I have to admit that I wasn’t even sure if it was worth covering the demise of JetAmerica since I had no real insight to add, but I’ve had so much fun with it so far, I figured, well, what the heck. JetAmerica’s route map was so goofy that most of the people in the US couldn’t care less, but for the few who did care, you’ll be sad to know that JetAmerica is officially toast . . . for now.

Once again, it came down to slots. JetAmerica couldn’t get any at Newark, and there were rumors that the FAA was about to drop the hammer on the airline. See, you’re not supposed to sell tickets if you don’t actually have slots. Oops. So maybe JetAmerica finally saw the writing on the wall and decided to call it quits or maybe the FAA made the decision for them. Either way, in what should be a surprise to nobody, they’re not even going to get started.

If you had booked tickets on the airline, you’ll get your money back. If you’re an airport and you gave them funds already, well, good luck. I hope nobody spent too much on these guys.

So is this the last we’ve heard of them? They seem to think otherwise. This statement appears on the JetAmerica website:

. . . we have decided to suspend our operations in order to refocus on different markets. We still strongly believe that there is an unmet need for affordable air service to secondary markets and we look forward to offering this option again in the near future.

Oh please no. Just let it die. I can’t imagine any airport wanting to work with them again. Maybe they’ll pop up in some other form some day, but I think they’ve spent all their goodwill by now. If different markets were they answer, they should have started that way. They’ve now had 3 strikes (Air Azul failed to start, one month delay in JetAmerica service, and now the ultimate demise), and as far as I’m concerned, they’re out.

In a way, I feel bad for founder John Weikle. He seems like a complete and total optimist who wants to bring service to small communities. It’s an admirable goal, but so far I’ve yet to see a model come even close to working that can serve that purpose. John has done a remarkable job of finding investors for his ventures, but I just can’t imagine that he’ll be so lucky again.

Nothing to see here. Keep moving.

[Original image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27466406@N00/ / CC BY-SA 2.0]

DOT Approves Continental/United/Lufthansa/Air Canada Antitrust Immunity with Limited Carveouts
The alliance has been approved. I’ve got details on why, but what will happen with American and BA?

Republic Gets Court Approval to Buy Frontier, But It’s Not a Done Deal
Republic moved one step closer to buying Frontier, but it’s not done yet.

Alaska Details Interesting Gains and Losses
Alaska put out its forward-looking guidance, and there were some interesting tidbits to review.

American Kicks Off Earnings Season
American was the first to walk the plank with Q2 earnings, and no, they weren’t good. We expected that, of course, but it’s still painful to watch.

Continental CEO Larry Kellner Walks Away
Continental CEO Larry Kellner is hanging up his wings for a more earth-bound job.

Southwest has announced that it will finally be ending production of one of the greatest airline dork tools ever invented, the timetable. After the current issue, Southwest timetables will no longer be printed, and that means that there won’t be any printed timetables left anywhere in the US. What a sad day, particularly for a dork like me.

The non-dorks probably can’t understand the impact that airline timetables had on my life. They were instrumental in cementing my love for the industry. In fact, when my parents arranged for professional family photos in 1989, I insisted on having this shot taken with my beloved timetables. (Please ignore the chubby cheeks and buffalo hair.)

I grew up collecting these things while other kids collected baseball cards, and I still have a couple of boxes full of some of the more exciting ones. I have a prized TWA timetable from a family member who picked it up in the 1950s. I have a few Eastern timetables from late 1980s which allow you to watch its descent into the grave via a shrinking route map. Yes, you’ll find some Pan Am schedules showing the same trajectory as well.

I have timetables from exotic foreign carriers that I picked up while abroad – Air Botswana and Aeroflot, for example. And yes, there are plenty of little guys that you probably wouldn’t even recognize today. (Sunworld Airlines, anyone? How about the original Jet America?)

Whenever someone in my family had to go to the airport, my parents would let me come along and I would run out at each terminal at LAX. You could find me darting from ticket counter to ticket counter, collecting everything I could grab.

What did I do with these timetables? I would scrutinize them for days, looking at all the cool places I could go. I remember studying them looking for changes in aircraft types, flight times, etc. I even forced my brother to plan imaginary trips with me, so I could look through the timetables with a purpose.

Of course, there’s no reason for an airline to have printed timetables today. You can download a PDF with the schedules from nearly any carrier or you can look them up online. If you have the web on your phone, most airlines will allow you to search schedules there as well. The information is all standardized and easy to find. While that’s helpful, it’s also boring.

