Expedia Drops American Airlines — Right After Orbitz Battle – BNET Headwinds
Expedia has now joined the fight against American, which seems ironic since it just gained an advantage after AA pulled out of Orbitz. This is much bigger than that, however.

Continental-United Merger: How the Airline Emboldened Its Pilots – BNET Headwinds
United lost its bid to put a Continental code on 70 seat jets in Continental hubs. That’s good news for pilots.

Southwest’s Muddled Attack on Change Fees May Backfire – BNET Headwinds
Southwest has released its new change fee ads, and the message isn’t nearly as clear as “Bags Fly Free.” In fact, this could backfire.

In the Trenches: Learning in the Aftermath – Intuit Small Business Blog
Now that the big winter storms during the holidays have passed, it’s time to revisit what worked and what didn’t. We do need to make some changes.

As Sabre Enters War Over Flight Bookings, American Has to Find New Strategies – BNET Headwinds
The distribution war that American started is reaching a boiling point, and now the question is whether American will be able to find a way to survive without the GDSes.

Sabre Makes the Wrong Choice By Removing American Airlines – BNET Headwinds
Now looking at it from the other side, Sabre is not making the right choice here.

Turkish Airlines Sponsorship Gets Kobe Bryant in Trouble – BNET Headwinds
Kobe is a global ambassador for Turkish Airlines now, but the Armenian community is up in arms.

United Airlines Examining How Wireless Internet Fits Into Its Future – BNET Headwinds
United has put satellite-based wifi on one of its airplanes. What exactly does this mean?

Yet Another Union Complaint Against Delta Generates More Noise – BNET Headwinds
Another day, another claim of interference by a scorned union. This time, there’s a little more substance involved, but it’s still clouded by a lot of noise.

American vs. Orbitz: How the Fight Could Change Travel Sales – BNET Headwinds
American has pulled out of Orbitz, and this is just the start of a brewing battle over travel distribution.

Why Airline Unions Keep Claiming Management “Interference” With Elections – BNET Headwinds
I dug deeper into airline labor election laws, and it now makes more sense why unions file interference claims so often. It can’t hurt.

In the Trenches: The Curse and Beauty of Facebook – Intuit Small Business Blog
Facebook is a great place to be for a business, but it’s also a pain in the neck.

Qantas A380: Airline Earns Black Eye for Poor Customer Response to Crisis – BNET Headwinds
The Qantas A380 problems continue, but this time it’s not the airplane that I’m talking about. It’s the customer response.

Executive guide: From delays to fold-out trays – sites that let you vent your spleen – Financial Times
Cranky got a great mention in the FT saying that my site is “the website of choice for business travellers focused on airports and airlines.”

Delta Flight Attendants Reject Unionization Following Northwest Merger – BNET Headwinds
Delta flight attendants have rejected unionization, and that’s a big deal.

Virgin America Finally Posts Its First Profit, But It’s No Surprise – BNET Headwinds
Congrats to Virgin America for posting its first profit but it’s not a surprise considering how good things are in the industry right now.

In the Trenches: Handling the Surge From Good Press – Intuit Small Business Blog
We had some great Cranky Concierge press in the LA Times recently, but that made me a little nervous.

Qantas A380: Rolls-Royce Faces Uncertain Future After Engine Failures – BNET Headwinds
Rolls-Royce may be an engine giant, but some high-profile problems lately leave the company on shakier ground.

Four Challenges to Virgin America’s Long Term Success – BNET Headwinds
Just because Virgin America is profitable now doesn’t mean it will be for long. Here are some major challenges.

AirTran Pilots Have a New Tentative Agreement, Thanks to Southwest – BNET Headwinds
AirTran pilots have an agreement, and it comes suspiciously close on the heels of the acquisition agreement by Southwest. Interesting, no?

Federal Air-Service Grant Program Sees Some Worthy Applicants in 2010 – BNET Headwinds
It’s SCASD week over on BNET and here I look at some of the best proposals from this year’s crop of small city grant applications.

The Worst Small Community Air Service Grant Applications For 2010 – BNET Headwinds
And now it’s time to look at some of the worst proposals.

Horizon Looks to Create Small Community Air Hub in San Jose – BNET Headwinds
One of the more interesting SCASD trends this year was Horizon’s support of a number of cities looking for flights to San Jose.

Great Falls Aims to Prove Airline Pricing Analysts Wrong – BNET Headwinds
Great Falls took the SCASD opportunity to propose offering rebates to customers to bring fares down.

Continental/United Merger: How Pilots Can Resolve Their Labor Standoff – BNET Headwinds
It’s all about the 90 to 110 seat jets. This should be a great framework to use.

Memo to Airlines: Looks Like You Can’t Cram Any More Butts Into Seats – BNET Headwinds
Load factors have started to level off as airlines have realized they can’t get much above where they are in terms of loads.

The iPad is the Greatest Thing in Inflight Entertainment (Or is It?) – BNET Headwinds
Some think the iPad is the new giant of inflight entertainment. I think it’s just the beginning of more and better options.

All Airports Want Low Fare Airlines — but Not All Can Keep Them – BNET Headwinds
Huntsville is failing at keeping its low fare airline, which proves once again that not everyone can support that kind of service.

The Battle of Ontario: How to Mismanage a Small but Really Expensive Airport – BNET Headwinds
Ontario Airport has put out a report and the findings aren’t pretty. There is a lot of cost-cutting that needs to happen.

How to Mismanage an Airport, Part II: High Overhead, Outrageous Salaries – BNET Headwinds
In part II, we look at specifics of Ontario’s bloat.