Long time readers of the blog know that I have a little tradition here as each year comes to a close. I like to honor (or roast) those airlines that were flying at the beginning of the year but didn’t make it until the end. This year’s list is shorter and less prolific than last year, but there are still some worthy mentions in here. (See past lists.) Please keep in mind that this isn’t a comprehensive worldwide list but rather a highlight (or lowlight) reel.

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Zambian Airways – January 12, 2009
Ah little Zambian Airways. On a continent where airlines come and go every day, Zambian survived for over 60 years, and that’s no small feat. Granted, it was only in the last 10 years that the airline tried to survive without government help. You might remember these guys flying DC-10s to New York . . . oh wait, that wasn’t them. That was actually Zambia Airways, a completely different airline. These guys have never flown anything larger than a 737, as best I can tell and most of their fleet was made up of props. I doubt they’ll really be missed that much.

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flyLAL – January 17, 2009
With a name like flyLAL, you’d think this airline had started within the last couple years, but nay, it’s been around longer than Zambian. Of course, back then it was simply the Lithuanian-based aircraft of Aeroflot. After Lithuania gained independence, the government built this airline from the remains of Aeroflot in the country. It never really made money, and in 2005 the airline was privatized. Without government backing, this thing was doomed. I’m amazed it took as long as it did for them to fold considering all the competition in the area.

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East Star Airlines – March 15, 2009
You would think that in a country with over 1 billion people and a very small number of airplanes, a startup would do ok. Bzzt. Not in this case. East Star came on the scene in 2006 with the hope that private airlines might have a bright future. It crumbled quickly. The airline was heavily in debt and it was ready to collapse. The airline’s chief, Lan Shili (not to be confused with Lan Chile) tried to flee the country. That’s, um, not a good sign. They did catch him, however, and I imagine he’ll be tried if he doesn’t end up “committing suicide” first.

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Blue Wings – March 31, 2009
There’s really nothing like a Russian oligarch to turn an airline into a spectacular failure. In this case, Alexander Lebedev, a man who also owns 29% of Aeroflot, saw his dream crash into the ground when Blue Wings was shut down. Blue Wings was a German airline that flew people to Turkey and Russia. Earlier in 2009, the airline was put on a temporary license because it was thought to be broke. Now Lebedev says it isn’t broke, but the airline remains shut down by the government. Word on the street is that Lebedev wants to merge it with his other low cost carrier, Red Wings, and move it to Detroit.
UPDATE: BlueWings lives again! Thomas from CH-Aviation tells me they’re back.

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Dirgantara Air Service – April 11, 2009
Let’s face it. Nobody cares about little Dirgantara . . . except for former employees of America West. See, Dirgantara may have been a backwater airline deemed unsafe by even the Indonesian government, but it also held the airline code AW. Every America West employee wondered at some point why we didn’t have the AW code. And when we looked it up, we found Dirgantara Air Service of Indonesia. Incredibly, this airline outlasted America West by a couple of years, but now they’re both gone. Maybe Air Wisconsin is interested . . .

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Air Senegal International- April 24, 2009
How about a nice political mess? We certainly have that here with Air Senegal. Royal Air Maroc owned 51% of Air Senegal with the Senegalese owning the rest. Wanna guess what happened? Royal Air Maroc said it wanted to pull out of the airline, probably because it was a money-losing mess. Senegal said they would take it over, but then the courts said Royal Air Maroc couldn’t ditch the airline. Whatever. Now it’s dead. I’m sure the Senegalese will simply create a new carrier to be the shining light of the country. Actually, they already have. Senegal Airlines starts next year.

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Air Fiji – May 1, 2009
This is one I can’t keep straight. So Air Fiji used to be called Air Pacific, but today’s Air Pacific used to be called Fiji Airways. Meanwhile, Air Pacific continues to fly as the international carrier of Fiji (with some domestic services as well) while tiny Air Fiji folded. The airline hasn’t been in good shape for a long time. It even suspended operations back in 2008 only to bounce back for one last run around the islands. Now it’s fleet is permanently grounded, but from what I can tell, there’s plenty of service in Fiji from other carriers. Maybe that’s why they’re gone.

