San Francisco Targets LAX In Fight for Connecting Travelers – BNET
SFO wants Aussies and Kiwis to connect there instead of LAX. Hilarity ensues.

Real Estate Developer Rick Caruso Eyes Expansion Into Airports – BNET
The man behind The Grove development in LA is now eyeing airports to improve shops and dining.

using miles for wedding travel – AntiBride.com
If you’re having your wedding, it’s a great time to try and use miles.

FAA Slaps American with $787,500 Fine For Lax Maintenance – BNET
The FAA is trying to step things up when it comes to enforcement. That latest is an American fine.

Pittsburgh’s European Connection Will Cost the City $5 Million – BNET
Pittsburgh is paying through the nose to keep Delta’s struggling flight to Paris at the airport.

The Cranky Flier: Booking Beyond Price – Sparksheet
I guest posted on the Sparksheet about the difficulty of encouraging people to book beyond price. (Hint: distribution makes life hard)

When Denver International Airport asked me if I wanted to participate on a panel at the State of DIA annual luncheon, I thought it would be a lot of fun. Turns out, I was right, and I had the added bonus of meeting some readers, including frequent commenter Jason H. I’ll have the video posted when Denver puts it up for those who are interested, but for now, here’s the trip report.

I figured leaving home two hours before my flight would work, and it did but not by much. There was plenty of traffic, the parking shuttle was slow, and by the time I rolled up to Terminal 6 at LAX, it had been an hour and a half since I left. I can’t wait for Frontier to start that Denver flight from Long Beach.

A friend nominated me as Premier Associate on United (1K members can do that) so I thought I’d try it out. I went to the premium line and broke out my super cool mobile boarding pass. I walked right in and the security line was short.

Once through, I headed to the gate. An announcement was made that we would be boarding in 5 minutes. Then 5 minutes later, another announcement was made that they were still servicing the airplane so it would be another 10 minutes. That seemed strange since the plane had been at the gate for two hours. Sure enough, the same guy came on not a minute later and announced that it was time to board. Ok.

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March 17, 2010
United #814 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 1102a Arr Denver (DEN) 217p
LAX: Gate 75B, Runway 25R, Dept 2m Early
DEN: Gate B43, Runway 35L, Arr 18m Early
Aircraft: N549UA, Boeing 757-222, New White/Blue Colors, ~85% Full
Seat: 14A
Flight Time: 1h50m

I had forgotten that United had segmented boarding so much. First the super fancy cool fliers board, then the moderately cool fliers board. Then Economy Plus boards and so on. As a lowly Premier Associate, I boarded with the Economy Plus crowd. It was very cool just holding my phone up to the scanner for boarding. Look ma, no paper.

Boarding was creeping along very slowly, but when I finally reached the door I saw a flight attendant wearing green accessories for St Patrick’s Day. I figured she was in a good mood, but I was wrong. I looked at her and said “good morning” but she responded with a sarcastic “Here at United we board forward – aft, see how well that works?”

Um ok, I just kept walking. I took my seat and soon heard a stern announcement that every seat on this flight was full so you had to put your bags up in the bin or under your seat quickly. Too bad it wasn’t actually full. The monitor outside showed only a handful of people on the standby list and about 40 open seats. Sounds like she was just using her standard speech to combat the rising bag problems that have been plaguing airlines that charge for checked luggage.

We pushed back a couple minutes early and then rocketed out over the Pacific. There’s nothing like taking off in a 757. Once we were over the San Gabriel mountains, about 10 minutes into the flight, the flight attendants began their service.

They slowly made their way back and when they got to my row, they asked the guy on the aisle if he wanted a drink. He said no and then they just moved on. When I flagged the flight attendant down, she said she thought he had asked me if I wanted something. Weird. At that time, Channel 9 (where you can listen to cockpit communication) wasn’t on so I asked her if she would ask the captain. She said she would.

I never heard back from her and Channel 9 never came on so I have no clue if she even asked. Soon we were on our way in to Denver. It was incredibly smooth on approach, which in Denver terminology means there was *only* light turbulence. It was a quick taxi in and I was off quickly.

