This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted!

This week I take you inside Delta Air Lines‘ rollout of their new T4 terminal at JFK in New York. What’s the best part of the airline’s new JFK experience? What’s not so good? How did the airline handle the actual roll-out from a PR perspective?

In addition, we tell you about a wonderful Delta Air Lines’ flight attendant we met on one of our flights last week — Jewel Van Valin. She gets passengers to create art at 35,000 feet. You can read more about her here.

This week I am very happy to announce a new contributing editor to PlaneBusiness Banter. Brett Snyder, who many of you know as CrankyFlier, joins us this week. Brett will provide contrarian analysis concerning routes, schedules, and networks, in addition to joining me in our joint fascination with the airline distribution wars.

This week? Brett explains why Phoenix could turn out to be a very important hub for the new American Airlines — contrary to what many people think is the case.

Good news on the fuel price front — more economic news from China indicates that the country’s economy continues to contract — not expand. This means lower demand for oil, which then means lower jet fuel prices. We are very happy about this.

In this week’s issue we also review the break-even load factors and operating margins for the 1Q13, now that all the carriers have reported their results. (Including Virgin America.)

All this and much more in this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter. 

Hello everyone. How is Wednesday treating you? It’s been pretty frenetic here at our Arizona version of the Worldwide Headquarters. This week we have a mega-earnings issue for you, as we take an in-depth look at the recent 1Q earnings announced by Delta Air Lines, United Continental Holdings, and Delta Air Lines. 

Both Delta and US Airways had very good 1Q results, but United …not so much. The grand experiment continues. And yes, to answer a number of notes from readers, remember that United’s recent RASM increases, which the airline has been touting,  are really due to two big factors — a sharp drop in capacity this spring at the airline and easier comps compared to the other players. In other words the good thing about running a really lousy operation — a year later your comps are very easy!

We heard more about the Pinnacle/Delta deal in Delta’s call. The more we hear, the more we like it. We think it could serve as a model for what a major airline/regional airline partnership should look like going forward.

But we’re talking about a lot more this week. First we talk about the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airline Symposium that was held last week in Phoenix. Then we discuss the US Airways Media Day, which was held in Scottsdale to an overflow crowd that included  American Airlines‘ employees,  US Airways’ management, union leaders from both airlines, and an overflow crowd of nosy journalists.

Yes, it was one hell of a busy week.

Subscribers can access this week’s issue here.

Hello everyone. It’s that time again. Yes, the magical mystery publishing date of PlaneBusiness Banter hit the “Monday” box this week.

This week we have a great issue — for one main reason.

We have a new PBB Lounge Lizard Transcript Interview! Yay! This week we sit down and chat with Laura Glading, President of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. Let me put it this way. Laura has a lot to say. And I had a lot of time.

Unfortunately because the American Airlines/US Airways merger is still not completed, and American is still in bankruptcy, I have to admit — there were some entertaining stories that, well, will just have to stay off the record for now. But someday….

We talk a lot this week about why airline stocks fell flat on their face last week. We also get some expert opinion on the situation from Jamie Baker and Mark Streeter with JP Morgan; Hunter Keay with Wolfe Trahan; and Glenn Engel with Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. 

I wonder when Bank of America will finally drop the “Merrill Lynch” moniker?

We update you on the Boeing 787 saga, we show you a picture of a happy CEO and his large mouth bass, we talk about the new 47 page opus the FAA just sent out to airlines — the particulars on the new schedule/duty hours changes the  airlines are supposed to make before Jan. 4, and we also have a couple of interesting letters to digest and consider.

All this, and much, much more in this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter. 

Hello everyone. The migration to the new server is pretty much completed. Still waiting on a few small things to be taken care of.

PlaneBusiness Banter will be posted later today — and no, this is not an April Fools’ joke. I don’t think.

Pardon our dust. We are migrating our main website and PlaneBuzz to a new server. This means that for a little while things are going to look weird, and probably not work 100%. (Since we are all in the airline industry we are all familiar with cutover projects.)

Bear with us. It will get better!

Hello everyone. Just wanted to post a note to let you know that yes, there will be an issue of PlaneBusiness Banter posted this week. We will publish later today. (Wednesday)

My excuse for our tardiness is the same as it was last week — 92-year old PlaneDad. (He’s not here, so he’s an easy mark.)

Thank you to all of you who have sent me emails and tweets. PlaneDad is doing just fine — as long as he does not try and walk on his own. He leaves the hospital today, after which he will be admitted to a skilled rehab facility.

Our PBB publishing schedule will be back to normal with next week’s issue.

Talk to you later!

I’m currently on an American Airlines Maddog somewhere over Utah… Colorado? New Mexico? Anyway, I am on my way back to the Metromess Furnace after two lovely cool days in and around Salt Lake.

Nothing exciting about any of that…. except that this is my first time flying on a wi-fi equipped aircraft.

Pretty cool… except that I think the 7.95 flight price is too high. $4.95 would be more palatable.

Unfortunately my adventure with an electronic boarding pass on the iPhone was not as successful. I accessed it fine for TSA. but when I got to the gate, the page kept coming up with a “system unavailable” message. Gate agent had to key me in manually.

As she said… “technology is great…. when it works.”

How ironic. I’m sitting on a US Airways flight, waiting to take off from CLT to DFW. News just out on the wire says that US Airways is no longer doing the merger mating dance with United Airlines. I’m sure there will be more news by the time I return to the PlaneBusiness Worldwide Headquarters. Behave yourselves in the meantime.