This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted!

This week I take you inside Delta Air Lines‘ rollout of their new T4 terminal at JFK in New York. What’s the best part of the airline’s new JFK experience? What’s not so good? How did the airline handle the actual roll-out from a PR perspective?

In addition, we tell you about a wonderful Delta Air Lines’ flight attendant we met on one of our flights last week — Jewel Van Valin. She gets passengers to create art at 35,000 feet. You can read more about her here.

This week I am very happy to announce a new contributing editor to PlaneBusiness Banter. Brett Snyder, who many of you know as CrankyFlier, joins us this week. Brett will provide contrarian analysis concerning routes, schedules, and networks, in addition to joining me in our joint fascination with the airline distribution wars.

This week? Brett explains why Phoenix could turn out to be a very important hub for the new American Airlines — contrary to what many people think is the case.

Good news on the fuel price front — more economic news from China indicates that the country’s economy continues to contract — not expand. This means lower demand for oil, which then means lower jet fuel prices. We are very happy about this.

In this week’s issue we also review the break-even load factors and operating margins for the 1Q13, now that all the carriers have reported their results. (Including Virgin America.)

All this and much more in this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.