After a successful day on the panel at the State of DIA luncheon, I was ready to get out of town. It’s not that I didn’t like Denver but there was a storm coming. The partly cloudy skies and mid-60 degree temps were giving way to a lot of snow and a high of 30.

I walked into the airport and, with my mobile boarding pass in hand, headed straight to security. A TSA agent was standing there directing people to use a further line that had fewer people in it.

I went there and expected to have to flash my boarding pass at the elite line showing my premier associate status but the lineminder couldn’t have been less interested. He didn’t even look and just waved me on.

The next stop was the ID check. You’re probably wondering how the mobile boarding pass works there. Well, you just show them your ID and they have the same scanners that United has at the gate (at right). Once they see it’s valid and the name matches, they let you through. Seems much more secure than a regular paper boarding pass to me.

I made it through security in 5 minutes and hopped on the train. I saw there was a slightly delayed earlier flight so I tried to make it but the door was closed when I got there. My flight was going out of gate B47 and I was happy to find B45 empty with plenty of open seats facing the ramp.

I parked myself there and went through emails to pass the time. Soon, our plane pulled up, and man did it need a paint job. It was in the older colors but it was so faded that it made me cringe. The nosecone was painted in the old gray scheme as well but it was much brighter, giving a contrast that was far from flattering.

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March 18, 2010
United #753 Lv Denver (DEN) 431p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 559p
DEN: Gate B47, Runway 34L, Dept 2m Late
LAX: Gate 70A, Runway 24R, Arr On Time
Aircraft: N422UA, Airbus A320-232, Malevolent Skies Gray Colors, 100% Full
Seat: 7F
Flight Time: 2h7m

They boarded us up quickly and the flight attendants seemed to be in a better mood this time. I was bummed to see the old cloth interior on this A320. I’ve been hearing really good things about the new interior and I wanted to test it out. At least the plane was clean, though my seat kept reclining on its own and you had to basically punch the channel and volume controls to get them to work.

We took off to the north and before we even hit the Rockies, the seat belt sign was off. We went under, through, and eventually above some scenic high clouds with great views all around. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t. I got a glass of water and watched a rerun of The Office that I’d seen before.

When we first boarded, Channel 9 had been on and I was hearing communication between air traffic control and the airplanes, but it was shut off before we left. I asked the flight attendant if she would mind asking the captain if he would turn it on, and she quickly replied that he wouldn’t be doing that. Man, 0 for 2. That’s my favorite thing about United too. So, I just sat back and stared out the window, drifting in and out of an uncomfortable half-sleep.

The descent in to LAX was very hazy so it was hard to see much, but we put down and taxied across the airport back to our terminal. I headed to the parking lot so I could go fight my way home through rush hour traffic.

[More photos via Flickr]
[Video of Flying over the Rockies (~30 secs)]
[Video of Landing in Denver (~4 mins)]

Delta tries to land new JFK terminal – Crain’s New York Business
I talk to Crain’s about why Delta needs do something with its terminal at JFK.

Flying High: Southwest Airlines Posts Big February Gains – BNET
Southwest saw strong double digit revenue gains in February.

Flying Higher: United Airlines February Revenues Way Up – BNET
United beat Southwest’s numbers and showed that they’re really hitting their stride in the revenue game these days.

Fokker’s Back in the Airplane-Building Game – BNET
Those little Fokkers are looking to start building an updated version of the F70 and F100 planes that haven’t been built for more than a decade.

Massive Snow Means Less Airline Capacity in February – BNET
Feb traffic numbers are in, and what do they have in common? A lot fewer available seat miles.

Mexican’s Leading Low Fare Airline Now Owned by the Richest Man in the World – BNET
Carlos Slim is now the richest man, and he owns an airline, believe it or not.

For those who were hoping to see my CNN International piece on the looming BA strike, I’m sorry but it doesn’t seem to be online.

