Did you guys see this really odd story about some problem passengers on an AirTran flight last month? I can’t quite figure out how this thing blew up to the point where people were thinking it was a terrorist dry run, but it looks like the reports were embellished by someone claiming to be on the airplane. (He wasn’t.) The email started shooting through cyberspace at lightning speed. It’s amazing how false rumors get spread and taken as truth so quickly. (Just ask Fox News.)

On November 17, AirTran flight 297 was supposed to leave Atlanta at 440p for a flight to Houston. There were some issues on the plane, they pulled some people off to question them, and eventually they let them back on. According to FlightAware, AirTran 297 lifted off at 745p. Seems pretty routine, but then Tedd Petruna stepped in.

Tedd says he was a passenger on that flight, and it was a much more dramatic than what was initially reported. In his email regarding the flight (thanks, Airline Biz), Tedd says he was up in first class (AirTran actually has business class, not first, but ok) and he got involved.

Eleven “muslim men” got onboard (how he knew that, I couldn’t tell you) and scattered throughout the plane. Apparently one guy up front called to another guy in the back (again, how he knew he called a guy in the back, we’ll never know) and started speaking loudly in Arabic. The flight attendants repeatedly told him to turn the cell phone off, but he wouldn’t.

Then, in the back of the plane, two younger Muslims started watching porn (how the hell did a guy in the front of the plane see this?) and in his eyes, that’s only allowed right before Jihad (apparently not true).

This crap goes on and on until our hero Tedd apparently wrestles the guys to the ground until the TSA and police stormed the airplane. They took the 11 guys off the plane and removed their bags. We’re done, right? Nope.

The 11 get back on the plane and the crew decided to walk off instead of fly with these guys. Tedd got up and stormed off the plane as well. Apparently so many people stormed off the plane that they canceled the flight (we obviously know isn’t true) and he eventually landed at 1230a (they have no flight that late.)

So without even doing any additional fact-checking, this thing seems highly suspicious. But it gets even more hi-lariously wrong. AirTran told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that Tedd Petruna wasn’t even on the plane in the first place! Oh sure, he was supposed to be on it, but he missed his first flight from Akron/Canton to Atlanta, so he ended up not making it to Atlanta until about a half an hour after 297 first tried to leave.

According to AirTran, it’s a very different story. It sounds like these guys weren’t dressed in any particularly memorable way, and there wasn’t any sort of fight on the airplane. No TSA or police officer ever came on the airplane either. So really, it sounds like a rowdy group of guys who wouldn’t turn their cell phones off so they pulled them off the plane to check it out. After they talked to them and checked to make sure they weren’t a security threat, they let them back on and that was that.

Twelve passengers opted not to travel on that flight, and the crews were swapped (probably because they didn’t want to fly with these guys), but that was it.

I just wonder why AirTran isn’t really being more proactive here. They posted a refutation on their “internal website” of each point made by Tedd in his email and they sent it to the media. I’m not sure how long of a list that was, but I never saw anything. I’d think they would want to get the truth out there, because it sounds like they handled the situation just fine. As for our hero Tedd, I really have to wonder what the heck he was thinking.

For years we’ve heard Allegiant proclaim that they don’t really like competition. They’ve often boasted about how few of their routes have competitors, and they’ve had no qualms about walking away from a route that suddenly performs poorly thanks to new entrants (Greensboro comes to mind). Now, Allegiant has had enough. They’ve found some competition from AirTran that they aren’t willing to shy away from. They’re moving some flights from Orlando/Sanford to Orlando International next year. It’s war.

Allegiant has a substantial base in Orlando, but the flights go from little-used Sanford Airport on the northeast side of town. The airport is a really cheap place to operate, and that’s always good, but there’s a problem. The tourist attractions are southwest of town, much closer to the main Orlando International airport. Now you can understand why Sanford is cheap.

It’s 50 miles right through downtown Orlando and at least an hour from Sanford to Disney World. It’s 25 miles from Orlando International to Disney World and that avoids downtown entirely. When you have 4 screaming kids in the back wanting to meet Mickey, every few minutes helps.

So now, beginning on Feb 1, they will move flights to 10 of their 31 destinations from Sanford over to Orlando International Airport. The cities that will be moving?

