The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and the United Airlines MEC (Master Executive Council) have created a website, GlennTilton.com, which calls for the removal of Glenn Tilton as United's CEO. The website said, "As professional pilots, we believe in accountability. Glenn Tilton, Chairman, CEO, and President of United Airlines, has failed all of us… costing shareholders, employees, and the travelling public billions of dollars."

Is Glenn Tilton to blame for United's troubles? The website says he is. "To Glenn and his staff, responsibility for United’s predicament belongs to everyone and everything other than themselves... Their excuses include high fuel prices, increasing costs of security, more competition, and stronger regulation, and they see themselves as victims of these uncontrollable factors. It just isn’t right, and it just isn’t true. These same factors influence every airline, and all the others are handling challenging conditions much better than United."

Or are the pilots just upset with management? Leave your opinion; please comment!

American Airlines, Iberia, and British Airways announced earlier today that they were forming a three-way alliance that would allow them to cooperate on flights between Europe and North America. Although the three airlines are already part of the oneworld alliance, the deal allows them to work more closely together and to cut costs. Not surprising, Virgin Atlantic's Richard Branson took a dim view of the deal, which he said would create a "monster monopoly".

The announcement comes at a time when other airlines are also seeking to link up: United, Continental, Air Canada and Lufthansa are working on a transatlantic alliance, similar to the AA/Iberia/BA one announced today.

A quick summary of orders at the Farnborough Airshow on July 16:

Boeing

• Malaysia Airlines ordered 35 737-800s.
• Aviation Capital Group ordered 15 more 737-700s.

Airbus

• Netherlands-based lessor AerCap launched the A320/A321 freighter, with an order for 30.
• Asiana Airlines ordered 30 A350 XWBs, with 10 options.
  

American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey said earlier today that the airline's fleet of Airbus A300s, which were due to be retired by the end of 2012, will instead be phased out by the end of 2009. Right now, the type is based at either JFK or Miami (there still is a significant AA A300 presence in San Juan, but this has declined as AA has started to downsize operations there slightly) and flies mainly on routes to and from the Caribbean. The A300 is also a pretty versatile aircraft - it's used on AA's Miami - Orlando route three times a day.

It's unclear as to what American will replace the A300 with, but they might not choose to replace it at all. Instead of going for higher capacity, AA might just choose to have higher fares for fewer seats.

The Farnborough 2008 Airshow, which runs from July 14 to 20, is the first major airshow to be held since the Paris Air Show last June. Boeing VP Randy Tinseth pointed out on his journal a few ways that the aviation world has changed since the Paris show:

• There have been 2,678 commercial airplane orders (Boeing and Airbus)
• Oil has gone from $67/bbl to $134/bbl
• Jet fuel has gone from $2.12/gal to $3.92/gal
• The U.S. dollar has gone from 0.75 euros/dollar to 0.64 euros/dollar, and from 123 yen/dollar to 107 yen/dollar
• The market has continued to liberalize with “open skies” between the EU and the U.S.
• And worldwide aviation traffic continues to grow

The economic situation that the airline industry's in has only gone downhill since last year, so some expect that, as a result, there will be fewer orders announced at this year's airshow. So here's a quick summary of the orders placed from days 1 and 2 (July 14 and 15). It should also be noted that Airbus tends to "save up" announcing orders until airshows, while Boeing tends to announce them on a more regular basis.

Boeing

• Dubai-based low-cost startup FlyDubai ordered 50 737-800s, worth $3.74 billion at list prices.
  
• Ethiad Airways ordered 35 787-9s and 10 777-300ERS, worth $9.4 billion.
• Nigerian airline Arik Air announced an order for seven more 737s.

Airbus

• Aeroflot ordered five A321s.
• Dubai-based Aircraft lessor DAE Capital ordered 30 A350-900s and 70 A320s.
  
• Aviation Capital Group ordered 23 A320 family aircraft.
• Tunisair ordered three A350-800s, three A330-200s and ten A320s.
• Qatar Airways ordered four A321s.
• Ethiad Airways ordered 20 A320s, 25 A350 XWBs and 10 A380s.
  
• Saudi Arabian Airlines ordered eight A330s.
  

