Turbulence Forecast has always been a proponent of Northwest Airlines for many reasons. First and foremost of interest to site visitors is their turbulence avoidance strategy, as seen in previous blog posts here: one, two, three, four.

Despite those blog posts, Delta never stood out to me one way or another in terms of avoidance. Since their respective route structures essentially do not overlap much at all, I never really had a chance to evaluate Delta very much in those aforementioned posts, but I will be watching next time the opportunity presents itself.

Delta did, and still may participate in a program related to turbulence, although the current status of that program is unknown and information is hard to come across. If anyone knows (Delta representatives especially encouraged to contact us), please post a comment or contact the site.

While I’m very familiar with Northwest’s web site for ticketing and other management features, a quick glance at Delta’s offering makes me hope that they retain Northwest’s ticketing system and self management features, as well as the features of the Elite program that Northwest offers.

Sadly, due to the raising cost of fuel, the merger was probably inevitable and it certainly makes sense just given their route structure, very little overlap. I hope that new Delta will maintain the best features of the old Northwest (large planes on many routes, and the points mentioned above) and turn the merger into a positive. Only time will tell.

It is Turbulence Forecast’s opinion that the merger will be permitted to go through. The retirement of the DC-9 fleet will probably accelerate due to fuel costs. The Northwest Airlines DC-9 fleet has an average age of 35 years, which is amazing if you think about it; they don’t build them like that anymore.

Links: Airliners.net thread, Flyertalk Delta thread, Flyertalk Northwest thread.

What’s interesting to me is the vitriol that Skybus had going for it. Read this Airliners.net thread for some choice quotes from posters taking pleasure in the shutdown of Skybus and other airlines.

• The story is in the columbus dispatch. feel sorry for the employees, but I’m glad this stupid concept of an airline is gone.
• Good bye and God riddance, rot in hell SkyBus, serves the employees right, they took below standard wages undercutting their peers in the industry!
• The fact is that when SkyBus opened the airline industry in the US was in its largest hiring boom in recent times, there was an extreme shortage of pilots all around, people that went to SkyBus were the ones that didn’t want to wait a few more months flying a CRJ and hopped at the opportunity to fly that shiny A319, in the process accepting wages that would have been spat on by pilots in all other airlines, they wanted the big jet now, and now they are paying for it, most reasonable pilots waited and got on with CO, DL, UA, FL, US, etc, but some always have to undercut there fellow pilots.
  Karma is a bia….
• I’m neutral on Skybus, but I am so glad to see TZ(do feel for the employees) gone. Anything related to WN, I can’t stand.
• We can only hope Mesa suffers a downward spiral that ends in flames and a shutdown but with enough warning for the majors they serve to be able to cope. It would at least make what they did to Aloha a little easier to swallow.

TZ=ATA Airlines, WN=Southwest Airlines

A Jamaican planning to board a flight at Orlando International Airport was detained and questioned by FBI agents Tuesday after they found components for pipe bombs and explosive and flammable liquids in his checked luggage.

The suspect was identified late Tuesday as Kevin Brown, 32, a Jamaican national who was scheduled to fly on Air Jamaica Flight 80 to Montego Bay at 2:55 p.m. Transportation Security Administration officers spotted him acting suspiciously about noon, TSA and law-enforcement officials said. Several officials said the man was “acting strange” and questioned his mental stability.

The new baggage handling system cost nearly $8.5 billion, a staggering amount to spend on something that just doesn’t work properly. This interruption in service is estimated to cost British Airways nearly 50 million pounds, or almost $100 million US Dollars (or $5,000 a bag, which seems strange at first, unless you count potential backlash.)

Sadly, this is not an April Fool’s joke, although the joke is on the hapless passengers of British Airways, which already has a horrible reputation for baggage handling.

Fortunately, FedEx, someone who definitely knows how to handle lots of packages going to disparate places, is being brought in to help sort the mess. It’s also amusing to think about how FedEx flies planes as well (672 vs 235 for British Airways). Maybe they should buy out British Airways?

Bloomberg Article.

Crankyflier has more information on this sad day.

Aloha is famous for an incident in which the roof ripped off a 737 causing the loss of life of one flight attendant, who was not buckled up. Everyone else survived.

• Lack of parking for baggage handlers
• Computer systems that did not allow baggage handlers to login
• Poor training of baggage handlers on procedures regarding new baggage system

Sky News Article

CNN Article

Meanwhile, Boeing 737 aircraft are being inspected for a separate issue for older models, comprising of a bolt problem that may have caused the fire of the China Airlines 737 in Japan.

China Airlines Incident

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it has initiated action to collect a $10.2 million civil penalty from Southwest Airlines for operating 46 airplanes without performing mandatory inspections for fuselage fatigue cracking. Subsequently, the airline found that six of the 46 airplanes had fatigue cracks.

While Southwest has a great safety record, it is somewhat sad that even the possibility of not properly taking care of safety issues still happens in this era of excellent flight safety. If the fine is a done deal and Southwest was possibly negligent, this will cost them a lot more than $10 million in fines.

Other articles on the matter:

WSJ, Business Week, Airliners.net Post, CNN Money, WFAA w/ Video.

Full Article.

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Statement
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Photographer’s Statement