July Premium Traffic Shows Gains – BNET
It’s premium traffic monitor time again, and traffic is still in the tank. But it’s not quite as bad, so that’s good.

Delta’s SkyClub Promotion Slightly Misses the Mark – BNET
Delta offered club access to some elite members for a day. Good idea, not great execution.

Guest Posts From My Favourite Bloggers : Brett Snyder – The Cranky Flier – Flying with Fish blog
I wrote a guest post for Fish about the recently announced V Australia/Emirates codeshare.

US Airways and Delta Raise More Money – BNET
Airlines are raising money left and right these days. Might as well do it while they can.

United Goes Back Into Mini-Expansion Mode Domestically – BNET
Don’t look now, but United has started adding new flights and new cities once again. That’s always encouraging, though I do wonder about some of these.

Virgin America’s Improved Second Quarter Performance Details – BNET
Now that the government data is out, we can take a look at Virgin America’s performance in greater detail. Not too bad, but there’s still work to do.

You know all those low fares we’ve seen on US to Australia routes lately? That’s because with two new entrants, there’s way too much capacity out there and everyone involved is bleeding as they fight for traffic. Now, those two new entrants, Delta and V Australia/Virgin Blue have decided to get together a form a joint venture. Smart move.

I actually touched on this possibility when I interviewed Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey in February. When talking about Delta, he alluded to this . . .

You might say, well, does Delta want to put their traffic on Qantas in Australia? A lot of the market flies beyond Sydney, so maybe that’s an opportunity for us to say, well, quid pro quo . . . . There’s some opportunity there. No discussions held in that regard . . . but that’s an opportunity.

And here we are five months later with a deal in hand. This partnership will have frequent flier reciprocity, codesharing, and it will ask for antitrust immunity so they can discuss routes and fares. This seems like it should be an easy one for the DOT to approve, because up until this year, only 2 airlines flew the route. If this doesn’t get approved, my bet is that Delta’s days to Sydney are numbered, so there is a clear benefit to consumers to approving this deal.

It also allows Delta to feed people into Los Angeles from around the US and Virgin Blue to feed people into Sydney (and other gateways) from around Australia. I would hope that we’ll see some serious frequency cuts in order to try to get back to a more normal level of capacity on the route.

I was emailing with Dan Webb over at Things in the Sky last night about this, and he was very interested in what this means for Virgin America. This type of joint venture certainly diminishes Virgin America’s importance to V Australia. If it weren’t for space constraints, I wonder if V Australia would even rather move over to Delta’s terminal at LAX and leave Virgin America behind.

This also raises the question about what happens to the Virgin Blue/United partnership. Right now, Virgin Blue shares United’s code on flights beyond Sydney in Australia. I can’t imagine Virgin Blue would cancel this deal, but I wonder how United will feel about it. They may very well need the traffic, so it’s possible it could stay, but that would make for an odd arrangement.

I also find myself wondering if eventually Air France could join this agreement with its LAX to Tahiti flight. Virgin Blue subsidiary Pacific Blue doesn’t fly to Tahiti yet, but this could be another interesting twist.

I like this move. It should help to stabilize the routes between the US and Australia, though it should mean fares will rise for consumers. Considering that fares are too low to be sustainable right now, that’s a good thing.

The long awaited day is here. Virgin America and V Australia have finally entered into an interline agreement. It’s a fairly limited set-up right now thanks to technical limitations, but eventually it will become a full-fledged interline and codeshare agreement.

So what do I mean when I say it’s fairly limited? Well, as of now, it can only be booked via V Australia’s call center or a travel agent. Starting June 8, you can also book on on the V Australia website. But nothing can be handled from the Virgin America side of the house.

There is also no frequent flier reciprocity at this point. You can only earn frequent flier points in the program of the operating carrier. That means Velocity points for the Transpacific flight and eleVAte points for the domestic US run.

So why is this so limited? It’s the same thing that prevented this whole thing from getting off the ground until now . . . technical issues on Virgin America’s side. According to Virgin America spokesperson Abby Lunardini, Virgin America and V Australia are “working towards reciprocal interline and codesharing agreements ultimately. We hope to have that functionality in our VX systems sometime in 2010.” The timeline is similar for reciprocal frequent flier earning, though that should be in early 2010.

Until then, at least you’ll be able to transfer your bags directly.

Should Continental Continue to Host Events for Its Best Fliers?
Continental just finished up its annual FlyerTalk event. It’s not cheap, but should they continue to spend this money on their best customers?

V Australia’s Decision on Which Business Class Seat to Use
You would have thought that V Australia would choose the seat Virgin Atlantic pioneered, but they didn’t, and there had to be good reason.

US Airways’ Strong December On-Time Performance
December was a miserable month for just about everyone thanks to awful weather, but US Airways ended up outperforming.

AirTran Adds Flights in Milwaukee
Midwest keeps shrinking but AirTran is jumping in to pick up the slack. The airline announced a slew of new flights.

LAX and United Agree to Free Up Gates
United and LAX have finally settled their long running dispute over gates and more. This can only improve things for passengers at the airport.

Finding Good Usage Numbers for Onboard Wireless Internet
Airlines are cautiously rolling out tests of onboard wireless, but when will we see reliable usage numbers so they can make decisions? Soon.

Is Southwest’s SI Swimsuit Model Airplane Backfiring?
If you see a half-naked woman on a Southwest airplane, it’s not an illusion. It’s an SI swimsuit model, but was it a good idea?

Virgin America Should Be Considered “American” for Now
Alaska is questioning Virgin America’s “American-ness” but I find myself defending the airline. This is just an attempt to push them out of business.