Hello earthlings.

Our "bonus" edition of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted.

This week we conclude our earnings coverage with in-depth earnings reviews of Pinnacle, AIr Canada and WestJet.

We also take a look at the June DOT Airline Travel Consumer Report. Yep, three hour tarmac delays were much lower -- but cancellations were not up. They were flat.

But hey, like we said last month, one month does not a trend make. Nor does two for that matter.

We take a look at these numbers as well as all the usual DOT consumer moaning and groaning reports, lost bags, and on-time performances.

Of course we also give you the scoop on the LAN/TAM deal. LAN's acquisition of TAM will create the largest airline in Latin America. Big news!

Then there is the new United livery, Delta's upgrade at JFK (about time), Spirit's latest swipe at a competitor (they never miss an opportunity to do so), and more.

All in this week's "bonus" issue of PBB.

Subscribers can access this week's issue here.

And with that, we are all officially on vacation!

I know. I can't wait to get my tarmac rule violation bill in the mail this week from the DOT.

Hello all ;-)

This week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now, finally, posted. If you read my previous post here you'll get the skinny on why we are posting on Wednesday night. An addendum to that post: while all the other problems were apparently fixed, now I cannot send email on my planebusiness.com account using Verizon.

At this point, I don't care. I can take up that battle tomorrow.

In the meantime, a head's up for PBB subscribers. We will be posting another issue of PBB either later this week or the first of next week. Yes, I was supposed to go on vacation yesterday, but because of all this Verizon mess, we were unable to complete all the material we wanted to include in this final issue for the summer.

So -- the mojitos have been put on hold. The box of mint is still in the refrigerator.

We'll be back for one more issue before we formally depart.

In the meantime however, we have a lot to talk about in this issue, including in-depth earnings reports on Republic, Hawaiian, and SkyWest. We talk a lot about the SkyWest/ExpressJet deal, and there were also more details given about SkyWest's involvement with Air Mekong in the airline's earnings call. We'll update you on all that as well.

Cathay Pacific also reported earnings last week -- and the airline did very, very well. More on those, in addition to the scoop on the newest low fare Asian airline -- a JV between Thai and Tiger.

DAE has apparently told Airbus and Boeing that it is canceling 50 aircraft that had been included as part of the company's eye-popping $27 billion order spending spree at the Dubai Air Show two years ago. Reality has apparently come to the Middle East. Or at least one part of it. There are still all those mind-numbing Emirates aircraft orders out there.

We give you the rundown on which airlines shone in the second quarter in terms of break even load factor and operating margins. And we'll talk about those that posted rather worrisome numbers.

One hint: The same two airlines finished last and next to last in both metrics. Who were those two airlines?

And what about the Canadian airline Jazz? Why does it think it's okay to report its quarterly numbers -- absent any mention of RPMs?

We have a pretty good idea why -- do you?

As always, this is just a part of this week's issue. All this and more -- in this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter. Subscribers can access this week's issue here.

See this truck?

This is the truck that the Verizon FIOS service repair person drove to the Worldwide Headquarters this morning at 10 AM.

This visit was in response to my call to Verizon on Tuesday after a new router that they sent did nothing to solve the problem. Their customer service person at that point assured me that the problem was in the Verizon "box" on the wall.

This was after customer service at Verizon had told me Monday that we had lost connectivity because of a bad router.

But remember, I installed a new router on Tuesday -- and nothing changed.

So today, at 10 AM, a live person shows up to "change out" the bad Verizon box on my wall. However, in an ominous sign, he tells me before he does it that this will probably not solve the problem. He's been down this road before.

Live person changes out the box.

He was right.

Nothing changes.

For the next four hours he and I keep testing. Ethernet only. Router on, router off. Hard reboots. On and on. He keeps telling Verizon techs the same stories over and over and over. I can't go anywhere else and try to get this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter completed - as I have to stay and test with my laptop.

Because I am the customer. Because the Verizon tech can't stay here by himself.

By this time, after six days of this -- and a huge issue sitting half completed -- I feel like I have been put through a pasta machine. Over and over and over again.

Finally, at 2:38 P.M., after test number 268, the pages magically load. The connections don't hang. I can finally upload pages to the website again.

And post this blog post.

See that truck?

The one that is marketing Verizon's "blazing fast internet." What you don't see is the small print that reads,

*Most of the time. And definitely not when your PON card is bad.

You IT geeks will understand.

For all the rest of you -- Monday's issue of PBB will be posted later today.

