Winging It

We're off to the races! A reader has posted a comment, asking: When will there be signs on I-95 to the airport's cell-phone lot?

The answer is not for awhile, if ever. I-95 is controlled by PennDOT, which doesn't want to see a lot of signage cluttering up its interstate exit signs. The lot is on Bartram Avenue, also now designated as State Route 291. The portion of Bartram where the lot is situated is parallel to I-95 and north of the intererstate. The way to find it is to follow a series of small signs along the airport's internal roads that say "Cell Phone Lot, Follow Park and Ride."

The signs are not always easy to read or follow. The people who run the airport have promised to revisit the issue of how good -- or bad -- the signs are, and we will follow up with them for a future story, and for posting in this space.

Starting Jan. 23, all U.S. citiizens and citizens of Bermuda, Canada and Mexico arriving in the United States from any part of the Western Hemisphere by air must have a valid passport. Airlines and government officials reported few problems with the new rules. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents indicated they were showing leniency toward travelers arriving without passports.

Click here to read the AP story.

US Airways CEO Doug Parker won't commit to increasing his airline's bid for Delta Air Lines, the AP reports this morning.

Read the full story here.

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The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee is conducting a hearing today in Washington to look into airline industry consolidation, a topic that could have a profound effect on travelers who use Philadelphia International Aiurport. Among the issues: How would service and fares at PHL be affected were US Airways to acquire Delta, and the surviving entity "rationalizes" its route structture in a way that cuts the number of flights or airplane seats available ?

Nerws releases and the text of US Airways CEO Doug Parker's testimony at the hearing can be found at the airline's Website, usairways.com. Another view, from Delta CEO Gerald Grinstein, can be found on delta.com, (search for Newsroom on the Delta site).

One group of passengers who are mad as hell at the airline industry is using the hearing to issue a call for a passengers' Bill of Rights. These folks are angry because on Dec. 29,. they were among hundreds of American Airlines passengers stranded aboard planes that sat on the ground for as long as nine hours at the Austin (Tex.) Bergstrom International Airport. The travelers, whose flights were diverted to Austin by bad weather elsewhere, had no water, food or sanitary restroom facilities during their ordeal. And they're not happy with the airline's response to their treatment, offering little in the way of compensation, the group says.

The movement that this group of travelers could start has been brewing for awhile, with complaints about airline service growing. We will keep up with it and report further developments as they happen.

We posted a comment today about homeless people at PHL, the second one on the topic since we started last week. The questions raised need a response.

First, to clarify, no one needs a ticket or to show identification to be in the portion of airport before security checkpoints. That includes throughout the parking garages, ticketing areas, baggage claim areas, the SEPTA rail platform, and the corridors, roads and sidewalks in between. That's where some homeless people can be found, especially in the winter. They are allowed to be there because the airport is a public facilitiy, owned by the City of Philadelphia. Starting Jan. 8, the airport started an outreach program, with the help of other city agencies and the police, to try to help some of these people move to city-funded shelters; in the last two weeks, two homeless people have been moved to shelters, airport officials say. During very cold weather, like today. the city declares a "Code Blue," and by law, cannot remove people from public facilities.

Perhaps this question should be directed to the mayor, City Council, the governor, the state legislature, Congress or the President, or all of them ?

Philadelphia Police officers who patrol PHL have a new way to catch up to people who need catching up to: Segway "personal transporters." Officers Darryl Jones and Gene Jones (no relation) were riding two of the four Segways the police have today past a bank of flight monitors. Photo by Tom Gralish of The Inquirer.

Look on the bright side: Flight delays at PHL aren't getting worse, and in one way, they're getting better.

Philadelphia improved its ranking for on-time airline departures in 2006, moving from last place to No. 27 out of 31 large airports, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics reporrted today. . The agency said 72.2 percent of flights left Philadelphia on time last year, compared with 71.9 percent in 2005. In on-time arrivals, the airport was in 27th place in both years; 70.4 percent of flights arrived on time last year, compared with 71.8 percent in 2005.

Nationwide, airline delays last year rose to their highest level since 2000, the federal data shows. About 22.6 percent of flights arrived at least 15 minutes late, the most since record delays of 23.9 percent in 2000.

Frequent air travelers know this, so here's some information for the less-than-frequent. AirTran Airways became the first airline we've seen to issue a news release this afternoon about the big winter storm that's moving across the Midwest and will hit the East Coast tomorrow. As carriers always do during big weather events, AirTran will relax its rules on penalizing passengers who need to change their flights. If you're flying this week, check the Website of your airline to see what you need to do to adjust. You will find links to airlines serving PHL in the column to the right.

The snow is flying in the Philadelphia area this morning, but most flights are still operating on schedule, according to PHL's handy Website, which has real-time arrival and departure information. You can check on your flight here.

That "wintry mix" is getting heavier. Most flights to and from PHL are operating late and about 25 percent had been canceled as of mid-afternoon. Keep checking with your airline or the airport's Web site if you're flying.

No suprise: PHL is not operating normally, but it is open and crews have been working to keep runways clear. Here is what you need to know, from our story posted on philly.com.

Air travel: Philadelphia International "Through about 11 o'clock about 50 percent of arrival and departures are canceled," says Mark Pesce, spokesman for Philadelphia International Airport. "We also have numerous delays." For flight information, go to http://www.phl.org or call 1-800-745-4283 (1-800-PHL-GATE). "The airport is operational," he said. "We've had crews working since yesterday keeping our airfield open, our roadway system, our sidewalks, everything that we do here." About 300 city employees help with airport snow removal, using 50 large pieces of equipment and assorted smaller ones to the airport's 25 million square feet of concrete, he said. "The airfield alone is 16 million square feet." (During better weather, those employees do other kind of maintenance.)

The number of cancellations is down compared with yesterday, but the weaher continues to affect PHL operations. Many flights are running a half hour to two hours behind schedule.
You can check on your flight here.

Local broadcast coverage of the aftermath of last week's snow and ice would lead one to believe that there's a repeat going on of US Airways' infamous baggage-service meltdown during the 2004 Christmas holidays. That's not true. Then, as now, this is an easy story for TV stations to do because it's a visual about the airport they can capture on tape without going through security, or in fact doing much work at all. Here's the way we look at the "story."

When it snows, especially when mixed with ice, airports and airlines slow down. If they didn't, safety could easily be compromised. US Airways ramp workers who load bags and direct planes in and out know this: There were several broken bones and cuts requiiring stiches for workers who slipped and fell last week. Of course, flights are going to be delayed and many cancelled. Bags are going to miss connections. Some will take days to find their owners. The bag-tracing phone lines at US Airways and other airlines will be jammed, and you may be cut off. In the end, only a tiny handful of bags will be truly lost. On average more than 99 percent of all checked bags are delivered when they're supposed to be, at the end of a flight.

But is the number of bags that piled up over the weekend at PHL unusual for US Airways or any airline? The answer is no. About 700 bags were in the US Airways bag-claim area yesterday. By this morning, when the story was still being broadcast, there were betrween 300 and 400 bags still waiting to be reunited with their owners. US Airways carries about 60 percent of the 31-million-plus passengers who use the airport annually. If each passenger checks one bag, which is average, US Airways handles close to 20 million bags a year -- just at PHL.

The five-day breakdown in operations at JetBlue Airways touched only a limited number of fliers in the Philadelphia region because the airline doesn't serve PHL. But PHLcustomers have voiced a lot of complaints about service here during last week's storm, mostly about US Airways but also about Delta. Several flights from PHL took off four to six hours late, with most of the delay spent idling on the ground at the airport -- surely one of the most aggravating aspects of air travel. There are too many stories to count about bags going astray, although, as we said yesterday, this was not a repeat of the Christmas 2004 meltdown..

The airlines' performance has renewed calls for Congress to adopt a passenger bill of rights that would punish airlines for bad service. JetBlue itself has fueled the effort by offering a version of its own, to try to compensate some of its aggreived customers.

Please tell me what you think about this issue, in comments here or by e-mailing me at tbelden@phillynews.com.. Before you do, however, do me this favor: Read why Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, thinks legislation is a bad idea. To see his view, read his Feb. 2 news release on the issue at his Website here...

PHL has experienced flight delays and a few cancellations today, mostly because of the big winter storm that's beaten up the Midwest and Northeast the last few days. As always, check with your airline or the airport's phl.org Website if you're planning a trip.

Elsewhere, JetBlue canceled more flights at its hub at JFK in New York. For the most recent story posted on philly.com click here

We have added a handy feature to philly.com that provides links to all of the key traffic and weather Websites in the Philadelphia region.Watch the traffic move -- or not -- or I-95, get the latest updates on highway conditions, check on mass transit or on the status of a flight to or from PHL. A link directly from this page can be found near the bottom of the right-hand column, under useful sites. Take a look here

A JetBlue Airways flight enroute from Pittsburgh to New York's Kennedy Airport made an unscheduled landing this morning at Philadelphia International Airport. The diversion was not an emergency. The 54 passengers were given a choice of getting off and finding their own way to the New York area, or riding a bus to JFK that JetBlue chartered.

JetBlue, airport and FAA officials explained what happened. The captain of the jet dverted after a cockpit instrument indicated a problem with de-icing devices, which are mounted on the leading edge (the front part) of the wings. The devices prevent ice from building up on the wings as the plane passes through cold, wet air. The air near Kennedy had the potential for an ice buildup, so the captain decided to do the prudent thing and go to PHL, the nearest major airport where conditions were better. The FAA doesn't keep track of diversions but they're not uncommon, and they usually are because of weather conditions at the scheduled destination..In fact, three United Airline flights headed to Washington Dulles were diverted to other airports today because of the weather, an FAA spokesman said.

For anyone living in a cave the last two weeks,. JetBlue was criticized after bad weather stranded passengers in planes at JFK, its main hub, for up to 10 1/2 hours after the Valentine's Day storm. The airline has been playing catchup, promising a better performance in the future.

The snow is blowing sideways around Philadelphia this morning, with one to three inches forecasted by nightfall. PHL is open but delays are running anywhere from a few minutes to two or three hours, according to the airports phl.org Website. We will update later today. In the meantime, as you languish in a lounge or airport club, please let us know how your trip is going.

PHL has the experienced the usual delays a snow day brings. The airport has closed one runway at a time to clear snow, which always slows operations, but the runways have never been completely shut down. US Airways canceled nine mainline, large-jet flights, 6 percent of its schedule, and scrubbed 63 Express flights, about 22 percent of the total. Other carriers also have canceled flights. Most flights are arriving or departing from a few minutes to several hours late.

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But that doesn't mean it was a cheery morning for quite a few travelers. More than half of departures and arrivals were 15 or more minutes late before noon today, according to the flightstats.com Website. Schedules have gotten much better since noon, with just 15 percent of departures and 10 percent of arrivals running late, flightstats says. We're getting fewer reports of long lines at US Airways today than we did the last four days. Please keep us informed as you travel..You can find flightstats.com here

As you may have read in The Inquirer or other newspapers, some Delaware County residents and many of its political leaders are opposed to a plan the FAA is studying that's designed to reduce flgiht delays in and out of PHL. The FAA is expected later this spring to choose one of four alternatives for rerouting air traffic, or leaving flight paths as they are now. Read the most recent Inquirer story on the issue,

We're reporting today from US Airways annual media day at its Tempe, AZ, headquatrters, and one of the first words out of CEO Doug Parker's mouth were: "We're not running as good an airline as we'd like or thought we would be. The key to that is fixing Philadelphia." The day promises more briefings on just what the airline's senior executives are going to do to improve its PHL operations. Parker and president Scott Kirby also were out front on the messy switchover to an integrated US Airways-America West reservations system that caused so many long lines and delayed flights last week.

A cold rain, but no snow, is falling in the Philadelphia area this morning, with a mix of snow and rain forecast for tonight. Just before 9 a.m., about 65 percent of scheduled departures and arrivals so far today were on time, according to flightstats.com. Look for more delays and cancellations to the upper Midwest and the Northeast as the winter storm moves up the coast. Several airlines are making their usual offers allowing changes to tickets without penalty to those affected by the weather.

Speaking of forecasts, the FAA has issued a long-range estimate for growth in air traffic. No surprise, the increase is going to be large. Read more here

Conditions are getting worse at PHL, with the rain mixing with sleet and ice pellets. US Airways has canceled flights and delays are running as long as three or four hours. United and Southwest have cancelled most or all of their schedules for the day, an airport spokeswoman says. Elswhere, JetBlue Airways, still smarting from its big breakdown in service last month, preemptively cancelled most of its flights from JFK and Newark airports. Keep checking with your airline if you're flying. The phl.org Website's real-time flight arrival and departure service is working only intermittently.

It's been another bad day at PHL for airlines and their passengers trying to recover from the surprisingly nasty winter storm. This morning's Inquirer news story about what happened yesterday can still be found on philly.com. We said in the story there were no "immediate" reports of long strandings on airplanes. Now there are. See the comment from Kevin sent last night but just posted. We will continue reporting on how the airlines and the airport handled the situation.

After last weekend's problems with weather and US Airways computer problems at PHL, you may not want to take another flight for awhile. But why not dream a little, and think about what it would be like to ride on a 600-passenger jet. Check out today's print and online story about the first U.S. flight of the Airbus 380 jet here

Many of you have posted comments here, sent us e-mail or called regarding the last four days at PHL and US Airways performance. At about 2 p.m. today, there were still about 1,000 misplaced bags (we counted) in US Airways B-C bag-claim area. There are scattered reports of piles of bags in other airports also, waiting to be reunited with their owners. We spoke yesterday to a local leader of the customer-service agents' union, for a print and online story. Read what she says the problem is. here.

PHL gest a bad rap whenever the weather disrupts normal operations, and many of you believe it deserves it. No doubt, the grounding of all flights during last Friday's sleet caused as much pain and suffering to travelers as any storm has recently. The local media was out in force to report on how passengers were affected. Sleeping in an airport is no fun -- there's no way to minimize how grim that can be.

But most of what happened to travelers was beyond the airport's control. The airlines were required by the FAA to stop flying while ice was falling -- they had no choice about cancellatioins.The response of US Airways was another matter that has been written and talked about and some of you have vented about it (Please, keep it up.) .The airline has a new computer system that employees say doesn't work properly and that only made the dismal experience of waiting to rebook even worse. But the airport staff didn't take the weekend off. Many employees made a serious effort to do what they could to help. If you want to know more about how the airport's managers view the way they responded, read a news release the airport issued this afternoon here

Read today's update on plans to redesign the airspace in the Northeast to try to reduce flight delays here.

In the early 1990s, the U.S. Department of Transportation identified a phenomenon it called "the Southwest effect," to show what happens when the airline starts service in a new city: fares drop and traffic goes up. Today, there's no better example of the effect than traffic at Philadelphia International. Read details in our report on PHL traffic in 2006 here

In the early 1990s, a new PHL director, Mary Rose Loney, was dismayed that there was nothing distinctive about the restaurants, bars and retail outlets at the airport, nothing that said 'Philly" when you got off an airplane that helped you know where you were. The offerings have been upgraded significantly since then, making them comparable to some of the best airport retail outlets in the country, and there are some familiar local names in several locations. Today the airport and Marketplace/Redwood, the airport retail developer, announced that Chickie & Pete's, a popular Philadelphia-based chain of crabhouses, will open in three locations in the airport by the end of this year. Look for them in Terminals A-West, C and E.

Overheard today walking down Market Street in Center City, one young woman to her friend: "I wish it would get warm." Don't we all! The heavy, chilly rain across the region has hurt airline schedules all day at PHL, although operations began improving after 3 p.m., according to flightstats.com. The FAA had the airport under a ground delay, meaning the majority of arrivals and departures were running from a few mnutes to three or four hours late. The forecast for tomorrow calls for sun and wind, with a return to more chilly weather -- and a chance for the proverbial "wintry mix" of rain and snow Sunday and Monday. Stay warm.

