Winging It

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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.

US Airways reoported today that it made money in the fourth quarter and for all of 2006. Airline execs used a news release and conference call with analysts and reporters to tout the progress they said had been made in improving baggage service at PHL.

Read the full story here.

US Airways announced this morning that it was giving up on its dream of mergeing with its larger East Coast rival, Delta Air Lines.

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.

We had a story in print and online this morning about a beef the Interational Association of Machinists, which represents merchanics and baggage handlers at US Airways, is having with the airline. If you missed it you can link to it here

US Airways has had success in using PHL as its main international hub, but all the routes go south or east, to the Caribbean, Latin America or Europe. Now the airline says it wants to do something completely different here: Nonstops to China. Read more about it: here

US Airways CEO Duog Parker was in Philadelphia yesterday, appearing at City Hall to formally announce, as we reported, that the airline wants PHL-to-China route authority. But the most interesting comment he made was that flights to Shanghai could also lead to US Airways flying nonstop to Tokyo, since the airline would need to buy or lease long-range jets. Read more here

If you're planning to fly US Airways from Sunday on next week, you may want to hold your breath for this: The airline this weekend switches to a single computer reservations system, integrating what have been separate US Airways and America West systems.The airline says it's been testing the new combined system for weeks, and it chose to do the switch on a weekend when the fewest number of passengers could be affected. Let's hope for the best, but US Airways warned in its weekly newsletter to employees today that "a migration from one reservations system to another, no matter how carefully planned and tested, is a complex task and may have hiccups."

US Airways warned Friday that there could be "hiccups" when it integrated the old America West and US Airways computer reservations systems into a single new one. Now it looks like it was more like loud belching and severe indigestion. An independent flight-data monitoring service, FlightStats, reported last night that just 14 percent of US Airways flights departed yesterday within 15 minutes of schedule, and two out of five flights left the gate more then 45 minutes late. US Airways said this morning that about half its flights arrived on time yesterday.
Travelers also reported difficulty accessing usairways.com but the Website appears to be working OK now. If you're traveling on US Airways, let us know about your experience. And we will update you later today.

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.

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.

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

Don't be surprised if US Airways' employee unions have some comment next week on a document the airline filed late today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Form 8-K, which can be found on the investor relations portion of usairways.com, outlines the company's executive compensation plan. Once you plow through the verbiage, you see what the bosses get if the company meets certain financial performance targets. This is a normal exercise in corporate America, including at companies where the employees have taken pay cuts while they were operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Happy reading!

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

The Federal Aviation Administration is in the midst of deciding whether to raise, from 60 to 65, the age at which commercial airline pilots must retire. The thinking behind the proposed change is that pilots are healthier and live longer today than they did in 1959, when the restriction was adopted. The FAA's deliberative process is expected to take until the end of the year. But that's not fast enough for a group of fliers who have formed the Senior Pilots Coalition. Three US Airways pilots affected by the retirement rule filed suit in federal court last week, demanding an immediate end to it. Read the Associated Press story on the pilots efforts here . And tell us what you think of the age-60 rule in a comment.

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.

Read the latest on what US Airways CEO Doug Parker made last year, and what some representatives of the airline's employees say about it here

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

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.

More than 100 US Airways pilots showed their displeasure with management yesterday at PHL. Read more here.

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

Repercussions can occur when companies give big bonuses to senior executives soon after they've asked for sacrifices from the rank-and-file. A week ago, US Airways pilots set up informational picket lines at PHL, demanding management give back to employees some of the pay and benefits they gave up, twice in three years, to help get the airline out of bankruptcy. American Airlines pilots now are taking a turn, seeking raises to make up for concessions when the carrier was losing money. Read what the piolts and American's management have to say in an AP story

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.

Several other airlines do it, but until now, US Airways had resisted the urge. PHL's biggest player is testing a $2 per-bag charge for curbside check-in at three Florida airports, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa. No decision has been made yet on whether to extend it to PHL and other larger stations in the US Airways system. The charge is cash only and does not include a tip to the skycap, who also can issue a boarding pass. We always tip the skycap and will continue to do it, even if we're in an airport, or on an airline that charges. But if the self-service check-in kiosks are working, and the lines aren't long, even $2 per bag could make us consider schlepping them inside.

We're curious what you think of this kind of charge by airlines. We haven't found a good Website that rounds up all the airlines' charges for things that used to be free. Please tell us if you know of one. The best way to make sure you're getting policies directly from the airline is to go to the carrier's Website and use the search function, or drill down until you find them. Also let us know of anything that has cost extra but has been rescinded, such as US Airways dropping the $25 charge for a pasenger with a confirmed ticket to stand by for an earlier flight.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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

"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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Advertising messages aimed at business travelers are so ubiquitous that they often escape our view without us even realizing they were there. Now US Airways is testing a new way to reach you, using the seatback tray table on some of its jets to feature columns from BusinessWeek magazine. The columns will run down the left side of the tray table, with the rest of the surface in this first phase covered by a US Airways Vacations ad. The campaign comes from a New York agency, Brand Connections, which teamed up with BusinessWeek to reach travelers at a time they have few other distractions -- and can't talk on the phone or send text messages, says agency CEO Brian Martin. US Airways is the first airline to buy the idea and is using them on 20 of its planes

The tray table has become a popular place to advertise, and Martin says the vast majority of people who pull down the table in flight remember the ad message. But when Brand Connections used focus groups to test a BusinessWeek column next to a traditional ad, consumers said they looked at them 3.4 times longer than those without a column. And to think, we heard a rumor that print media was dead!

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

American Airlines joined other major carriers in cutting the time limit for activity in a frequent-flier account to 18 months. Here's the page on the AA Web site with details. Read what one longtime observer of frequent-flier programs thought about the move and the way it was announced here

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.)

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

We heard from two unhappy frequent fliers today about a change in US Airways' Dividend Miles program, requiring more miles to ugrade to first class. If you haven't been notified by e-mail about the changes, read about it on the Dividend Miles portion of the Website.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

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

This has to be one of the easiest trips I've taken. Bags arrived. Nothing missing. Taxi to the city was more expensive than in Philadelphia - and the rail connection is not up and running yet. At least that's what I'm told.
My friend Carin was waiting for me at the public library - a wild glass building with soaring ceilings and neon yellow escalators. A few homeless folks - who seem to need glasses - were reading newspapers near the in-library coffee shop.
I recognized my friend immediately - she looks just like her mother. It was one of those time warp moments.
Met her husband, Mike and had dinner at Purple, a hip place, up the hill from the ferries.
Caught up on half a lifetime in three hours.
Saw the original Starbucks. Bought some Alaskan smoked salmon for Thanksgiving appetizers.
Now I'm back in the Seattle airport about to rebord. And getting very tired.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.