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Myair – July 21, 2009
You know I was hoping that our Italian entry into the list this year would be Alitalia, but sadly we’ll have to settle for Myair as Alitalia continues to survive. These guys were a mess, but in typical Italian fashion, they tried to go out with a flourish. They were in debt and completely broke, so what did they do? Apparently, when they couldn’t afford their insurance premiums, they opted to simply try to write checks that they couldn’t cover but they got caught. I’m surprised the workers didn’t go on strike just because it’s what they do. Gotta love the Italians.

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SkyEurope – August 31, 2009
These are the guys who just wouldn’t die. SkyEurope was one of the low fare pioneers of Eastern Europe that started up around the same time as Wizz Air, but they never really made any money at all. While they remained based in Bratislava (Slovakia), they kept bouncing around looking for profitable places to stick airplanes. They never quite figured it out. It’s too bad, because I hear they did a nice job on`board. There were daily rumors about them going bust, but they managed to hold on longer than most would have expected.

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KD Avia – September 7, 2009

On paper, this sounds like a good idea. KD Avia was based in Kaliningrad. Yes, that’s the part of Russia that doesn’t actually touch the rest of Russia. It’s wedged between Lithuania and Poland as one of Russia’s few year-round ports. The airline was around for many years beginning after World War II, but it only recently detailed its new plan to take advantage of its location to bridge the east and the west in a hub operation. That’s apparently not a very good plan. Just ask Austrian. Then again, KD Avia didn’t really get much of a chance to prove it one way or the other.

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Pace Airlines – September 12, 2009
Who knows the name Pace? That’s what I figured. Now, who remembers Hooters Air? Well those planes were actually Pace airplanes. Pace was founded by former Piedmont people.as a charter operator, but it was its most recent leader who made a name for himself as being, um, pretty damn sketchy. Apparently a lot of employees are owed money, but my guess is they’ll never get it. The CEO was recently arrested for not paying healthcare premiums and he could get up to 10 years in prison. This is a guy who only bought the airline a few months earlier promising to save the airline. Or not.

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Flyglobespan – December 16, 2009
Americans may only know flyglobespan as that goofy airline that flew from random US cities to random UK cities, but . . . well actually, that was a big piece of what they did in the past. But at its heart, flyglobespan was the largest Scottish airline, taking Scots and their kilts to far flung destinations. Now they are no more. I really only heard awful things about this airline. They canceled flights, kept people delayed for days, and simply made life miserable for a lot of travelers. Though Scots may miss having a large international airline, they probably won’t miss this being it.

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Air Comet – December 21, 2009
Last but certainly not least, we have what is becoming a pre-holiday tradition in the very worst way. Not too long after Air Madrid pulled these same shenanigans before Christmas a couple years ago, Air Comet did the exact same thing. Actually they were shut down by the authorities. It was another airline that exploded in size taking Spaniards to warmer weather, and now it’s gone thanks to, well, being broke. I would hate to be a Spaniard – booking travel for the holidays is a hazardous experience. Maybe you guys should just drive or take boats from now on.

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That’s this year’s list. If I missed anything you think is important, feel free to drop it in the comments section. Happy New Year to all, and I’ll be back with you again on Monday.

As usual, we had a fun but short weekend in Indianapolis. After having my fill of good food and hanging out with the inlaws, I was ready to head back. I actually was looking forward to these flights since we had booked First Class on American. They did not disappoint.

Back when we were looking at holiday flights over the summer, the prices were pretty high for the return on this peak day. So, we looked at mileage availability. American was our first choice since we could use one way awards and the outbound flight was cheap enough to buy. Sure enough, they had a perfect flight in the afternoon going through St Louis. While coach was only available at the higher 25,000 mile one way level, First Class was able at the saver level. That required the same number of miles as coach. Needless to say, we flew up front.

We arrived at the airport in a light snow. When we tried to check-in online the night before, we were told we couldn’t. Not sure why, but we just checked in at the kiosk when we arrived at Indy with no trouble. It spit out our coach boarding passes right away – no First Class on this little plane.

The airport was fairly empty for such a big travel day, and we parked ourselves at the gate waiting for the flight. Our plane was a little late getting out to Indy, probably because of de-icing, but we didn’t mind. Our layover in St Louis was long.