Hello all.

Live and direct from the PlaneBusiness Worldwide Steaming Hot Headquarters, we bring you a 150 plus-page issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

Yes, this is, without a doubt, the mother of all earnings issues.

We have full transcripts and PlaneBusiness Banter earnings summaries for Southwest Airlines, AirTran, JetBlue, Alaska Air Group and Allegiant Travel this week.

Not only that but we give you the numbers that were just reported from Air France/KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways, ANA and Singapore Airlines.

Whew.

All of this plus our take on the more "newsworthy" topics from the past week including the meltdown at Mexicana (and no, we're not talking about the FAA's downgrade of the Mexican aviation safety rating) and the showdown between the pilots and management at Philippine Airlines.

So what do you think? Do you think the pilots and flight attendants at Mexicana should have taken up management's offer to buy the airline?

Or -- should they have cut their pay and benefits essentially in half?

As we were posting this issue, the news came down: Mexicana has filed for bankruptcy.

One thing that will do -- it will stop airline leasing companies from taking their aircraft back. Apparently at least three of the airline's aircraft had already been snatched back by their owners.

Aside from all this turmoil, we then have the latest attempt by the U.S. government to "make the airline industry a better and safer place."

Yes, from the same folks who brought us the Three-Hour Tarmac rule, the Senate and the House passed a bill last week that will see the minimum number of flight hours required for a regional airline pilot position jump to 1500.

Needless to say, I can understand why members of Congress want to look like they are making the industry a safer place -- but is a 1500 hour flight time minimum the way to do it?

One of our regular contributors gives us his take on the potential ramifications of this legislation in this week's issue.

One thing that is a constant in this industry is that it always has a lot of debt.

But while most of the airline's debt ratings are in the "junk" category, shrewd investors know that investing in airline debt can be quite profitable.

This week I assemble the latest credit and debt comments on the major airlines from Mark Streeter -- the man who does this for a living for JPMorgan Chase. I think Mark is the sharpest guy on the Street when it comes to airline debt.

As for airline stocks -- a Foreign Flyer took the first place nod last week in terms of gains. Overall, it was a good strong week for the sector.

All of this -- and much, much, more in this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

Subscribers can access this week's issue here.

I am sitting here waiting for the final edits to be completed on what is, without a doubt, the largest earnings issue of PlaneBusiness Banter we've ever had. More on that in a bit.

But in the meantime, an update on a story we talk about in this week's issue. Mexicana Airlines just filed for bankruptcy.

The airline had given its unions a kind of "the worse of two evils" ultimatum last week and the unions didn't bite. As a result the airline is now in bankruptcy, and we have been told by more than one PBB subscriber that the airline has already had a handful of planes repossessed. One thing the bankruptcy filing will do is prevent additional aircraft seizures.

This news comes just days after the FAA dinged the Mexican aviation safety rating to a number "2."

The FAA action means two things. One, until it changes, it means that Mexican airlines cannot expand their service into the U.S. But secondly, it means that existing codeshare agreements between U.S. carriers and Mexican carriers are now on the shelf.

Delta Air Lines currently codeshares with Aeromexico and American Airlines has a codesharing agreement with Mexicana.

But we can't forget Southwest Airlines, which was, at some point in the future, slated to start a new codesharing agreement with Volaris, yet another Mexican airline.

Hello everyone.

This week we have a 100-plus page earnings issue of PlaneBusiness Banter for you to peruse at your leisure. And yes, at that length, it should more than take up all of your leisure time for the week. Have no fear. Next week we'll give you another one!

This week we take in-depth looks at the recent earnings results posted by American Airlines, US Airways, United Airlines, Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

This coming week the PlaneBusiness microscope will be trained on the 2Q results of JetBlue, Alaska, AirTran, Allegiant and Southwest Airlines -- which is scheduled to report its second quarter numbers on Thursday.

A couple of quick observations from the group we took a look at this week.

One, even before the formal announcement was issued this morning, it had been clear for some time that United Airlines President John Tague was not a member of the executive transition team that was going to stay with the "new" United. That fact was also crystal clear as you listened to the airline's earnings call last week.

This morning, the airline formally announced that John, Kathryn Mikells, Graham Atkinson, and Rosemary Moore would not be staying with the "new" United.

Zane Rowe, current CFO at Continental will remain, but Pete McDonald will come over from United as COO. As for the rest of the top tier execs, including those heading up marketing, communications and HR, all will come from Continental. And of course, Jeff Smisek will be CEO.