Mary Peters, the U.S. secretary of transporation, was in China this week to talk about loosening the limits on air service to one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Here's a link to the AP story from Beijing. The story doesn't include the name of US Airways, which as you may have read here, intends to apply for the right to fly nonstop between Philadelphia and Shanghai, starting next year. Today's development means the odds of US Airways getting a China route may have grown a little. But don't make plans just yet. American, Continental and Delta also would love to go nonstop from one of their hubs to China.

You may want to do what a Road Warrior who called me at home today (he's my brother-in-law so it was OK) did with his plans to spend a week doing business in South Jersey. His flight from DFW was canceled, and he put off the whole trip until next week. The heavy rain means delays at PHL are averaging an hour and a half, about 50 to 60 percent of flights are on time, and there are a handful of cancelations by a variety of airlines. Southwest is keeping more of its schedule intact than any other PHL major carrier. Check the phl.org Website if you're flying. Take care out there.

Another Congressional hearing today, this time in the House, on the passenger bill of rights legislation. As you will recall, the proposed regulations stemmed from the stranding of passengers on major airlines' planes during snowstorms over the winter. Opinions vary whether using federal law is the best way to make carriers behave better. Today it was the turn of the American Society of Travel Agents to weigh in, and they are in favor. Read the testimony it presented to a House committee here

ACY, Atlantic City International Airport, located about 50 miles southeast of Center City, is one of several in the Philadelphia area that weary travelers, and the occasional politician, like to talk about as an alternative to PHL. Instead of trying to reconfigure the airspace around Philadelphia and New York as a way to reduce congestion and flight delays, as the FAA hopes to do, why don't airlines just use ACY more? That could, in fact, happen, according to a longtime industry consultant, Michael Boyd, who addressed an Atlantic County Transportation Forum at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey last week. But, Boyd said, it will require major carriers providing more connecting flights to ACY from their hubs. Today, only Delta does that, with three--a-day regional jets to and from Atlanta. Leisure-oriented Spirit Airlines has the only other scheduled service now, to Florida, Las Vegas and the Caribbean, and to its Detroit hub in the summer. Almost a million passengers used ACY last year, compared with almost 32 million at PHL. Less than a third of the travelers using ACY are there just to go to Atlantic City, out of a total of 34 million visitors a year. Here is a link to the ACY Website.

US Airways reported a $66 million first-quarter profit this morning. Of more interest to passengers: The airline announced that it would hire more airport employees and take other steps to improve the US Airways "experience." News releases on the earnings and the customer-service initiative can be found at US Airways.com. Go to "About Us" and then "press room." Click here for our story from Friday's paper.

With thunderstorms moving through the region, some PHL operations are running behind schedule but most flights are on time. Expect the weather to disrupt service at numerous airports in the Northeast and Midwest today.

Two airlines that serve PHL -- and both happen to base their operationis in Atlanta -- are in the news

AirTran Airways is expanding in many places, adding flighs to its Atlanta hub and elsewhere, and announced this morning that it set a one-day record for the number of newly hired employees who showd up for their first day of orientation -- 152. Some of the new hires will be stationed at PHL. AirTran CEO Joe Leonard promised last June that the little airline that's not so little anymore would hire 2,500 people over the next five years,.The company said it's on pace to do that, having hired.800 since last July 1, and now has a total of 8,537 employees.

The second airline, Delta, made its formal exit from Chapter 11 today. The airline has fewer employees, most of whom took pay cuts; the pilots had their pensions reduced; the previous version of Delta common stock was canceled; and many creditors received 62 to 78 cents on the dollar, better than many reorganizations, for what they were owed. On the other hand, the airline is still flying, employees will get some cash and equity, and it revealed a new logo today. Look at the Delta Website later tonight or tomorrow to see how it updated what it calls its "Widget," the delta-shaped symbol that appears next to the name.

This is an update from yesterday's post on last night's meeting held by the Federal Aviation Adminstration on its airspace redesign plan. Residents of some areas of Philadephia and its suburbs west and south of the airport let the FAA know how they think they'll be affected by changing takeoff patterns from PHL. Find our report in print and online here. For detail on the airspace plan, click here

Surely travelers who plan on flying out of the country this year and need a new or renewed passport have heard: It's taking forever. Or is it? We have reason to believe the situation is improving. The State Department and everyone else in the travel business has been warning that it can take up to 10 weeks to renew by mail. Here's the surprise: We received a new passport in less than four weeks from the time it was mailed (first class). Perhaps it helped that it was mailed to a P.O. box in Philadephia. So let's hope the passport folks are clearing the backlog, which was caused primarily by new rules, requiring all travelers entering the country by air to have a passport.

Here's another surprise: New passports are beautifully illustrated with American icons and landscapes. A line from the Declaration of Independence, the preamble to the Constitution, an eagle, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, mountains, farmers, herds of longhorn cattle and a Native American totem pole, it's all there and more. Just looking at it the first time is fun.

If you live in or near Philadephia or a few other large cities, you can go to a passport service center for same-day service. The Philadelphia center is in the U.S. Customs House, 200 Chestnut St. in Center City, but you need to make an appointment Here's a link to the State Department passport home page And please tell us what your experience with getting a passport has been.

US Airways plans to keep flying throughout next winter between Philadelphia and Dublin. The service has only been seasonal before. Read a little more here

There is intrerest in Philly's suburbs to create a regional authority to run PHL and other airports in the region, as a way to try to ease congestion and spread out traffic more. Legislation has been introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature by Rep. Bryan Lentz from Delaware County. In the meantime, New Jersey is already part of just such an agency, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the three big airports in the New York area. Now the Port Authority is expanding its reach to an upsate New York airport. Read an AP story about it here.

Look for some news in the next couple of weeks from US Airways and Southwest, PHL’s two largest airlines in numbers of passengers.

Southwest will be up first, with chief executive Gary Kelly in town Wednesday night and Thursday at the invitation of the Temple University School of Tourism and Hospitality Management. Perhaps the airline will take the opportunity to reveal plans for the additional flights from PHL that it says it wants to start.

On May 15, US Airways will hold its annual shareholders meeting at the Radisson Warwick Hotel in Center City. Look for some pilots in uniform and few of the airline’s other 5,600 PHL-based employees to show a keen interest.

Many Delaware County residents have made it clear how much they despise the Federal Aviation Administration's proposal to change the way airplanes take off from Philadelphia International Airport. Far less has been heard from those who may benefit from the Philadelphia-New York-New Jersey airspace redesign plan. They would be the 31.5 million travelers who flew in or out of the airport last year, as well as the 34,000 folks, many of whom live in Delaware County, whose jobs depend on the airport

The airspace plan calls for directing some flights to make turns just after takeoff, carrying them over residential areas on both sides of the Delaware River. Political leaders in Delaware County have stayed on their message of opposition, using experts who dispute the FAA's determination that the "environmental impact" of the flights -- mostly the noise of jets overhead -- won't be too severe.

In an unusual move, the FAA revised the airspace plan in the last two months, cutting in half the number of flight paths over populated areas. The FAA also notes that any change in the paths means some people will hear less noise than they do now, a benefit pretty much lost in the cacophony. The revisions haven’t diminished the opposition, based on the number of citizens booing and vilifying FAA officials at last week's public meeting on the plan in Tinicum Township.(Read about the meeting here.

The point of creating more pathways in the sky, of course, is to reduce flight delays at Philadelphia and four New York-area airports. Between them, PHL, Kennedy, Newark and LaGuardia usually finish in the bottom five for U.S. airport on-time performance. So the FAA had a dilemma when it started working on this almost a decade ago: Ignore projections that even more people will be flying in the future, or look at a variety of ways to move traffic more efficiently.

Building new runways or using satellite navigation to replace World War II-era radar for air-traffic control may help speed up takeoffs, but those solutions are years away. So in its slow, bureaucratic way, the FAA carried out its national mandate: find ways to accommodate the demands of airlines and air travelers. It was inevitable that the noise would be heard in someone’s backyard.

Perhaps, though, the notion of our backyard needs to be enlarged to include a region whose economy depends in good measure on the quality of its air service. Philadelphia’s tourism trade and other industries can’t thrive without dependable airlines and a decent airport. And low-fare airlines that have saved Philadelphia travelers millions of dollars through competition simply would not be here without the freedom to schedule as many flights as their customers want.

Planning a trip to Europe in a few years? Southwest Airlines CEO Gary C. Kelly was in the city this week and had a comment that may interest you. See what he had to say about the airline's plans for PHL in our Inquirer story

One of the great frustrations of many travelers flying from PHLis finding a place to park a car. Especially at school-vacation time, both the economy lot and the daily-fee garages can be full, forcing the panicked driver to roam the roads around the airport looking for a private lot. Leaving the car at home and using public transportation is an option, but isn’t practical for most people.

The best way we’ve found to deal with the problem is to use one of more than a dozen off-airport lots that surround PHL, on Route 291 (Industrial Highway) and on Bartram, Essington, Island and Passyunk avenues. These privately operated lots always seem to have space available, and they have the great advantage of taking advance reservations. Unlike PHL’s on-airport lots and garages, the off-sites can be booked and the fees paid in advance on the Web using a credit card.

Rates for off-airport lots are competitive with the $9 a day in PHL’s economy lot. The daily fee can range from about $6.50 to $15 a day, but if you make a reservation online, there’s usually a one-time service fee of $5.

The most comprehensive airport parking Web site we’ve found is — what else — www.airportparkingreservations.com. Another one is www.parkrideflyusa.com. They have long lists of U.S. and Canadian airports that are part of their networks. When you do a Google search for “airport parking reservations,” you will find those two, and other sites with different addresses that link to the first.

You can also find Web sites for individual parking-lot operators at PHL and elsewhere — if you know their names. We have been unsuccessful in navigating to airport-parking sites from the larger online travel sites, including Expedia and Orbitz. But that may just be our lack of time and patience to keep drilling until we find them.

Tom Lombardi, the Suffield, Conn., entrepreneur who runs airportparkingreservations.com, says his site has 200 parking lots at 65 airports in its database, including eight near PHL. Business has boomed at PHL since Southwest started three years ago and parking became tighter. Travelers tend to use off-airport lots regularly after one experience of “going to the economy lot, and it’s full, and the sweat starts,” Lombardi says.

The off-airport lots may be a little farther from the PHL terminals than the airport economy lot, including some that are a mile or two away. But they have another advantage: service. Some parking operators have valet service, driving you in your own car back and forth. Most have shuttle buses that in our experience pull up behind your car, and not to a bus stop a hundred yards away, within a few minutes of your arrival.

Every time we’ve used one of the lots and have more than one bag, the shuttle-bus driver has hopped off and helped us. We always carry $1 bills for tips to encourage the practice.

Last week’s post “Our air service backyard,” prompted as many comments as any topic we’ve put on the blog. Most of them attacked the point we made. We’re glad someone cares and invite you to keep ’em coming.

US Airways’ dismal March performance, in contrast, elicited no response. Was it a case of “So what else is new?” The late-winter weather and US Airways’ bungled switch to a new computer system caused so many delays it pushed PHL near the bottom of the list of the 32 largest airports for on-time flights. Systemwide, the airline finished the month with the worst on-time performance and the greatest numbers of misplaced bags and complaints to the U.S. Department of Transportation among major carriers.

A traveler reported exceptionally long lines at Terminal D security at PHL this morning. Turns out, the lines were longer than normal at all the terminals, according to airport and TSA officials. At D, the problem was one of the four X-ray machines was out of order. Elsewhere, the only explanation offered was it was a Monday, when the number of business travelers is usually the greatest, and many students at the region's numerous colleges also were flying home for the summer. TSA says it had a full staff. You can always tell us about your experience by posting a comment.

US Airways held its annual meeting in Philadelphia this morning, providing CEO Doug Parker another opportunity to apologize for the lousy planning management did before turning on a new computer reservations-and-ticketing system on March 4. Anyone remember what happened? The meeting was sparsely attended, with the only questions coming from two union officers who represent airport ticket agents, and, as usual, Evelyn Y. Davis, the investor-gadfly who goes to dozens of annual meetings to challenge certain corporate governance practices. Read the early version of our story here.

If flights are delayed in good weather this summer, here's one explanation: The number of domestic and international flights and the number of seats airlines have for sale will be up. Last summer, the same stats were down compared with 2005, mostly because airlines in Chapter 11 or just coming out of it were trimming service. Remember how much fares increased last spring and summer? That was a function of fewer seats for sale.

The eSkyGuide, an American Express publication, says that the number of domestic flights will be up 2.1 percent and international flights will increase by 2.4 percent. Low-cost carriers will be responsible for much of the growth -- they will be offering 8.7 percent more flights this summer compared with 2006. The guide says the low-cost airlines now account for 19 percent of all flights and 27 percent of all available seats.

Federal regulators are considering rules that would more accurately reflect delays of flights stranded on runways after they leave an airport gate. Read a Bloomberg News story about the plans here.

Tell us if this sounds all too familiar: Employees at several of the largest U.S. airlines are sharply at odds with the men who run their companies over how much money both groups should be making. Now that most carriers are profitable again, after four years of losing billions, the workers say it’s time they got back some of the billions in pay and benefits they gave up to help their companies survive after 9/11. The execs disagree, of course, saying that despite some managers getting fat bonuses, their financial condition remains too fragile to give everyone a raise.

The odds are low that the workers will get what they want any time soon. Most of the airlines’ concessionary labor contracts — signed under the threat of destitute carriers saying “do this or we’ll all be out of jobs” — aren’t due to expire for several years. And the process of signing new contracts in the airline and railroad industries is tedious and time-consuming. (You may have seen The Inquirer's May 13 story on Amtrak workers who who have been without a contract for seven years.

But what’s going on is what Kevin P. Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, the Radnor group that represents corporate travel managers, calls “a big storm brewing.” Across the land, there are large knots of unhappy airline employees who aren’t comforted by the fact that they still have jobs while more than 100,000 of their former colleagues don’t. On Thursday, thousands of union members from the airlines and other transportation trades staged a rally in Washington, protesting a long list of complaints about management and Bush administration policies. Among their gripes is the dismantling of defined-benefit pension plans allowed by bankruptcy courts when airlines have been in Chapter 11.

For months, pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers and others have put up informational picket lines at PHL, other airports and wherever airline executives gather. In the last week, employees have spoken out at shareholders’ meetings of US Airways Group Inc. in Philadelphia and AMR Inc., American’s parent, in Fort Worth, Tex. Jack Stephan, the pilots’ union chairman at US Airways, saw it this way after the gathering: “We wouldn’t have a US Airways, and we wouldn’t be having an annual meeting today, without the pilots’ investment.” At American’s meeting, the Transport Workers Union presented an online petition with 17,000 signatures objecting to the company’s executive pay pratices in light of concessions the rank-and-file have made.

Naturally, airline executives say that the unions are making unrealistic demands for a return, all at once, of the concessions they made. US Airways and American’s CEOs noted at the meetings how much employees received in profit sharing last year. And independent observers point out how much debt most carriers have.“The big concern is the airlines’ balance sheets are still a disaster this far into an economic recovery,” Mitchell said. “If wages go back up now, in the next downturn, some carriers may not make it.”

Should airline customers care about these issues? What we know is that in any business, disgruntled employees eventually mean poor service.

As always, tell us what you think.

J.D. Power and Associates, best-known for its consumer-satisfaction surveys on autos, does the same for airports and airlines. The 2007 results for PHL were released this morning and they may surprise -- perhaps even shock -- some travelers. PHL baggage service received a score of "better than most," the second-to-the-highest ranking, putting it in a tie with baggage service at Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare and Detroit, and a notch below Dallas/Fort Worth and Newark. Overall, PHL had the same score of "better than most," or four on a one-to-five scale. Just as curious, three airports that often get good reviews in other surveys, Denver, Minneapolis//St. Paul and Toronto, finished in last place among the largest airports (those with 30 million or more passengers a year).PHL had one "among the best" rating, for its food-and-beverage offerings.

All of J.D. Power's satisfaction scores can be found on its Web site.. Airports and airlines are under the Travel tab. More than 10,000 travelers participated in the study. Please let us know what you think of this survey (just the airline and airport stuff, not your car, please!) and other simiilar consumer research about airlines and airports.

