PlaneBuzz

Good morning from the Louis Armstrong International Airport. Yes, for you without GPS capability, that means I'm in New Orleans. I'm leaving this morning for Dallas, where I will attend the Southwest Airlines' Media event Tuesday and Wednesday.

I'm sitting here looking out the window at the US Airways Piedmont retro livery. What a cool airplane. Then again I'm a sucker for most any retro paint job.

Actually, I'm looking at the Piedmont livery in-between reading about the meltdown in the financial markets, both here and overseas.

All jokes aside (re: the Origami Bank folded overnight) it's not good out there folks. As the ex-CEO of Salomon Brothers, John Gutfreund, said this morning on CNBC, the problem is -- nobody knows what the hell is going on or how bad things really are. Either here or in Europe. Much less Asia.

My personal take is that John is exactly right.

The FDIC announced a deal this morning between Citi and Wachovia. I was not able to hear just what Citi is taking over and what it is not. But it sounds very similar to the WaMu deal last week.

While they are both being cloaked as having been "absorbed" or "taken over" by other banks -- the truth is that both banks failed. Period.

And I doubt they are going to be the last.

Meanwhile on the other side of the pond, Belgian-Dutch banking and insurance group Fortis was propped up as the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg took a 49% interest in the financial, banking and insurance group, in return for an injection of $16.4 billion.

But that's not all.

The U.K. Treasury said Monday it took control of Bradford and Bingley and will transfer the midsized mortgage lender's retail deposits business and branch network to Abbey National. B&B is a major provider of mortgages in the U.K.

Meanwhile back on this side of the pond, the Federal Reserve announced a massive injection of liquidity -- a deal that involves the central banks of a number of European countries

I'm not sure I want to see what's going on when I get off the plane at Love Field.

Hang in there folks. It's going to be a very rough day on Wall Street.

Posted by Holly at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oops.

Shame on me.

I forgot to post the note here about PBB being posted earlier this evening. Okay, make me eat bad fish. Or something. I was distracted watching the Dallas Cowboys lose to the Redskins.

Subscribers to PlaneBusiness Banter can access this week's issue here.

Posted by Holly at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A reader just sent me this news update. It seems that the credit crunch is now hitting Japan fairly hard.

"The Origami Bank has folded and the Sumo Bank has gone belly up.

The Ninja Bank has taken a hit, but is still in the black.

The Kamikaze Bank shares have nose-dived, and 500 staff at the Karate Bank have got the chop. The Karaoke Bank has been put up for sale and is going for a song!

The Bonsai Bank has to trim some branches, while there is something fishy going on at the Sushi Bank. Staff there are expected to get a raw deal."

Hey, if we don't keep our sense of humor, what are we going to have left? Right?

Posted by Holly at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we learn that Paul Newman -- the man with the sexiest, most unnerving blue eyes in the world -- not to mention one of the handsomest sidekicks on horseback, is dead.

Newman apparently died Friday at this Connecticut home surrounded by family and friends. He had reportedly battled cancer for some time.

I think I may have to hit NetFlix today and order up a copy of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." "The Sting" too. Maybe even "The Verdict."

A PBB tip of the wing to Paul -- one of the kindest, most generous, irreverent, intelligent, down-to-earth, and talented humans to have ever graced us with his presence.

Posted by Holly at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back at the WHQ today. More from me later today. But first -- as they say in TV land -- an update on something I wrote earlier this week in regard to US Airways. In my post the other day about how quiet the flights were -- sans the usual drink service -- I alluded to the fact that perhaps the airline was also saving some money in terms of not having to provision as many soft drinks, etc. on board.

The airline continues to stock just as much, in terms of provisions, as it did before. I heard this first from one of the flight attendants on my flight yesterday and a quick check with the folks in Tempe today confirmed that yes, this was the case.

So the airline is not really saving any money, in terms of any weight issues onboard. And no -- there is no danger of passengers being without ample refreshment should a long delay occur.