We told you so. From the beginning.

Back to earnings.

Of this group, there was clearly one airline that posted earnings above and beyond -- that airline was US Airways. In fact, while the airline's numbers were great as they were, the airline would have seen their EPS figure come in 8 cents higher -- had the airline chosen to classify a refund from the TSA as regular income -- not a special item. (As some airlines chose to do, including United Airlines.)

The airline posted one great quarter. On a number of fronts. It managed to stash a nice chunk of cash as well.

As for United and Continental, it's really kind of pointless to talk about them as viable standalones at this point because the merger looms in the background. In terms of potential stock investments -- I'd say all bets are off here until after the actual merger is much further along.

Delta Air Lines, which was the subject of our last non-PBB post here in PlaneBuzz had a nice quarter, and yes, the comments it made about guidance and its fourth quarter increase in capacity were way overblown.

All of that capacity hysteria was so yesterday.

Good quarter for the folks in Atlanta.

And finally, American Airlines trudged out its loss for the quarter last week as well.

We are once again putting American Airlines on the official PlaneBusiness Titanic Watch this week. The airline announced a number of executive changes this last week -- but I'm not sure they are going to be enough to get the airline out of its self-created sinkhole.

More on all that in this week's issue.

We also wrap up the news from Farnborough, and we talk about the legal move US Airways announced Monday, as they try to attempt to break the seniority fight log jam that exists between its pilots.

And finally -- yes, we talk about the ongoing Tarmac Tales. Consulting studies, DOT rants, and all.

All this, and more -- including a shot of the new Virgin Atlantic livery. Woo hoo! (We have to do something to celebrate Sir Richard's 60th birthday.)

Subscribers can access this week's issue here.

Greetings to one and all.

Let it be known that yes, the second quarter earnings season for the airline industry is now officially upon us. Before the week is over, nine major airlines will have reported earnings.

Yes, count them. NINE.

Kicking off this quarter's festivities was Delta Air Lines. And boy, did the airline make a scene. While the airline posted its biggest quarterly profit since 2000, analysts and traders were none to happy with the airline's guidance comments, and its fourth quarter capacity forecast.

While we don't do our formal transcript review and earnings summary for Delta in this week's issue, I do talk in detail about what the airline reported and give PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers a cross-section of comments from a number of analysts who cover the stock.

This is also a big week for those who love airplanes and the men who like to buy them.

Yes, it is time for Farnborough. I talk about the big deals that were announced Monday -- and update you on just how well capitalized Steve Hazy's new leasing venture is. Answer: Very.

Don't look now but Congress is sniffing around airline fees. Not only does Congress want to make sure that passengers know exactly what they are going to have to pay for when they book that flight, Congress is also now making noise about how it wants to start taxing those fees that passengers are clearly aware of.

Remember -- fees are not taxable, whereas fares are hit with a 7.5% tax.

Things are so dire in Washington that 7.5% looks like a potential luscious low-hanging fruit.

We had another airline analyst pick up her bags and move to new environs over the last two weeks. Helane Becker, formerly with Jesup and Lamont, is now with Dahlman Rose and this week she issued a slew of new coverage on the sector.

Finally, a big thank you to our subscribers who have experienced some weird goings-on with the site the past two weeks. Page numbers have been screwy, log-in credentials have changed, and I just realized tonight, for example, that our headline page on the planebusiness.com site somehow got changed to one from June 28. Nice. I'm sure some of you were wondering what planet we were on.

No planet. Just our own small equivalent of IT cutover hell.

As always, all of this, and more in this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers can access this week's issue here. (Note, that is a new link folks. Please bookmark it as such.)

Delta Air Lines reported earnings this morning, the first airline to report earnings for the second quarter.

While the headline numbers for the airline's results look quite good on the surface -- airline stocks began to drop after the numbers were released and they have yet to get up again.

Why is this the case -- if Delta reported such a large profit?

If you are a PlaneBusiness Banter subscriber, you might have a good idea. As I said three weeks ago, I think a lot of this recent giddyness concerning the "return" of airline revenues is, I believe, on shaky ground.

Yes, no question that the second quarter numbers should be good across the board for the sector -- with one glaring exception. The only major airline that will probably post a loss for the quarter is AMR, parent of American Airlines.

But as I talk about in this week's PBB, we are now seeing a number of economic metrics that are pointing toward a recessionary recovery in the U.S. that is running out of steam.