The U.S. and Chinese governments say they want to open up the air-travel market between the countries. You may recall US Airways would like a PHL-Shanghai route, and this development greatly improves the airline's chances for a once-daily roundtrip, starting in 2009. Read the AP story here

Read the warnings about what to expect this holiday weekend and all summer on the roads and at PHL in today's Inquirer story

We suspect that most of the readers of this space have been through the TSA security process at PHL so many times you've lost count. For those who needed a reminder about what not to bring on an airplane these days, the TSA did a briefing this week. What TSA said may help explain some of the long security lines at PHL recently. Read more in today's Inquirer story.

"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." That notable line, attributed to the late Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois in reference to the Pentagon budget, also can be applied to the capital investment needs of airports, according to the folks who run them.

Airports Council International-North America, which represents the governing bodies of U.S. and Canadian airports, including the City of Philadelphia, estimates that its members must invest real money - $87.4 billion from 2007 through 2011 - to keep pace with the projected growth in passenger demand. Without putting money into new runways, terminals and gates, the busiest airports are going to get more congested and more flights will be delayed, the group said in a study. Travelers may understand the needs better after this summer. If thunderstorms delay many flights, 2007 could be worse than 2000, which the group said in a statement "had the dubious distinction of being the peak year for air-travel delays." Weather is the principal cause of flight delays, which averaged 51 minutes last year and are expected to be 53 minutes this year.

Philadelphia International Airport's capital-investment plans are a small slice of the $87.4 billion. The airport expects to spend between $600 million and $1 billion on projects from the start of fiscal 2008 on June 30 through fiscal 2011. Among improvements already under way are enlarging Terminals D and E with new ticketing lobbies, security checkpoints, retail shops and a food court, and lengthening the north-south runway to accommodate larger airplanes.

The vast majority of money spent on operations and capital improvements at Philadelphia and most other airports comes directly or indirectly from airline customers. The $4.50 charge for each departure that's part of the price of your ticket is one source of the airport's revenue. Another source is the federal tax on each airline ticket, which goes into a trust fund to pay for runways, taxiways and air-traffic control. But most of the money to keep the lights on and build new facilities comes from the airlines and other airport businesses in the form of rent, landing fees and other charges. So it's baked into price of a ticket or any other product or service you pay for at the airport.

US Airways changes .... US Airways has had a hard time keeping many of you happy this year, mostly because of its botched switch to a new computer reservations system in March that caused delays and cancellations. Recently, the airline has used its every public utterance - news releases, interviews with senior executives, employee newsletters - to ask for forgiveness and patience as it tries to improve things. Here are some examples of what the company says is under way:

For all travelers, US Airways is installing new software on its self-service airport kiosks, which didn't work well, or at all, after the computer switchover. Look for that work to be finished by the end of June. For its most frequent fliers, those with Preferred status in the Dividend Miles program, US Airways dropped a $25 fee that had been charged to change a reservation on the day of departure. Software was upgraded, too, so that three times a day a sweep is done of all passengers' records. The program looks for Preferred members who have reserved coach seats on flights that also have open first-class or business-class seats, and sends the members an e-mail after each sweep, telling them if they get to move to the front of the plane.

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International airline traffic has been growing at a faster rate this year than U.S. domestic traffic, particularly for carriers serving the Middle East and Africa. Read a news release from the International Air Transport Association about results for the first four months of 2007 here.

Philadelphia has managed to do something that most U.S. cities have not since Sept. 11, 2001 -- draw more visitors from overseas than it did in 2000. As you've probably heard, since 9/11, this country has made it much harder for business and leisure travelers, including citizens of European countries that are allies, to enter the country. Travel industry organizations have been ciritical of the federal government's visa requirements and the tedious, time-consuming welcome visitors get at international airports.

Despite that, Philadelphia had 434,000 overseas visitors (those from Canada and Mexico don't count in this measure) in 2005, compared with 390,000 in 2000, the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau says. Among major U.S. ports of entry, only New York, with about 12 times as many foreign visitors as there are here, also grew when 2000 is compared with 2005. For Philadelphia, US Airways increase in European service in recent years has helped draw more visitors here. But most of the credit for maintaining the market goes to the visitors bureau. It advertises the city and region in a vareity of ways in Europe, and several times a year, it hosts groups of European travel agents, tour operators and travel writers to show off the city. Apparently, many of the travel-business visitors like what they see, and recommend Philadelphia to their customers.

Read our story about US Airways most recent additions to its European flight schedule here.

The Internatioinal Air Transport Association announced plans today to take on what its chairman called its "toughest challenge" -- helping combat global climate change by cutting its carbon emissions to zero. The United Nations estimates that the global industry's "carbon footprint" is now about 2 percent of all emissions, and will go to 3 percent by 2050, based on the projected growth of air travel. But chairman Giovanni Bisignani, speaking in Vacouver to the group's annual meeting, said that won't do.

"In today's political reality that is not acceptable -- for any industry," Bisignani said. "We must aim high. Air transport must become an industry that does not pollute --zero emissions." Achieving that will require leadership from governments, the UN's International Civil Aviation Organisation, and "a technology leap" from aircraft manufacturers and fuel suppliers, he said. He promised airlines will do their part by making environmental concerns as important as safety and security.

This is an issue that U.S. airlines have said little about. If they have, they must be talking to themselves and not telling the rest of us about the efforts they're making. At the same time, European carriers -- and European businesses and consumers in general -- appear far more aware of the issues and what must be done to deal with themt. If that concerns you, tell us -- and the airlines -- about it.

The Department of Transportation reported April airline performance today. Read our story here.

We have this news brief in print this morning: The Federal Aviation Administration has scheduled a public meeting June 27 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Route 70 and Cuthbert Boulevard in Cherry Hill, to hear comments about its airspace redesign plan for the Philadelphia and New York areas. The meeting, scheduled for 6:30 to 9 p.m., was set at the request of members of Congress from New Jersey, who complained that hundreds of their constituents were not able to get into a similar May 1 meeting in Tinicum Township for lack of space. The airspace plan, which could change takeoff patterns from Philadelphia International Airport, has generated opposition in parts of Delaware County and South Jersey because of the potential increase in aircraft noise in residential areas. The FAA expects to complete its study of the plan in late August

The Transportation Security Administration and the airlines disagree over how much carriers should be paying for security services. Read more here.

The State Department and the Homeland Security Administration said today they're relaxing the rule requiring passports of U.S. citizens traveling to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, because of the backlog of applications. More detail was in print in this story today, which was written before the announcement.

It's going to be a long night at PHL. Read what we've prepared for tomorrow's newspaper here

Last week started in a minor key, with release by the U.S. Department of Transportation of data for airline on-time performance in April at Philadelphia International Airport and elsewhere. It wasn't good, as anyone flying could have guessed. But as the week went on, the skies brightened, with positive developments on a number of fronts that travelers care about. Of course, that was before the weather and FAA computer problems ganged up Friday to make a mess of flight operations at PHL and many other airports.

The reports on airline and airport delays for April (see the links posted on the blog early Tuesday) show a pattern that you can pick up if you read these things as often as we do. Remember how much rain we had in April? On-time performance nationwide slipped because of the weather. As usual, the New York airports and Chicago O'Hare were even worse than PHL. But PHL was hit especially hard because of US Airways' ongoing struggle to fix its reservations system. Those problems also have caused on-time operations to suffer in March and April at Charlotte, US Airways' largest hub, which usually finishes far ahead of PHL in the rankings. US Airways says service got much better in May, with 80 percent on-time arrivals systemwide. We await the next federal report.

Another bit of good news: The world's airlines, represented by the International Air Transport Association, say they will do their part to cut carbon emissions that cause global warming. The head of the group promised it would work with governments and aircraft manufacturers to improve technology to reach a goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Those worried about the Federal Aviation Administration's airspace redesign plan for the Philadelphia and New York areas had reason to cheer, too. The FAA says it will hold another meeting to take public comment, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. June 27 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill.

As the week ended, the feds - this time the State Department and Homeland Security - recognized what travelers had been telling them for months: They are ruining long-planned trips because they cannot reduce the backlog of unprocessed applications for passports. So they suspended the requirement for U.S. citizens to have passports to fly to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda this summer. What will suffice until at least September is a government-issued photo I.D. and proof that you've applied for a new passport. The proof, officials say, can be found at the State Department's Web site within a few weeks of receipt of an application.

Our favorite bit of cheer was from the AAA Mid-Atlantic motor club, which surveys service stations from Virginia to North Jersey daily about their gasoline pump prices. AAA reacted with dismay in late April when fuel-price prognosticators said a gallon of unleaded regular could hit $4 a gallon this summer. No way, the club said, and that's what's happening so far, with prices hovering just above $3 in Pennsylvania and just under $3 in South Jersey. Let's hope it stays that way.

AirTran Airways' effort to buy Midwest Airlines is ready for a stockholders' vote. Read the AP story from the newspaper this morning.

AirTran extended its bid for Midwest Airline until Aug. 10. Read about it here

On a summer afternoon in the Northeast, delays for air travelers are mounting. Most flights in and out of PHL were operating on time earlier in the day, but as thunderstorms moved across the country and into the region, more flights are late. The biggest problems so far look like flights coming from the West and upper Midwest, according to phl.org and flightstats.com. Prepare for more as the evening approaches.

This is an impportant week for Midwest Airlines and its fight for control with AirTran. While these two carriers aren't among PHL's biggest, they both have been solid performers here for years. Read the latest AP story about them here.

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly says the airline's growth may not be as strong as it had hoped. That could slow down its plans to expand at PHL when it gets more Terminal E gates this fall. Read more here

The grassroots movement to get Congress to force airlines to provide better service, by adopting a passengers' bill of rights, has gotten some traction in Washington. Legislation is pending in the Senate that would require carriers to provide some minimal creature comforts --such as drinking water and working toilets -- if travelers are stranded on flights, away from a gate but not yet airborne. The legislation is opposed by one of the more powerful members of Congress, Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, who wants the Department of Transportation to do the regulating in this area, and House hasn't acted on it.

This movement is a brainchild of Kate Hanni, a California real estate broker who was among those stranded for nine hours Dec. 29 aboard an American Airlines flight in Austin, Texas, that had been diverted because of weather. You may remember the horror stories, which were repeated by JetBlue Airways in February, and here and there by other airlines at various times.The Coalition for a Passengers' Bill of Rights has a Web site and blog and has generated signficant media coverage. This week, the group issued a report asserting that the airlines and DOT grossly underestimate how many flights wind up stuck on the tarmac for long periods, because flights that are eventually canceled aren't counted. The group used reports by the media and its own members about strandings to counter statistics, used by airlines and DOT, that show the number of such incidents is a tiny fraction of all flights.

The airlines and a some other groups that represent travelers' interests oppose the legislation Congress is considering. You can read what the head of the Air Transport Association, the big carriers' lobbying group, told the Senate transportation committee in April here.

We meant to post this earlier, a report blaming an old FAA computer for last week's air-traffic control meltdown, Here's the link to the print story today.

Perhaps PHL will be studied next, but in the meantime, here's an AP story about delayed flgihts at New York area airports.

US Airways has big dreams about additional international service from PHL. Read more here

If airline flights you took over the last 10 days were on time, you were among the fortunate few. We all heard the predictions that air travel was going to be rough this summer, with more flights scheduled and planes packed tighter than ever, and recent days have been doozies. The worst day was June 8, a Friday, when a Federal Aviation Administration computer failed, backing up air traffic across most of the East as severe thunderstorms were breaking out. Just one example: A blog commenter reported a five-hour takeoff delay on an American Airlines flight from Philadelphia — for his two-hour flight to Chicago. Matters weren’t much better on most afternoons last week as thunderstorms built up.

One way to track how airports and airlines are doing in real time is flightstats.com. The site is useful to see whether an individual flight is on schedule and to see the full array of operations for each carrier or airport. On the free portion of the site, you can check an airport’s departures or arrivals for the current day and one day before or after, and find a notation for how many minutes late each delayed flight was. You can see how grim the situation was at PHL on Thursday, when most flights before 9 a.m. were on time, a few more were late from 9 a.m. to noon, and half or more ran late in the afternoon. After 6 p.m., almost none was on time.

The weather made it a good time for another push by the Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights, the grass-roots group (find its blog here) that wants Congress to require airlines to provide basic human comforts during long delays. The group issued a report last week asserting that airlines and federal regulators understate the number of flights that get stranded on the runways for hours. Good arguments can be made on both sides of this issue. The airlines’ views can be found at the Air Transport Association’s Web site, airlines.org

Despite the amount of coverage the media (ourselves included) give airlines, the majority of business trips are literally on the road. It’s logical, of course, considering how many people have opted since Sept. 11, 2001, to drive 300 miles or more to avoid the hassle of airport security and airline delays, and how many miles are put on rental cars by air travelers. That makes the price of filling a gas tank of acute interest, and the news has been good so far this summer in the Philadelphia region. Last week, the average price of unleaded regular continued a trend that started just after Memorial Day, dropping a penny or two a gallon on successive days, the AAA motor club says. By week’s end, the cost was below $3 a gallon in Pennsylvania, although it’s a little higher in the five-county area west of the Delaware. In South Jersey, the price was $2.89 a gallon.

The dreams of[ US Airways to make Philadelphia an even bigger and better international hub surfaced again Friday. The airline says it wants to start flying nonstop to two to four more cities in Europe and beyond, including some that have never been mentioned before by airport or airline officials. Among the places under consideration: Moscow; Istanbul, Turkey; Tel Aviv; Birmingham, England; India; and Japan. Read more in our story in Saturday's paper.

This is the week of the Paris Air Show, which means you will hear about a number of orders for new Airbus and Boeing jets. Yesterday, US Airways said it had ordered 92 Airbus jets, for delivery over the next decade. Read the full story we had in print here.

Boeing Co. had its own news this morning in Paris. See who's ordering its planes here

Souithwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly says BWI is where it would have a code-share arrangement with ATA Airlines for connecting to international flights. Read more from Baltimore Sun

Here's thought No. 1 from Nutter: "The airport is critical, not only to the future of the city but to its impact on the region. ... I think it's pretty obvious there have been a number of challenging situations in airport operations. I'm fully examining all the performance issues out at the airport." So we know he appreciates what a powerful force PHL is, the source of close to 35,000 jobs and $14 billion a year in economic activity in the region, and how its reputation rubs off on the city.

Something else that's clear to us is that Nutter has already been talking to airlines and suburban politicians. He wants to find common ground with political leaders of South Jersey, Delaware County and, especially, Tinicum Township, where two-thirds of the airport's city-owned land is situated. County residents are concerned about aircraft noise and other effects of proximity to the airport. They are opposed to an FAA plan to use new takeoff paths over residenttial areas, and they want to know what Tinicum can expect if an additional runway is built along the Delaware as a way to reduce flight delays. While Nutter said he wants to work with suburban politicians, he also said, "It's critically important we improve our takeoff and arrival times, given our current record." Our thought: If reducing delays without having an impact on the neighbors were easy, it would have been done years ago.

Nutter said increasing international service will be another priority for him because of its ability to increase tourism and promote overseas trade. He said he would like to see direct flights to Africa from PHL (perhaps the longest of long-shot dreams), as well as the routes to Asia and additional service to Europe that US Airways seeks. The airport also needs to resolve the disagreement it's had with US Airways involving use of gates in Terminal A-East for domestic flights, Nutter said. US Airways continues to complain that it's hamstrung by the airport's decision to move Delta to A-East from Terminal E, so Southwest can expand its domestic service.

As for baggage, Nutter said: "We need US Airways to resolve the baggage-handling issues at the airport. My understanding is some improvements have been made, but more needs to be done."

One more area that Nutter says needs work is how efficiently the city handles requests for things like construction permits and installation of new equipment. That's another issue that frustrates US Airways' people, from baggage handlers up to the CEO.

In his call, one question Nutter did not want to address was this: Does mayoral front-runner want a new airport boss to replace Mayor Street's appointee, Charles J. Isdell? Nutter said he will only answer that question after the election in November. So if he wins, plan on us asking again.