Where the airline is saving money is in the fact that fewer people are drinking soft drinks, which, obviously, means that in the big scheme of things the bill from Coca-Cola or whomever is lower than it would be normally.

Then there is the actual revenue the airline is making from charging for drinks.

Another point -- several readers wrote me the last two days and asked more or less the same question. "Does this mean I think all airlines should do this? Have I lost my mind?" Or words to that effect.

No.

As I said in my speech at TheBeat Live Conference on Tuesday, we are in the middle of an extremely creative time for the airlines right now. The question is -- given an airline's brand and the level of service it wants to provide -- against its current revenue and cost structure -- what is an airline going to do in terms of ancillary revenues?

In the case of US Airways -- the airline has continued to push to be more of a low cost carrier since America West merged with US Airways. In effect the airline really has no definable "brand" right now. So for them, I don't think it is that big of a problem.

But -- would I recommend that Continental Airlines do it? No. Never. It would be a total 180 degree turn to the airline's continued attempt to stress a particular level of passenger service.

And I doubt Continental Airlines will do it. They may do some other things. But they are not going to charge for Cokes.

Just how to tweak an existing airline brand right now is a huge question -- given the revenue and cost scenarios. But I don't see this as a negative. I see it as a very opportunistic time for the industry. Or at least for those who are willing to break the old mold of "well if airline A is doing it, we must all have to do it."

I just don't think that holds anymore. Some things are going to work well for some airlines. But they are not going to work for all airlines in the same manner. Yes -- those "marketing" people at airlines may just have to start earning their stripes. Instead of simply thinking about what routes to add next week.

Posted by Holly at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Getting ready to make my way back to the WHQ today so just a quick note.

I see that late on Monday the Air Transport Association issued a press release in which President James May exclaimed, "The market's extreme volatility suggests that speculators, who withdrew tens of billions of dollars from the commodities markets when Congress threatened to tighten oversight of excessive and harmful speculation, breathed a sigh of relief last week when action in the Senate seemed unlikely and returned to the energy markets in full force. Well, speculators are back and prices are up."

Not hardly Jim.

Oil futures contracts for October expired on Monday. The price climbed on Monday because those who had taken short positions had to cover their rears. This was made clear yesterday when the price went back down -- ending at $107 and change.

Putting out press releases in which it is clear you don't know what you are talking about doesn't help build confidence in your credibility. I'd suggest the ATA consult with a professional next time before spouting out nonsense.

Posted by Holly at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One last datapoint before yours truly hits the sack.

For you history buffs out there, you need to mark down this date in history. Because today the price of oil gained more than $16 a barrel. This was the biggest one-day gain in dollar terms since 1984 -- when crude futures began trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Crude for October delivery rose $16.37, or 15.7%, to close at $120.92 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

MarketWatch reports that the gain surpassed the previous price-gain record of $10.75, registered on June 6 of this year. The highest percentage rise in a single day was seen on Jan.3, 1994, at 20.9%, according to FactSet.

So how did jet fuel fare today? NY Harbor Jet was up 17 cents to 3.34/gallon while Gulf Coast was up 7 cents to 3.35 gallon.

Posted by Holly at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

C'mon. Admit it. Don't you love these ads that Nike puts on the sides of buildings in NBA cities? Great shot. Great ad.

Posted by Holly at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I will be the first one to tell you that when US Airways announced it was going to start charging for soft drinks I was not a big fan.

No, it was worse than that. I thought they had lost their minds.

What self-respecting marketing-blooded human being (like myself) would agree that this was a smart move for the airline? Much less -- for their passengers?

Then last week US Airways President Scott Kirby made headlines (which we noted in PlaneBusiness Banter this week) for telling the folks at the Calyon Securities Airline Investor Conference that hey -- the change was proving to be a good deal for US Airways. And its passengers. The cabins were quieter, there was less trash to worry about, and the lines were shorter for the lavs. And yes, the airline was, net/net, improving the numbers on the bottom line, which is what we had suspected was going to be the case.

