Winging It

Just now catching up. We've been traveling this weekend, and read an early edition of the NY Times. We'll be reporting more on security at PHL later today. Here's Sunday's national story. with some PHL information. Go to philly.com for the full story from Britain, with sidebars.

We're using a new way to deliver the Monday Road Warrior column that appears in print to you, the folks most interested in the topics. Instead of pasting all the copy here, we give you a Road Warrior link. Let us know if there are any objections.

The airlines' trade group, the Air Transport Association (ATA), has asked thhe Federal Aviation Administration to help ease air-traffic congestion in the New York area by treating airports primarily used by corporate planes the same way the region's three major commercial airports are. Why do PHL fliers care? Because PHL and New York share overlapping airspace, and flights coming or going to PHL from much of the west or north use the same higher-altitutde enroute facility, called New York Center, near Kennedy airport, as New York bound traffic does. This is a touchy issue these days because of debate in Congress on how to fund the FAA for the next five years. Airlines support a switch away from a percentage tax on ticket prices to a user-fee system in which all planes that use air-traffic control services would be treated alike. General aviation groups, representing business aircraft operators, charter services and recreational fliers, who now pay lower fees than larger passenger planes, are opposed to the user-fee idea because it would raise their costs, and they say they already pay their fair share. And, oh yeah, there's that issue of the FAA's controversial airspace redesign plan for PHL and New York.

In this latest iteratioin of the debate, ATA said traffic in the New York area is "completely saturated and near gridlock," and airlines have been forced to cancel hundreds of flights because of air-traffic constraints and summer thunderstorms. More than a third of all air-traffic delays nationwide last Thursay were in congested New York airspace, ATA said. ATA's solution: FAA should temporarily create additional airspace capacity by imposing proportional ground-delay programs -- that dreaded, 'We can't take off because we're in a ground hold, folks" -- at Teterboro, N.J., and other general aviatiion airports when ground delay programs are imposed on Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark. Corporate jet flights represent about 30 percent of all New York approach-control activity, ATA said.

We just touched the tip of this iceberg of an issue, so stand by for more devleopments.

For a day when trouble was expected, operations were average today at PHL, with about a third of arriva'ls and a fourth of departures late.

The feds reported today on flight delays growing worse in May, for the fifth straight month, Complaints to USDOT about service, and the number of mishandled baggage reports the airlines too in May also were on the rise. For the statistically minded, here's more detail, including a few stats about PHL service, in a story from Bloomberg News with us contributing the local information. (Pay no attention to the word "yesterday" in the lead; this is a story slotted for tomorrow's print edition that you lucky online readers get to see first.)

We want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday tomorrow, and leave you for at least a day with this good news: The price of gasoline in the Philadelphia region has been inching downward in recent weeks, according to AAA's daily survey of service stations, and is now 11 cents a gallon cheaper on average than it was last year at this time.

Anyone who traveled in June could probably guess this: Airline on-time perfornance was poor and airplanes were jammed. The stormy weather was a big part of the delays, but the situation was made worse because most airlines' facilities are stretched so thin, recovering once delays start has become far more challenging. US Airways reported today that in June, it filled the highest percentage of available seats in its history -- 85 percent. Other airlines are reporting similar "load factors." But US Airways flights were on time only 62 percent of the time in June, and almost 3 percent of all its flights were canceled, a much higher percentage than normal.

Want to know why every seat was filled on your last airline flight, and the flight before that, and the flight before that etc.? One answer is in a Bloomberg News story this morning. If you're an airline investor, you should like what the story says. If you're a customer, maybe not.

Your link to today's Road Warrior column in print. Please note that in the column, the link for the flightstats.com page is a dead end. Thanks to an alert reader for pointing it out. Here's the correct link for airport wait times on flightstats.com

Air fares took another bump up over the weekend. Southwest led the way this time, with others matching. Read the AP story here.

In case you missed it in your trips to philly.com today, here's a link to a story we really enjoyed researching and reporting, on why many tradtiional bricks-and-mortar travel agents are prospering these days.

The last 24 hours have brought multiple announcements from airlines and Amtrak about technology upgrades designed to help the customer

Southwest Airlines said you can now use PayPal, the electronic-payment system owned by ebay, to pay for tickets on its Web site. Northwest Airlines announced a a similar deal with PayPal last month. A news release with more information can be found here

US Airways said today it arranged with Usablenet mobile to provide PDA and web-based cell phone users with content and functionality from its usairways.com Web site that is optimized for these devices. A customer now can buy a ticket from a handheld device, in addition to getting flight schedules. Find a news release about it with this link.

At Amtrak, the upgrade is at 44 of its busiest stations (which includes Philadelphia 30th Street, No. 3 in riders). The railroad has new Quik-Trak ticketing machines with better touchscreens, brighter graphics and ADA-compliant features that Amtrak says should help disabled travelers. Eventually, there will be 300 new machines in 150 stations. Find Amtrak's news release here.

And what, you say, does adding a big chunk to Philadelphia's Convention Center have to do with Philly Road Warriors? Some of you -- who knows how many -- live elsewhere and travel here, sometimes to meetings in the big building in Center City. And more conventioins and larger conventions mean more business for PHL, airlines and Amtrak. Here's the latest on expansion plans for the center.