United Airlines had a computer failure this morning that grounded all fllights for about two hours. United flights to PHL are running an hour or two behind schedule, but most other operations here are normal for a warm summer afternoon. Read an AP story about United here

The U.S. government is easing the passport rules for Western Hemisphere travelers. Read about the tedious process as it works now, in this morning's Inquirer.

Passengers on a Continental flight from Amsterdam to Newark had a horrible experience this week when a malfunctioning toilet overflowed. Hold your nose and read more here.

Al Taubenberger, who ran unopposed this spring in the Republican mayoral primary, has been thinking about the importance of PHL in the regional economy. After Democratic nominee Michael Nutter called to tell us his priorities for the airport, we asked Taubenberger to give us his. (We posted Nutter's comments two days ago.)

Like Nutter, Taubenberger said he supports US Airways' plans to add more international flights here. The GOP candidate said job growth in the city was a key plank in his platform, and while each new overseas flight would add only a few jobs, the service will help international trade. Because US Airways uses PHL as a hub, he said the city should help US Airways get as many airport gates as it needs. He was familiar with US Airways' objections to moving Delta into Terminal A-East to free up space in Terminal E for Southwest.

"There's no doubt Southwest has helped," he said. "But Southwest... is not the hub airline here...Southwest does not have international flights. It's more of a commuter and leisure airline."

Taubenberger said he wants members of Congress from the region to fight to help clear more air space for flights in and out of Philadelphia. Flights to and from airports in the New York and Washington areas have a higher priority to air-traffic controllers than do flights here, he said. But he said he needed to do more study before he expresses an opinion about the FAA's airspace redesign plan for the Philadelphia and New York areas, which is aimed at trying to reduce delays and is opposed by some political leaders in Delaware County and South Jersey.

If Taubenberger becomes mayor, he would ask Charles J. Isdell to continue as city aviation director. "He has done a good job under difficult circumstances, plenty of which weren't under his control," he said.

Great peril awaits anyone who dares to say these words: PHL flights are very largely on time today. The danger, of course, is that matters could deteriorate in a heartbeat as clouds build up later this evening. But throughout most of what's usually one of the heaviest travel days of the week, in the busy summer season, only a few dozen flights are seriously late, according to flightstats.com . We apologize if you're on one of the late ones, but for everyone else, have a nice trip.

The murky weather here and to the west has many PHL flights backed up for departure, with arrivals affected as well. We heard from www.joesentme.com (subscription Web site for frequent fliers) that Northwest was cancelling a number of flights, but here most of its flights have arrived and departed normally this morning.

Consumer Reports, the monthly magazine of Consumers Union, regularly asks its members to rate consumer products and services, and in the July issue now on newsstands it looks at hotels and airlines. For travel veterans, much of the CR articles will seem very basic, such as what to expect from a luxury hotel vs. a budget brand. But CR surveys' get thousands of responses from readers (more than 31,000 on airlines), so serve as a fair guage of what leisure and business travelers think.

There's far too much data in the reports to recount much of it in our space, but here's a hint: The highest ratings in the "fanciest" category went to Ritz-Carlton (Four Seasons apparently didn't get a minium of 150 responses). Among luxry brands, top marks went to Renaissance. Homewood Suites and Springhill Suites by Marriott tied for best upscale hotels, and Drury Inns/Suites was the top vote-getter in moderately priced, Microtel was rated best in budget lodgings, but ratings for all the budget brands were quite a bit lower than those in the other categories. One area to watch for are the room rates, because the surveys were done from January 2005 to April 2006. Some of the prices seem low to us, at least for urban hotels.

In the airline survey, the best ratings went to JetBlue, Midwest and Southwest. (The survey was done in February but included a followup in April after JetBlue's February service meltdown, which the magazine said didn't change the results). At the bottom of the list of best airlines were No. 17, America West, and No. 18, US Airways.

Pilots at Northwest say the airline's spate of cancellations over the last three days is due to a shortage of crews to fly its planes, the result of poor planning by management. Northwest says it was the weather, which caused enough delays that some pilots ran up against federal and union-contract rules on how many hours per month they can fly. Whatever the cause, it's up to management to fix it. And, as usual, it will be the front-line Northwest employees in airports and on board its planes who will bear the brunt of travelers' anger over the situation. Read more "he said / she said" in a Detroit Free Press story.

The FAA holds what is probably its final informational meeting tonight on its airspace redesign plan for PHL and New York area airports. Read this morning's story here

Southwest won't be flying nonstop between PHL and LAX or Oakland for awhile. Baltimore to California nonstop also will be out of the schedule by fall, although the changes may only be temporary. CEO Gary Kelly briefed analysts and reporters on that and other tweaks it made to its schedule as a way to cut costs at a time of high fuel costs and a sluggish economy. Two other local notes: one less PHL-Providence flight and one additional PHL-Nashville roundtrip. And the airline says in the fourth quarter it will announce changes in its seating and boarding policy, frequent-flier program and overall fare structure Read more in our story for print tomorrow, and in an AP story and check in again forr additional insight as the week goes on.

We've had a long day on the road and we're just now getting to staying in touch with readers. Here's a report on what's expected to be the last public meeting on the FAA's airspace redesign plan

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.)

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

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.

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..

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.

We're back from a couple of weeks away from the blogosphere, and ready to hear from you again.

First off, NPR News Morning Edition (WHYY 90.1 FM) will run a four-part series on airline travel tomorrow through Friday, with PHL as the focus. The series will start with a profile of a family traveling from PHL to Orlando, and follow it with closer looks at airport security, air-traffic control on the PHL-Orlando route and the effect of low-fare competition at PHL. Aviation director Charles J. Isdell will be interviewed Friday in the last segment. Give it a listen and tell us what you think.

Flight delays in June hit a 13-year high, the U.S. Transportation Department reported today. Read the AP story here. Below you will find PHL information that will be combined with the AP story in print tomorrow morning:

At Philadelphia International Airport, 59 percent of flights arrived on time and 61 percent departed on time in June. Philadelphia was ranked No. 28 among the nation's 32 largest airports for arrivals, and No. 31 out of 32 for departures. Among major carriers here, American Airlines had the poorest on-time arrival record, in June with flights landing within 15 minutes of their schedule 46 percent of the time. Northwest Airlines flights arrived on time 50 percent of the time, and US Airways, the airport's largest carrier with more than 60 percent of the traffic, had an on-time arrival rate of 52 percent. Others were Southwest Airlines, 73 percent on time; AirTran Airways, 69 percent; United Airlines, 61 percent; and Continental Airlines, 64 percent.

Nationwide, US Airways led the major airlines in lost or damaged bags for the month, with 10.6 reports filed for every 1,000 passengers. American was second, with 8.9 reports per 1,000 passengers. AirTran had the best record among the large carriers, with a rate of 4.4 per 1,000. US Airways also had the highest rate of complaints per 100,000 passengers filed with the Department of Transportation, at 3.43. The national average for all airlines was 1.35 complaints per 100,000 passengers.

The airport's bond ratings have been raised, helping spur a number of projects, including adding gates in A-West and redesigning the F Terminal. Read a little here and more tomorrow online or in print.

Southwest is testing a new procedure at San Antonio International Airport that let's passengers board flights in the order in which they check in. The experiment is aimed at cutting down on the way passengers now start forming the A, B or C lines long before they actually board, creating severe traffic jams in the gate area. Seats are still unreserved -- that's something Southwest is still looking at changing. The airline hasn't made any announcements about the test we can find, but the San Antonio Express-News had a story about it this morning. Read all about it here.

US Airways has uncovered an alleged scam of its payroll system at PHL. Read the details in this morning's story here.

Last week brought important developments at the airport, and we report on a recent road trip. Read all about it here

The months-long effort by AirTran Airways to buy Midest Airlines has come to an end, with AirTran giving up and Midwest announcing it will be sold to a private equity firm that will enable to continue as a standalone carrier. Read the AP story here.

If you missed our page one story in print today about PHL's long-term plan for upgading Terminal F, find it here.

AirTran Airways wants to buy Midwest Airlines in the worst way. AirTran made yet another offer late yesterday, raising its price just above one from a private equity group. Read the latest here.

The FAA called airline industry officials together to discuss improving safety margins while airplanes are on the ground, taxiing and preparing for takeoff. Read more in an AP story.

This could be one of those days travelers fear the most, when the weather maps online and on every TV station show big green blobs in some parts of the country and out to sea. Tropical depression Erin moved ashore on the Texas Gulf Coast, causing heavy rain and airline delays in much of the eastern and central part of the state. Thunderstorms are forecast for PHL and other areas of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, and we know what that means. Monitor the PHL.org Website for delays in and out. Even better information, continually updated, is available at www.flightstats.com.

Is the saga over? Midwest Airlines, the little carrier with the good service reputation, says it is. Read today's story here

This column comes from the heart -- your heart, that is. We've rounded up what you've been telling us recently about PHL and its airlines. Read all about it here.

The powerful Caribbean hurricane has prompted airlines to issue notices to passengers who have tickets to many destinations that they may make some changes without penalty. If you were planning to visit the tropics in the next few days, check out the notices being posted on the airlines' Websites to see what individual carriers' rules are. Links can be found in the lower right-hand column of this page.

Hurricane Dean slammed the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico early today and at the moment is a category 2 storm. Travel to Mexico, obviously, will be affected for days. Airlines that serve the Caribbean are returning to normal operations, so check with your carrier if you're planning to travel to the region.

If it's a Tuesday in August in the Northeast, this must mean flight delays. Arrivals and departures at PHL as well as LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark are all jammed up because of low ceilings and traffic, according to the FAA.gov Website. Flightstats.com reports roughly two out of three arrivals and departures running seriously late at PHL, so plan accordingly. Best of luck!

PHL has been under FAA ground-delay restrictions today that have contributed to about a quarter of all flights being late, either leaving the gate or taking off after pushback. UPDATE: From noon to 3 p.m., about half of arrivals were late.

Yesterday, more than three-quarters of flights were delayed, according to flightstats.com, so let's count our blessings. As many of you know, weather and air traffic have largely been responsible this month for the unusually high number of late arrivals and departures.

Most business travelers don't have to fly over the Labor Day weekend and should be glad about it. The Air Transport Association, the airlines' trade group, forecast today that 15.7 million passengers will fly between Wednesday, Aug. 29 and Wednesday, Sept. 5, a 2.6 percent increase over the same period last year. Just when you thought it couldn't get more jam-packed out there!

The association also took the opportunity to remind you that while weather is responsible for most flight delays, a modernized air-traffic control system "would enable safe operations under weather conditions that today result in gridlock." That last statement is part of the airlines' lobbying effort to get Congress to change the formula for paying for the air-traffic control system. Now, the airlines say, passengers pay a disproportionate share and general aviation, particularly corporate aircfraft, should pay more. Corporate and general aviation lobbyists say just the opposite: the funding mechanism used now is fair and should be kept. So far Congress has supported the latter group, but the debate is far from over, so stand by for further developments.

We did a long version of that paragraph from last week's Road Warrior column, about thefts from bags. Find this morning's report at the Road Warrior link and let us know what your experience has been -- with baggage service, or any other airport or airline topic..

The investigation into a fire last week on a China Airlines 737 prompted the FAA to issue an unusual emergency order today, requiring airlines to inspect newer models of the plane. More details are in this AP story.

The FAA is talking up its next-generation air-traffic control plans -- ready for use in about six years. Read on to see whether all believe it will solve the congestion and flight-delay problem. The Washington Post's story can be found here.

A New Jersey assemblyman wants an air-travelers bill of rights for state residents. Read more in an AP story about it.

The FAA has ordered airlines to step up the pace of their inspections of fasteners in the wings of 737 jets, suspects in an explosion last week on a China Airlines plane. Read the latest here

A new TSA inspection rule has Sikhs concerned they're being unfairly targeted at security checkpoints. Read more in an AP story.

We had a strong response to last week's report on theft from checked bags at PHL by US Airways passengers. Here's the link to today's column.

The federal government issued its monthly on-time performance report yesterday. Find the story here.

Philadelphia cab drivers have started a 48-hour strike that has created long lines at 30th St. Station. New York cabbies also are reported to be involved in a job action. Read what we know about the taxi strike.

Boeing is delaying the first flight of its next-generation long-range jet, the 787. Here's today's AP story.

Read what the FAA did today about its airspace redesign plan, which has generated strong local opposition. Find our story online tonight and in print tomorrow, using this link.

We've been meaning to alert those who may not see the Sunday Travel section to a good piece over the weekend by Al Borcover, the longtime travel editor at the Chicago Tribune. He lets the airlines say what they're doing to make flying better in this summer of delays, and has some response from others. Find the story here.

The agency has a Website devoted to the subject, where you can find a huge quantity of information, both technical and in plain English, on the problem FAA is trying to solve, and why it chose the alternative it did. Use this link to find it.

US Airways' board has figured out that it needed someone in charge of actually running the airline's operations on a daily basis, and found an industry veteran for the job. Read our story here. And read a little more about what the new man thinks in an Arizona Republic story.

News about PHL was plentiful last week. We did a roundup in this week's Road Warrior column that provides hope for the future. Link to the column here.

Sept. 11, 2001 is etched in our memories forever. On the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, two events in our region of interest to air travelers will mark the occasion in different ways. A roundup of all events in the region can be found here. Read on to learn more about the two special events.

The PHL administration and the City of Philadelphia will hold a ceremony at 1 p.m. in the Terminal B-C ticketing area. Remarks by city officials will be followed by a moment of silence and singing of the national anthem. The public and those who work at the airport are invited.

The other event is not open to the public but deserves recognition by anyone who flies on airlines because of who it honors. The Canadian Consultate of Philadelphia is hosting a breakfast in Center City honoring Claude Elliot, the mayor of Gander, Newfoundland. That's the city on Canada's northeastern shore, a longtime trans-Atlantic stopover point in the days before jets, where dozens of flights were forced to land in the first hours after the attacks. The notice of the event here tomorrow says why Mr. Elliot was invited better than we can, so here it is verbatim:

"The Canadian Consulate in Philadelphia and local community and business leaders will pay tribute to Mayor Elliott and the people of Gander for the hospitality they extended to passengers from some 40 nations, including several from the Delaware Valley. Mayor Elliott will share his recollections of his city’s emergency response to 9-11. For nearly a week the people of Gander, at their own expense, opened their homes, schools and churches to house 6,595 unexpected guests, cooked meals, rounded up bedding, provided ground transportation and free telephone service to passengers coping with both disruption of their travel and the emotions of 9-11. The tremendous outpouring came despite potential risk to the residents' personal safety, since both U.S. and Canadian authorities initially suspected additional terrorists might be aboard the incoming flights."

What more can we say but thank you.

We have just added what we believe will be a valuable feature to the Road Warrior blog. You will find PHL information, updated minute-by-minute, from www.flightstats.com just below the ad in the right-hand column. Check it out and let us know what you think.

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, who's about to leave her job to work for the aerospace industry, says limits on flights by airlines should be considered as a way to reduce flight delays. Read more about what she said in Washington yesterday here.

US Airways says it's run out of furloughed pilots to call back to work, requiring it to hire new ones. This is part of a trend of major carriers adding pilots and flight attendants, or calling them back to work from furlough. Read more here.

The competition in the PHL-Boston air-travel market is about as strong as it gets these days. Besides US Airways to Logan, Delta's Comair commuter unit will start flights in November. Southwest keeps the pressure on fares with flights to nearby Providence and Manchester while avoiding Logan congestion. AirTran now has given up, saying it was losing money. Read a litte more about the Atlanta-based carrier's decision here.

Your federal government churns out data to the public weekly about airline and airport traffic and airline service. The reports by the Transportation Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics and consumer affairs division are an important source for us as we monitor the business. A traffic report for the first half of 2007 was released today. While it doesn't cover July and August, it provides a good, early glimpse of what has contributed to air-traffic delays this summer: The trend is up for most measures of how many people are flying, the airports they're using and the number of flights scheduled. If you're seriously interested in statistics, and watching trends over time, use this link to find a BTS press release with links to tables that tell the story.

