Let’s try this again. It seems that our blog editor chose to eat my earlier post this evening. You guys know the drill. This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted.

This week we talk a lot about American Airlines. Again. We also talk about the craziness going on in Europe where it truly is “Let’s Make a Deal” season. Aer Lingus, British Airways, Etihad, Virgin Atlantic, bmi. It’s a mad, mad, mad world out there.

Airline stocks had a great week last week — and one stock in particular shone the brightest. That stock was Spirit Airlines. The airline announced killer traffic numbers last week and shares took off in the low fare carrier as a result.

JetBlue announced its CFO, Ed Barnes, had resigned, effective immediately, after the close of trading Tuesday. We never like to hear that a CFO has resigned, effective immediately. In addition, given the timing of the news, just one week before the airline announces third quarter earnings, you have to believe this was a board of directors decision.

The DOT reported its August Airline Consumer Travel Report last week. We dissect the numbers and let you know who had a good month and who didn’t. Hint: JetBlue had an awful month — the result of the August storms that raked the East Coast. But US Airways and Continental Airlines both saw their performances slip for the month as well.

Of course the big news this week is earnings. Hawaiian Airlines kicked off the third quarter earnings season Tuesday with better than expected numbers, and Wednesday, American Airlines will report its third quarter loss. As has been the case for more quarters than we can remember, American should be the only major U.S. airline to post a loss for the quarter.

Thursday we hear the profit news from Alaska Air Group and Southwest Airlines.

As always, we talk about all of this — and much more — in this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.