Hello everyone! Yes, I come to you this afternoon from a not-so-lovely part of the world. Dallas Ft. Worth is now “entombed” as one of our subscribers put it today under about 5-6 inches of ice and sleet. The airport is a holding pen for tired passengers, most of whom aren’t going anywhere. As for me, I am going to consider myself lucky if I get out of the driveway and down the road to the big hoopla celebration Monday morning as the new American Airlines Group takes to the skies. You see, temperatures are just going to get lower all weekend. Not higher. Yep. It’s Super Bowl Week all over again. Solid as a rock out there.

Our apologies for being a day late this week. But the WWH lost power yesterday as a result of a tree falling across some power lines down the street. We were finally brought back on line earlier today. Yes, it’s been a little hectic around here.

Aside from this less-than-desirable state of affairs that Mother Nature has decided to throw in our direction, this week in PBB we are talking all kinds of things. First, there were some serious management shifts, departures, and new titles announced at United Airlines yesterday and today. We’ll tell you who is out, who is still in, and who had some responsibilities altered.  Oh, and yes, I think the person who owned the dog that ate the demand forecast in the third quarter? Yeah, I think he’s left the building.

Meanwhile, we update you on the latest news concerning the slot wars. You know — the fight for the slots that American and US Airways have had to cough up as part of their deal with the Department of Justice. Looks like Virgin America and Southwest are the winners at LGA — but what about DCA? Better yet, the catfight for American’s gates at Love Field just escalated up a couple of notches this week as well. Delta has already gone public with its desire to keep the gates its leases from American there. Now Southwest Airlines says it wants them.

Let the fight commence.

It was a good week for airline stocks last week. We’ll update you on all that. Energy prices have been on a bit of an up and down run the last week or so though. We’ll explain why that is the case as well.

Finally, we give you a peek at the Business Travel Hall of Fame Dinner we attended this week. Former American Airlines Chairman and CEO Robert Crandall was certainly making the rounds of the event — or should I say he was making the most of the fact that neither Gordon Bethune nor Herb Kelleher was there. It was a great night. Nothing like being at the St. Regis in New York for Christmas.

All this, and much more, including a profit warning from Qantas, Southwest’s new route cuts, and a great quote of the week, in this week’s edition of PlaneBusiness Banter.