Winging It

We're back from a long, healthy break and on the hunt for travel news. Several comments, including one of the longer ones we've posted, have been added in response to Monday's column. They can be found at the end of the next item down on this page.

In the news today, you may need to have lots of gray hair to remember this one: The FBI says its renewed its effort to solve the mystery of D.B. Cooper the apparent psedudonym of a hijacker of a Northwest Airlines flight in 1971 who parachuted out of the plane and disappeared. Songs have been written about the legend of D.B. and you can learn more in the AP story in the link.

Here's another story that we would have alerted you to earlier had NASA not released it on New Year's Eve and we were taking the day off. It's about an air-safety study that the space agency says isn't really that important. We will let you judge that for yourself after reading an AP story. We think it is worth posting airline stories in this space, even a couple of days later, because it gives you one more way to find them, and gives the stories a longer shelf life than they otherwise would have.

There are many ways to slice and dice the statistics put out each month by the federal government for airline on-time and service performance. The November report is out today, and if you're truly interested in such data, you can find what we use to write stories at Web sites for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the Department of Transportation's air travel consumer report.

We try to report the numbers in a straighforward way, and then often hear from a reader who thinks they should be reported differently, or with some other headline on the story, Here's the online version of our story on philly.com. A slightly different version in print Friday morning can be found here . As always we welcome your take on these reports, based on your own analysis.

A reader's question prompted us to look for this story, which moved on the AP wire yesterday, about the nation's busiest airports. We haven't seen any data yet for PHL for 2007 that would show how it ranked. This story is about the top three.

No surprise here. Air fares went up again last night in response to oil's march to $100 a barrel. Look here for a good complete AP story on what's happened in the last 24 hours.

The Warrior got an earful in response to last week's column. By a 2-to-1 margin, you're saying US Airways still has a ways to go to satisfy PHL customers. We received another half dozen responses by e-mail or phone this morning, and the ratio is about the same as it was last week. Read today's print column here.

Britain's Department of Transport switched signals again and now allows two carryon bags per passenger for flights from most, but not all UK airports. Confusion has ensued, and if you are planning on traveling to or from Britain, check with your airline. Read more in a story from the Times of London.

US Airways made major changes in senior management at its PHL hub yesterday. Read the full story here, and look for more thoughts on the changes later this week as we have time to analyze them.

When the words "cell-phone lot" come up in conversation these days, many PHL users probably don't know what you're talking about. That's because the cell-phone lot is hard to find, with only small signs directing you, on a circuitious route to it, on Bartram Avenue, also known as Route 291. Once there, you will find plenty of space, precisely because it's a challenge to use if you don't know the roads around the airport. PHL officials say they can't do what would seem logical and place big signs on the highway off ramps because PennDOT doesn't want to clutter up their own directional signs The result continues to be multiple vehicles parked along the entrance roads, a dangerous and illegal practice. Drivers apparently do that because: They don't know about the lot, short-term parking is expensive (more expensive than at most other airports) or their time is so important to them that they just have to save a minute compared with parking a little farther away in a safer place.

But to give credit where it's due, PHL was one of the first airports to have a cell-phone lot,.The lot is where it is because of a lack of space closer to the airport. Other airports have set up similar lots, as reported in this story from Tuesday's New York Times. The only aspect of the story that surprises us is that it treats airports' recognition of the need for cell-phone lots as if it were new.

We noted earlier today that Southwest CEO Gary Kelly repeated what he's been saying recently: The airline won't be growing as fast this year as it traditionally has. But there's good news for local travelers in a news release from Southwest that arrived at midday. The airline will offer two new roundtrip nonstop flights a day between PHL and Denver, starting May 10. The airline also will add daily roundtrips between PHL and both Orlando and Tampa. Southwest said it's adding a total of 40 new flights and eliminating 57 with the March schedule changes -- with none of the cuts at PHL.There's no change in the plans to start new nonstops in March between PHL and St. Louis, Austin and San Antonio. Here's what Kelly told Bloomberg News. about the overall growth plan.

Skybus Airlines, a new carrier you may have heard about because of its $10 one-way fares, is coming to the Philadelphia area in March -- to the Wilmington/New Castle County Airport to be exact. Airlines have been starting and stopping service to the convenient, cozy Wilmington airport on Route 13 for years, and we can only hope Skybus gives its service a chance to develop. The flights, on full-size Airbus A319 jets, are to the airline's two main cities, Columbus, Ohio, and Greensboro, N.C., and will only operate once a day on each route. Not necessarily good for the business traveler, but another choice for anyone with a flexible schedule and a tight budget. A quick check of the Skybus Web site indicates that there really are a lot of $10 and $25 one-way fares. Of course, at $10, taxes and fees are slightly more than the fare itself, but who's complaining.

British Airways has launched a new transatlantic service called Open Skies, aimed at the business-class and well-to-do leisure traveler. The 757 jets in its fleet have only a handful of economy seats. The venture is led by Dale Moss, a longtime BA executive and former Rosenbluth International officer from the Philadelphia area. Read more about its launch this week here.