Northwest Airlines announced yesterday that it would be laying off 2,500 employees in all groups of positions (pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, and other employees), but that it would first be looking for volunteers to leave the company. A variety of "voluntary programs including early-out programs, voluntary leaves, work rule modifications and attrition" will be offered, with the airline moving to furloughs as a last resort.

“Our fuel costs have more than doubled in the past year,” said Doug Steenland, President and CEO. “In order to manage through this unprecedented fuel challenge, we have to take action to both control costs and increase our revenue... These reductions are the direct result of our extraordinary fuel costs and the necessary actions we must take to right-size our airline and eliminate unprofitable flying." Last month, Northwest said that it would reduce its system capacity by 8.5%.

In additions, the airline is introducing a set of new fees: for travel in the US and Canada, it will charge $15 for the first checked bag, $25 for the second and $100 for three or more checked bags. Northwest also rolled out new fees for using frequent flier miles as well as ticket changes. Steenland said, “We expect these three incremental revenue enhancing measures to generate $250 million to $300 million a year, which will help ease the burden of these record high oil prices.”

For those of you in the US who have been wanting to fly on a Russian-built aircraft, here's a new opportunity: Vladivostok Avia has started seasonal twice-weekly service from Anchorage to Vladivostok, via Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky. The first flight, which arrived in Anchorage on Monday morning, was flown by a Tupolev TU-154, although the airline has said that the route will be flown with newer Tupolev TU-204 airplanes. The flights will be carried out until September 15, and if this summer's flights are a success, the airline might continue them next summer.

British Airways has announced that it will purchase Paris-based premium carrier L'Avion to add to its OpenSkies premium transatlantic subsidiary. The deal, which only set back BA $52 million in cash, will be completed this month, and OpenSkies will formally combine with L'Avion shortly thereafter.

In a statement, British Airways head Willie Walsh noted that "L'Avion is a successful airline that has built up a premium business in a relatively short period. It has many synergies with OpenSkies and buying it provides a larger schedule and an established customer base."

L'Avion flies Boeing 757-200 aircraft from Paris Orly to Newark, and is the last of the independent premium transatlantic airlines surviving - MAXjet, Silverjet, and EOS have all become victims of higher oil prices.

Even after merger talks between United and Continental fell through a few months ago, the two airlines are still interested in cooperating - yesterday, they announced plans to start codesharing and for Continental to join Star Alliance, of which United is a member. According to an email sent out to Mileage Plus members, United expects the deal to start sometime in 2009.

It remains to be seen what this means for US Airways, which has been a Star member for a few years now. It's possible that it could remain in Star, but having three US airlines in the same alliance could lead to some overlap.

Well, it was a bit of a surprise. After the linkup between Delta and Northwest a few weeks ago, many (myself included) expected to see continued industry consolidation. And a merger between United and Continental was seen as a likely one; rumors floating around pointed to an announcement as soon as this week. The merger would have created an airline that might rival Delta/Northwest in size, as well as international coverage (United's strong Asia presence would fit nicely with Continental's extensive European route network).

But last week, a little something occurred that made Continental think twice: United posted a $542 million loss for the first quarter of 2008. Even in the airline industry, a half billion dollar loss is pretty big, and it's a sign of an ailing airline. United's huge loss scared away Continental, which announced on Sunday night that it was abandoning merger talks with United.

The airline made the announcement in a letter to employees from CEO Larry Kellner and President Jeff Smisek. "We want you to know that our Board of Directors met today and has unanimously supported management’s recommendation that, in the current industry environment, the best course for Continental is to not merge with another airline at this time," it read... The Board very carefully considered all the risks and benefits of a merger with another airline, and determined that the risks of a merger at this time outweigh the potential rewards, as compared to Continental’s prospects on a standalone basis." The letter - which never identified United Airlines by name - went on to say that the airline will "continue to review potential alliances and our membership in SkyTeam. We are considering alternatives to SkyTeam as we carefully evaluate which major global alliance will be best for Continental over the long term."

Continental's decision is certainly a setback for United, which has been looking to merger for some time now. I don't think that the decision to not merge was arrived at easily, since there could have been some benefits from linking with United. But the folks over at Continental are betting that a merger with United, which is racking up heavy losses, could also drag them down as well. Even though Continental definitely wants a better Asian route network - and they could have obtained it through a merger with United - it might be able to get it another way. If United files for bankruptcy again, Continental might be able to grab the Asian routes by themselves, without having to deal with United's poor financial shape.