Some folks had thought the airline would need to sell a lot of drinks to make the move a smart one. No, not necessarily. If the airline sells fewer cans of Coke, they will save money in terms of weight and in terms of the number of soft drinks they have to pay for and stock onboard.

When I read Scott's comments from last week, I laughed. Knowing Scott -- I had to give him a gold star for what I thought was an attempt to make a positive statement about what was obviously a "deterioration" in passenger service.

Okay, I eat my bad thoughts. And I also admit that I am as shocked as anyone.

I flew two segments today on US Airways as I traveled from New Orleans to Cleveland. Tomorrow I will present the luncheon keynote speech for The Beat Live Conference.

And you know what?

The flights were more enjoyable. They are quieter, less stressful (where's the cart, when is the drink coming, put down the tray, put up the tray, can I get past the cart to get to the bathroom) and yep, the lines are not as long outside the lavs.

Now -- one caveat.

The flight out of MSY was held for an hour by ATC because of delays in Philly. That meant that folks in coach were sitting an awfully long time and were going to be sitting even longer without anything to drink -- unless they purchased it.

So about 3/4s of the way through the hold, as we sat on the taxiway at MSY, the flight attendants began to distribute water to those passengers who wanted some in coach. Nice touch, and it was done well.

And that is where -- going forward -- I could see some potential problems. If, say, an aircraft was forced to sit for a long time somewhere with no food and a limited supply of beverages onboard.

But other than that -- yeah, I was as shocked as anyone. But I'm telling you -- it was different. And good different.

Oddly enough I wrote this week in PBB about the big revenue gamble that Southwest Airlines has taken by advertising the hell out of their "full service, no fee" strategy. They really have dug a huge hole for themselves now -- both in terms of putting themselves out there as the only major airline not charging fees -- which could backfire if they have to reverse course -- and in terms of lost potential revenues.

Today, after the two flights I had -- I'm convinced that paying $2 for a Coke on an airplane is not a bad thing. Either in terms of the passenger experience -- which, shockingly, is actually improved -- or the airline's bottom line.

Posted by Holly at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. Subscribers can access this week's issue here.

Posted by Holly at 8:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sure most of you have seen some of these pictures that are the hot item in all of our inboxes this week. I would have posted some sooner, but we had to get our upgrade bugs here at PlaneBuzz taken care of.

While Hurricane Ike and its effects to south Texas were widely disseminated this week -- what a lot of people did not know is that while Ike was battering the southern coast of Louisiana and Texas, a nasty storm, unassociated with Ike, decided to batter the heck out of the Midwest. Particularly the Chicago area.

These are pics that were taken on Saturday at O'Hare and I think they give you a pretty good idea of how high the water levels were. I would give credit to the photographer, but I've received copies from so many people and no one seems to know exactly who took them.

My only question is this. Who was the bright guy who thought that putting snow removal equipment out there was going to help?

From what we understand, the move didn't do much more than create waves that of course made the water levels even higher as they moved to the gate areas.

Good thinking guys.

Needless to say, these kinds of water levels are not good for equipment -- brakes, rims, not to mention the bottom halves of engine cowlings. That water was way too close to those engines for me.

As one pilot wrote me today, "There's no way I would want to taxi through that kind of water."

Tell you what. I'm not a pilot, but I wouldn't want to taxi through it either.

Posted by Holly at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday Continental Airlines said in an SEC filing that it now estimates that Hurricane Ike will cost the airline at least $50 million.

"This is a preliminary estimate and is subject to change depending on, among other things, insurance recoveries and how quickly traffic returns at the carrier's Houston hub," the airline said.

The airline added that the storm had also affected its liquidity. The airline had previously estimated that it would end the current quarter with $2.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents. The new estimate is $2.7 billion.

Posted by Holly at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We only thought that those 10 billion in shares traded on the NYSE yesterday was a big deal.

Wait until the market closes today.

