically looked at how consumers have fared after the airline mergers of the past ten years.

What McGee found was that following an airline merger service gets cut back, customer service does not improve and ticket prices are likely to rise.

His analysis looked at the results of the American-TWA merger in 2001 and the combination of US Airways and America West in 2005.

One interesting aspect of his research showed that in St. Louis, while some fares have increased with American's dominant market share at that airport post-merger, the entrance of Southwest has kept fares low on some routes out of Lambert-St.Louis International Airport.

Here's the full column.

-Andrea Ahles

U.S. airlines post more than $1 billion in first quarter losses

With JetBlue announcing its surprise quarterly loss Wednesday morning, U.S. airlines have piled up over $1 billion in losses for the first quarter.

Airline executives point to rising fuel costs partly as the culprit and Fort Worth-based American Airlines had the largest loss, posting a $505 million loss.

Only two airlines - Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines - were able to eke out small profits of $11 million and $5.3 million respectively.

Here's the full story on airlines earnings that ran in Wednesday's Star-Telegram.

First-quarter earnings for the largest U.S. carriers.

Airline Net profit (loss)

Airline	Net profit (loss)
Southwest Airlines	$11 million
Alaska Airlines	$5.3 million
JetBlue Airways	($1 million)
AirTran Airways	($12 million)
US Airways	($45 million)
United Airlines	($82 million)
Continental Airlines	($146 million)
Delta Air Lines	($256 million)
American Airlines	($505 million)

-Andrea Ahles

Southwest responds to DOT penalty

Southwest said it has "agreed" to the DOT's civil penalty that alleges the Dallas-based carrier did not comply with rules related to oversold flights.

The company said that it is required to pay $90,000 of the fine initially and may be credited up to $20,000 for "enhancements on Southwest.com to provide passengers with additional information on its oversale procedures." If Southwest remains compliant over the next year, the remainder of the fine will be waived.

"The alleged violations pertain to a small percentage of Southwest's flights; however, we take every violation seriously and we are working to improve our procedures to ensure full compliance with DOT regulations," said Southwest spokeswoman Brandi King.

-Andrea Ahles

Volcano parking discount at D/FW Airport

Following other airports who have given stranded passengers a break, D/FW Airport said it will refund parking for passengers who were stuck overseas due to the volcano.

Airport spokesman David Morgan said that the airport asks passengers to pay the bill in full when they leave the airport and then contact the airport's parking department to request a refund.

"We're asking folks to follow our normal refund procedures, with proper documentation including flight plans and tickets, so that they don't delay the exit lines at the toll plazas," Magana said.

-Andrea Ahles

Southwest fined $200,000 for violating rules related to oversold flights

The Department of Transportation said it has fined Southwest Airlines $200,000 for violating federal rules for passengers that are bumped on oversold flights.

"We expect airlines to comply with our rules when they must bump passengers, and we will take enforcement action when they do not," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a statement.

An investigation revealed numerous instances where Southwest denied boarding to passengers but did not comply with provisions of the bumping rule.

The DOT said that when a flight is oversold, the airline is required to seek volunteers willing to give up their seats for compensation. If there are not enough volunteers, the carrier must bump passengers who, in most cases, are entitled to cash compensation up to $800.

In its civil penalty assessment, the DOT said Southwest could use up to $20,000 of the penalty to develop methods to "provide prominent notice to passengers of the carrier's oversales policies and the rights of bumped passengers."

-Andrea Ahles

American Eagle to add DFW-Columbus, Ga. service in July

American Eagle, the regional carrier at AMR Corp., announced Tuesday that it will add flights between Dallas-Fort Worth and Columbus, Ga. starting on July 15.

The carrier said it will operate two daily flights to Columbus and will use the 44-seat Embraer ERJ-140 jet for the new route.

-Andrea Ahles