We received information about a meeting tonight of a group concerned about noise of PHL air traffic. We've not received notices like this before but we will post them here if we do. Here are the details we have:

Haddonfield/SJ Aircraft Noise Coalition Meeting, 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13

Haddonfield Borough Hall Auditorium, 242 Kings Highway East

Questions, contact Mike Bonnette at mbbonnette@comcast.net

Today's Road Warrior column is all about making the most of packed airline cabins. Find it here.

Airline service? No news on that today, but the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported this morning that the airline's second quarter was the best in seven years -- for making money. The quarter was the fifth in a row that the industry has made money, the longest streak since 2000. Read the details in a BTS news release.

Back in April, we reported on a startup airline, Silverjet, that has all-business class service between Newark and London. We featured it because it's the only one of this new breed of carrier, offering premium seating and service at a lower fare than the major carriers in business class, that flies to London from Newark. Most PHL-based travelers are unlikely to schlep to Kennedy to catch one of the other new ones. Now Silverjet says it's been successful enough that it's adding a second roundtrip daily between Newark and its base at London Luton Airport, starting Sunday, and a new route, London to Dubai, in November. Silverjet says the daily roundtrips to one of the Middle East's fastest-growing areas are the first service by one of the all-business class airlines beyond trans-Atlantic routes. Read the April story about Silverjet . The airline's Website is www.flysilverjet.com.

Southwest plans an annoucement tomorrow about its boarding and seating policies. Are assigned seats coming ? Our best guess is no. Seems like too big a leap, although we've been wrong a time or two before. Look for the airline to be adopting a more orderly process for boarding each flight, based on a "position" number based on when you checked in. This is the experiment we told you about on Aug. 8, with a link to a story in the San Antonio Express-News . Bloomberg News also reports today that Southwest may drop its policy of allowing passengers traveling with small children to board first, so perhaps that's what the announcement tomorrow is all about. Check here for details when we get them.

Just as we anticipated yesterday, Southwest is not changing its open-seating policy, but is tweaking the process to make boarding more orderly. Read the news release the airline posted on its Website here.

Thursday update: MarketWatch did a complete story on Southwest's decision. Find it with this link.

The U.S. House passed a bill yesterday to reauthorize the FAA for four years that was loaded with provisions that affect air travelers. Here's the basic FAA story by the AP in Washington. We'll be reporting more about several topics in the measure in coming days and weeks.

We take a look in today's Road Warrior column at how House-passed legislation may help passengers and airline employees. Read the details here.

Breaking news... US Airways won tentative approval from federal regulators today to start service between Philadelphia and China, starting in 2009, . The flights would be the only nonstop service to Asia from the region. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that US Airways, the dominant carrier at Philadelphia International Airport, would be one of six airlines that could start new routes to Chinese cities in 2008 or 2009, after a period of public comment. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said in a statement that final decisions on the route awards would be made “in the near future” after the comment period.

US Airways said it would use widebodied Airbus A340, a long-range airplane that it doesn’t have in its fleet now, for daily flights between Philadelphia and Beijing, China’s capital. The exact date the service is expected to start wasn’t announced. US Airways will start each daily flight at its largest hub, in Charlotte, N.C., the airline said. US Airways chief executive Doug Parker thanked Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and North Carolina officials for their endorsement of the airline’s application to the Transportation Department.

Delta Air Lines won the right to start flights between Atlanta and Shanghai immediately. United Airlines got permission to serve San Francisco to Guangzhou in 2008. Joining US Airways in 2009 will be American Airlines, flying Chicago-Beijing; Continental Airlines, flying Newark-Shanghai; and Northwest Airlines, flying Detroit-Shanghai.

Philadelphia business leaders and tourism promoters are eagerly anticipating nonstop flights by US Airways to China in 2009. Read our full story about the feds decision yesterday here.

News related to airline service and delays keeps coming from Washington. The Transportation Department's inspector general weighed in with a report calling for airlines to limit how long passengers can be stranded on planes at airports. Find a news story about the IG's report here.

More interesting and provocative is testimony delivered today to the House Subcommittee on Aviation by Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, based in Radnor, Pa., a forward thinker on issues related to airlines and their customers. Mitchell says we need to find new ideas and solutions to the air-traffic congestion and delay problem, lest the whole system grind to a halt in a few years Read more about his thoughts at this link.

The president weighed in for the first time yesterday on the airline flight-delay problem. Read what the administration said in this story . At other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, airline executives were telling Congress what they think about the issue.

Even the White House recoginizes airline flight delays as a growing problem. Read more in today's Road Warrior column.

In the last 12 hours, we've experienced one of the great frustrations of the Road Warrior who's in a remote city in the West and doesn't have instant access to philly.com. Want to know if the Phillies were the National League East champions last night? Don't count on ESPN. For more than an hour we switched back and forth between the Eagles sorrowful performance and an ESPN program called "Baseball Tonight" or something like it. We got virtually no National League news, and nothing at all about the Phils win and the Mets loss that gave the home team the division championship. Other TV news focused on the Mets collapse. Who cares? We won't be shedding any tears as we inhale all the news about the Phils' fantastic finish from The Inquirer and the Daily News on philly.com. [End of commercial].

Hello out there. We're back from a break and monitoring the airline business again. Surprise, surprise, we find that not all the affected parties resolved their differences about airline service and management decisions in the last 10 days. Pilots at American are grumbling about executive bonuses as they open contract talks. Closer to home, Pennsylvania's U.S. senators asked US Airways CEO Doug Parker to reconsider the airline's decision announced last week to reduce Pittsburgh service. Here's a report and the text of the senators' letter as reported on a politically oriented Web site. We'll post US Airways response if we get one.

What else has been happening in the world of PHL travel that's of concern to you? Let us know what's on your mind.

Boeing Co. announced yesterday that delivery of its next-generation long-haul jet, the 787 Dreamliner, would be delayed for six months , until the end of 2008, because of production problems. Those who like new airplanes and are interested in the advanced technology in the 787 are disappointed, of course. But PHL fliers were unlikely to see one of these jets regularly for years or even decades anyway, unless there's some drastic change in international long-haul service here.

US Airways has opted to buy a competing plane, the Airbus 350 XWB, which also is behind schedule and won't be delivered until 2014. The 787 has gotten off to a fast start, with orders for more than 2,300 from 50 customers. None of those customers, however, have international routes from PHL. The only U.S. carriers that have ordered the Dreamliner are Continental and Northwest, so you will have to fly through one of their hubs to be among the first on your block to try it out.

You may have seen this story last week about August flight delays, but we're posting it now because we were away and want this space to serve as an on-the- record compendium of the single most aggravating aspect of air travel today. One of the more dismal statistics in the story is from PHL itself: More than 1,600 stranded passengers were helped by the airport's hospitality program in August, a far-higher-than-average number. And this is at a time US Airways continues to trim its PHL flight schedule -- it's down to 417 mainline and Express departures a day, compared with almost 500 in early 2005.

Air fares are on the rise again. Read what happened overnight here.

Today we're at the annual Aviation Forecast Conference sponsored by the Boyd Group, a consulting firm whose expertise we've counted on for years to help us look ahead in the world of airlines and airports. Here are a few of the developments and issues we heard about that could affect the PHL traveler and everyone whose livelihood depends on PHL. Some of this is opinion based on analysis by Michael Boyd, the the blunt, incisive, quotable president of the firm:

-- Airline labor, which made concessions that saved the life of US Airways and other bankrupt carriers, is mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore.

-- The 50-seat regional jet will become rarer, replaced by the 70-to-125-seat RJ.

--The FAA has done a lousy of managing air traffic and the industry needs to admit it and find its own way to reduce delays .

-- Legacy,, aka network, carriers (American,Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways) will keep their hub-and-spoke systems (good money makers) while the larger low-cost carriers (AirTran, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and a few others) and the legacies will go head-to-head in more places than they do now. The two groups aren't afraid of competing against each other.

-- International traffic will continue to grow sharply. One destination expected to boom: India.

-- Airline mergers aren't inevitable.

-- Southwest Airlines will be doing one of its periodic reinventions of itself in a few years. (Warning to competitors: watch out .)

More from the conference later in the week.

The major airlines -- even some of the minor ones -- are making good money this year. The biggest, American parent AMR Corp., reported today. Look for Southwest and Continental later in the week and US Airways next week. Read about Delta here and about AMR results here.

Remember all those crowded airline flights this summer? The airlines certainly do -- and much more fondly perhaps than many of their customers. More solid third-quarter profits were reported today, in large part because of heavy demand in the summer. This time it was the turn of Continental and Southwest.

Today's print column includes some information posted last week during the forecast conference we attended, and other news. Read all about it here.

NASA, it turns out, has done a major study of pilot and other avation professionals' reporting of safety-related incidents, including near-collisions of planes on the ground and in the air. But the space agency won't release the data -- at least not to the media -- because it thinks you'll be scared to fly. Read about what the data shows in an AP story here.

The wildfires ravaging Southern California have prompted airlines to waive the usual penalties most of them charge for making changes to tickets for travelers scheduled to go to the region. Check with your airline if you have plans. Be sure to read the fine print of what airlines will do for you because rules may vary, depending on how much paid or how you bought your ticket (directly from the airline or through a travel Website.)

United and JetBlue join the third-quarter parade of airlines reporting solid earnings. Read details here.

Were you on any crowded airline flights last spring? Here's one reason: Fares in many markets were lower in the second quarter compared with 2006, helping explain why demand is strong. Read what the DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics released on air travel costs today.

US Airways moved strongly into the black in the third quarter. But the airline's execs are still complaining about PHL plans that they say are hampering their international operations. Here's our Friday morning story with the details.

We take a closer look at the debate between US Airways and PHL officials about the use of domestic and international gates at the airport. Link to today's column.

We were going to report some more travel-related news today but ran out of time because you, dear readers, responded so enthusiastically to today's column. We've received about 15 e-mails and phone calls so far, several of which are posted as comments in the next item down in this space. Check 'em out, and we'll be posting fresh items the rest of the week.

You will see a slightly shorter version of this in print or online in the morning but here's an advance copy for the Road Warrior readers:

Pennsylvania U.S Sens. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter complained bitterly yesterday in letters to US Airways that the airline's planned cutbacks at Pittsburgh International Airport are part of a pattern of reneging on promises to support air service in the region. The senators said they’re particularly troubled that many US Airways employees who could be laid off by the cutbacks won’t receive severance packages offered to Pittsburgh-based flight attendants.

Specter said that over many years, he had offered support for the airline’s operations in Pennsylvania, and US Airways officials in the past had vowed to continue a major presence in the city. “We’ve gone to hell and back for US Airways and they’ve thumbed their nose at Pittsburgh,” he said.

Specter added that he doesn't think US Airways has shortchanged PIT at the expense of PHL.

US Airways has said it’s losing $40 million a year in its Pittsburgh operation and has no choice but to cut back to 68 daily flights and 1,800 employees by January. At the beginning of 2001, the airline had 542 daily flights and 12,000 employees. CEO Doug Parker has replied to previous letters from Specter, saying we've got to run the airline to make money and that a great deal has changed in the airline industry since Allegheny County spent $1 billion on the PIT terminal to handle the traffic in the 1990s.

American Airlines said today that the rising cost of fuel had prompted it to raise fares by $10 each way on domestic flights. Watch to see if other carriers will match, but these days, most of these kind of across-the-board increases are sticking. Demand is still good, airlines are not adding new flights in any significant way and jet-fuel prices are soaring -- all adding up to the airlines trying to sustain the profits they've been reporting this year.

Here is an update on a story posted last week about NASA's pilot safety issue reporting system. At a congressioinal hearing yesterday, it was revealed that three years ago, pilots on a Denver bound Airbus jet both fell asleep while at the controls. Read about that in a Denver TV report. More background on NASA's pilots study, and the space agency's initial refusal to make it public, can be found in an AP story here

For those who stop here first on their way to philly.com, a report on US Airways and the competition was in print today.

The Road Warrior column in print today uipdates the big topic of last week: Taking a passenger transport vehicle to or from a US Airways international flight. Read more here.

We've been getting a great response to Monday's column (find the link to it below this one on this page) asking for your thoughts about what you like about PHL. Whatever you like or don't like, please keep your comments coming. Several more from those who sent e-mails in response to the print version of the column will be posted as comments later today, as we have time. Thanks as always for keeping the conversation going.

The saga continues: US Airways says it won't fly Philadelphia-Beijing if the airport lets Delta move to Terminal A-East. Find our front-page story here. Let us know what you think by commenting.

We had a busy day yesterday. In addition to a story about new Southwest service at PHL, we teamed up with Inquirer Washington correspondent Steve Goldstein for an update on the continuing saga over how to use PHL gates and US Airways' vow to give up plans for a China route if Delta moves to Terminal A-East. A furious Sen. Arlen Specter gave US Airways CEO Doug Parker a piece of his mind about the airline's threat.

Southwest Airlines gave us a heads up yesterday about three new routes it's planning to start in March from PHL. The new cities are Austin, San Antonio and St. Louis. The once-a-day flights to the two Texas cities would be the only nonstops from PHL. Southwest also is changing its boarding procedures, automatically putting travelers who choose to pay $10 to $30 per flight segment in the "A" boarding group. Its most frequent travelers also will get the same perk. Read more here.

Don't be surprised if other airlines follow United's lead and add a fuel surcharge of $10 per roundtrip to their fares. United made its move on the surcharge this morning, citing record oil prices. Every $1 increase in a barrel of crude costs United another $65 millon a year, the airline said. Since most airlines reduced their labor costs after 9/11, through bankruptcy or labor negotiation or by imposing cuts on employees, fuel has become the carrier's largest expense category.

We expand on last week's big story about the dispute between PHL officials and US Airways over gate usage. Find today's story here.

We've been pleased recently to see how you've responded to this blog and to the stories posted on it. Look here for today's column also for some of your feedback on what you look for in a good hotel, a belated response to what we promised a few weeks ago we would do.

If you travel frequently on business we know where you will probably be next week. At home, avoiding the madness that the Thanksgiving weekend brings. The Air Transport Association trade group expects a 4 percent increase in passengers in the 12 days from this weekend through the holiday period. Read more about the forecast here.

Delta and United are reported to be in merger talks. It's very preliminary, but maybe this is the solution to that dispute over gates at PHL. Delta is set to move tonight into Terminal A-East gates that US Airways wants for its international operations. Perhaps Delta and United will combine and move into Terminal D together (just kidding!) Seriously, don't look for any quick action on this. Airline mergers need a close examination by federal regulators and can take time to sort out, especially if there are routes where competition will be reduced.

The President is expected to announce steps today to ease air-traffic congestion and reduce delays. Here's what we know so far in an AP story. And we will be looking for more information about how PHLwill be affected.

Two stories in print and online today about efforts to make the Thanksgiving travel crunch more bearable. What the White House said can be found here.. And What US Airways says it's doing at PHL and other airports can be found at this link.

The Road Warrior column today adds to the abundance of the season, meaning an abundance of advice about coping with holiday congestion while traveling. Find it here.

The biggest travel week of the year really started last weekend but PHL travelers had a dose of cold rain and snow just to the north of us in the mix this morning. That slowed down operations. You can see how many flights were delayed -- about half at certain times of the day -- by looking in the right-hand column of this page for "Flight Information," our service powered by www.flightstats.com. Day or night, you can check on the status of any airport, airline or flight

And we were flying Saturday, so we can attest that the holiday rush has started -- not a seat to be found on our flight and many others. You will probably encounter some flights with empty seats today and early tomorrow, but not many in the 48 hours after that,

By this time of day, just before the Thanksgiving deluge, they may already be flled, but the airport got 720 more economy parking spots this morning. Read more here.