Continental has also reportedly been in talks about forming a three-way alliance with American Airlines and British Airways, although, from an anti-trust standpoint, this might be a bit difficult.

And as for United - well, this is certainly bad news. CEO Glenn Tilton tried to remain upbeat in a statement released Sunday night: "Our strategy is consistent. Consolidation is underway - ensuring you have the right partner is everything. We will pursue all options to ensure a strong, sustainable future for our airline and will not shy away from the tough choices necessary to create value for our shareholders and benefit our employees and customers." A United-US Airways merger might happen, but I don't know if it will do much good. Both airlines are still dealing with their respective trips to bankruptcy court, and I don't think that a merger between them will solve anything.

New York-based premium transatlantic carrier Eos Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday and operated its last flights earlier today. The airline flew Boeing 757-200s between New York-JFK and London's Stansted Airport, but had plans to expand to other destinations.

Eos' shutdown was not necessarily expected, but given the current state that the industry's in, it wasn't too surprising, either. MAXjet, another premium transatlantic carrier, stopped flying in December.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Austrian Airlines has painted an Airbus A320 (OE-LBP) in a "retro" colors. Austrian's first flight was on March 31, 1958, from Vienna to London (via Zurich) on a Vickers Viscount. Austrian is the latest European airline to commission such a livery - others, such as Lufthansa and SAS, have done so as well.

Even after a wave of airline bankruptcies has recently shaken the US airline industry, Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson said on Thursday that he is "extremely pleased" with the airline's performance and that it is "well ahead of budget". He was also predicted that "in three or four years time, it'll be flying to all the major American cities."

In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported today that British and American investors in the airline are planning to infuse approximately $100 million of new capital as the airline plans to expand. The money will certainly help Virgin America stay afloat amid high oil prices and a weak economy.

CEO David Cush has said that Virgin America is on track to become profitable by 2010, although the airline is currently losing money. He also said that the airline might be able to take advantage of some of the recent turmoil in the industry, which has caused other airlines to scale back service and reduce capacity in some markets, to gain a foothold in markets where it doesn't currently operate.

In January, Virgin America was able to sell 65% of its seats - significantly lower than the 80% industry standard. Cush has recently said that this figure has improved to just over 70% - still below average. Branson, however, stated that the low figure is not surprising, given that the airline started operations eight months ago.

Denver-based Frontier Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier today, citing a move made by its credit card processor, First Data Corporation, which has started withholding a larger percentage of proceeds from ticket sales.

"To be clear, we filed for very different reasons than those of other recent carriers, and our customers and employees can be confident that we intend to keep on flying and providing outstanding service and products," said Sean Menke, Frontier president and CEO. "Given the recent progress we have made towards strengthening our balance sheet and obtining additional financing, it is truly unfortunate that we have had to take this action."

Frontier's bankruptcy filing stems from what are known in the industry as "holdbacks". A bank that processes an airline's credit card purchases holds onto a certain percentage of the proceeds until the passenger actually flies. As of now, that percentage for Frontier is locked at 45%. But First Data was going to increase that to 50% immediately and to 100% by May 1. By filing for bankruptcy, Frontier can avoid the increase.

Frontier isn't in dire straits like Aloha and Skybus were, but right now, a lot depends on public opinion. Travelers have been hearing about a lot of airline bankruptcies recently, and even if Frontier isn't on the brink of collapse, a bankruptcy filing might scare away customers.

Only a few weeks after canceling hundreds of flights, American Airlines today canceled over 900 flights, affecting an estimated 100,000 travelers. The airline also canceled 460 flights on Tuesday and nearly 1,100 yesterday. The cancellations, which affected American's 300 MD-80s, are in response to an FAA directive involving the covers of wire bundles for the MD-80's fuel pump.

The problem was first identified back in 2006, and if American had taken steps to solve the problem immediately, the current problem would have been averted. But instead, the airline is being hit with this crisis at a time when fuel prices and a weak economy are affecting airlines in general. Because the cancellations are their fault, American is responsible for handing out $500 travel vouchers and hotel rooms for travelers - not to mention paying overtime for mechanics. And, perhaps even more significant, is future business that will be lost.