• Knoxville
• Lexington
• Allentown (Feb 8)
• Greenville/Spartanburg (Feb 8)
• Grand Rapids (Feb 12)
• Springfield, Missouri (Feb 15)
• Tri-Cities, Tennessee/Virginia (Feb 15)
• Huntington, West Virginia (Feb 16)
• Youngstown, Ohio (Mar 4)
• Des Moines, Iowa (Mar 5)

So how did they pick these markets? Well, see those lines in bold? Those are markets where AirTran flies nonstop from Orlando. I took a couple liberties. AirTran flies to Branson, not Springfield. They also fly to Charleston, not Huntington; Akron/Canton, not Youngstown; and Asheville, not Tri-Cities or Greenville/Spartanburg. But those are all within 100 miles of each other so they are certainly competitive when it comes to leisure travel.

Oh, and that Des Moines flight? AirTran just announced it would begin March 6. Allegiant now starts one day earlier.

Still need more proof that this is a fight against AirTran? How about this quote from a message sent to the Allegiant employees the night before the public announcement? (MCO is Orlando International’s code.)

This project has been underway for several months, driven by the activity of a competitor which as you know began serving a number of our Orlando markets to and from MCO. We believe they view their MCO service provides them with a competitive advantage. Our MCO offering will level the playing field. We have developed our Orlando routes over the past five years and as such will react appropriately to provide our customers a service equal to or better than the competitor’s proposed offering.

Wow, we don’t hear things like this from Allegiant, but I like it. It’s one thing to pull out of routes here and there if competition is around, but AirTran is effectively trying to tackle Allegiant’s routes out of Orlando on the whole. Allegiant has better flexibility with its airplanes than AirTran thanks to low fixed costs, and it has a strong network of packaging options available to help it get the advantage. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be defending this.

And really, this move to the main airport in Orlando isn’t out of character. They already fly to the main airport in Vegas, Ft Lauderdale, and LA. Yes, Sanford is a cheaper place to operate, but when that family of four wants to go to Disney, that extra drive may be enough to help AirTran succeed. Allegiant is going to fight that and try to prevent that from happening.

You cheeseheads may still be hurting from your second Favre-related beatdown this year, but you can rejoice that you now have yet another airline coming to town. SkyWest (yes, the regional airline) will begin flying for AirTran in Milwaukee.

It’s very clear that this is happening because of the AirTran deal, but it’s not your traditional regional contract. Then again, it’s not exactly the “innovative” and “groundbreaking” contract that these guys are proclaiming it is. This has been done before many times. The airplanes will say SkyWest on them, but you’ll have to go to AirTran to book. It’s a lot like the deal they had with Delta back in the day.

You may remember that SkyWest was flying as Midwest Connect until Republic came in and booted them out. Like most airlines, SkyWest has more 50 seat jets lying around than they need, so they figured they could just put them back into use on routes they know and love. Only now, they’ll get passengers from AirTran instead of Midwest.

The 50 seaters will fly from Milwaukee to Akron/Canton (Jan 5), Des Moines (Feb 11), Indianapolis (Jan 5), Omaha (Feb 11), Pittsburgh (Dec 4), and St Louis (Dec 4). All of those are Midwest markets except for Akron/Canton, which is a big airport for AirTran. Nice.

Some of you may remember AirTran’s last effort to use 50 seat jets. Back in 2002, they signed a deal with Air Wisconsin to fly as AirTran Jet Connect. That ended in 2004 when the airline realized 50 seat jets didn’t make much money. Some are already saying that this won’t work this time around, but this is a totally different model. This will work out just fine for AirTran, though SkyWest might not be as thrilled.

Before, it was a capacity purchase agreement which meant that AirTran bought the seats to resell under their own name and Air Wisconsin received a guaranteed profit. Now, it’s a prorate agreement. SkyWest is flying these routes at its own risk and AirTran gets to share in the revenue. So SkyWest has a big burden here while AirTran has none.

If you listen to the AirTran pilots, this is the end of the world. Their press release says “Outsourcing: Bad for Business.” Hmm, not so sure about that. They do say that AirTran passengers expect to be flown on AirTran planes and that means XM Radio, wireless internet, and business class. Hmm, maybe, but they aren’t going to get that from Milwaukee to these cities.

Granted, Pittsburgh, Indy, and St Louis have mainline service from AirTran right now, so this tells me that those flights are really weak. It’s either a 50 seater that has a shot at making money or no service at all. I’d say it’s good for business with that perspective.