Attention Denverites – I know you’re out there. I’ll be heading to your town two weeks from today (March 18) to participate in a panel at the State of DIA (yes, that’s Denver International Airport) 2010. The program begins at noon, and you know you want to be there. Since you’ll be calling in sick with your St-Paddy’s Day related hangover anyway, stumble out of bed and come listen to us talk about the future of DIA. Sign up here. The full invite is below. I hope to see some of you there!

Long-time readers of the blog know that I’ve been following the development of Branson airport with interest. I even took a tour of the place back in 2008 when they were still building it out. Branson has actually done a decent job of attracting new service, but they’ve decided it’s not enough. If nobody else will do it, they’ll do it themselves. (And no JetBlue, I’m not singling you out in the pic – your name just sounds closest to Jobu, for those who get the reference.) I think this might work.

First let’s do a brief recap here. For those who don’t know, Branson sits in the southwest corner of Missouri, smack in the middle of the Ozark mountains. It’s a big regional destination for music and shows, but it’s never really become more than that. Until last May, the city was served only by the Springfield airport, about an hour north of town. Springfield is like many small towns in that it has limited service, mostly on regionals, to hub cities. It also has service from Allegiant, but that’s meant to take people out of town to hot spots, not bring them in. The people of Branson weren’t happy.

So some investors got together and decided to actually fund the building of an airport 15 minutes outside of town. The airport was literally built on a mountain. It’s a heck of an interesting site to see. But what’s most interesting is that they haven’t taken any public funding for the airport, so they have a lot more mobility. For example, they can offer exclusive access to an airline who comes in from a certain city.

They built this new airport for a small sum – seriously. It only cost $155 million to get it ready for service, and that includes razing the top of the mountain. When they built the airport, the hope was that they could attract low cost carriers from around the country to service the place for cheap. The goal was to expand the catchment area and make it easier to visit.

AirTran was the first to dive in with service to Atlanta. They added Milwaukee, but that failed. They now also have weekly service to Orlando. Sun Country also came in with service to Dallas and Minneapolis, but that’s not flying now. Branson Airport’s website says it’s coming back in the spring, but Sun Country doesn’t have it on their route map or in their schedules. Just recently, Frontier announced it will join the party from Denver starting in April.

Branson Airport, meanwhile, has been engaged with consultants galore to try to find ways to bring service in to town. Christmas in Branson is a big deal, so last holiday season, they chartered some airplanes from ExpressJet and flew a few roundtrips to Rockford and Shreveport. At the time, I thought it was a good idea, but I figured its utility was limited to peak seasons. Now, Branson Airport has stepped up to make this a full time deal.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Branson Air Express. To me, this seems like a similar idea to what we see with Direct Air out of Myrtle Beach. They need visitors and they don’t have enough air service, so they’re going to do it themselves. That’s what Branson is trying, apparently thanks to the advice of consulting firms Seabury Airline Planning Group and Contour Flight.

Branson will be chartering regional jets from ExpressJet to fly to Branson from Austin, Des Moines, Houston, Shreveport, and Terre Haute starting in May. So apparently that Shreveport service must have worked out pretty well last year, but the Rockford service? Guess not.

There’s no website with information, just a booking engine, so it’s hard to get full details. From my random June check, it looks like there’s no flying on Thursday and Sunday, for some odd reason. You’d think those would be big days for a weekend destination, but maybe ExpressJet couldn’t offer them the aircraft time on those days. Austin, Des Moines, and Houston will see service the other 5 days. Terre Haute and Shreveport will get flights Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.

So can they make money bringing people in from places like Austin and Terre Haute on a 50 seat jet? I suppose it depends on how they look at this. From a straight flight profitability standpoint, my guess is no. But these guys are looking beyond that. They can make money off people staying in hotels in Branson and signing up for vacation packages. They also have lower costs since they’ll effectively be paying landing fees to themselves. So looking at it holistically, it might just make sense.

At least, some of these might make sense. Terre Haute? That might be a stretch. But we’ll see. It’s an interesting concept. And for ExpressJet, it’s just more money in the bank.