Hello there friends. It’s that time once again. Yes, that time when we here at the PlaneBusiness Worldwide Headquarters work our little pencils to a numb and our brains to a frazzle.

And poof — out comes the latest issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

This week we talk about June traffic and RASM estimates. After Continental’s miss right out of the box, all the rest of the usual suspects that report RASM estimates came in pretty darn well, including the airline sector’s top stock for the week — US Airways.

The DOT issued its May Airline Consumer Travel Report this last week and US Airways and Alaska both had great months. We pick the numbers apart more closely as we usually do. Oh and yes, cancellations were up. As for the number of flights that saw passengers on the ground for 3-plus hours — that would be five. Four were United Airlines’ flights that were diverted to Colorado Springs and one was a Delta Air Lines flight.

So, as we ask this week — when is the DOT going to send both airlines their itemized bills — per the new 3-hour tarmac rule?

We talk about the latest analyst tweaks. Remember– second quarter earnings are right around the corner.

Oh and of course we talk about Boeing and Airbus this week. Airbus just got dinged by the WTO, which ruled that yes, the company had received illegal subsidies. The case against Boeing was supposed to be ruled on by the WTO this month — but now that has been postponed to September.

Bad timing for Airbus, which is smack in the middle of the U.S. Air Force Refueling Tanker contract fight with Boeing.

Looks like the American Airlines/British Airways deal is finally, mercifully, going to get the European nod this week.

And oh, we have lots of mail this week. Including a very long letter to the editor concerning the concept of “job security” and some follow-up reader notes concerning our annual “Ode to a Hot Dog” column.

Oh and what about the Colgan Air pilot who was just busted for having one of the largest collections of child pornography ever seized?

No wonder Pinnacle wants to make the name “Colgan Air” go away.

It’s never boring around here.

Subscribers can access this week’s issue here.

For all of you who are not subscribers, shame on you.