CEO Gerard Arpey apologized: "We have obviously failed to complete the airworthiness directive to the precise standards that the FAA requires, and I take full responsibility for that," he said. But it's little consolation to the travelers affected.

It's official: the long-anticipated merger of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines has finally been announced. The combined carrier - already billed as "America's premier global airline", will be known as Delta and will be based in Atlanta. Delta CEO Richard Anderson would head up the new airline.

A press release by the airline touted the benefits of the merger; it "creates a company with a more resilient business model that is better able to withstand volatile fuel prices than either can on a standalone basis." The release went on to say that "the merged airline will maintain all hubs at Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK, Salt Lake City, Amsterdam and Tokyo-Narita... Delta customers will benefit from Northwest’s extensive service to Asian markets and Northwest’s customers will have access to Delta’s strengths across the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa."

Of course, the merger still needs to clear regulatory hurdles, and there's always the issue of the pilots at both airlines, which haven't yet agreed on seniority. But if the merger goes off successfully, it will create the world's largest airline. Also, keep a look out for a United-Continental merger, which has been rumored to occur if a Delta-Northwest merger was announced - it could be announced very soon. (Although United has favored a merger for some time, Continental has said it would consider it only if a Delta-Northwest deal went through.) More details of the Delta-Northwest deal will be revealed tomorrow at a press conference featuring both CEOs in New York, but until then, check out the website that Delta set up about the merger.

I've also posted below the internal memo sent out to employees today at Delta, which sheds a bit more light on the merger process (click on the images to view them at full size):

Skybus, the Columbus, Ohio-based no-frills carrier that famously started flying last May with $10 fares, announced on Friday that it will stop flying on Saturday, April 5. It becomes the fourth US carrier in less than a week to shut down (joining Aloha, Champion Air, and ATA). The news only broke late on Friday night, surprising both customers and employees.

"Skybus struggled to overcome the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment," the airline said in a statement. "These two issues proved to be insurmountable for a new carrier. We deeply regret the impact this decision will have on our employees and their families, customers, vendors, suppliers, airport officials and others in the cities in which we have operated. Our financial condition is such that our Board of Directors felt it had no choice but to cease operations."

Why did Skybus fail? It's a question that will probably be debated for some time to come. Obviously, fuel costs and the state of the US economy are two major factors, but they've impacted every airline, not just Skybus. Here are a few Skybus-specific thoughts:

• Skybus did fly from secondary cities that, in many cases, were too far from the "major" cities that they were trying to market to. For example, what was listed as Hartford, CT on their website was really Chicopee, MA. In some cases, this was OK, but because there aren't many ground transportation options between these city pairs that Skybus chose, it was sometimes difficult and expensive to get to their destination city.
• Skybus also flew cross-country routes with a rather small fleet of Airbus A319s (it had only 12 planes at the time of shutdown), which meant that its airplanes weren't flying as many hours a day as they could have. Skybus' small fleet also left it vulnerable to losing money on under performing routes.
  
• Skybus didn't offer the option for connecting flights, meaning that they really limited themselves to those who were just flying between two cities that the airline served directly.
  
• Rapid growth. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, Skybus did expand too quickly. It often would start out a new route and soon abandon it if it didn't make money, and while this can work, Skybus' small fleet meant that a significant proportion of its airplanes were on money-losing routes.
• Little customer service, in my opinion. Skybus didn't even have a toll-free number for passengers to call if something went wrong with their travel plans. And although the airline tried to get passengers to purchase food and drinks on board the plane (none were provided for free), its attempts to get passengers to dispose of the food and drink they already had always seemed unusual.
  

Regardless of the reasons, the failure of Skybus (and the other airlines that have closed in the past week) are indicative of the tough times that the US airline industry faces - we're likely to see more tough times ahead and, sadly, more airline shutdowns, in the coming months.

ATA Airlines announced today that after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it has "discontinued all operations and cancelled all current and future flights". "Following the loss of a key contract for our military charter business, it became impossible for ATA to continue operations," the airline said in a statement. "Unfortunately, we were not in a position to provide our customers or others with advance notice."

When it shut down, ATA operated 29 airplanes (Boeing 737-800s, Boeing 757-200s and -300s, DC-10s and L-1011s) and carrried about 10,000 passengers per day. The airline's 2,230 employees will be laid off.