The Dow Jones Industrials Index has already been up more than 400 points this morning, on the back of a plan that is just now being announced by the Feds that will basically cover the losses of those financial institutions that went way too far in the mortgage banking fiasco of the last few years.

Yes, that means that you and I -- the American taxpayers -- are going to be on the hook for all this ultimately.

And who is responsible for all this? I still say, as I did for years in the Market Review of PlaneBusiness Banter -- former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve. The Fed let the housing bubble get bigger and bigger and bigger -- and did nothing to rein it in.

Why?

It was pretty obvious.

The housing bubble gave the appearance that the economy was healthier than it actually was.

And now?

Now we are all going to pay the price as Secretary Paulson from the Treasury Department just formally announced a plan where the government is going to allow financial institutions to package up all those bad loans and sell them to the U.S. government. A new government entity is also going to back up money market accounts. The only good news about this? It will finally, I would assume, allow the financial markets to put a value on these problematic mortgages that brought down Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Merrill Lynch. (And had threatened Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as of yesterday.)

Treasury Secretary Paulson just finished speaking -- giving more details on exactly what the government plans to do to correct the "illiquid mortgage" situation. His estimate of the price tag? Hundreds of billions of dollars.

So let's cut to the chase -- what could all of this mean for the airline industry?

It means that we have only begun to see the first peek at massive write-offs that are going to continue from many of the largest financial entities. As Bank of America officials said this week when they announced the deal with Merrill Lynch, they foresee continued issues into 2010.

Remember, even though this announcement from the Feds says that they are going to buy back all this bad paper -- we don't know how that is going to be accomplished, or at what price. So that means more losses for financial institutions. We just don't know how much at this point.

Translation? Lousy economic conditions for at least the next two years, which doesn't bode that well for increasing numbers of high paying fliers.

Oh, and secondly, the price of oil continues to hang around $100 and change today. As of this posting, oil futures are trading at $101.01, up over $3 on the day.

Posted by Holly at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday morning I thought we had lost another airline analyst as Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. And not just any airline analyst -- Gary Chase. Gary, who is a former Institutional Investor "Star" analyst and Dave Fintzen, his trusty associate, had packed up their belongings and were waiting their turn to run the gauntlet of news hounds outside the doors of their employer the last time we heard from them.

But as Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day."

Today, a deal in which Barclay's bank will take over the more profitable chunks of the bankrupt investment bank was revealed, and voila! It looks like there was no need for Gary and Dave to pack up their belongings in banker's boxes after all.

According to a note from Gary this morning,

"The last few days have been a roller coaster ride (not the fun kind). We knew things were fluid, but we didn't think they'd be this fluid. As late as yesterday in the afternoon, we really thought that twelve years and, more importantly, that the collective efforts of a group of people we had tremendous pride in had come to an abrupt end. Today, we're very excited to be back in business with Barclays behind us.

We very much appreciate all the support and concern many of you expressed. It made a very difficult situation easier to take and we can't thank you enough."

Meanwhile, today Wall Street had a lot to digest. The biggest piece of news was, of course, the fact that the Federal Government -- yes, that means you and me -- has loaned mega-insurance behemoth AIG $85 billion in an attempt to give the company some time to get its affairs in order.

As I wrote this weekend in PBB, one of the things the company will probably try to do is divest itself of a number of its subsidiaries, and one of those companies is airline leasing giant ILFC.

The problem with this is that it's going to have to be one heck of a huge company.

One of the reasons that ILFC thrived as a part of AIG is that the company could lean on AIG's massive financial clout in getting much better than market rates on financing deals.

This is the same business model that GECAS uses -- as it depends on Daddy General Electric to serve basically the same purpose.

But those days are now gone. Today, the financial arm of GE is the part of the company that is dragging the rest of the company down, and in the case of AIG, the company is now being forced to look at its assets from a "what ones can we extract the most premium from" perspective.

And clearly ILFC is one of those potential jewels in the sell-off bag.

Posted by Holly at 4:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, so now at least we look like our old selves. But there remain a few hiccups here and there in terms of the new MT installation.