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December 27, 2009
American #5049 Lv Indianapolis (IND) 1220p Arr St Louis (STL) 1220p
IND: Gate B7, Runway 23R, Dept 43m Late
STL: Gate C9, Runway 30L, Arr 40m Late
Aircraft: N376SK, Embraer ERJ-135, AA Connection Colors, Mostly Full
Seat: 4C
Flight Time: 39m

I thought we were supposed to be on an ERJ-140, but instead an ERJ-135 pulled up. This was also operated by Chautauqua, just as our Midwest flight was, but this one still had its American paint. That won’t last for long as American continues its St Louis hub downsizing.

We boarded early and took our seats, just one row behind our seats on the flight from Milwaukee. There was very little to distinguish this flight from our last except for the big Eagle bolted on to the front bulkhead.

We ended up being even later because we had to de-ice ourselves before taking off into the muck. Once on our way, drinks were served and we sat in the clouds for much of the ride. Toward the end, we peaked out briefly and then we stared our descent into a cloudy and snow-covered St Louis.

When we landed, it was overcast, and we taxied to our gate. Soon, we could see the sun peaking out. I was excited to be in St Louis once again after a long absence. When I was in college in DC, I used to fly Southwest between Baltimore and the West, and at least one of my usual two stops involved St Louis.

What we arrived to find was a very sad, declining airport. American has settled its remaining flights in the front of the C concourse. Concourse B now only has AirTran with the rest of the gates shuttered. Concourse D has one Frontier gate and a couple of flights for Great Lakes and Cape Air with their little puddle jumpers. The rest of the long concourse has actually been boarded up and you can’t even go down there anymore. If only those TWA-red walls could talk . . .

Lots of businesses were boarded up and there were very few people anywhere except for at the beginning of C concourse where American was clearly having a good day. I saw flights to places like Wichita and Jacksonville, knowing that those would all be gone in a matter of months. You could probably fit all remaining St Louis carriers on a single concourse, except for Southwest which remains in the East Terminal, separated from everyone else.

[See all my photos of St Louis Lambert's sad decline]

I found myself a power outlet to plug in for a full charge as we waited. I spent the rest of the time trying to help some clients who had the potential of missing a connection in Chicago. (They got an earlier flight and made it.)

Soon, it was time to board.

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December 27, 2009
American #1727 Lv St Louis (STL) 210p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 430p
STL: Gate C6, Runway 30L, Dept 30m Late
LAX: Gate 48B, Runway 25L, Arr 10m Early
Aircraft: N553AA, Douglas MD-82, Silver Colors, 100% Full
Seat: 4D, First Class
Flight Time: 3h36m

As boarding started, there was a pretty good squall passing through dumping snow on the airport and reducing visibility significantly. We took our seats in First Class and the flight attendant came by and took our coats. This MD-80 was nearly 20 years old, and it looked a little worse for wear.

Immediately after we sat, our flight attendant came by and offered us drinks. Kirsten had champagne and I had a very generous helping of scotch. The rest of the plane boarded and soon it was time to take off.

In the few minutes between boarding and departure, the squall had moved out and a low partly cloudy layer took over. Thankfully, that meant we didn’t have to de-ice, so we made our way to the runway and took off. Here’s the video. (And yes, I know I’m not supposed to have my camera out . . .)

I was excited to sit up front in an MD-80 for the first time, because I had heard it was so quiet. It was certainly quieter than in the back, but I didn’t think it was anything special. The service, however, was, thanks to our flight attendant Robin.

I was bummed to find out there wasn’t any internet access on this flight, but I still had my computer with me to do plenty of work. Robin immediately showed up with a hot ramekin of nuts and asked for drink orders. I lost the contest so I was the designated driver to get us home. I stuck with water after my generous helping of pre-departure scotch.

I browsed through the inflight mags, and that didn’t take very long. In addition to the usual American Way, American also has Celebrated Living for premium class passengers. This is a magazine for the rich, and it had very little content. My guess is that most people sitting up front on this flight weren’t interested since it didn’t appear to be a big money crowd (though maybe Jenna Fischer from The Office was interested; she was two rows behind).