What's the world's largest airline in domestic passengers carried? The answer is a surprise to many people: It's Southwest. Yes, the so-called no-frills discounter that few PHL fliers had ever used until it landed here in 2004 has become firmly entrenched in the No. 1 spot for the nation in the first four months of the year, compared with 2006. American Airlines continues to have more total passengers because of it also has international service, and along with several other major carriers, is ahead of Southwest in revenue and total passenger miles. But with Southwest carriying so much short-haul traffic, it has a big lead in domestic passengers. And the airline led the world in domestic traffic last year as well. That's a function of the U.S. air-travel market representing close to half the world's traffic, and seven out of the top 10 airlines in domestic passengers are all U.S. carriers.

For those who can't get enough of this kind of data, here's a link to the source of U.S. numbers, the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistcs. bts.gov. And another one to the International Air Transport Association stats for world rankings.

Among the reasons we've seen an increase in delayed flights this year is the number of flights airlines are offering. You apparently want to travel, and carriers say they're trying to meet the demand. For more about just how much air service is available in July worldwide, look for a news release from OAG (that once stood for Official Airline Guide) on this month's record number of seats for sale. You will find it under the same headline that appears at the top of this column. Here's a link to PR Newswire.

Today's Road Warrior column in print is just the sort we would like to do more of: It came from the suggestion of one of you. In this case Steve, also known as YHS. Read what we've found in the hunt for a service station convenient to PHL here

AirTran Airways gets its chance to make a presentation to Midwest Airlines' board of directors today. AirTran wants to buy Midwest, but Midwest's managers say they would be more profitable standing alone. Read more here

A US Airways flight from London Gatwick to PHL was diverted to St. Johns, Newfoundland today because of an ill passenger. It took off f again more than seven hours later. Read what we know here

US Airways -- and a bunch of other airlines -- have filed their applicationis with federal regulators for China service. US Airways says it will go PHL-Beijing roundtrip seven days a week starting in March 2009 if it wins one of these coveted route awards. Not included in this morning's story is a fourth carrier's application: United to China from Los Angeles and San Francisco. The other majors, American, Delta and Northwest, would go from their respective hubs, in Dallas, Atlanta and Detroit.

News about airlines seems to come in bunches and this week is a good example. Besides the announcements from multiple airlines that want routes to China, the carriers start reporting second-quarter financial results. American, Southwest and Continental are among the first up, with US Airways next week. Analysts say the industry did reasonably well from April through June, and with demand strong and capacity reduced by some airlines for the second half, money is likely to be made for the full year unless some big surprises occur. Look here for reports on the financials and other news here as the week progresses.

If you've flown recently, packed into another metal tube with practically every seat taken, this won't surprise you a bit: The major airlines began reporting second-quarter earnings this morning, and American, Delta and Southwest all made money. As expected, Southwest's profit went down vs. the same 2006 quarter. The reasons for the results: Fares have held up, with only limited discounting, and some carriers have trimmed or at least not added capacity (that means the number of seats available for sale). In the meantime, you folks just keep on traveling because you must or want to. The airlines' news releases, with more detail than most of you want, we're sure, can be found using the Web site links in the lower right-hand column of this page. For more detail about what Southwest is doing to cope, here a link to today's story in print about an employee buyout offer.

The crash of a A320 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. yesterday, has brought the issue of runway length into sharp focus. At just over 6,200 feet, the runway had been criticized by pilots and many others as dangerously short -- akin to landing on an aircraft carrier. Read today's update from the AP here

We will be following up with more about requirements in the U.S. for runways at commercial airports to (updated info) overrun areas (not arresting material) at both ends that can keep planes from ending up as this one did when they overshoot the runway. FYI, the last time we checked, PHL's runways had overrun areas at both ends, with one exception, and that was in the process of being upgraded..

We're still wondering when -- or if -- gasolione prices will spike this summer. The AAA Mid-Atlantic motor club's daily cost survey keeps surprising those who predicted $4 a gallon. Here's an online brief based on today's survey.

The news about the Sao Paulo, Brazil, airport where a jetline crashed this week seems to be getting worse. Here's the latest AP dispatch from the scene.

No kidding, Herb Kelleher, the smartest guy in the airline business, steps aside as executive chairman of the most consistently profitable airline in the world, but stays on as an Employee (always capitalized at Southwest). Also, CEO Gary Kelly was given a contract for the next four years, and president Colleen Barrett said she also will step down from her post but stay on as an employee, Read the details of this surprising announcement today at Southwest.com's press release site. The release is the first one on the list. And here's a New York Times story on it

Common sense has prevailed at the Transportation Secuity Administration. The agency says it's stopped seizing 22,000 disposble cigarette lighters a day and will now allow them past checkpoints. The rule on breast milk also changed. Read more detail (about the lighters) than you thought you needed to know at here

Today's Road Warrior column is a roundup of news from the last week, Find it at this link.

We're on vacation for the next two weeks, so there will be little new posted. If something really big breaks, we won't be able to resist doing what all Road Warriors should do and actually take breaks. But look for us to resume regular posting the week of Aug. 6.

A Pennsylvania House committee holds a hearing in Ridley Township today on a proposal for a regional airport authority. Read more here.

US Airways was in the black again in the April-June quarter. Read about it here.