Here's an explanation why our colleague Melissa Dribben couldn't get wireless Internet service this morning in PHL's B Terminal. This is from the phl.org Web site, under FAQ:

"The Airport offers wireless Internet access from more than 40 access points in the secure areas of every terminal. A fee is required for wireless access. There are several purchase options available to customers, including a 24-hour connection for $7.95 or a monthly unlimited option for $39.95."

There are airports in this country and abroad with free wi-fi access. We are searching for a comprehensive list -- otherwise travelers know only if an airport is advertising or promoting the service. Those that don't probably do as PHL does, making you hunt for the information on their public sites. If any of you knows where to find a complete list online, please send it to us. We will find the information eventually but it may take until after this nutso week and weekend. Thanks in advance for your contributions.

US Airways says it will start flying PHL-London Heathrow on March 29. The airline now uses London Gatwick, which to some travelers is considered less desireable than Heathrow, a better airport for making other international connections. The flight will be scheduled late going east, a 10:45 p.m. departure, with a noon return from London. The service will more directly compete with British Airways two daily roundtrips between PHL and LHR.

The story from Wednesday's paper is at this link.

Isn't e-mail wonderful? Just like that, we received a reply to our post about free wireless access. Thanks to Jason Kurth for providing this link with all the answers about U.S. airports: www.travelpost.com

PHL is not behaving badly so far this morning. According to www.flightstats.com, 84 percent of the departures between 6 and 9 a.m. were on time, and 74 percent of the arrivals got here within 15 minutes of schedule. Since 9 a.m., about 77 percent of departures and 74 percent of arrivals have been on time. Most of the delayed flights were no more than 15 minutes behind. Those numbers aren't much different from many normal weekdays at PHL. So relax, enjoy your trip and keep your fingers crossed. As always, please report any anomolies or really bad experiences to us.

Operations at PHL can be graded just fair at this hour, with more delays as the day has gone on. About two-thirds of arrivals and departures through 5 p.m. have been on time. If you're headed out to the airport to pick up passengers, use the links in the right-hand column of this page for airline Web sites, www.flightstats.com or www.phl.org to check on their expected arrival. As the first phase of this hectic weekend nears its end, we can almost smell the roast turkey.

On what's often the busiest travel day of the year, PHL operations have been only a little more problematic than normal, with about two-thirds of flights leaving and arriving on time through 6 p.m. est. The majority of delays are less than 30 minutes, according to flightstats.com. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving weekend and happy travels.

We had an eye-opening tour of PHL's A-East and A-West terminals with the airport's director and three staffers, to understand better how gates are used.. Read more in today's column.

Well, not a rest area, exactly. The Road Warrior needs to take a break from regular postings on this blog and doing other travel-related stories to work full time on another important topic. We expect to be back by Dec. 10 with regular postings. Other contributors will keep you informed of important breaking stories until we return on a daily basis. Thanks for your continuing interest.

We're resuming normal operations today after a nine-day break to do other work. A little later, we'll be posting recent news stories we want to make sure you see. For the moment, here's an article to lighten your day, about PHL being ranked No. 1 in something. A survey says it's a good place to meet people.

Airlines are beginning to test ways to access e-mail in flight, led by a JetBlue service scheduled to be available next week. Don't worry: This isn't expected to change the prohibition on making voice calls on cell phones in flight, a widely despised idea. Read more about what is coming here.

We take a look at how fewer airline seats for sale this winter can mean higher fares and more revenue for carriers facing higher fuel costs. Read the full story in today's print column.

Here's an update to the message below. As expected, US Airways and Delta on Tuesday issued advisories for travel from Oklahoma to Chicago, allowing for changes to restricted tickets without penalty. Stand by for further developments.. There is good news for Tuesday for PHL fliers: Arrivals and departures are better than average, above 80 percent for most of the day.

Remember last Valentine's Day, and a nasty Friday a month later at PHL? Ice pellets and freezing rain put a damper on air travel even faster than snow does, as anyone who experienced those particularly troublesome days last winter can attest. Today, an ice storm is moving across the heartland, from northern Texas northeastward to southern Michigan, Snow is falling to the north of the band of ice, and rain to the south of it. United Airlines already has issued the usual advisory about expecting delays and relaxing rules for ticket changes; other carriers will probably do the same. So be careful out there, and check on the status of your flight if you're traveling today or tomorrow.

Reading e-mail at 35,000 feet started today on one plane in JetBlue Airways' fleet. Business travelers say what they think about it in an AP story found here.

Boeing Co. says depsite early production problems, its next-generation jet, the 787 Dreamliner, remains on schedule for its first flight in early 2008 and deliveries to airlines late in the year. Read more about it here.

Congress last night had some good news for commercial airline pilots who aren't ready to retire at age 60. Legislation would raise the mandatory retirement age to 65, a sensible change to a regulation that had not been updated in decades. The FAA should have dealt with the issue years ago but was slow in rewriting the rule through its administrative process, prompting Congress to take the issue away from the agency and act itself. Read more here. And tell us what you think about allowing older pilots in good health to continue flying airliners.

Lufthansa, Europe's second-largest airline, has taken a stake in JetBlue Airways. Analysts are mostly reacting favorably today to the investment and what it will do to help the discount carrier. Read more here.

PHL may have escaped a heavy hit by snow or sleet but the big winter storm still has created havoc with flight schedules today. There have been multiple cancellations and delays so make sure you check ahead with your airline if traveling tonight, or tomorrow as carriers work to recover.

This could be an important week for those concerned about flight delays at PHL. Find the Road Warrior column that was in print yesterday here

The federal government will limit flights at Newark and Kennedy airports in the New York area, starting in March, as away to try to ease congestion. Read about that here. .

At PHL, the FAA began using two of the new takeoff headings designed to speed up traffic -- the ones Delaware County residents are worried about. Fresh video on what some local residents think is posted on the www.philly.com homepage. Here is our Inquirer staff report on the first day of implementation.

The latest threat to the FAA's airspace redesign plan that affects Delaware and Gloucester county residents came from New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez. Read more here.

Like many of you, we took a long weekend, but that meant we were out of place to post the usual link to the Monday Road Warrior column. It includes news you can use about WiFi access at PHL and a ruling by a federal judge in Albany, N.Y., that could have implications for all air travelers. Read the column here.

Complaints to us about US Airways service at PHL have dropped sharply. What does it mean? Find today's column here. ,

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.

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.

If mergers among the Big Six airlines take place, we will have to report on them, so we don't want to get carried away with providing you too much information about their negative aspects. We've pointed out some reasons that mergers would face strong opposition in a Jan. 21 Road Warrior column. To learn more about the reasons mergers face an uphill battle, read the thoughts of a longtime aviation expert, Hubert Horan posted on a business-travel trade magazine Web site.

Today's Road Warrior column looks at the competition for business-class passengers across the Atlantic. The online version includes a correction from the print version in today's Inquirer business section on what kind of jets US Airways flies. Read all about it here.

Here's news to pay attention to if you check bags on major airline flights. United said it will begin charging passengers $25 to check a second piece of luggage for domestic travel if they buy non-refundable tickets and if they aren't frequent fliers (less than 25,000 miles a year). Other major airlines allow passengers to check two bags for free regardless of the type of ticket they buy or their frequent-flier status. United said the charge will generate more than $100 million in revenue and cost savings each year. The change takes effect May 5 and applies to tickets purchased on or after today, Feb. 4. Watch this space to see if other airlines match United's move.

The headlines are about 2007 as a terrible year for air-travel delays. In fact, good things and bad things happened. December was a good month, relatively speaking for US Airways. Here's our take on how PHL did last year. The national perspective is in this AP story..

We explore what happens when London's coveted Heathrow Airport is opened to more competition from U.S. airlines. Find the full story from today's front page here.

The chatter about airline mergers is getting louder. The AP, quoting a source close to the discussions, says Delta and Northwest could announce a deal to combine operations next week. We will keep you updated as events unfold.

New Jersey's U.S; senators, Bob Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, are unhappy with the Federal Aviation Administration for, among other things, the airspace redesign plan that has meant more aircraft noise over areas near PHL and Newark airports. The lawmakers today said they would use a parliamentary device called a hold and held up confirmation of Bobby Sturgell to be FAA administrator. Read more here.

We explained possible implications of mergers of the nation's biggest airlines this morning. Learn more here.

The outsourcing of aircraft maintenance by airlines is a topic of concern to many in aviation. You can listen free over the Internet tomorrow morning to the Aircraft Maintenance Outsourcing Conference, sponsored by the Business Travel Coalition and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, There's an impressive lineup of speakers for the conference in Wasington. Learn more here.

The Road Warrior column this morning covers some news about December airline service that wasn't reported in last week's story about on-time performance. Read it here.

We listened to an informative conference in Washington yesterday on outsourcing of aircraft maintenance. Read our report here.

The weather has played havoc with PHL flight schedules since last night and it's not over. The airlines have issued their usual advisories that passengers can make changes without penalty to weather-affected areas of the Northeast. Tell us anything beyond the usual hassles of late or cancelled flights about the way airlines treated you during the disruptions.

Marriott, the biggest hotel operator in the region, had a drop in quarterly profit but not because you were paying less to stay in its rooms. The AP reports the details here.

Pilots' unions and Air France/KLM are now being discussed in the same stories with Delta- Northwest merger talks. Read what's happening today.

US Airways' frequent fliers may be steamed this morning (see below for the Dividend Miles posting from yesterday, including the comments), but Mayor Nutter and US Airways are working out differences from last fall about gates at PHL. Both the mayor and airline execs talked us about it for this story.

US Airways and PHL -- has a new day arrived in the relationship? Read more about what we see plus a little more on the Dividend Miles changes.

Amtrak assures us it won't be as time-consuming as airport security is, but it's going to do random screening of passengers' bags. Read more of the front-page Amtrak story here.

How do you tell when rumors come closer to reality in the airline-merger world?. When the major newspaper and other news outlets all find sources "familiar with the talks" and say tomorrow or this week will be the announcement day. The leaks on this one are becoming a steady stream. Here's what the the New York Times is reporting today.

Just when we thought we could predict the future, a Delta-Northwest merger may not be close after all. Read the latest AP story about what's happening.

Airlines are issuing their usual alerts about areas affected by what looks like a doozie of a winter storm moving across the Midwest and upper South toward PHL and other airports in the region. Wear your mittens, button up and prepare for a slog if your're on the road or in the air tomorrow..

We reported from the airport itself during this morning's winter storm, rather than our usual perch in a warm office. Here's what we filed, which may or may not be in print or online elsewhere tonight or tomorrow:

The airport was experiencing extensive delays this morning because of the weather, although runways were open and most aircraft ramp areas around gates were clear of snow by early morning. About a quarter of all flights scheduled to depart before 9 a.m. were canceled and about a third were delayed, according to the www.flightstats.com Web site. Virtually all arriving flights before 9 were late. Conditions got a little worse as the morning went on, with four out of 10 flights canceled and almost nine out 10 of those still operating running late. (Find the www.flightstats.com site on the Road Warrior blog homepage.)

Bob Ciminelli, US Airways’ vice president for its Philadelphia hub, said the airline canceled about a third of its Express commuter flights for the day and less than 20 percent of its mainline, or large-jet flights. Ciminelli, who joined US Airways last month after a 29-year career at American Airlines, said airlines always have a challenge deciding which flights, and how many flights, to cancel when a major winter storm is approaching. US Airways is the airport’s busiest carrier, with 61 percent of the traffic. Decisions about which flights to cancel depend on how full a flight is and how many of the passengers booked on it can be put on flights later in the day, he said.

“We planned this long weekend, and we’ve had all this dry weather,” said Yocum, a health and physical education teacher, who was traveling with his wife, Cheryl, and fellow teachers Lori and Chris Spohn. “And then what day do we get – the worst stinking weather of the year.” Still, he added cheerfully, “Our flight is going to go. Now it’s only an hour and 15 minutes late. We’ve been treated well.”

Andrew Stoltzfus of Lancaster, was having an even longer wait to reach St. Louis but said he had no complaints about the way Northwest Airlines and US Airways were handling the delay. The two men, headed to a convention in St. Louis, started their trip yesterday at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport, where Northwest canceled the first leg of the trip, through Northwest’s Detroit hub. They were rebooked on US Airways through Philadelphia, and given hotel accommodations, food vouchers and a free roundtrip ticket for a future flight, all at Northwest’s expense, Stoltzfus said. “I’m pretty happy with the airlines,” he said. “They treated us really well.”

The Road Warrior sat down with US Airways new PHL leader. Read what he says here.

We found two stories of interest to business travelers to share with you this morning. The Detroit News has this report on pilots' unions at Delta and Northwest continuing to talk about making a merger of the two carriers work best for their careers. This is a signal that the anticipated announcement of a merger by the airlines is still pending.

The AP offers a wide-ranging story on what the travel business and companies with people of the road are both doing and contemplating in an economic slowdown.

Air traffic controllers and two members of Congress joined Delaware County residents yesterday in denouncing anew the FAA's routing of planes over residential areas. Read the Inquirer's story here.

My editors thought this story about a new US Airways policy charging $25 for a second checked bag was worthy of the front page in print this morning. It matches a move United made three weeks ago. Most frequent fliers won't have to pay the fee, which takes effect May 5, and in fact most passengers don't check a second bag these days. Some day, someone (guess who) should add up what it really costs to fly on some airlines considering the fees. One of our longtime panel of experts on airlines, Terry Trippler, predicts most other airlines will be matching the US & UAL moves by summer.

We found a good story in the New York Times this morning that puts the holdup in merging Delta and Northwest into the context of the US Airways merger with America West.

We spent yesterday at US Airways annual media day at its headquarters in Tempe, Ariz., where much of the talk was about the recent focus on improving operations at PHL. Read more about what the senior executives said here.

We did something mind-numbing last week, trying to round up all the fees airlines now charge for services that were once free.Read the column here.

In two airports, TSA is testing the idea of lanes for families with children, another effort to speed up the process. Read more here.

We report today on what the FAA says about the safety of the new departure procedures at PHL that are unpopular in parts of Delco. And US Airways had a good on-time record in January, leading the major airlines. Find that one here.

Southwest Airlines is under investigation related to safety inspections of some of the 737 jets in its fleet. Read more here. CNN has a separate story alleging more serious matters that can be found at this link.

Analysts are skeptical that Boeing can deliver its next-generation 787 Dreamliner jets on an already revised schedule. Read more about it here.

Here's what a congressional leader says. Monday's Road Warrior column will deal with the same topic. See yesterday's news here.

The Road Warrior column looks at the safety of flyng U.S. airlines. Find it here.

DOT secretary has officially set a cap on flights at Newark Liberty International Airport. PHL is not involved, DOT says, although it's been discussed. Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa) among others has called for DOT to study the issue. Read what DOT did today here.

Details are emerging of allegations that Southwest and the FAA were bending rules on aircraft inspections. Here is a story from Southwest's hometown paper.

Southwest Airlines has recognized as more serious allegations that it didn't do required inspections of some of its jets. Today, the airline said it grounded 41 planes -- about 8 percent of its fleet -- to make sure they had been properly inspected. Read about that here. Yesterday, the airline placed on paid leave three employees and said it would do a more thorough internal investigation of what went wrong. Read more on that in this link.

Southwest says it's completed the inspections of older 737s that it decided to do over and returned the planes to the fleet. The airline said it expects to operate its full schedule today, after canceling 8 percent of its schedule yesterday.. Let us know if you have anything to contribute to the coverage of this issue.

We reported today on how the probe of Southwest's maintenance and record-keeping is linked to concern about the FAA's oversight of the industry. Look for today's story here. Also, here is a report on the results of the inspections of jets Southwest carried out this week.

Major airlines put in a whopper of a fare increase this week. It's unclear how much of United's $50 roundtrip hike was matched, but analysts reported that at least five carriers are raising prices, for the fifth time this year. Read what we know here.

The Road Warrior today looks at some of the reasons PHL's delays are going down. Read more here.

Pilots for Delta and Northwest can't agree on how to integrate their seniory lists, likely spelling an end to merger talks between the airlines. Read more here.