After wolfing down the nuts, I went to work, but Robin came by and refilled me. Mmm, delicious. Then she came through asking for meal choices. The options were steak salad or a chicken sandwich. I was very happy to get the last of the latter.

The sandwich was basically a piece of chicken and a bunch of cheese – you can’t really go too far wrong with that. There was also a very crisp salad which, yes, had the legendary olive that disappeared in the height of cost cutting days in order to save money. There was also a bag of pita chips which I saved for later.

After lunch, Robin came through with a warm chocolate chip cookie that really blew the Midwest cookie out of the water (I know, I know – American doesn’t give you a cookie in coach so it’s not a fair comparison), and then I kicked back to do some more work.

The snowy terrain made for an amazing view all the way across the country. The Rockies were absolutely spectacular, as were the red rocks of Utah and Arizona. We hit some bumps west of the Rockies, and about an hour before landing, a high overcast layer showed up to dampen the thrill of the view.

Robin came through to refill our drinks one more time, and then it was time to descend. We sat in a murky cloud layer for awhile before breaking out over the Inland Empire. Robin came through and returned everyone’s coats. Her friendly smile had everyone in a good mood. It was a nice ride in as the sun set and we taxied to the gate. Soon after, we were home.

It seems like I’ve been trying to fly Midwest for years. When I was in school in DC in the ’90s, I always wanted to fly the airline that had fancy seats and delicious meals. Even more recently when the product had been completely altered, I still tried to fly them. They canceled our flight before we could try it. But this was finally going to be my chance to “fly” Midwest. I put that in quotes because there’s really very little “Midwest” about it. In fact, I would argue that the cookie is pretty much the only thing left. Don’t get me wrong, the flights were nice, but a blown connection meant our trip took a lot longer than we had hoped.

We paid a mere $158.70 per person for the one way on a redeye to Milwaukee with a 2.5 hour connection before heading on to Indianapolis. Leading up to our flight, I watched the potential ice storm approaching Milwaukee with fear. This was going to be ugly. Surprisingly, it was actually the weather in Denver that caused us problems, not Milwaukee.

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December 23, 2009
Midwest #754 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 1130p Arr Milwaukee (MKE) 511a
LAX: Gate 67B, Runway 25R, Dept 2h31m Late
MKE: Gate D47, Runway 7R, Arr 2h30m Late
Aircraft: N914FR, Airbus A319-111, Stretch the Egret Tail, 100% Full
Seat: 8A
Flight Time: 3h31m

This flight comes in to LA from Denver as a Frontier flight and then turns to Milwaukee as a Midwest flight. They don’t dedicate aircraft to one operation. The snow in Denver kept causing taxi delays, and we sat at home watching the flight get pushed further and further.

It did get in the air (finally) and we headed to the airport. There was no line at security, and we wandered up to the same gate (at right) we used to fly Virgin America before they moved from Terminal 6 to Terminal 3. People were sprawled out as best they could (the armrests aren’t moveable, drat). The only other flight around was a Copa flight down to Panama.

I saw on FlightAware that our plane wouldn’t be arriving until just before 1a, yet they had a 117a departure posted. Yeah, right. Our flight had been delayed so much that I was now afraid we would miss our connection. I went up to the gate agents to ask.

There were four agents standing in a circle, three with their backs toward me. I asked them if there were other flights with seats available were we to miss our connection in Milwaukee. A grumpy woman behind the counter said that wouldn’t happen.

After her repeated assurances that everything would be fine, I finally said to her, “look, can you just tell me if there are other flights to Indy with room just in case?” She said, “they’ll handle that in Milwaukee, but you won’t miss your connection. They’re holding all flights in Milwaukee.” I’ve heard that one before. Exasperated, I just looked at her and said, “You can’t just check?”

Apparently annoyed that I had tried to ask her to be helpful, she started typing in her computer while the agent next to her reminded her that the code for Milwaukee was MKE. Oh boy.

A couple seconds later, she said, “nope, no seats for the rest of the day. But you’ll make your connection.” They said the same thing in an announcement to all the customers.