Bear with us.

Posted by Holly at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Never fails.

An upgrade to the latest version of Movable Type (which we did in hopes of stopping the mysterious "old" posts problem) has turned a bit ugly. As you can see.

It's always something.

Our crack PBB engineering department tells me,

"It looks like the update process wiped out the main index templates, which makes it impossible to publish the blog index page. Sigh. I'm trying to find them in the backup, but I don't really know where they are stored... possibly they exist in the database, which will be fun to crack in to."

And those guys at Lehman Brothers think they have problems.

Heh.

More later -- after we find the main index templates.

Posted by Holly at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Subscribers of PlaneBusiness Banter can access this week's issue here.

Posted by Holly at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. A flight dispatcher for any airline. (Look at the weather maps for the country -- not just Texas and Louisiana. It's enough to want to crawl back into bed and pull up the covers.)

2. Anyone working in operations for Southwest Airlines. Especially those poor souls given the task of reworking flights around a network without Houston in it. Or those employees who live in the Houston area. And if that wasn't bad enough, flights to DAL will probably become more problematic as the day goes forward.

3. Ditto Continental Airlines. Except for the DAL part.

Posted by Holly at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Houston, we have a problem.

Here is the latest satellite image of Mr. Ike. A couple of observations. One, while he is not that high in the "category level," (he will probably come ashore as a Cat 2 storm), he is a huge storm in terms of physical size. This does make a difference. This will mean higher waves and more flooding as the storm throws much more water to the northwest and north. Many parts of Louisiana have already experienced higher water levels and more flooding than from Hurricane Gustav.

Second, for those people who decided not to evacuate Galveston -- I have one thing to say. I hope you wrote your social security number on your arm in indelible marker.

(Just one of the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina.)

As for why Ike did not get as strong as many had predicted -- my guess is water temperatures. When Katrina rolled across the Gulf of Mexico, temperatures in the Gulf were as high as the low 90s. Ike, on the other hand has had an average of only 82 degree temps to feast upon. Lower temperatures means less fuel for the machine.

But, like I say, while he may not be as intense as some storms, he makes up for it in sheer size.

Those of you in the Dallas Ft. Worth Metroplex may have a rough day tomorrow as well -- depending upon how sharply Ike turns to the Northeast after hitting the coast. The good thing is that the Dallas area, for now, would be on the weaker side of the storm.

But -- we'll all know more tomorrow.

In the meantime -- I'm back at the PlaneBusiness Worldwide Headquarters today, after a three-week stay in the Lone Star State. We've had intermittent heavy bands of rain and wind come rolling through all day as we continue to experience the "outer bands" of the storm on the Northeast side.

For all you folks who call the Houston area home, we're thinking about you. May a pine tree not slice your house in two or crush your car, and may water not come within 6 inches of your back door. Much less inside the door.

jus sayin'.

Posted by Holly at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interesting news from across the pond today as Scandinavian carrier SAS said in a statement that the airline is conducting "talks about a possible structural solution." That's an interesting way to put it.

News reports say that Lufthansa is apparently about ready to make a takeover offer for the airline.

Shares of SAS were up 18% on the news, ending the day with a 16% increase, up to 55.25 kronor or $8.09.

According to Reuters, Lufthansa is mulling a bid for the airline after SAS approached Lufthansa. This news comes as Lufthansa is already in talks to buy Brussels Airlines. A bid by Lufthansa for Austrian Airlines also appears to be in the wings as well.

Bloomberg quoted Exane BNP Paribas analyst Geoff van Klaveren today, as he outlined the current position of SAS. "SAS is not in a financially strong position. SAS can't be a standalone airline, so something will happen, whether it'll be a complete takeover or a joint venture on something like long-haul flights."

Meanwhile, Glitnir analyst Mats Hyttinge told the Associated Press that investors had speculated for a long time about SAS being a possible takeover target for Lufthansa, which has been looking at possible acquisitions for some time.

