First Space Hotel Set to Open in 2012 – Asylum.com
I was asked about travel to space. Fun topic, but I don’t see it anytime soon.

Milwaukee sparks air wars – BusinessRockford.com
A thorough piece on what the low cost carrier expansion into Milwaukee might mean for Rockford. I weighed in (and, as you imagine, I don’t see much hope for the place).

Does Delta Make Atlantic Southeast’s Performance Suffer? We’re About to Find Out – BNET
ASA’s on time and bag handling performances are pretty bad, but is it Delta’s fault? Possibly, and now we’ll find out.

Electronics top splurge gifts for travelers – ABC News/AP
The AP asked what kinds of gifts I would find interesting this holiday season. I’m looking at netbooks these days.

ExpressJet To Fill the 50-Seat Aircraft Void at United – BNET
Looks like United has decided how to replace those Mesa 50 seaters it’s getting rid of. ExpressJet is the winner, but this is a little more complicated than it sounds.

get that dress to your wedding in one piece – antibride.com
I don’t know much about wedding dresses, but I do know how you should get it to your wedding. Don’t check it. There are better ways.

Boingo Bets Passengers Will Engage with Sponsors for Free Wifi in Airports – BNET
Boingo is bringing the sponsor model to airports – watch an ad or do something they want and you’ll get free wifi.

United Listens to Customers, Changes Upgrade Policy – BNET
United is bringing back the regional upgrade due to popular demand. It goes to show that they do listen, sometimes.

Premium Air Traffic Takes and Unexpected Turn for the Worse – BNET
I really thought that September year-over-year comparisons would be much better. I was wrong.

Why Comair’s On-Time Performance is More Concerning Than Atlantic Southeast’s – BNET
Comair and ASA both sat at the bottom of the July on-time performance derby, but the airlines appear to have two different problems.

Meaningless Mishandled Bag Numbers Plunge in July – BNET
Bag mishandlings are down, but the strange method of calculating the number makes these numbers pretty useless.

The Longest Delays Are In the Northeast – BNET
This is no surprise, but for those wanting a passenger bill of rights, I have a better idea.

Midwest Starts Milwaukee – St Louis on American’s Turf – BNET
Before American announced its St Louis pulldown, I wondered about this move. Now with hindsight, it makes sense.

Update: American Eliminates St Louis Hub – BNET
Just a quick update on my previous post.

American Raises $1.3 Billion in Cash – BNET
It wasn’t just route announcements that had American making news. They also raised a bunch of cash.

Just one more delay story to end the week. Check out the mugshot on this flight attendant. Yikes. Too much plastic surgery on her last Brazil trip? No, not so much. She was just drunk.

Yes, 26 year old Sarah Mills apparently has quite a few problems in life. As this article mentions, Ms Mills just landed (pardon the pun) the job as an Atlantic Southeast flight attendant. She was working a flight this past Sunday from Lexington (Kentucky) to Atlanta when things went downhill quickly.

I’m not quite sure what made the captain suspect she was drunk initially. Maybe it was her admission that she began drinking Jack Daniels onboard before departure. Regardless, the captain thought twice about taking off with her, went back to the gate and had her removed.

How did she respond? She apparently screamed “you are dead” to the pilot as she was dragged off the flight. She was then charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence, terroristic threatening and alcohol intoxication. Nice! Anyone who wants to help her out can drop $350 for her bail. I’m guessing she hasn’t paid it since she said she only had 50 bucks in the bank.

Believe it or not, her blood alcohol turned out to be only .032, far below the legal limit to drive, yet she looked like maybe that .032 was just a .15 delayed a few hours. In the end, they had to cancel the flight due to lack of crew. For once, a canceled flights passengers were probably happy about.

There were apparently some people who weren’t so happy that I characterized SkyWest’s new livery as boring, so I’m going to make it up to you guys by talking about something they’ve done right. Let’s talk about what’s been going on at its relatively new subsidiary, Atlantic Southeast (ASA)

You may remember (probably not) that SkyWest bought fellow Delta Connection partner Atlantic Southeast (PDF) back in September of 2005. ASA was a mess of an airline with pretty much nothing going right, but worst of all was its dismal baggage handling abilities. Meanwhile, SkyWest ran what was generally considered to be one of the best regional operations around. So could they fix it?

For the longest time, it didn’t appear to be possible, but now, the latest Air Travel Consumer Report shows movement. Check out this chart showing ASA’s baggage handling performance over the last two years.

These numbers are baggage complaints per 1,000 passengers. I’ve already ranted on how this stat makes no sense because it should be based on the number of bags checked, but it still can give us trends. Clearly, the spike last August was due to the new liquid rules onboard, and the large increase in the number of bags, but since the beginning of the year, things have gone very well.

Kudos to SkyWest for getting the baggage handling operation at ASA in shape. Now, how do you know if you’re flying on ASA? Well,they fly solely as Delta Connection and primarily out of Atlanta. So this is an important development for Delta fliers who go through Atlanta (that means everyone).