As predicted, the flight arrived at about 1a and took absolutely forever to turn around. My understanding is that the PA system in the gate area doesn’t work, and they’re still waiting for LAX to fix the problem. That only added to the chaos to hear agents shouting things out. The line to board backed up to the beginning of the jet bridge, and it was moving very slowly. Eventually, we all got on the plane, but the turn took a solid hour.

The flight itself was a blur. I’m not sure if they served the traditional Midwest cookie because I actually passed out pretty quickly from exhaustion. Everything else on the plane was distinctly Frontier. Midwest isn’t even a brand anymore – it’s just a name they seem to use for selling purposes but that’s it these days.

Frontier does have some nice leather seats with headrests and, of course, LiveTV, so I can’t complain. I woke up over the Rockies and went in and out of sleep the rest of the flight. When we passed over Iowa, we hit some bumps, but that was about it. The captain told us it would be bumpy coming in to Milwaukee, but it wasn’t at all.

We landed in a dreary, cold, and snow-filled Milwaukee about 10 minutes after our connection was supposed to leave. I whipped out my phone and found that our plane had already left. Bastards.

Before they let everyone off, they told people that the Pittsburgh flight was still there, but all the other flights left, so we had to all be rebooked. Not cool at all.

Fortunately, someone who does PR for Milwaukee’s airport had emailed me before asking me a fair bit about the blog and wanting to learn more about what type of PR I would like to see from Milwaukee. I mentioned off-hand that I was actually flying through Milwaukee for the first time. When our flight got closer, I found an email from her saying we had been put on the guest list for Midwest’s Best Care Club. That was very nice of her and it really made our lives infinitely better with our long layover.

So even though they said to see an agent to be rebooked, we wandered over to the club and we were the only ones there. The woman working the front desk had a bag of MKE goodies waiting for us with a personalized poem (above left, click to enlarge), and I asked her if we’d be able to get out. She said that we had already been rebooked and she had our boarding passes for the next flight. It was only half full. The LAX agent lied.

So we went into the club, had a traditional cookie, and then passed out for a couple hours. Kirsten was thrilled that the MKE gift bag included a fleece blanket. She stole it and made herself a nice little nap area on the ground. I, however, couldn’t sleep.

The club is actually one of the nicer ones around. It’s very oddly shaped, which is perfect, because it creates a few, smaller private areas. We found the big TV with a fireplace on the other side of the room, and I sat there watching as I checked my email.

A friend of mine was coming into MKE around 11a, so I figured I would go meet him. The club attendant assured me that security lines wouldn’t be long, so I went out to the main area and walked around. There’s a fantastic old bookstore with tall stacks and lots of cool old books for sale. (I found some very old United government documents for sale in a book for $75, but I didn’t buy it.) Then I went over to the aviation museum where I met my friend.

It was a great way to spend the time, but I just wish that central area was inside security. The lines to get back were short, however, and soon I was back in the club. Kirsten was still passed out. You know when you get to the point where you’re so tired, you’ll do anything to sleep? Yeah, I was there. I kept trying to rearrange the furniture to help me sleep better, but alas, I never did.

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December 24, 2009
Midwest #1205 Lv Milwaukee (MKE) 120p Arr Indianapolis (IND) 320p
MKE: Gate D28, Runway 19R, Dept 5m Early
IND: Gate B13, Runway 5L, Arr On Time
Aircraft: N380SK, Embraer ERJ-135KL, Generic Colors, Mostly Full
Seat: 3C
Flight Time: 35m

This flight was at gate D28, which actually boards from underneath the main concourse. We had to walk out into the cold air before boarding on a snow slicked ramp up to the airplane. This plane was an ERJ-135 that used to see service as American Connection out of St Louis. They had given it a new, generic paint job, but not much else changed.

Our flight attendant was surprisingly old for what I’ve come to expect on a regional carrier. Then I remembered that Midwest pilots and flight attendants were now working at the bottom of the seniority list. I asked, and sure enough, she used to work for Midwest. She did a great job.

This flight was like pretty much any other. We sat in the clouds most of the time, and our flight attendant came by handing out cookies. After a very short ride, it was time to land in dreary Indianapolis. We were exhausted.

Tomorrow, I’ll have our return on American in First Class . . .

As a postscript, I thought it worth noting that I’ve already received a personal email apology from the station manager at LAX. That was a very nice gesture.