"I think it would be a good solution for SAS. They need financial backing," Hyttinge said.

However, he noted that SAS' complicated ownership structure could be an obstacle. "Considering there are several different states among the owners it would turn into a political process," he said.

The Swedish government has been considering selling its 21.4 percent stake in SAS, while the Norwegian government, which owns 14.3 percent, has said it would rather buy more shares in the company, he said.

In Denmark, which also owns 14.3 percent, the signals have been mixed and a decision would probably depend on the price offered, Hyttinge said.

Posted by Holly at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seven years ago today we all awoke to the horrific events of September 11 as they began to unfold -- events that began and ended with the destruction of four aircraft, the death of hundreds of innocent passengers, and many innocent airline crew members.

While the world takes a moment today to commemorate the events that happened that day in a much larger sense -- particularly the thousands of people who died in New York City -- we here at PlaneBusiness, as we have since that awful day, focus on our departed airline family members. Those crew members who just went to work on what was a beautiful day in the Northeast that day -- but never came home.

We will never forget them.

This is our corner of the world. And as I see it, the courage and bravery of these crewmembers deserve our heartfelt acknowledgment. And remembrance.

American Airlines Flight 11, Boston to Los Angeles, crashed into the World Trade Center.

CREW: John Ogonowski, Dracut, Mass., Captain; Thomas McGuinness, Portsmouth, N.H., First Officer; Barbara Arestegui, flight attendant; Jeffrey Collman, flight attendant; Sara Low, flight attendant; Karen Martin, flight attendant; Kathleen Nicosia, flight attendant; Betty Ong, flight attendant; Jean Roger, flight attendant; Dianne Snyder, flight attendant; Madeline Sweeney, flight attendant.

United Airlines Flight 175, Boston to Los Angeles, crashed into the World Trade Center.

CREW: Victor J. Saracini, Lower Makefield Township, Pa., Captain; Michael Horrocks, First Officer; Amy Jarret, flight attendant; Al Marchand, flight attendant; Amy King, flight attendant; Kathryn Laborie, flight attendant; Michael Tarrou, flight attendant; Alicia Titus, flight attendant.

American Airlines Flight 77, Washington to Los Angeles, crashed into the Pentagon.

CREW: Charles Burlingame, Captain; David Charlebois, First Officer; Michele Heidenberger, flight attendant; Jennifer Lewis, flight attendant; Kenneth Lewis, flight attendant; and Renee May, flight attendant.

United Airlines Flight 93, Newark, N.J., to San Francisco, crashed in Shanksville, Pa.

CREW: Jason Dahl, Colorado, Captain; Leroy Homer, Marlton, N.J., First Officer; Sandy Bradshaw, flight attendant; CeeCee Lyles, flight attendant; Lorraine Bay, flight attendant; Wanda Green, flight attendant; Deborah Welsh, flight attendant.

May they all be at peace in a much better place.

Posted by Holly at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every week as I sit down and begin to gather my mental notes for the next issue of PlaneBusiness Banter, I begin a process of routine news searches -- looking for articles dealing with some aspect of the industry.

Sometimes I do this looking for more information on a story that most people already know something about. But oftentimes the payoff comes when a story that I was not aware of pops up on the computer screen.

And so it was last week when I came upon a story that talked about how American Airlines had been forced to cancel hundreds of flights flown by MD-80s as the FAA issued new inspections be done on the aircraft.

The headline on the story, "FAA Crackdown Could Lead to More Delays."

I hadn't heard a word about this.

No one had sent me a note about it.

I looked at the date on the top of the story. September 3, 2008.

The article began:

"FAA Crackdown Could Lead to More Delays

Posted on: Wednesday, 3 September 2008, 21:00 CDT

By Michael Sean Comerford Daily Herald Business Writer

mcomerford@dailyherald.com

Three airline fleet related actions in three weeks by the Federal Aviation Administration may indicate more inspection- related flight delays ahead, airline analysts said Wednesday.

The latest U.S. airline to ground its own planes Wednesday was American Airlines, the world's largest carrier.