Take those developments, coupled with the fact the airline industry is now looking at the start of a traditionally slow period in September -- throw on results from Delta that disappointed on the revenue side -- and poof. A perfect recipe for an airline sector selloff.

Now you know.

Hello everyone. Holly here.

As of about 20 minutes ago, all of us here at the Worldwide Headquarters *believe* (important word here) that the new log-in system for PlaneBusiness Banter is now working properly.

We had a few hiccups this afternoon as we made the cutover, but I think those small annoying problems have all been taken care of.

What does this mean if you are a subscriber to PlaneBusiness Banter?

It means that your previous user name and password that you used to access PBB prior to this week no longer works. It's done. Toast. Dead.

If you have not received an email from us yet -- assigning you a new assigned user name and password, or if you have any other questions concerning the change, please contact our subscription manager.

Hello there friends. It's that time once again. Yes, that time when we here at the PlaneBusiness Worldwide Headquarters work our little pencils to a numb and our brains to a frazzle.

And poof -- out comes the latest issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

This week we talk about June traffic and RASM estimates. After Continental's miss right out of the box, all the rest of the usual suspects that report RASM estimates came in pretty darn well, including the airline sector's top stock for the week -- US Airways.

The DOT issued its May Airline Consumer Travel Report this last week and US Airways and Alaska both had great months. We pick the numbers apart more closely as we usually do. Oh and yes, cancellations were up. As for the number of flights that saw passengers on the ground for 3-plus hours -- that would be five. Four were United Airlines' flights that were diverted to Colorado Springs and one was a Delta Air Lines flight.

So, as we ask this week -- when is the DOT going to send both airlines their itemized bills -- per the new 3-hour tarmac rule?

We talk about the latest analyst tweaks. Remember-- second quarter earnings are right around the corner.

Oh and of course we talk about Boeing and Airbus this week. Airbus just got dinged by the WTO, which ruled that yes, the company had received illegal subsidies. The case against Boeing was supposed to be ruled on by the WTO this month -- but now that has been postponed to September.

Bad timing for Airbus, which is smack in the middle of the U.S. Air Force Refueling Tanker contract fight with Boeing.

Looks like the American Airlines/British Airways deal is finally, mercifully, going to get the European nod this week.

And oh, we have lots of mail this week. Including a very long letter to the editor concerning the concept of "job security" and some follow-up reader notes concerning our annual "Ode to a Hot Dog" column.

Oh and what about the Colgan Air pilot who was just busted for having one of the largest collections of child pornography ever seized?

No wonder Pinnacle wants to make the name "Colgan Air" go away.

It's never boring around here.

Subscribers can access this week's issue here.

For all of you who are not subscribers, shame on you.

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

This week we take a look at the Second Quarter Stock Performance for the sector. Guess which airline posted the biggest gain for the quarter?

Actually a non-passenger airline posted the biggest gain overall. But one of the legacy carriers came in second place.

Unfortunately the second quarter was almost a complete reversal of the first quarter in terms of the number of airline and airline-related stocks that posted double digit gains -- as opposed to those that posted double-digit losses.

I guess you could say this week's post Fourth of July holiday issue is somewhat food centric. We do our annual "Ode to a Hot Dog" column this week, and we also talk about the recent USA Today piece that took another look at the problems facing airline catering companies. As I said today, it puts a whole new spin on the phrase, "Roach Coach."

But was the article a fair representation of the problems -- and the scope of the problems?

Then there was the passenger on US Airways last week who apparently thought there was nothing wrong with bringing his own maggot-infested piece of meat stuffed in his overhead bag onboard his flight.

Until the maggots started to escape.

I think the guy should be banned from flying on any US airline for life.

Congrats to the guys in Corp Comm at US Airways who showed a good sense of humor in their employee publication this week as they led a story about the incident with the headline - "Airline to charge new fee for Carrion."

We also talk a lot this week about the announced deal between Google and ITA Software. This deal intrigues the heck out of me. We talked to Forrester Research Analyst Henry Harteveldt about what this deal could mean for the airlines, the GDS companies, and meta search outifts like Kayak.com.

Guess who is going to feel the biggest impact the fastest?

Slot swaps, unionization efforts, new names for Frontier's latest spokesanimal and more -- all in this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

All is back to normal as of now.

Subscribers please note: We'll be rolling out instructions for accessing the site utilizing our new software in the not-so-distant future. Stay tuned.

Thanks again for your patience.

Yes, well, I think instead ...the cutover was DONE.

About ten minutes later I began receiving notes from subscribers saying they could not access this week's issue.