I suppose it’s AirTran’s fault that the pilots are responding this way. Back when they discontinued JetConnect, AirTran said they “could operate the Boeing 717 more efficiently than the Canadair regional jets in short-haul markets.” They may have thought that sounded good at the time, but now the AirTran pilots want them to stand by that statement.

Unfortunately for the pilots, that’s just not true. When AirTran started JetConnect, they served three cities – Pensacola, Greensboro, and Savannah. Only Pensacola is still served by AirTran today. I guess those 717s didn’t work out as well as they hoped on those lighter routes.

In my mind, this comes down to just a couple of things. SkyWest has a bunch of 50 seaters lying around and is desperate to find a home for them. AirTran wants to continue to put the squeeze on Midwest in Milwaukee. Combine the two and, voila, you have a plan.

Will this work? If I had to place bets, I’d guess no, but hey, I’ve been wrong before. If I’m AirTran, I love this deal since I have absolutely no risk and I get to strengthen my network out of Milwaukee. If I’m SkyWest, well, it’s the best I can get right now, and that’s scary.

[Updated 11/5 @ 809s to clarify that this won't be sold under the SkyWest code]

It’s no surprise that when you make something completely free, people use it a lot more often than if you make them pay. Duh. And that’s why it’s not surprising to see airlines scrambling to find a way to offer wireless internet for free. Just in the last few days, we’ve seen three promotions that will let anyone log on from 30,000 feet without paying a dime.

First up was Virgin America. They teamed up with Google to offer the most robust opportunity so far. Wireless connectivity will be free for anyone traveling between November 10 and January 15. Just turn on your computer and follow the instructions.

Meanwhile, American has joined with Lexus to offer free wireless as well . . . but only for a week. Lexus is promoting a new line of cars with free wifi from now through November 7. Remember, American has wifi on a lot more aircraft than Virgin America, so this is still a sizable promotion. It’s just a lot shorter. And on this one, it’s not automatically free. You have to enter code 2010LEXUSLS.

The last one I’ve seen is from AirTran. They are being a little more conservative still. The deal on AirTran is that if you pay for wifi on one flight, you’ll get a second one free. That’s probably the least attractive of the three opportunities here, but the end goal is the same.

Airlines are trying to stimulate wifi use, and really they should. Remember, once an airline hits on a great idea, the others will jump in and copy. So those airlines that have wifi now will have a limited opportunity to showcase their differentation. Eventually, everyone will have this.

Getting people to try onboard wifi is something that the airlines hope can attract people to their airline. If they’re going to do it, now is the time.

Guess what time it is, kids? It’s airplane p*rn time! (Yes, that’s now with an asterisk to try to circumvent corporate filters.) You know how much I love airplane p*rn, and we’ve got two good ones this week with JetBlue and AirTran. Let’s start with JetBlue.

The buzz started last week that JetBlue would be rolling out a brand new livery for its whole fleet in celebration of the airline’s upcoming 10th anniversary. It turns out the hype was a little too much for what it actually was, and in my mind that’s a good thing. It wasn’t so much a new livery as it is a tweak on the old one. And really, what was wrong with the old one? Not much. But they made some good improvements. Take a look. First, they rolled out a new tail to add to their family of tails.

I like this one. The white on the tail makes it stand out, and it fits the brand very well. This will just be a new tail to add to the stable, so it will go on some airplanes, just like all the existing tails. But they also made changes to the rest of the airplane.

Can’t tell the difference? Let me refresh your memory.

The changes are small. The little Jetblue titles are now much bigger and visible. Also, the two tone gray/blue title is now all blue. I think it makes the name more recognizable, and that’s good. Also, you’ll notice that the website on the engines has morphed from www.jetblue.com to jetblue.com and it’s bigger as well. So, not really any huge changes but they didn’t need them.

This is a good change. It will be rolled out very slowly. When planes go into the paint shop, they’ll get the tweaks (not necessarily the tail), so it will take awhile. And there will be more tails coming. An employee contest will be held to design a new one. Let’s just hope they do better than when America West let a kid design the Teamwork plane. That was awful.

But if you want to see a truly spectacular new livery, look no further than AirTran which has painted a 717 in the colors of the Atlanta Falcons. This thing looks like a rocket, and the new black fuselage is just awesome. It’s too bad this is only on a 717. That means we won’t see it out here in LA.

AirTran sent me these pictures, but I have no idea why they didn’t send one of a full body shot. Click here to see a great shot from Mario Rodriguez of the airplane taking off (or should I say, launching).