The statement made by the airline said that "a primary factor leading to these actions was the unexpected cancellation of a key contract for ATA’s military charter business, which made it impossible for ATA to obtain additional capital to sustain its operations or restructure the business." ATA's chief operating officer also attributed ATA's shutdown to "the tremendous spike in the price of jet fuel in recent months".

The airline was founded as American Trans Air in 1973 and changed its name to ATA in 2003. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy once before in 2004, and emerged in 2006.

ATA was founded in 1973 and recent=

As an Open Skies agreement between the United States and Australia takes effect, Richard Branson's newest addition to the Virgin fleet was announced earlier this week. V Australia, a division of Australian carrier Virgin Blue, will fly from Sydney to Los Angeles starting in December, competing with Qantas and United (which are the two airlines that currently fly the route). Branson said that "there is going to be very fierce competition, as there is with Virgin Blue and Qantas in Australia, and fares will definitely drop quite dramatically across this route... Our philosophy is never to go out with an empty seat."

Fares are relatively cheap - V Australia's return economy seats start at $1899. A special promotional round-trip fare of $777 for the first 1000 US passengers to book sold out quickly. In terms of aircraft, V Australia will start out with a single Boeing 777-300ER (it has ordered 6 total). Right now, Los Angeles is the only concrete destination, but the airline has also been interested in flying to Japan. It has also applied to the US Department of Transportation for approval to operate from Sydney to San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, and New York.

Minneapolis-based charter carrier Champion Air has announced that it will end operations on May 31, after 11 years of flying. “This is a sad day for the entire Champion family,” said Champion President and CEO Lee Steele. He went on to say that Champion's "business model is no longer viable in a world of $110 oil, a struggling economy and rapidly changing demand for our services" and that "the management team and our board of directors have decided that the best course of action is to cease flying and to wind up our operations in a responsible, deliberate manner.”

Steele said that the airline was experiencing a "perfect storm" from a slow economy and the current state of credit markets, which had a "negative impact" on the airline's attempts to attract investors.

Champion's end marks not only the end of the airline but also for Boeing 727 passenger service in the US (Champion operates a fleet of 16 Boeing 727-200s). This announcement comes just days after Aloha Airlines' surprise shutdown, which also meant that another 'old-style' airplane, the Boeing 737-200, left US scheduled passenger service.

Only days after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (for the second time in as many years), Hawaiian carrier Aloha Airlines announced that it will terminate all passenger service effective today. The airline has been fighting a three-way price war with Hawaiian Airlines and startup go!, which is owned by Mesa Air Group.

"This is an incredibly dark day for Hawaii,”" said David A. Banmiller, CEO of Aloha. "“Despite the groundswell of support from the community and our elected officials, we simply ran out of time to find a qualified buyer or secure continued financing for our passenger business. We had no choice but to take this action." In a statement released by the airline, Aloha said that it "deeply regret[s] the impact this will have on our dedicated employees who have made Aloha one of the best operating airlines in the country... unfortunately, unfair competition has succeeded in driving us out of business, bringing to an end a 61-year-old company with a proud legacy of serving millions of travelers in the true spirit of Aloha."

Hawaiian Airlines met with Aloha early yesterday to try to work out a deal to save Aloha. The deal was viewed by Aloha executives as a "last resort", and would have involved Hawaiian keeping the Aloha name alive and operating inter-island and possibly a few inter-island routes. But the deal fell through after Hawaiian was willing to put up only about $5 million in cash (in comparison, Aloha was losing $5 million a month). This is indeed sad news for aircraft enthusiasts, too - Aloha was the last scheduled operator of the Boeing 737-200, and one of these airplanes was painted in a retro livery a few years ago.

This morning I reported on how several U.S. airlines that operate the MD-80 had to perform additional checks on wiring covers. A few hours later, I received a comment on that blog post that was rather entertaining. (Here are a few excerpts - for the entire comment in all of its gloriousness, click here.)