Yes, just one of those techno clusters we all enjoy so much. Don't you just love them?

Anyway, the appropriate folks who can fix the problem are now working to either return us to the previous system, or they are going to advise me on what we need to do to make sure everyone can get in-- using the new system.

Please be patient. If you are a subscriber and we have your current email address, you'll receive an email letting you know when the doors are open once again.

Thank you. You may now resume your Fourth of July party planning activities.

Hello everyone.

It's a great day in America, isn't it? Sorry, just channeling my inner Craig Ferguson.

Here at the PlaneBusiness Worldwide Headquarters it's been a bit of a challenging 24 hours. We experienced a loss of connectivity late yesterday as a rather nasty line of thunderboomers erupted almost directly over our heads. I lost all email for a bit, and we lost our FIOS (our internet connectivity) after one particularly nasty lightning surge.

Things are now back working as they should, but it caused our editing process to slow to a crawl last night. No, let me rephrase that. It came to a screeching halt.

I finally gave up and we all started up again this morning at about 6 a.m.

And so here we are. Yes, it's a great day in America.

After I get done here I get to go to the vet's office and find out how difficult it is going to be to transition my cat to a new form of insulin. Why do I have to do this? Because the FDA has halted the sale of the type of insulin she was on.

I'm so looking forward to this. I know she is too.

I know that PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers are looking forward to this week's issue -- so here it is. Finally!

This week in PlaneBusiness Banter I talk about the change in command at the Allied Pilots Association. The APA is the pilot union at American Airlines, and well, let's just say the APA and I go back a long time.

Captain David Bates was just elected as the organization's new leader and while this is a most welcome event (anything would be an improvement over the previous "leadership" and yes, I use that term loosely) as I write this week this is a two way street. Management at the airline has to tune up its game plan as well if anything constructive is going to happen as a result of this change in union leadership. More on all this in this week's issue.

On the passenger rights front, Kate Hanni and her followers received a nice bone to chew on last week when we once again had one of those nasty "stranded on the tarmac" incidents. This time the aircraft belonged to Virgin Atlantic, the ordeal sounded awful, but that still doesn't mean that the airline was totally at fault. As usual, there was enough blame to go around. Airport, airline, customs officials, you name it.

A fact that should negate any move to extend the "three-hour rule" to international flights.

Of course this didn't stop the DOT Secretary from using the incident as another excuse to pander to the masses.

We talk a bit this week about the latest Boeing 787 delay information, and we also talk about the American Airlines - FAA discovery of unexpected "cracks" that were found in some Boeing 767 engine pylons. Could newly installed winglets be creating the problem?

Meanwhile, airline stocks had a dismal week. Shares of Hawaiian Airlines took the brunt of the sector decline -- fallout from an Avondale Partners downgrade and price target reduction was to blame.

Oil prices were back on the move again as well last week, as oil traders came down with a case of hurricane angst on Friday.

Finally in this week's email bag, we hear from our subscribers on a range of issues. We have a corporate travel manager lamenting the changes at Continental, someone who agrees with us that the industry is already too regulated, not regulated enough, and someone who asks: if all the airline analysts are so bullish, isn't that a perfect time to sell my stock? Answer? Could very well be. I am a big fan of contrarian thinking. Especially after reading my daily economic news feeds.

As usual, we talk about all this -- and more -- in this week's issue. Subscribers can access this week's issue here.

Hello earthlings.

Let's see. It's 9:49 as I write this post and it's officially still 90 degrees outside the PlaneBusiness Worldwide Headquarters. Yeecch!

This week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is also hot. HOT I tell you.

Subscribers can access this week's issue here.

This last week I flew down to Houston to speak to the Continental Airlines Corporate Advisory Board meeting. Had a great time. They asked questions. I asked questions. I had a great time. Did I mention that already?

More airlines should do this for their best clients. It provides a feedback mechanism that is invaluable.

Why don't they?

Airline stocks had another good week this week -- as airlines began to unleash more guidance as to second quarter final numbers. As a result, most of the airline stocks we track were up for the week -- with only a few exceptions.

Last week United's Glenn Tilton and Continental's Jeff Smisek traveled to Washington to tell their side of the United/Continental merger story. They had a pretty rough reception. So what is it about all this "re-regulation" talk?

The strike at Spirit Airlines was settled last week.

Frankly, I was surprised. I really thought the big money behind the airline, i.e., Bill Franke, would try and shut down the airline.

But no -- apparently not.

All this and more -- in this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.