I’m back home from my holiday trip, and I have my trip report ready to go, but then someone tried to blow up a Northwest flight into Detroit and the TSA jumped into action. I tried to let my anger cool off for a couple days, but the more I stewed over the changes, the more angry I got. These rules are so absurd that they make the liquid rules look rational.

These rules originally only applied to international flights that are inbound to the US, though I’ve heard they may now also apply to flights going the other way. I’ve heard conflicting reports about how long these will be in place, but some reports have them expiring in the next week. We’ll see. There are really three basic parts to the rules here.

1. Search the heck out of people before they fly
2. Make sure people have no idea where they are
3. Make sure people do nothing for the last hour of the flight

Now, I don’t mind the first part for a short time because it appears this guy was able to easily get onboard with a banned substance in a very small syringe that could have blown up the plane had it worked. So if you need to do full searches of everyone on international flights for a (very) short period, that’s fine. Just figure out a better way to detect it quickly or we’ll end up having to get to the airport 10 hours early. As it is, airlines have started to see massive delays and cancellations because of all the issues.

The second part is where I’m completely baffled. What good is it going to do to keep people from knowing exactly where they are? Airlines are now no longer allowed to show the moving map displays that show where your plane is, and the flight crew can’t let you know where you are during announcements.

What the hell?!? Some airlines have simply had to turn off their entire inflight entertainment system until they can figure out how to simply keep the moving map piece off. Hopefully that happens soon because there are reports of some very unhappy passengers. In short, people need to be completely cut off from the outside world.

The third part is seemingly dumb as well. You basically can’t move during the last hour of the flight. No electronics, nothing on your lap, and you can’t get out of your seat. Sounds like the rules for flying into Washington/National right after September 11. Rumor has it that they’re going to install electric chairs onboard to keep people from doing anything dumb.

What good is this going to do? I would ask the TSA, but I can already tell you their response. “There is a threat that requires us to do this, but we can’t tell you about it.” So I won’t even bother trying to get an answer. They did finally issue a Q&A for travelers today, several days after the incident, but it is incredibly vague just saying that stuff will be changing and you should leave extra time.

I know that the guy on the Christmas Day flight tried to light the bomb as they began descending, but would he really not just take care of it earlier in the flight if he had everything onboard? Does it matter if you’re at 28,000 feet above Michigan or 34,000 feet above Maine? This rule is stupid, and it brings up a bigger issue.

How the heck did this guy get on an airplane?!? The reports I’ve read show that he was a person of interest, had been shown as having suspected ties to terrorists, and that’s not all. In the most unbelievable admission I can imagine, this guy’s father called the US Embassy in Nigeria a couple months ago to tell him that he was afraid he was going to try to do something bad.

I’ll ask it again. How the hell did he get on this plane?!?

The TSA is trying to get away from incorrect matches on the watch list, so they’ve now required birthdate and sex. How is it that while thousands of people have been incorrectly flagged, this jackass just walks right on the plane.

It’s not like he has a common name. It’s Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Why wasn’t this guy on the freakin’ no-fly list, or at least on the watch list?

There’s not much more to say here except that regular travelers will once again be punished with absurd rules because the TSA can’t do its job right. I try to be level-headed with these things, but this one is just too much.

Update 12/28 @ 341p: It’s my understanding that most of these rules have now been eased, including the “no moving for the last hour of the flight” piece. This tells me that a rudderless TSA made a rash decision that it walked away from pretty quickly. I may write more about this on BNET this week.

New York Snowstorm Sees Delta Start Canceling Earlier Than JetBlue, American – BNET
You may have been stranded but from an operational perspective, the airlines did pretty well at JFK during this major snowstorm.

US Airways and Continental See Different Fortunes with United at Washington/Dulles – BNET
As Continental ramps up Dulles, US Airways cuts back. Clearly they’re each seeing different opportunities with United.

Three Reasons Why Delta Slashed First Class Fares Between New York and the West Coast – BNET
Delta made some pretty steep cuts to First Class fares between New York and LA/SF last week. Here’s why I think they did it.

Airlines find coach travelers willing to pay extra for perks – Chicago Sun Times
This week, the Sun Times took on the issue of fees, and I was asked to comment.