The airline canceled 300 flights to re-inspect wiring in Boeing Co. MD-80s after federal regulators raised questions during a maintenance audit.

Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have also recently been subject to FAA actions.

American Airline's cancellations represented about 13 percent of its Wednesday flights. American Airlines is checking whether a sleeve covering a bundle of wires was installed according to a FAA directive, spokesman Tim Wagner said.

About 80 flights were canceled at the carrier's Dallas-Fort Worth hub, and about 68 more at O'Hare International Airport. The rest were scattered across the U.S.

Most passengers had been booked on other flights, according to spokesman Tim Wagner, but some may have been delayed until this morning.

As of Wednesday evening, no further flight delays at O'Hare had been announced for today, Wagner said.

And sure enough, with that second reading it was clear that the story that while the story had been tagged as current, it was, in fact, six months old.

How does this happen?

I'm not sure how it happened in the case of the United Airlines bankruptcy news story that went public Monday that was 6 years old.

Nor am I sure how it happened that this particular story about "FAA Crackdown causing more delays" was posted with a current date and then picked up by the usual news aggregators -- when it was, in fact, 6 months old.

But what I do know is that every once in a while, when I post a new post to Movable Type, which is the blog software program that powers this blog -- the software will, for some unexplained reason -- arbitrarily pull a post from 2006 and post it, along with the right one -- with both dated with the current date.

Actually, It happened yesterday. When it happens I have to go in, unpublish the older post, and then republish it -- using my best guess as to its original date.

So while I, along with a lot of other people, wait for more details concerning the alleged "reposting" of the six-year old bankruptcy news story -- I'm here to vouch that yes, content management systems can be flaky. It can happen. And it does.

Now whether this was an intentional posting is another matter. And I'm sure we'll find out if it was or not in the coming weeks as the SEC tracks down who posted what and when -- and why.

Posted by Holly at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A couple of our faithful PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers sent us copies of these renderings this weekend. Are these the real thing, or just someone's personal renderings? I suspect the latter. Namely Mr. Heilig's.

But aside from the issue of whether or not they are legit or someone's fantasy -- I'm still going to ask the question.

What do you think about this proposed Delta/Northwest Airlines livery?

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Posted by Holly at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Shares of United Airlines dropped as low as one cent today after rumors the airline had filed for bankruptcy took Wall Street by surprise.

As far as we can tell, there is absolutely no truth to these rumors. None.

Unfortunately, it does appear that a a 2002 Chicago Tribune story headlined "United Files For Bankruptcy," appeared on some Web sites beginning this weekend with a date of Sept. 6, 2008.

Shares as of this posting have bounced back up to 8.97.

Posted by Holly at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're back from vacation! Woo hoo!

Subscribers to PlaneBusiness Banter can access this week's issue here.

Posted by Holly at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Vacation is now officially over for us at PlaneBusiness -- this week PlaneBusiness Banter returns for its 11th Anniversary Issue, I am now back at my PlaneBuzz post, the official Worldwide Headquarters is back online, and well, it's time to get back to work and enjoy the fact that college football season is upon us.

But wait.

A friend of mine who hangs out in our Weather Watchers forum thought I might like to see this notable change in future projected movement for Hurricane Ike this morning -- the latest hurricane churning through the Caribbean.

Yes, this is the storm that weather forecasters had previously said would just move towards the North Atlantic and not be a problem for anyone.

Yep. That's what they said. Yesterday.

As one member of our Weather Watcher forum wrote this morning, "Does this mean I just call up and make reservations at the same hotel again -- starting next Thursday?" Another commented that one thing it did mean was that he was not going to take the boards off his house.

<sigh>

Posted by Holly at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good news on the PlaneBusiness operational front this afternoon.

The Worldwide Headquarters now has power, broadband connectivity, and water.

Barring any other uncontrollable acts of Mother Nature between now and then, this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now scheduled to be posted this weekend as usual.

Posted by Holly at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)