(Thanks, TB)
A little bit of online travel industry breaking news (I believe you heard it here first):
You may remember that American got into a bit of a pissing match with Kayak which led to them pulling their fares from the website. As with just about every other time this has happened over the past [...]

Norhtwest announced that it will drop nonstop flights between Hartford and Amsterdam for the usual economic reasons (they’re also dropping nonstops from Detroit to Dusseldorf and suspending Minneapolis-Paris for the winter).  I really only bring this up because one of the arguements for the Boeing 787 was that it would allow airlines to fly mid-haul [...]

Those following the Sun Country debacle will not be surprised to hear that Sun Country has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a tumultuous week in which its parent company’s offices were raided by the FBI.  Yesterday’s announcement that they may have to shut down by December 1st was made because companies now have [...]

(Via USA Today Blog)
A Northwest Airlines statement said that they will compete with Southwest “on price and service” when Southwest begins Minneapolis service next year.  Wait, so does that mean Northwest will eliminate all of their fees on flights to Chicago?  And is this the first time in 35 years that an airline says they [...]

In yet another sign that the end may be near for Midwest, Northwest Airlines wrote off its $213 million investment in the carrier - a move that suggests Midwest actually may be worthless at this point.  MIdwest also just announced declines in passenger traffic for July, a month when most airlines are seeing strong growth.  [...]

Northwest became the latest airline to introduce new fees:  Just as with other airlines, it’ll cost you $15 to check your first bag.  More annoyingly, they’ve introduced a “fuel-surcharge” for frequent flyer tickets (details here) - basically $25 for US flights, $50 for trans-Atlantic, and $100 for trans-Pacific.  Oh, and they’ve upped their telephone ticketing [...]

USA Today outlines the horrible situation Midwest finds itself in, including having the CEO say that they have about 30 days before they run out of cash.  Worse than the elimination of about half their jets is the request for workers to cut pay by up to 2/3 for pilots, with some $120,000-a-year pilots being [...]

Just a quick update on what all the airlines said today about shrinking their schedules:
- Virgin America will cut 10% of its capacity in the fall, but will not eliminate any planes or jobs.  Most cuts will come by reducing midweek frequencies.  Oddly enough, they’ll also be increasing their west coast flying and launching JFK-Las [...]

I know most of you don’t care about the relationships between airlines and their regional partners, but bear with me for about 3 sentences:  Delta told its regional partner Pinnacle that it will be canceling a 10-year agreement they have because Pinnacle’s on-time record isn’t meeting standards.  Pinnacle, in response, said that they told Delta [...]

I thought it might be useful/depressing to pass along a quick overview of the horrible/annoying/depressing things we’ve seen happen since the fuel hike:
Northwest/Delta merger (less service + higher fares = unhappy flyers in Minot)
American’s $15 first bag fee
Everyone else’s $25 second bag fee
US Airways removes snacks from domestic flights
American cuts domestic capacity 12% and decimates [...]