Spirit has been pretty quiet lately, and that should scare all of us. This is an airline that thrives on getting itself free PR, and it usually does a very good job with it. But maybe their old tricks just aren’t working anymore. So what do they do? Step it up a notch. The airline has now decided to sell ads on flight attendant aprons. Free PR + extra revenue = Awesome.

You know that this means, don’t you? It’s time to step up the Cranky in-cabin ad program that I wanted to launch on Skybus.

Spirit already sells ads on its aircraft interiors, so this is a next somewhat-logical step for the airline that has made it clear nothing is sacred. I’m waiting to see Spirit’s chief Ben Baldanza sell advertising on his forehead. Something tells me if he could, he would.

The flight attendants are balking at having ads all over their bodies because they think it will diminish their standing as being there “primarily for our safety” as we hear every time we get on a plane. But this in no way hinders their ability to get things done. If this is really on aprons as reported, they won’t even be wearing them unless they’re doing an inflight service. And trust me, if there’s a situation that requires flight attendants to actually perform out-of-the-ordinary safety duties, people will still look right at them for help.

So, I just don’t see it as such a big deal for Spirit. They’ve made it quite clear what they want to do, and this completely fits with their image. Now if I can only get a discount for my grand plan . . . .

[Original photos from superbomba via Flickr and Wikipedia]

Southwest Reports Q4 Loss on Hedges
Hedges and other “special items” brought Southwest down to a Q4 loss, but it was the announcement on growth that had people turning their heads.

Southwest Sees Strong Revenue Performance in Fourth Quarter
Is that no-fee strategy working for Southwest? The airline has definitely seen some strong revenue gains.

Allegiant Sees 23.4 Percent Operating Margin in Fourth Quarter
When your net income increases by more than 300 percent, you’re probably on the right track. Allegiant has put out some strong results.

Delta Has Substantial Fuel Hedges for 2009
Other airlines are backing out, but Delta still has the majority of its fuel hedges for 2009.

November Complaints Show Specific Airline Weaknesses
Complaint numbers weren’t huge in November, but there were some areas that stood out for different airlines. Let’s take a look.

DOT Denies Virgin America Request for Confidentiality
Virgin America has now officially been denied confidentiality for its traffic numbers. Within the next few days, we’ll see how they’re really doing.

New Indianapolis Terminal a Burden In the Short Term
Indianapolis has its brand new terminal, but airlines are cutting flights. Is it simply the economy or is there more to it? I say there’s more.

Changing Demographics of the Orange County – San Francisco Route
Southwest and Virgin America will dramatically increase capacity between Orange County and San Francisco, so we’re going to see some big changes on this route.

Airline Earnings Reports Require a Foreign Language Translator
With all the special charges these days, it’s not easy to get to the bottom of an airline’s earning report.

Damn you, Twitter. I always hated you because I didn’t see the point. I signed up long ago when my friends encouraged me to check it out. There were too many tweets about washing hair, going to the bathroom, or other completely uninteresting and useless drivel. I walked away.

But now I’m back. I was asked by someone if I would post notifications for my blog posts on Twitter so others could follow me. I figured that would be easy enough. And now I’m hooked. So if you’d like to follow me, my username is crankyflier. I have a new widget at right that shows my recent tweets. Here’s what I’m planning to do with the account.

• Notifications when a new blog post is ready on Cranky and BNET Travel (this will include other BNET Travel bloggers).
• Airline news when it happens, generally followed by some brief snark
• Responses to those who send me tweets

This may change as time goes by. If you have anything you’d like me to talk about, let me know. Oh, and if you don’t use Twitter, you can follow my Twitter RSS feed through any RSS reader. If you have no idea what Twitter is, I’d recommend running as fast as possible and not looking back. But if you’re really curious, try this Twitter explanation.

My posts have definitely been traveling around the world this week, so let’s bring it back home. Let’s talk Delta. The airline is having a spat with its largest airport, Atlanta, over new construction that will inevitably raise the cost of operating at the airport. Delta is so unhappy that they’re threatening to move traffic to other airports that are more cost effective. So should you Atlantans worry that you’re going to lose a ton of flights to other airports? No. Might you lose some flights? Sure. That’s why I consider this a “half-empty” threat.

A Delta spokesperson was quoted as saying, “Over time, if the cost per passenger doubles at [Atlanta], it’s Delta’s responsibility to consider the advantage of routing some of the two-thirds of passengers connecting here to hubs where the costs are lower.” Yeah, sure. Too bad that economics don’t agree.

It’s a basic rule of hub operations that you need to have a local traffic base. You can’t just create a hub in the middle of nowhere and send all your passengers there to connect. That idea has been floated before (Mid America Airport WAY outside St Louis), but it’s never drawn any serious attention. Instead, we’ve seen smaller local population bases receive hubs that were overbuilt and they’ve now been scaled back. (Pittsburgh? St Louis?) Connecting traffic isn’t profitable enough to base your entire operation on it. So when Delta says it’s going to move a bunch of its connecting traffic to places like Memphis, that seems to be a threat that has no teeth.

Memphis may have local traffic, but its hub is already more than serving that local traffic. Atlanta is the best market in all of the southeastern US, and Delta would be insane to move flights away from that population base solely to connect people over Memphis. But don’t think that means this threat is completely empty. While I can’t imagine a massive shift of flights to Memphis (neither can Memphis, apparently), I think it’s highly likely that some flights in Atlanta will disappear as costs rise.

This one is basic math. If your costs rise, then you need to make more money for each flight to be profitable. If a flight is relatively marginal now, it will be a money loser under the new structure and that flight will disappear. That doesn’t mean that the flight will move to Memphis. It just means it will go away.

So, the Atlanta airport has some serious thinking to do here. Do they really need that massive new international terminal for $1.6 billion? If so, then they have to be willing to face the consequences of raising their costs to airlines. That will most likely mean fewer flights, but it probably won’t be nearly as dire as Delta is making it sound. So, don’t get excited if you live in Memphis. You’re not going to see any huge growth simply because your airport is cheaper.

Yes, this is a post about Italy, but believe it or not, Alitalia isn’t the main focus. It’s the bungling Italian government that has caught my eye once again for their plans to help Alitalia and kick low cost carriers to the far corners of the Rome metro area. If your flag carrier can’t win through competition, might as well play dirty and help them out, right? Sheesh.

I don’t speak Italian, so my understanding of the situation relies on Google Translate and a Ryanair press release. Here’s what seems to be happening.

Noise has been a sensitive issue for those living around Ciampino airport, a mere 10 miles from central Rome. The airport had been growing with Ryanair and EasyJet having substantial operations along with smaller operations from Wizz and, apparently, an airline called Romavia (which still flies a 707?!). Alitalia and pretty much everyone else fly from Leonardo da Vinci Airport at Fiumicino, about 25 miles from the city center.

The region’s government decided to turn Viterbo, an old military base about 60 miles north of the city into the third airport for the area. Just to get an idea for how far out this place is, take a look at this map:

If they want a third airport, that’s there own business, but now all the noise complaints caused them to run a study. According to Ryanair, the results prove that there isn’t a huge noise issue, but the region’s government is still looking to shrink or shut the airport anyway. It wouldn’t surprise me.

Raise your hand if you know who would get the biggest benefit by having Ryanair and EasyJet move to the far away Viterbo airport. That’s right, it’s our good friends at Alitalia.

If anyone knows more about this story AND speaks English, hit the comments. By the way, if you just want to complain about the noise around the airport, don’t bother. That airport is one of the oldest in the world – it’s been there since 1916 – so you knew what was there when you moved in.