PHL has a ground delay program in effect this morning, slowing arrivals, because of the weather. Look for conditions to improve little, or get worse, today with the big storm system moving from the Midwest to the East. For the most recent status on flights check out flightstats.com at the link in the right-hand column.

The headline on this morning's story about Delta's plans for workforce cuts is wrong, but the rest of the story is right -- 2,000 jobs to be cut. US Airways also will trim more flights this year than previously announced. Read all about it here.

What's going on with United's inspections of its 747 jumbos? Is it a safety or a labor issue? Read what the airline, FAA and a unioin say here.

The Road Warrior column today looks at the monitoring of the FAA that needs to come along with the agency's responsibility to monitor maintenance of the airlines' fleets. Read our take on it here.

Here's a twist: the high price of aircraft fuel may help PHL get more use of is Runway 8-26, the 5,000-foot-long landing strip that was designed 15 years ago primarily for propeller-powered planes. The AP has an interesting story today about high fuel costs creating greater need -- at least in Europe -- for using turboprop planes in place of regional jets. Runway 8-26 has never been used much because by the time it was finally built, airlines were in a full rush to phase out turboprops, and it's not long enough for most RJs.

What can you say about this story? A gun belonging to a US Airways pilot somehow discharged during a Denver-Charlotte flight. Read a fairly detailed newspaper story about it here. On second thougtht, we're sure some of you will have something to say, so please do.

The Bush administration may be key to approving a big airline merger, if one or more occur. Read about the latest developments.

A federal appeals court in New York has thrown out a state law that attempted to establish a basic level of human comfort aboard airliners stranded for hours on the ground. You may recall the New York effort started after JetBlue left customers without enough food, water or clean toilets during a winter storm last year. That was a couple of months after American did the same thing in December 2006 in Austin, Tex. PHL passengers complained that they had been on US Airways flights stuck on the tarmac for hours one day last winter without common comforts. The court yesterday said New York's attempt to regulate in this area was trumped by federal law that governs airline service. Read more about that story here.

What the story doesn't mention: The U.S. District Court judge in Albany who had upheld the New York law based his ruling on the state's right to protect public health, a well-established legal principle. But unless the Supreme Court says otherwise, the appellate court's ruling now throws the issue back to Congress. Look for more coverage on this issue in coming weeks.

An update from yesterday: American and Delta both canceled flights this morning to check wiring on MD-80 jets. According to flightstats.com, PHL hasn't been affected much at all. Continue to check flightstats on this site for any updates, or with your carrier if you're flying one of them today. Read today's updated story here.

Information about US Airways' checks of the wings of its 757s will be in this story in print tomorrow. Here's what we know about that:

In another maintenance-related development, US Airways said it is conducting special inspections of its Boeing 757 jets for problems similar to one that led to a small wing panel falling off one plane that was enroute from Orlando to Philadelphia on Saturday. The inspections, which led to the airline canceling 13 flights on Monday and Tuesday, are separate from the checks all airlines have undertaken to make sure their fleets comply with Federal Aviation Admnistraton directives, US Airways spokesman Philip Gee said in an e-mail.

US Airways began inspections Saturday of 17 of the 45 757s with wings and other equipment similar to one involved in the incident. The 17-squre-inch panel struck the side of the plane but no one was injured and the plane landed safely at Philadelphia International Airport, Gee said. Three of the planes underwent minor repairs, he said. "Out of an abundance of caution, we're also inspecting other B757 airplanes during routine overnight inspections over the next few weeks," he said."We have no reason to believe that there are similar issues with those airplanes. These inspections are being done as a proactive measure."

David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue Airways and before that Morris Air, can't stop seeking new airline ventures. This time he's leading a startup in Brazil, where he was born, the son of a foreign correspondent, and spent time as a young Mormon missionary. Read the full story here.

Aloha Airlines survived for six decades but has now shut down. Read more about it here.

Forecasts of how much money airlines, both U.S. and worldwide, will make -- or lose -- this year have popped up in the last two days. The global outlook from the International Air Transport Association can be found at this link. One analyst's prediction that U.S. carriers could lose as much as $1 billion this year can be found here.

Look for serious disruption to United' Airlines' international schedules today and probably tomorrow after the airline grounded 52 widebodied 777 jets because maintenance tests weren't performed properly. Read more on this developing story and stay turned if you're flying. This is the fourth major airline in the last month that has had to ground some of its fleet to meet its legal obligations to perform maintenance tasks when they're supposed to be done.

This development comes the day before an important hearing in Washington, by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chaired by Rep. Jim Oberstar. His committee is examining the whole issue of airline maintenance and FAA's oversight record. Oberstar today received a letter from the Radnor, Pa., based Business Travel Coalition, signed by more than 100 companies and other organizations -- airlines included -- that expressed frustration at the FAA's seeming inability to perform its mandated functions well or in a timely way. We will have more information on testimony at the hearing tomorrow.

ATA Airlines, which didn't fly from PHL, filed for bankruptcy court protection and quit operating today. ATA did have a code-share agreement with Southwest that allowed for sale of joint tickets on ATA flights to Hawaii, Mexico and some other destinations from PHL. Read details of that story here. In Europe, a plan for KLM-Air France to buy Alitalia, the Italian carrier, has fallen apart and leaves Alitalia on the verge of bankruptcy. The little we know about that can be found at this link.

We listened and watched online yesterday to more than seven hours of testimony before the House Transportation Committee in Washington about airline maintenance practices and the FAA's oversight of them. What we heard still wouldn't deter us from flying on Southwest or any other major carrier, but it certainly put the spotlight on the FAA's inspection process and what may happen within the agency when inspectors or their bosses develop a close relationship with a carrier's maintenance officials. Read a little about what was said here, but try to ignore the sub-headline on the print version: the whistle-blowers didn't say "the carrier," Southwest, threatened them. They were accusing their bosses of that.

We wrote today about what the drooping dollar vs. the euro means to travelers. Read the details here.

We look at getting nonrefundable ticket refunds. Read the column here.

We wrapped airline developments -- Skybus disapears, airline quality ratings, high oil -- from today and the weekend into one story. Find it here.

The European Union says it will allow airlines to offer a service that lets passengers use cell phones during flights. Be sure to read down into this AP story to see what at least once airline, Lufthansa, says. In this country, federal regulators last year reviewed the ban on cell phone use and decided again that it was a bad idea, not only because of lingering questions whether it could interfere with aircraft navigational equipment but also because of public opposition. Airline customers and flight attendants are solidly in opposition to any change that would allow passengers to yak away during one of the few places where they're now free of the annoyance.

American Airlines canceled hundreds of flights last night and today to do more inspections of wiring in its MD-80 jets. At PHL, at least five late afternoon and evening arrivals or departures to and from DFW and O'Hare had been annulled last night and 15 flights for today were canceled. (check www.flightstats.com or www.phl.org for the latest). Read the updated story from this morning here.

American canceled 900 more flights for today -- as anyone watching, listening or minding other Web sites knows by now. Read about that here. Here in PHL land, we're paying less attention because AA has only 21 flights a day, and we've heard from exactly one frustrated local traveler who spent a day getting to Texas We'll give you more if it becomes relevant.

Do you get the impression Boeing's Dreamliner may not fly in our lifetime? Here's the latest Dreamliner deferred story from the AP.

Frontier Airlines became the latest casualty of high fuel prices, recession and tough competition by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The good news: The little Denver-based airline is still flying and expects to reorganize, unlike the other three carriers that have gone belly up in the last two weeks. Frontier has faced particularly tough times since Southwest started flying to its Denver base. Read more here.

In our other continuing saga, here's the latest on American cancellations.

Some folks in Washington think so. Read more here.

The six major network airlines -- American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways -- have raised their base airfares for the seventh time this year, according to www.bestfares.com. The prices went up from $10 to $30 roundtrip, depending on the length of a flight. The latest round means that a refundable coach ticket now has gone up $170 roundtrip in the last four months, according to Bestfares CEO Tom Parsons. Fares have not gone up as much on routes where there's low-cost competition. The culprit here is the price of oil.

We looked at the confusing state of the airlines this morning in the Road Warrior column. We're also seeking comments on a European proposal to allow cell phone calls in flight.

Sources say it's time to brace yourself because it's really happening this time. Read an AP story from this morning.

We did the PHL-centric story we mentioned last night. Find it here. This is from yesterday: Our apologies to those who come here first for airline news. We have been hung up today trying to do our own PHL-centric take on what a Delta-Northwest merger means. In the meantime, here's the big industry picture in an AP story,

US Airways will hold back some of the best coach seats on each flight and offer them to those willing to pay extra. Read more here.

For years, the first welcome to Philadelphia travelers saw at PHL as they approached baggage claim was a warning: "Don't be a victim" of unlicensed taxi and limo operators. In fact, we've heard no complaints recently about unlicensed cabs or limos (only about the condition and cleanliness of some of those that are licensed). But the mayor thought it would be better if the first sign visitors or residents see is a little friendlier. So here's what's now hanging at the bottom of the stairs and escalators.

Pilots at US Airways voted out one union and will be represented by a new one, in hopes of doing better at integrating the seniorty lists of the old airline with those of the former America West. Find out more here.

We've had such a hectic day we're just now getting to posting this morning's Road Warrior column, and guess what? Since we wrote it last Friday, United raised its fee for making a change to a domestic ticket from $100 to $150. We saw scattered news reports on it today, but nothing yet from our usual source, Associated Press. And United has nothing on its Website that's easy to find. We will try to add more information this week. Find today's column here.

Find a link here to today's story about what investigators have found about a US Airways jet that lost part of a wing panel over Maryland during a flight from Orlando to Philadelphia last month.

How much is it possible for an airline to lose in one quarter? Here's what happened to Delta in an AP report..

Not exactly a surprise: US Airways reports a first-quarter loss, all of it, the airline said, because of soaring oil prices. Otherwise, the airline's doing better with operations.

The CEOs of Delta and Northwest made their pitch to House and Senate committees today on their proposed merger, and faced some tough questioning. Read down in this AP story to find what the objectors say, including a local resident, Kevin Mitchell of the Business Travel Coalition, who also represents the International Air Travelers Association.

Continental told employees yesterday that it would not pursue a merger with United at this time. Read the latest on that one here. We did a story based on an AP report that US Airways and United want to merge. Read that one here.

Today's Road Warrior column focuses on what record oil prices are going to do next to airline cusomers. Find it at this link.

As we promised two weeks ago, we asked you what you thought of the idea of allowing cell phone calls on airlines while in flight. You answered with a resounding "Absolutely Not!" Read the report from the Sunday Inquirer here. You can read comments from your fellow travelers that helped form the basis for yesterday's story using this link.

Airlines settled on yet another increase in basic fares. In addition, American Airlines said it would match the $25 fee already imposed by other carriers for checking a second bag. American was the last holdout among big airlines in adding the fee as a way to cope with higher fuel costs. Read about the fare increase at this link.

Rina Cutler, Philadelphia's deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, talks mostly about the city improving its relationship with SEPTA in this story from today's paper. But read down to the middle to find a couple of paragraphs about what she also wants to do, and has already done, to make the airport more traveler friendly. It's another signal from Mayor Nutter's administration that PHL needs to pay attention to both service issues as well as big long-term plans. We reported two months ago, soon after the mayor took office, of the need for the airport and US Airways to embark on a new era of cooperation.. Looks to us like Cutler wants to move ahead on that vision.

There's nothing new we know of today on the airline merger front but an AP story we found on another Web site makes some interesting observations, quoting two of the thinkers we also talk to on airline issues and who were quoted in Monday's story. Read what they say here.

And in case you were wondering why all the airline writers seem to only talk to a handful of industry observers, the answer is simple: They're the ones who return our phone calls and are willing to go on the record by name. Experienced writers also happen to know that they know what they're talking about.

We found a short but informative story about what is surely to be a topic of great concern and interest in the years ahead: the global effect on the climate of travel and tourism. Read the story here.

Like motorists, pilots can save fuel by slowing down their air speed just a little. Read more about it in an AP story.

The Boston Globe has a story today about a running feud with its skycaps at Logan International Arport. American lost a jury trial recently in which the skcaps contended that the $2 per bag fee charged for curbside checkin interfered with their right to make a living. Most other carriers have imposed similar fees at PHL and other major airport, and skycaps everywhere are crying foul, saying customers don't understand that the fees haven't repaced the tips the workers were accustomed to receiving. American upped the ante in the Boston fight by raising skycap wages and prohibiting tips. We plan to look into this situation more closely. Find the Globe story here.

Today's Road Warrior column looks back at an early forecast about what deregulation would bring for air travelers -- a forecast that's clearly coming true. The column also includes a note to you, the reader,at the end. Find it all here. <

PHL director Charlie Isdell sat down with The Inquirer for an interview last week. Read his upbeat assessment of what travelers can expect at the airport if US Airways and United become one airline. Read the Q and A at this link.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a good story today about two senators' amendment to FAA reauthorization legislation that would require greater FAA oversight of U.S. airlines' use of foreign repair stations. Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) is one sponsor; Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) the other. Read more here.

The McCaskill-Specter amendment drew immediate support from the Radnor-based Business Travel Coaltion, which has been a leader in bringing this issue to the forefront. Read a travel-trade newsletter report on BTC's endorsement at this link.

Wall Street Journal reported today that FAA failed to do more than 100 recommended safety reviews at major airlines in recent years. PHL's big kahuna, US Airways, is very much in the story. Read more here.

A bill to reauthorize the FAA was shelved in the U.S. Senate today. Read why in this AP story from Washington.

We have reported numerous times in recent years that in the opinion of Philadelphia officials, PHL should do just fine were its major airline to merge (again) with another carrier. The airport serves a region of more than six million people, making it attractive to the airlines even if US Airways were to trim its hub operations here in a marriage to United. Traditionally, more than half of the US Airways' passengers at its PHL hub are "O & D," or origin-and-destination, meaning they start or end their trips at the airport rather than just connecting. In smaller cities that are hubs, such as Charlotte, as many as 90 percent of passengers are connecting. Airport director Charlie Isdell spoke in a Q-and-A with my colleague, Linda Loyd this week, reiterating the point.

Knowing that made a New York Times story yesterday ring true. Southwest, the story points out, is in a good position to expand in US Airways' and United's larger hubs were there to be cutbacks in those cities. You may recall that Southwest chairman Herb Kelleher, speaking in Philadelphia in 2004 when US Airways was in bankrputcy, said his airline would be happy to take over 25 gates at the airport were the hub carrier (which uses more than 80 gates) to give them up, Southwest now has eight gates and is about to go to 10, with hopes of getting more in a few years. It's good to see that Southwest could have similar ambitions elsewhere, providing additional competition.

PHL's on-time performance improved significantly in March -- something that would have been more surprising had it not. March 2007 was both a nasty weather month and when US Airways botched its switch to a new reservations system. US Airways' overall record is getting better, too. Read the details in today's story.

Some travelers say there are good reasons to pay extra for an old-fashioned paper ticket, which the worldwide airline industry is trying to eliminate. Read about situations in which a paper ticket is valuable here.

Here's an idea that perhaps PHL should try. Chicago's Midway Airport, like PHL a city-owned facility, has created three security-checkpoint lines based on symbols used on ski slopes: green for beginners, blue for those with some experience and black for experts at getting through the process. Read a Chicago Tribune story about it, and tell us what you think by making a comment.

The Big Six airlines are raising fares again, they say to offset fuel costs. We will take a closer look at this topic soon. In the meantime, read the basics of what the carriers did most recently here.

Media in the Newark, N.J., area are reporting concern by air-traffic controllers about pilots making wrong turns after takeoff because of unfamiliarity with new procedures adopted in December as part of PHL-New York-New Jersey airspace redesign. Read the AP story here, This is the same issue we reported on two months ago in The Inquirer, noting that PHL controllers had the same worry, and what the FAA had to say in response.

This story should warm the hearts of those of you who commented on whether cell phone calls should be allowed in flight. Southwest had police arrest a man for disorderly conduct after flight attendants said he wouldn't stop talking on his phone. Too bad it's only a misdemeanor. Read more here.

