November Airline Traffic Numbers
Traffic numbers for November are in, and man is it ugly.

Pinnacle Improves Delta Connection On Time Performance
It wasn’t long ago that Delta was looking to ditch Pinnacle as a regional carrier due to poor performance. It’s a completely different story these days.

Delta Northwest Merger Enables Matching Capacity to the Right Aircraft
The merger has allowed Delta to finally start flying a large fleet of smaller long haul aircraft. LAX-Tampa is the first route to see the change with more to come.

Zero Star Hotel Opens Near Zurich
The world’s first zero star hotel has opened in an abandoned nuclear bunker in Switzerland. Oh yeah, you know you want to stay here.

Lufthansa Joins Social Network Xiaonei, “Facebook of China”
A couple months ago we talked about Lufthansa’s misguided efforts to build their own social network. Now they’re changing their tune.

Virgin America’s Main Cabin Select Capitalizes on Corporate Contracts
When Virgin America launched Main Cabin Select, its premium coach product, I thought that price was too high. According to the airline, that’s not the case.

Branson Airport Gets Its First Tenant: AirTran
AirTran announced it would be the first tenant at Branson’s new airport which opens next year. This is only a slight surprise to me, but it’s a good move for both.

Bombardier Kicks Off Farnborough by Launching the C-Series
Bombardier has talked about it for years, and now it’s official. The 110 to 130 seat C-Series has launched, and it’s promising massive fuel savings.

ExpressJet Ending Branded Service with Full Planes
ExpressJet may have announced the end of branded service, but those flights are flying full this summer, showing this may work one day with lower fuel costs.

Is US Airways “Intimidating” Its Pilots?
US Airways wants to use less fuel, so the airline is training its pilots to do just that. Is this stepping over the line?

Farnborough Order Counts
Farnborough Air Show is more than halfway through. That means it’s a good time to step back and see where the aircraft orders are coming from.

Delta To Keep Pinnacle Flying
Delaying entry into service of a handful of planes may have convinced Delta not to drop Pinnacle’s contract, but the reliability question still hangs in the air.

After yesterday’s splash, I was hoping there would be a big follow-up to Delta’s Week of Fun today. So far, that isn’t the case.

The big news today? Movies and cocktails!

Ah yes, now you can watch HBO on those flights over 1,750 miles that have TV installed. That’ll be $5 a movie and $2 a show if you’re interested. Also today there will be four cocktails released under the “Midnight Sky” line. Again, that’s $5 a cocktail in coach but you get one free on intercontinental flights. It’s free up front, of course.

Other than that? Well, they updated the logo on Delta.com so that’s good. And they signed Pinnacle Airlines as a new regional partner airline. For those keeping score, that puts Delta at nine connection carriers. (Atlantic Southeast, Big Sky, Chautauqua, Comair, ExpressJet, Freedom, Shuttle America, SkyWest, and now Pinnacle.) That means Delta’s in a dead-heat with US Airways for the most regional partners. US Airways also has nine. (Air Midwest, Air Wisconsin, Chautauqua, Colgan, Mesa, MidAtlantic, Piedmont, PSA, Republic, TransStates.) Introducing a brand is one thing, but keeping it consistent across 10 airlines (Delta + 9 connections partners) is a much different issue.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow’s news is much more exciting.

It’s now official, Delta is out of bankruptcy and on its own again. Let’s just hope they fare better than United has in its first year out. So how is the airline marking the occasion? Well, how about a “week-long celebration of emergence into a new era“?

In normal-person speak, they actually are doing something. Today is the official emergence and with it comes the new brand and logo. As you can see on the logo at left, they’re ditching the blue and red widget for a two-tone red one instead. The font is now all caps and more block-y (we’ll just pretend that’s an accepted way of describing a font). Delta’s media site has now been updated with the new look, but apparently someone forgot to change the site where CUSTOMERS actually go. Oops.

Of course, with a new logo comes another new livery. I talked about this one recently when photos of the new colors were supposedly leaked. Well, those photos were correct. Here is the new livery on a 777 for your viewing pleasure.

It definitely looks better than the dark photos of that model in my previous post (duh), but I still don’t think I’m a fan. The body is too white, especially when compared to the very dark blue of the tail and engines. The red widget on the tail (which I like far less than the old blue/red one) isn’t even fully there. Why is it so trendy to have your logo not fit entirely on the tail? United did it and so did Northwest.

That being said, I’m glad they kept cost-savings (PDF) in mind with this livery. That’s probably most important of all. This new livery reduces the number of colors used from 8 to 4. It also reduces the number of time required to paint a plane by one calendar day and 20 20% fewer man-hours.

The airline says that all airport signage will be up to date by the end of the year, but it will take four years to fully paint the fleet. So, that’s day one of the emergence. Can’t wait to see what the rest of this week long fiesta brings.

Why is this the NFL playoffs edition? Well, because I want to watch the games this afternoon and I have a lot to talk about, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. (Go Bears and Colts)

• United Joins US Airways in Mileage Cutoff – Following US Airways’ lead, United has reduced its mileage expiration date from 3 years to 18 months. In other words, if there is no activity in your account over 18 months, your miles are gone. Remember, even buying flowers counts as activity, so you don’t need to fly.
• Delta Kicks Off Jockeying for 2008 China Routes – The ink is barely dry on the award to United for 2007’s China routes but the competition for 2008 is now underway. Though 2007 was only for airlines already flying to China, 2008 is for anyone. That’s why it’s no surprise that Delta kicked off the competition with a bid for its first China service – Atlanta to Shanghai. Though it’s too early to handicap this race, I’d say Delta has a decent shot here. if they handle it right.
• Continental Heads to Athens – Ramping up for the summer season, Continental announced daily flights between Newark and Athens starting June 7. This is going to be an interesting year in Athens as US Airways also announced Philly – Athens service. I’ll be surprised if all these flights do well.
• Frontier Announces First Embraer Flights – You may remember that Frontier announced they’d be contracting with a regional airline to fly the new comfortable Embraer 170 jets to smaller cities from Denver. Well, soon after announcing Republic had won the bid, Frontier announced that the first flights will be from Denver to Louisville twice daily beginning April 1. This is all part of Frontier’s strategy to find places where they can avoid Southwest. Though Southwest does fly to Louisville, I’d be surprised to see a nonstop flight between the two cities.
• United Beefs Up Denver As Well – Just 30 minutes after Frontier’s release, United came out with their own Denver expansion. Flights to Dayton on United Express begin April 24, flights to Raleigh/Durham also begin that day, and Express flights to Kalispell (Montana) begin June 7.
• A New Way from the West Coast to Germany – Germany’s LTU will begin scheduled flights between both Los Angeles and Las Vegas and Dusseldorf in Germany. Flights begin May 3 and operate 5 times a week to LAX and twice a week to Las Vegas.
• Merger Mania Begins – People have been talking about industry consolidation for a long time, but it now looks like it’s actually happening. Well, sort of. Caribbean Star and LIAT are well on their way to merging in the Caribbean. All flights will be sold under the LIAT code. All the other action involves Northwest. The airline has agreed to buy Mesaba, one of its regional airlines which has been knocking on death’s door. Also, Pinnacle, a Northwest regional, will buy Colgan Air, a small turboprop operator, for $20 million.
• Odd PR Firm of the Year Award – I’m guessing most people don’t see China Southern’s press releases, but they really are a sight to be seen. The headline on the latest release is “BOFFO! BOFFO! BOFFO! China Southern Airlines Close to 50 Mill PAX Mark in ‘06.” I’m not sure what kind of press the three “Boffo” mentions are going to get them, but it certainly got them a place in this