I used to relish the opportunity to examine differences between the way different airlines showed their schedules. I cursed Northwest for only showing nonstop and direct flights in their measly little booklet while I became angry with others for showing route maps without the lines displayed.

Now that era is over, and cost cuts combined with environmental consciousness mean that the printing timetables was guaranteed to end. It actually took longer than I expected, but it’s a sad day nonetheless.

Last year, when then-Senator Obama was busy criss-crossing the country in support of his presidential bid, he ran into some trouble on one of his flights. At the time, we were told that it wasn’t a big deal and, of course, it landed safely. But now as more details come out, things appear to have been somewhat more serious.

The President was on an MD-80 chartered from Midwest Airlines. The only thing unique about this airplane is that it was actually flown by Midwest – that’s more rare than seeing a panda in the wild. As the plane was climbing, the crew had trouble controlling the airplane’s pitch (nose up attitude), so they ended up diverting to St Louis. Here’s what the President would have felt:

It should be noted that while 16 to 20 degrees is normal, some flights do reach 25 degrees. So this wasn’t completely out of the ordinary at 26.8 degrees, but it could have gotten much worse had the crew not been able to stabilize the plane.

What happened? Well, in the tail of the MD-80, there is an emergency exit. On this particular flight, the slide at that exit inflated and pressed on the cables controlling the elevators. The elevators are used to make the plane go up and down, so this pressure made the plane go up a little too much. The pilots did regain control, and once they descended, things seemed to go back to normal and they landed safely.

There has only been two other incidents remotely like this one in the past, and one of those happened on the ground, so this is a very rare occurrence. Still, that must have been one wild ride.

It has been a really odd week for Pacific Wings. The airline has made its money flying nine-seaters around the Hawaiian islands to smaller cities, but in recent years it has begun to branch out on to the Mainland as well. In the last week, the airline abruptly shut down its Hawaiian operation and then had limited flights restart soon after, supposedly because of a physical fight with the government. Something very weird is going on here.

It is said to have all started when a state official came into the Pacific Wings hangar (that is owned by the state) in order to investigate some shenanigans around improper fuel storage. Pacific Wings didn’t want to allow them to enter, but they claim the officials shoved their representative aside. They even showed pictures of bruises on the agent, but there’s no way to prove where those came from, of course. (The bruises were also barely visible.)

Because of this supposed security breach, the CEO shut the airline down until the airline could make sure everything was in order. The state says there is no evidence of any sort of forced entry at all, but there is a history of confrontation between the state and the airline.

What’s really weird here is what happened next. Shortly after the shutdown, Pacific Wings’ CEO said they were starting up again but they wouldn’t return to their original schedule. He said that he is cutting most of the airline’s flights in Hawai’i and only keeping three routes. The most important flights here are the ones from Kalaupapa (on Molokai) to Honolulu. No other airline flies to Kalaupapa and the area is effectively cut off from the rest of the island by steep cliffs. Another route from Hana to Kahului (both on Maui) is only served by Pacific Wings but people can easily drive the route as well. The third route is Kamuela (on the Big Island) to Kahului. That’s also an airport with sparse service. On these routes, fares will now be more than doubled to $225 each way.

What the heck? This just seems so strange to blame a conflict with a state official for the shutdown of most of the airline. I think there’s something else to consider here, and that’s the airline’s mainland expansion.

Pacific Wings has made a habit of bidding for routes supported by the federal government – Essential Air Service routes. They fly under different names in each place – New Mexico Airlines, Kentucky Blue, and Georgia Skies, for example. But some of these are just getting started. For example, just last week there was an article talking about Pacific Wing’s impending entry into Owensboro, Kentucky. Hmm, interesting.

I have to wonder if they have an airplane shortage going on here. This conflict in Hawai’i gives them an excuse to shuffle some planes off to the mainland so they can start these other, government funded flights instead. That certainly sounds plausible.

Very strange to note CEO Greg Kahlstorf’s quote about lower fares in Owensboro:

I think the pricing, with some of the other carriers, was at a point where, well I wouldn’t have flown it. If it gets to the point where it’s less expensive to drive your car, buy the gas, park and you have a couple hours to do it, I think that’s what most people will do, so what we have to get people to do is think of flying as a viable alternative to driving.

He says this at the same time he more than doubles fares in Hawai’i. I suppose you can’t drive between the islands, but still . . . .