Airlines Posts

It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been nearly a year in the making, but it has. When I suggested a get together for aviation bloggers last fall I never thought I’d see much interest. But was I wrong. By Thanksgiving I’d had …

You have to love this one. And this has nothing to do with FAA!London’s Times Online and Plane Stupid are spreading the story about how the BAA apparently supported its case for a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport – the b…

Every so often Jetwhine is lucky enough to unexpectedly receive an important work of prose from another professional mind. Today we have one from Frank Froman, a St. Louis psychologist, a man with a secret dream, but a man who also knows how to solv…

Those of us who have either flown business airplanes or have been lucky enough to travel in the back – a few of us qualify for both – are light years ahead of the people we are still trying to convince about the value of personal air tra…

Clever and creative are not terms people use much when they speak about the airline industry, except for a few of the “Gen Xer airlines” as I call the Low Cost Carriers because they really seem to get it. I was listening to an engaging …

Close on the heels of this 4th of July comes the realization that the most heated presidential election we will probably see in our life times is really upon us. The relentless drum-beat from both nominees is that this nation is in serious need of s…

As a marketing-communications guy, JD Power and Associates recent labeling of Continental Airlines as one of the best in the nation for overall customer satisfaction, as well as the Best U.S. Airline award CAL also grabbed from the Official Airline …

As much as stay awake at night wondering how many people around the globe are clicking through the stories here at Jetwhine, I know we are only one small fish in the sea of people who think they know just about everything when it comes to air travel…

Bloggers think they know everything. Or at least that’s what we believe when we get started as bloggers. Once we really get up a good head of blogger steam though, we realize just how little of a good blog is about us and how much of it is abo…

This year, AirVenture will include something never before seen at the massive annual trek to Oshkosh … bloggers coming together to talk about the two things they love best … airplanes and social media. Will you be one of them?The First…

Given the world’s sorry state and aviation’s place in it, hope for the future is at the coffin corner. To help maintain that delicate balance it is natural to withdraw into–and protect–our little corner of aviation’s di…

I was on my way back to Chicago Midway from Dallas on Southwest Airlines Flight 1078 the other day when, about five minutes before boarding time, I heard the announcement no one wants to hear. A delay due to a mechanical, an issue the gate agent ack…

Demographers will quickly tell you that a low birthrate combined with an aging population is not the key to a sustainable future for any population. Welcome to the situation that describes the American airmen who hold a current flight instructor ce…

The Cirrus Design folks were in Chicago the other night on the first stop of a 22 city nationwide-tour promoting not only the G-3 version of their top selling airplane, but also a special new version of Garmin’s popular G-1000 avionics system …

Evan Spark’s ran an interesting post the other day about Southwest Airlines and Herb Kelleher, the company’s chairman. Take a look if only to watch this great video of Herb starring in a Southwest commercial 30 years ago. It’s clea…

Although this interview DayJet’s Bruce Holmes gave the Atlantic.com’s James Fallows has the smell of fluff at a time when customers and industry pundits are clamoring for considerably more substance, it is the best out there about the cu…

Are you serious about a flying career? Then you’ve probably already heard someone speak to the value of a Flight Instructor rating because it offers an opportunity to build flight time until you get hired by the airlines or with a corporation.…

If I were a United Shareholder …Still trying to recover its corporate composure after a stinging slap in the face last week from Continental, United Airlines is now turning its focus on US Airways as a potential partner to reach the holy grai…

AOPA ran a Town Hall meeting in Chicago the other night and Phil Boyer asked the group a penetrating question. How do we convince more people to learn to fly? Despite being a flight instructor and a communicator all my life, I didn’t have a go…

Despite having spent a significant part of my life as a communicator, I know what people think about public relations. Many think it’s fluff. Some call it spin … that magical talent for transforming an often ugly issue into something els…

The withdrawal of US Airways from the Air Line Pilots Association yesterday should be recognized as more than simply a disgruntled group of aviators in search of someone to plead their case about integrating an airline seniority list. The militant m…

He’s back! Funny how Mr. Know-It-All seems to appear just at the right time, like now when everyone is completely wiped out from 10 days of absolutely awful airline news.So here’s the question. But wait, perhaps I should mention the pri…

Not long after 9/11 the call went out from thousands of pilots … never again would they allow the cockpit of an airplane to be commandeered and used as a missile against ground or other airborne targets.Of course, one of the reasons the 9/11 …

I had a call today from one of the major TV networks.The reporter was hoping I’d sit in front of a TV camera for a story about the grounding of hundreds of Delta and American Airlines MD-80 flights in the wake of another FAA airline maintenan…