To: NATIONS OF THE WORLD – GOVERNMENTS, EMBASSIES, AND PRESS (Please See The Distribution List Below). DEFECTIVE AIRPLANES AND PARTS POTENTIALLY ABOUT TO FLOOD THE MARKET
Dear Your Excellencies, And Other Honorable World Citizens:
I am a lawyer in New York, an American citizen, and a man who greatly values the sanctity of human life.
Airline companies within the United States may be about to seek to “dump” defective aircraft upon, and/or sell harmful cannibalized aircraft parts to, businesses and citizens within your respective many countries...
To the extent that you may not already be aware of the current aviation safety crisis occurring now in America that has caused this clear-and-present threat, please inform your countrymen and countrywomen of this potentially-imminent and hazardous occurrence. Please ask your country’s officials, private firms, and citizens, to be vigilantly on the look-out for offers to buy these defective airplanes or parts. It is important you ensure that your friends and neighbors do not buy these items. The safety and lives of your fellow citizens may depend upon it...
...The fleets of a number of United States commercial airlines are deteriorating. Our federal government in the U.S. has finally caught up to the decay. We in America are now effectively in the painful process of outlawing these aged, dangerous planes – and holding civilly and criminally accountable those malicious individuals that would continue to sanction their use, regardless. This threat to us is from within. The airline companies’ next move will be to try to jettison the bad planes for profit.

My first thought was that this was a Nigerian spam comment, or something of the sort. It turns out that although it wasn't a spam letter, it had just about the same amount of factual value. The safety checks that have been carried out throughout the past month have more to do with making sure that paperwork is up-to-date, rather than having "dangerous airplanes". The US is home to some of the safest airlines in the world. There is no "current aviation safety crisis" in this country, as the author of the comment writes. As far as I know, none of the airlines are looking to "“dump” defective aircraft" - they're merely making sure that the planes get another look-over. And besides, even if they were, would you likely need to "ensure that your friends and neighbors do not buy these items"? I don't know about you, but I'm not shopping around for "defective aircraft" or "harmful cannibalized aircraft parts".

By the way, who wrote that comment? A click of the author's Blogger profile reveals that he is none other than John J. Tormey III, Esq. A quick Google search turns up the fact that he is involved with the "Quiet Rockland" project, which appears to be concerned with aircraft noise. What airplane noise and "defective aircraft" have in common is not immediately apparent. Tormey also writes a blog entitled "THE END OF SOUTHWEST AIRLINES" in which he writes vitriolic blog posts. These have titles like "THANK YOU FOR FLYING AIR KEVORKIAN a/k/a SOUTHWEST AIRLINES - YOU ARE NOW FREE TO SPRINKLE YOURSELF ABOUT THE COUNTRY" and "Thank You For Flying Air Kevorkian - I Mean, Southwest". In a blog post entitled "NO LUV LOST," he quotes himself as saying that "the persons that should be flying Southwest at this point, should be only those referred by Doctor Kevorkian."

I'm saving Mr. Tormey's comment and writing about it because I think it's rather hilarious. I don't think he realizes that Southwest Airlines has never had a fatal accident due to "defective airplanes".

American Airlines yesterday announced that it was canceling 300 flights on Wednesday in order to inspect wiring covers in its 300-strong MD-80 fleet, with an American spokesperson calling the move an "abundance of caution" by the airline. Later in the day, Delta also said that it would voluntarily reinspect 117 of its MD-88s as well as 16 MD-90s. Delta said that as of last night, it had not found any problems, but the airline was nonetheless forced to cancel about 325 flights yesterday, with a few more following today.

Other airlines flying the MD-80 also reviewed their fleets as well: Allegiant Air said that it reviewed its 35 MD-80s without needed to cancel flights; a spokesperson for Alaska Airlines said that its 10-strong fleet of MD-80s operated "normally".

The checks come at a time when airlines are scrambling to comply with FAA audits and safety directives. Earlier in the month, the agency fined Southwest Airlines $10.2 million for flying 46 of its Boeing 737s without proper safety checks. American Eagle grounded 25 CRJs last week in order to double-check inspection papers on the hydraulic systems and rudders.

Japan's All Nippon Airways, which has been experiencing increased pressure in recent years from growing low-cost carriers in Asia, has announced plans to launch a budget airline of its own. ANA is considering a joint venture with another Asian airline, and the new carrier could be flying as early as March 2009. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the airline would probably be based in another country in Asia - Japan is noted for higher labor and operating costs.

The planned startup also comes at a time when ANA faces increased competition at its hub at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, which is due for expansion in 2010. A spokesperson for ANA said that the budget airline wouldn't fly under the ANA name.