The Air Transport Association predicts fewer flights, but high load factors and more fare increases. Read a little more in this AP story.

This is a topic we think travelers and airlines will be talking a lot about the rest of this year, at the very least. A new survey sponsored by the UBS investment bank has detected a downward trend in spending on corporate travel, despite airlines seeing little evidence of it yet in their boardings. The survey results, and responses from carriers and industry observers were reported in Business Travel News Online, one of the best sources we know of for early intelligence on what companies, especially big ones that spend millions of dollars a year on employee travel, are thinking and doing. Read the full BTN Online story to learn more.

Sources tell the Assoicated Press that United and Continental are talking about some type of alliance, but short of a full merger, while United still is discussing merger with US Airways. Read the latest here.

Change is a constant in life and so it is with what you are seeing at the top of this page today. Don't worry. What has for the last 16 months been the Philly Road Warrior blog has changed its name to Winging It, but the principal author is still the smiling guy whose face appears to the right. The Philly Road Warrior column that appears in the Monday Inquirer Business section in print and online will also be renamed Winging It. The change reflects the reality that this is primarily a space devoted to air travel.

In coming weeks, we also plan to switch to a different blog publishing platform, designed to make it easier for you to comment on what we post. Beyond that, the only other difference you're likely to notice is more comment and analysis on the news of the day, in both the blog and the column. We will still focus on news and information from around the world that is useful to the PHL flier. If you continue to visit here, we think you'll enjoy the ride. Or make that, enjoy the flight.

A slight decrease in travel, by both air and road, is expected this Memorial Day weekend and on into the summer. Read more in an Inquirer story this morning that looks at the predictions and what it may mean for the Philadelphia region's own efforts to attract visitors.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued a final rule requiring airlines to report more data about on-the-ground flight delays. This is an outgrowth of the long tarmac delays and strandings in the winter of 2006-2007. As it turns out, this last winter saw few similar, widely publicized delays, or if they happened the media didn't turn them into national news. The reports were down, probably, for at least two reasons: less severe winter weather and the airlines improved their performance in hopes of avoiding any more news stories. The new reporting requirements for airlines start in October. You can read details of the rule --- many of them -- on the DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics Web site at this link.

We reintroduced ourselves, that is, I reintroduced myself, this morning in the first Winging It column in print. Read it here.

A few of you will be surprised by this: J.D. Power & Associates' annual survey of customer satisfaction with airports gave PHL its highest grade. This is no small achievement, given all that we know and hear locally about the airport. Find this morning's Inquirer news story here. The news release from J.D. Power at this link provides more detail (Note: this is an attachment and may take a moment to open.). Of course, these two items aren't the last word on this topic We plan to say a great deal more about the survey and airports later this week and on Monday.

A later in the day update: The University of Michigan's annual survey of customer satisfaction with airlines came to a less-surprising conclusion. You are unhappy with airline service. Read more about that here.

American Airlines probably surprised few with an announcement, on the day of its annual shareholders' meeting, that it would start charging $15 for the first bag you want to check on a flight. Delta said it wasn't matching yet, but other airlines haven't been heard from. We all know what that means, don't we? American, the world's biggest carrier (at least until the Delta-Northwest nuptials) also said it would park more planes, cutting seats for sale by 11 to 12 percent. Outside the meeting, picketing employees called for the heads of senior managers, saying passengers and employees weren't being well served by the guys in charge. Here's the AP story on that one.

Contrast that with what was happening a few miles away at Southwest's annual meeting, where co-founder Herb Kelleher and longtime sidekick Colleen Barrett stepped down as chairman and president, respectively. Gary Kelly, who's been CEO and running the airline for three years, was named to both their former posts. And the really big news: No employee pickets reported. We'll have more to say about these developments later.

This story from a public radio program, should be of great interest to all those who wish more rail service was available as an alternative to air and road travel. Find it here.

Just in time for the start of the summer travel season, Congress' Joint Economic Committee has issued a report saying that air-travel delays cost the economy $41 billion last year. Read a full story on the report, including a PHL detail and what FAA is planning to do help reduce Northeast air-traffic congestion here.

US Airways just announced that it's asked federal regulators to allow it postpone the start of its PHL-Beijing service for a year because of fuel costs. The airline said it now plans to launch the daily roundtrips in the spring of 2010 if the U.S. Department of Transportation will allow it. US Airways president Scott Kirby, in a letter to employees, said DOT already has approved similar requests from United and from Northwest for planned cargo flights. The Inquirer's staff story on that and other airline issues can be found here.

Kirby said US Airways remains committed to growing international service from PHL and had done considerable work to prepare for the China flights. Officials met with Chinese officials to discuss facilities and licenses, created code-shares for inter-China service with Air China and done marketing planning. But fuel prices are swamping lots of plans and prompting airlines to think of every way they can to bring in revenue (see the item above about the $15 first-checked-bag fee). US Airways said the annual fuel costs alone for PHL-Beijing flights would be $90 million a year at today's prices, $40 million more than the estimates made when it filed for the route. Stay tuned for even more stories like this one and the one above.

Find a good summary from the Associated Press of the airlines' fuel-related woes at this link.

Here's a story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that we haven't seen anywhere else, reporting on a call from the National Transporation Safety Board for inspections of all 757s for cracks or other defects. It's a followup to a US Airways jet that lost a portion of a wing enroute to Philadelphia. Read more here.

Today's Winging It column looks at one explanation for Philadelphia ranking first in J.D. Power's 2008 airport customer satisfaction survey. Read it here.

I find no news stories from the usual sources on this report, issued by the federal recordkeepers. " U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 4 percent fewer pilots and 32 percent fewer maintenance workers in 2007 than in 2000, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today " on the agency's Web site: www.bts.gov . The news release is straightforward, with no spin. Just the facts.

The New York Times reported that talks between US Airways and United have stalled. Read more Here. Find the Times story at this link.

Are the merger talks between US Airways and United flagging, as reported yesterday? So what will Doug Parker and UAL CEO Glenn Tilton talk about today? Read the latest guesses in this AP story. The Inquirer's Thursday story included a view from PHL, with aviation director Charles Isdell noting the limited impact a merger would probably have here.

The Inquirer took a look at what happens to US Airways now that it's no longer talking merger with United. Find it at this link.

Airport beat reporter Linda Loyd took a thorough look at the new PHL facilities under construction between Terminals D and E. For those who didn't see it in the Sunday paper, here's the link to a story that should warm the hearts of all airport customers and employees.

Winging It today is based on the chat we had with Herb Kelleher, who retired as chairman of Southwest Airlnes so he can work just five days a week. Read all about it here.

There's a real financial crisis in the worldwide airline industry, caused by the soaring cost of oil. And if prices keep rising, it's only going to get worse than the forecast from the International Air Transport Association issued at its annual meeting yesterday. The view from Britain's Guardian newspaper can be found here.

US Airways announced new PHL service today. Read more here.

For those who keep track of the numbers the U.S. government collects on airline and airport performance: PHL ranked in the bottom six among major airlines in April on-time performance. Find the details from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics on the airports, released today. And a ton of data from the parent agency, DOT is in its airline consumer report.

Continental on Thursday morning, and United on Wednesday joined American and other airlines in announcing big cuts in capacity, reducing the number of seats for sale. The latest on Continental's plans can be found at this link.

Read what UAL's cuts announced a day earlier can mean for your travel plans later this year in this AP story. For PHL fliers, there's little impact from United's move, while other airlines are holding flights and capacity steady. Read details of that in a good, wide-ranging story by Linda Loyd found here.

The airline industry crisis caused by soaring fuel costs made it to page one this morning. Read the story here.

I have always found reports from Hitwise, a Web-tracking service, interesting to see how people are using the 'Net. As you'll see from the latest (go to page 4), mapping and direction sites outpace 'em all, making me wonder if anyone reads a map on paper anymore. Find the report at this link.

This morning's column looks at the grim prospects for the airline industry caused by high fuel prices, and some of the things they need to do to adapt to the new environment. Read more about it here.

As painful as record fuel prices are for the major network airlines, not enough of them fell in line over the weekend for what would have been the year's 13th fare increase. Read an AP report here.

All business class Silverjet has found new investors and could resume service within weeks, the parties say. Here's a story from UK-based trade magazine Flight International.

My Inquirer colleage Linda Loyd, the airline beat reporter, has a good story online today and in print tomorrow about the losses skycaps have suffered since most airlines started charging $2 per bag for curbside checkin. Did I tell you I like to use curbside checkin and have always willingly tipped skycaps, even when having to pay the fee? The airlines don't have much to say in Linda's story because they say "it's in litigation," the normal response when a company doesn't want to talk about another amenity taken from the customer. I'll let the skycaps in the story tell you what it means to them. Find it at this link.

The Transportation Department's inspector general issued a critical report yesterday on the Federal Aviation Administration's hiring and training of new air-traffic controllers. Even the FAA said the IG got most of it right. Read the AP story on the report here.

US Airways is the latest to announce big cuts in flights and people, plus matching the $15 American fee for the first checked bag. Read the basic AP story here. Been on the road today so I'm just catching up, and more details will have to come in the next few days. In case you haven't heard yet, the airline industry is facing a full-blown catastrophe because of fuel costs. We'll catch you up on some of the dire predictions that are coming out on a regular basis. Stand by.

This morning's column takes a look at an effort to track how cyber thieves may be trying to rip off air travelers, and could potentially harm aviation safety. Read more about it here.

J.D. Power, the customer satisfaction surveyers, released its latest on airlines, showing a slippage in service rankings overall. JetBlue and Alaska, which don't serve PHL, and Continental ranked highest. Read the full news release from J.D. Power at this link.

One of the leading experts on frequent-flier programs, Tim Winship of SmarterTravel.com, takes US Airways to the woodshed for the ways in which he says it's devalued Dividend Miles. Read his weekly column here.

My apologies for not alerting you sooner to a new study, piled on top of other studies and analysts' and consultants' comments, that details the trauma for airlines in a world of $130 a barrel oil. My only excuse for not posting this sooner is a lot of personal matters that have occupied most of my time since late last week. This story from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram focuses on work by Airline Forecasts LLC done for the Business Travel Coalition. For those who need more detail, here is a link to the study itself from the BTC homepage. I will spend the next few days tracking down other research and opinion. But there's no way around the basic conclusion of everyone who knows anything about the airline industry: fuel costs are doing serious, perhaps fatal, damage to some carriers and hurting every player.

Northwest joined other airlines in announcing more capacity and personnel cuts. Read some of the details here.

Airline executives from the major carriers warned at a New York conference yesterday of more fare increases and other effects of the spike in oil prices. Even Southwest, the only carrier expected to make money this year, is making plans for cuts in its long-standing growth plans. This is not Chicken Little talking, folks, the problems are very real. One good summary appeared this morning in the Dallas Morning News.

This is an issue that's been in the background recently -- how to ease air-traffic congestion and reduce delays at New York area airports. Some would like the same attention U.S. DOT is paying to New York paid to PHL. But that seems unlikely, especially if there are significant reductions in flights by the airlines this fall and winter because of the fuel-price crisis. The chronic delays at PHL, JFK, La Guardia and Newark may ease on their own as the carriers reduce capacity. Find a story about the reaction the Bush administration got at a House Aviation subcommittee hearing yesterday from Democrats at this link.

Continental and United announced a code-share agreement, along with the Star Alliance accepting Continental as a member. Read some details in an AP story, which doesn't mention what this means for US Airways, another Star Alliance and code-share partner with United already. US Airways says it doesn't expect any changes in those alliances.

This makes me wonder. We know airlines like these code-share deals because they tend to drive traffic on certain routes, giving both carriers a greater chance to dominate markets. But what benefit have you, the airline customer -- either individual travelers or organizations -- received from the US-UA code-share deal? Just curious. Please let me know what you think.

What a relief ! PHL announced today that it's opened seven specially designed "Pet Ports" where travelers with pets or assistance animals can give the poor beasts a place to relieve themselves. The areas are along the departures road and outside baggage claim buildings. Here's the airport's announcement but pay no attention to the headline on the news release (at least as of Friday PM) -- Mayor Nutter isn't giving a special welcome to dogs relieving themselves, although I'm sure he's glad they are. Use the link and you'll see what I mean.

The airlines are suffering and in one expert's analysis, many of us could suffer if there are multiple airline failures because of high fuel prices. Read more in today's print column.

US Airways has another code-share agreement, this one with Air China.

Here's an important story for business travelers that I wasn't able to get to last week. Read the AP story that appeared in Salt Lake's Deseret News, including comments from some of its readers. Find it here.

The Business Travel Coalition has another distressing report today, following up on the report we wrote about Monday on the economic fallout from multiple airline failures because of fuel costs. BTC has created a Web site Savemyaiport.com that lists virtually every secondary and tertiary airport in the country, saying all of them are in danger of seeing some cutbacks by carriers now serving them. In a few cases, airports could lose all of their service. Big airports, including PHL, are not on the list because that is where carriers in trouble will hunker down and continue to protect their turf. But in Pennsylvania, Allentown, Erie and Harrisburg are on it. Remember these are not announcements of something imminent: They are forecasts by one expert on the topic.

Coincidentally (or maybe not, who knows), American yesterday detailed where it would cut flights this fall (a move it said previously it would do but hadn't revealed specifics). Read more about that here. Harrisburg will lose its American flights, yes, but the airport will still have service by other carriers.

Delta Air Lines just announced that it will add fuel surcharges to what you thought were its "free" tickets acquired with frequent-flier miles. The charge, for tickets issued after Aug. 15, will be $25 for most domestic flights and $50 for international and some long-haul domestic ones. Read the details in a Delta news release.

Let's have a contest. What do you think the legacy airlines will next start charging extra for?

US Airways skycaps at PHL, who work for an airline contractor, are losing their jobs when the carrier starts collecting fees for checking bags. Read Linda Loyd's full story about skycaps.

Today's column takes a closer look at concerns over laptop seizures from international travelers reentering the country. Read about questions business groups and lawmakers have raised about Homeland Security practices at this link.

An announcement last week that AT&T Corp. would move its corporate headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas may not have made headlines in the East. But it's a big blow to San Antonio. The main reason AT&T -- the city's only Dow 30 company -- cited for the move is related to something we've been looking at in this space: How cities may suffer when airlines are forced to make deep cuts in service because of fuel costs. AT&T said San Antonio doesn't have enough direct airline service to major cities, and Dallas, as both an American and Southwest hub, does. Read more about what's being said in the local San Antonio Express-News

The Business Travel Coalition has set up a new free Web site that provides links to dozens of other travel sites, many of them run by newspaper columnists and bloggers (including this one). You could spend all day parked here, reading airline and other travel-related news and opinion. The site www.netvibes.com/btc#blogs was started, as BTC chairman Kevin Mitchell explains, because he couldn't find anything else like it online. Needless to say, neither could we, so check it out and bookmark it if you want to keep up with travel news beyond what you learn here about PHL.

Did I ever say I like what PHL administrators do with artwork, adorning many walls that might otherwise be lined with advertising? I can't count the number of times exhibitions have slowed me down as I trod down some of the long corridors.Today Mayor Nutter and other dignataries were on hand to unveil 44 black-and-white photographs of Philadelphia music legends who have stars on the Walk of Fame, on South Broad Street between Walnut and Pine. The exhibition, sponsored by the city and Sunoco Welcome America, is in Terminal A-East through mid-September.

Michael Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation consultant, has taken issue with "the coalition," as he called it, meaning the Business Travel Coalition, and its list of 150 small- and mid-sized airports that could lose service as a result of airline cutbacks. Mike seems to think "the coalition" doesn't know what it's (actually it's a he, Kevin Mitchell) talking about. I thought the group's list was simply a statement of the obvious --- many smaller airports COULD lose service IF there are cutbacks. If you have time and want to read lots more find the critique at Boyd Group Web site.

PHL will not be hit as hard as some other airports this fall when airlines trim their schedules in the face of record fuel costs. Read more from The Inquirer here. In related news, American said it would cut 900 flight-attendant jobs. Other reductions are likely to follow. Read more about that in an AP story.