Winging It

One way business journalists learn what airlines are doing is listening to Webcasts of their presentations to industry analysts. You can listen to one of these by US Airways earlier today by clicking here. It may take a few hours for the sponsor, JP Morgan, to get the US Airways presentation up on the site.

These kind of presentations to investment companies are archived on the "investor relations" portion of the US Airways Website, allowing you to listen at your convenience. Other major airlines also are presenting at the JP Morgan conference, and you can usually find their executives' remarks in the same way, by going to the investor relations portions of their Websites.

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

You may have seen a story in print today about the Airline Quality Rating, an annual recounting of satistics about the airlines that are kept by the federal government. If you missed it you can find it here.

This yearly exercise has its fans, because it is a good roundup of data and it's an easy way for the media to report on the airlines. But Mike Boyd, a longtime aviation consultant in Evergreen, Colo., is not among them. Read what he has to say, in great detail, here

To no one's surprise, Southwest Airlines reported its 64th consecutive profitable quarter today. Read the news story by the AP here. Wall Street analysts who follow the industry are concerned that what's now the largest U.S. airline in passengers flown is facing cost pressures, from fuel and labor, at a time when the economy is sluggish and customers are resisting higher fares. Some analysts are downright unhappy and downgrading its stock, The runup in fares that many business travelers experienced in early 2006 ran into resistance in the second half of the year, and that resistance continued into the first quarter..Lousy weather in the Northeast and Midwest didn't help either.

More interesting, and pertinent to the lives of frequent travelers, was what Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said during a question-and-answer session with the analysts and reporters. He's also concerned about costs. But he's confident Southwest will find ways -- as it has for its 36 years in business -- to get more productivity out of employees while still keeping customers happy. The airline is considering adding wireless internet acess to its planes, along with some type of entertainment system, but not for a couple of years probably. As you may have heard, it's also studying whether to offer reserved seats, a radical departure from its unreserved practice now, and is looking at international service (think Mexico or Canada). "We have an array of things that aren't ready for prime time," Kelly said.

But Kelly indicated that Southwest isn't thinking of charging for services such as talking to a live human being on the phone, checking bags or otherwise nickel-and-dimeing customers, What he's most determined to do is continue to be different than other airlines. Southwest will still have its own style of service, and it will continue to focus on keeping fares low and service frequent on the routes heavily used by business travelers. Despite last year's fare increases, and the nasty weather that spoiled some vacations this year, "those Road Warriors just seem to plow on through," Kely said.

You can hear replays of Southwest's, American's and Continental's earnings conference call on their Website (links in the right-hand column of this homepage), as you can with most carriers these days, on a quarterly basis.

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

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.

Look for some heavy promotion in coming days of restricted advance-purchase fares to Columbus, Manchester, Pittsburgh, Providence and Raleigh/Durham -- as in $29 or $49 one-way plus taxes. As usual, the deep discounts came from Southwest first, with US Airways and others matching.

In the same vein, AirTran announced one of its two-day sales, this one for its busines-class service, with one-way fares starting at $109 plus taxes. Tickets have to be bought by the end of the day Friday.

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

Delta is taking a turn at raising fares, revealing that it raised many of its domestic prices $5 each way last night. One of the older legacy carriers or another has tried seven times this year to raise fares but has succeeded in getting the rest of the industry to go along only twice. Southwest says it won't match this one, which increases the chances it won't stick,

The University of Michigan's annual survey of customer satisfaction with several industries, including airlines, was released today. It had some results that may be a surprise to PHL-centric fliers. Airlines finished next-to-last, while cable and satellite TV providers came in last, but overall, the industry improved nicely in the 2007 ratings compared with last year. The airlines had a score of 63 out of 100. Here's how the major carriers finished: Southwest, 76; Continental, 69; US Airways and Northwest, 61; American, 60, Delta,59; and United, 56. More information about the survey is in a U of Michigan news release.

This may appear to be more inside-the-airline-industry information than you really need, but we think it's worthy of a minute of your time. Southwest Airlines has signed a 10-year agreement with Galileo, a British company that operates one of the world's largest airline reservations systems. The deal will put Southwest's fares on the computers of thousands of travel agents in North America. Southwest has had a more limited agreement with Sabre, a U.S. company that is another of the other major operators of a "global distribution system," or GDS, for agents.

As Web-savvy travelers know, Southwest's fares and schedules aren't in the other big online travel services for consumers, including Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity. Southwest has never thought it was worth the fees those services charge. What's more, Southwest.com is one of the most popular Web sites of any kind. It accounts for 70 percent of Southwest's ticket sales, and ranks not far behind the big three sites that serve multiple carriers in the number of visitors it gets. A deal with Galileo will put the great majority of Southwest's fares in front of agents who use its GDS. And Road Warriors may really benefit. Travel agents still sell half of all airline tickets, and about half of all business travel is managed by corporate travel departments that use agents. Despite the flocking of airline customers to the Web to book and plan their own travel over the last decade, thousands of companies continue to use agents in one way or another, either having them book trips or serving as monitors of travel policies.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'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 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.)

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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 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 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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Southwest Airlines has some mighty savvy folks working in its public relations department. The airline has turned the tables on the TV talk-show jokes about a recent incident in which it asked a young woman to cover up her legs while on board a flight because a gate agent thought her mini-skirt was too revealing. The embarrassed passenger, Kyla Ebbert, covered her legs with a blanket, but later showed she wasn't all that shy by talking to reporters and appearing on TV to show off the offending garment.

Today, Southwest used the incident to make the most of a routine announcement of a round of fare discounting -- something the airline does weekly. CEO Gary Kelly issued an apology to Ebbert as she taped the show. A bit later, Southwest put these words in Kelly's mouth in a news release announcing the fare sale:

"Some have said we've gone from loving hot pants to having hot flashes but nothing could be further from the truth. The publicity caught us with our pants down, quite frankly. The story has such great legs, but we have an even better sense of humor, so we're going to jump out there and lower our fares to match the mini-skirts we've all been hearing so much about."

What a good way to start the weekend!

Here are links to Southwest's press release and to the overplayed, overdone CNN story on YouTube that prompted Southwest's response.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

US Airways says the mayor-elect asked it to hold off on withdrawing from the PHL-Beijing route it has been awarded. Read more 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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

FAA says it will do more inspecting of all airline records for maintenance compliance in light of the fine for Southwest. Read more here.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.