Hello everyone. Okay, it just took me more than an two hours to get my email box to a point where I could at least know how far behind I was. Heh. I have a friend who makes fun of me whenever I say I am going to try and not check email for days at a time. (He says that never happens.) But Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and most of Monday it was true, as I was caught up with the family activities here at the Worldwide Headquarters involving PlaneMom’s farewell flight.

And today, I have paid the price.

Maybe I should just shut down the computer and go do something else.

Nah….

So — first of all, there have been seven count them seven airlines, that reported earnings between the time PBB was in the editing process Thursday morning and today.

US Airways, Alaska, Frontier, Midwest, AirTran, Republic and Northwest.

Speaking of Northwest, the airline’s cancellations continued to spike over the weekend. More than 200 flights were canceled Sunday alone, 128 cancelled on Monday, 62 cancelled as of 1:30 p.m. CT.

Between Friday and Sunday more than 514 flights were canceled. 

No surprise that both sides — management at the airline and the airline’s pilots —  continue finger-pointing at the other for the increased cancelation figures.

Oh, and yes, Northwest reported a profit today. Without reorganizational items, and before taxes, the company earned $273 million compared $179 million in the second quarter of last year. Not counting the reorg items, the airline had been expected to post a profit of $0.79 a share. The airline came in just under that at $0.78.

In today’s earnings call, CEO Doug Steenland said “our operational performance in June and July has been unacceptable and we must restore NWA to its historical position as one of the most reliable airlines in the industry. Our immediate focus is to restore operational reliability.”

Meanwhile, as I said, the airline also explained that the cause of cancellations is from a combination of bad weather on the east coast and a spike in pilot absenteeism, but officials for NWA’s pilots union continue to argue that the carrier has too few pilots to fly the planes.