Delta is the subject of more airline merger talk. Read the latest here.

Today's Road Warrior column takes note of the huge jump in the US Airways and Delta fare between PHL and BOS since AirTran Airways quit serving the route last fall. We look at a few alternatives to paying $1,000 roundtrip. Make a quick trip to the story on philly.com by clicking here.

The Department of Transportation surprised many people yesterday with a new policy that would let airports vary their landing fees to try to ease congestion, charging more at peak hours. Still a developing story, and we'll see what kind of comments DOT gets in the 45-day review period.Read the early vesion of the story here.

Since we can't cover all airline stories ourselves, we read what other big newspapers are doing,especially the stories in an airline's hometown paper. Here's a story from the Chicago Tribune about Delta's interest in a merger with United or Northwest. As the Trib reporter noted, this is a big deal, one that promises to change the balance of power in the airline industry, if federal regulators let it happen.

Boeing is going to be even later than it already was in delivering its much ballyhooed 787 Dreamliner. Read more here

On-times operations at PHL are deteriorating as the winter storm blows through. From 70 to 80 percent on time earlier in the day, it's dropped to about 50 percent since 3 p.m., and the number of cancellations is rising. Check with your airline before heading out.

The major legacy airlines are adding $40 roundtrip fuel surcharges to their base air fares, the full prices that are used to calculate other fares. American started this round of hikes, and Continental, Delta and United have raised the prices so far. Don't be surprised if US Airways matches as well. The increases are the latest of more than dozen airlines have instituted since early last year. So far, low-cost carriers have not followed the other majors on this one.

We close this work week with good news from Amtrak. The railroad reached tentative agreements with nine unioins, averting a strike that could have seriously disrupted travel for both intercity passengers and commuters on SEPTA and New Jersey Transit trains.Some Amtrak employees have gone without a new contract for more than seven years. The unions were legally allowed to strike after Jan. 30, at the end of a protracted negotiation process that's governed by federal law.

Today's print column takes a look at what to expect if one or more big airline mergers take place. Find it here.

According to www.bestfares.com, now all Big Six legacy airlines have joined the party and added $40 fuel surchages to their base coach fares. Here's a Bloomberg News story from Saturday that has all the news except what bestfares reported this morning, that Northwest is also on board with the surcharge.

United said high fuel costs and bad weather were the reasons for the loss. Read more in an AP story from Chicago.

Business travel managers whose companies spend millions a year on air travel are among those concerned about the effect of major-airline mergers. Read what the Radnor-based Business Travel Coalition found in a survey here.

Two airlines, Southwest and Delta reported earnings on Wednesday, one a profit, another a loss, and both warned about high fuel costs.

For those who come here first before going to philly.com, check out our story this morning about the efforts of small airports near PHL to attract more business.

US Airways had two senior execs at PHL this morning at the same time it was doing its regular quarterly airline conference call. Perhaps a breakthrough on the gate-usage dispute is near? Read all about what we do know for sure here.

The European Union's top justice official wants to replicate U.S. border security measures in Europe, with plans to fingerprint and electronically record the entry and exit of all visitors.The plan is viewed as retaliation for Washington's recent expansion of its program fingerprinting most international visitors, including those from countries that are longtime allies. More details can be found in this AP story.

The cost and hassle of flying on some routes in the Northeast drive many business travelers to Amtrak. Read more in today's Road Warrior column.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has taken over Stewart Airport, 60 miles north of Manhattan, and is planning $500 million in investments over the next decade, Read more about hopes for Stewart in an AP story.

We haven't been able -- yet -- to study the issue of the carbon footprint of air travel, a topic of growing concern because of its effect on global warming. We hope to report more on it as it becomes an issue that everyone needs to think about. Today we found one of the better treatments of the topic from Bill McGee, who writes a column for USA Today and is a contributing editor of Consumer Reports. We've respected Bill's reporting on airlines and aviation for years. He researched carbon footprints for Consumer Reports' February issue, and added his personal take on it in the newspaper column. Let us know if you find other published sources of intelligence on what air travelers can do to help reduce greenhouse gases and we will post them here as well.

Tomorrow is the day Homeland Security starts enforcing new rules requiring travelers by land and sea from Canada to prove their citizenship. They must have a passport, OR two documents, a birth certificate and a government-issued ID. The rule has been criticized because of the burden it could put on routine border crossings by those who work or travel back and forth regularly, and the long lines at entry points that are likely to develop. We haven't seen much written about this, but here is a recent AP story that has more details. This should serve as a reminder to go ahead and get a passport if you don't have one already.

In case you missed a story we had online today, about an American flight to PHL from San Juan that had to make an emergency landing at West Palm Beach,Fla., last night. Find it here.

The TSA has added a feature to its www.tsa.gov Web site: A blog where you can chatter on airport security and the agency that runs it, and read what others say about them. Here's the AP story about it. To find the blog, just add a /blog to the address.