Southwest to Acquire AirTran – What Does That Mean for You?

So far, not a whole lot. While Southwest and AirTran announcing their deal on Monday was some of the biggest airline news of the year - things will be operating as normal for now. Southwest and AirTran will remain two separate airlines, and are not cooperating in any way.

Before the deal gets finalized - the shareholders of both companies need to approve it, and it also needs to pass regulatory muster with the Department of Justice. And then all the integration takes place. That's currently expected to be completed 1.5 - 2 years after the deal closes, when the two carriers will begin operations under a single operating certificate.

Once that does happen, though - the AirTran product is basically toast. It's abundantly clear who's acquiring who here. Business class? Gone, in favor of all-economy like Southwest. Assigned seats are also gone. On the bright side - AirTran's fees for the first two bags and change fee is also gone!

Basically, AirTran will morph into Southwest. Overall, the deal is pretty interesting. Southwest will have a large fleet of an airplane that isn't a 737 for once, and also finally move into Atlanta - in a huge way! We'll see how it goes.

JetBlue Joins the Wi-Fi Club

JetBlue made big news this week when the airline announced that it will equip it's entire fleet with Wi-Fi connectivity. That's big news for a couple of reasons. First, JetBlue has been pretty quiet about Wi-Fi lately while other airlines have been making a huge effort to do so. In fact, they were one of the first to the game with BetaBlue, a test aircraft that offers limited Internet functionality.

The carrier is pairing up with ViaSat and will offer Ka-Band satellite connectivity - which is perhaps the bigger news. Nearly every other airline has gone with ground-based service from Aircell. It works fine...but there needs to be  a cell tower within range. Which poses a bit of an issue over oceans, for example.

Southwest has also selected a satellite-based option from Row 44, but that uses Ku-Band technology. I don't really know all the technical details, to be honest, but JetBlue's Ka-Band solution has the potential to be the fastest.

So JetBlue might be a bit late to the game here - but they might end up with a system that's the fastest and can be used all over.

You can catch all the details from Flightglobal.

Continental Moves Location at Orlando

Continental announced this week that it will be changing terminals at Orlando International. Yesterday, check-in moved from Terminal A to Terminal B. And today, the Houston-based airline's gates will move from Airside 1 to Airside 3. Like at other airports, Continental is doing this to be closer to their Star Alliance partners United and US Airways.

The move isn't exactly exciting - but the good news for Presidents Club members and Star Alliance Gold fliers is that this airside has a United Airlines Red Carpet Club they can utilize.

You can grab the details here.

Whoops! Airline’s Baggage Gauge Was Too Small

We've all expressed displeasure over luggage the past couple of years. While I support the idea of fees for checked luggage, I still find them really annoying. And I, like other travelers, have become a big fan of traveling only with a carry-on to avoid paying a fee (not having to wait for a bag  is nice, too).

But I've personally seem some passengers try to bring on bags that are simply too big and wouldn't be able to fit in an overhead bin. This poses a problem for an airline, as it slows everything down when a bag has to be gate-checked. So airlines need to make sure published size limits are enforced. Usually this is done by a gauge/sizer located at the check-in desk and/or gate, where a passenger can see if their carry-on will fit.

But for bmibaby, the low-cost subsidiary of bmi - about 60 of its gauges across its network were too small. And in the case of this carrier, that meant some passengers were charged a fee that they didn't really deserve.

The airline says it is fixing the problem. You can catch all the details here. (Hat tip to Upgrade: Travel Better for finding this one.)

Ryanair Calls Out Shannon

I always love Ryanair's news releases. They're pretty funny, usually, simply because the airline doesn't pull any punches. It's actually quite refreshing in an age of PR speak.

As most know, Ryanair is very well-known for its incredibly low fares. The only way they can make that work is a laser-like focus on cost control. One major cost is what airports charge Ryanair for service. And the budget carrier is not very happy with Shannon at the moment. From the airline's press release:

Ryanair, Ireland’s favourite airline today (8th Sept) announced a further 21% cut in its Shannon flights and traffic this winter in response to last week’s surprise decision by Shannon Airport to impose a further 33% increase in passenger fees from 1st November despite the fact that Shannon’s traffic has collapsed by more than 1m passengers from over 2.7m passenger in 2009 to under 1.6m passengers in 2010. The “triple whammy” of Shannon’s high costs, their refusal to extend Ryanair’s 5 year base deal, and the imposition of the Govt’s €10 tourist tax has devastated traffic, tourism and jobs at Shannon Airport and the Mid West region.

The Irish airline will end service to Paris (Beauvais), and reduce service to London (at both Gatwick and Stansted airports). The airline now says that it expects 375,000 passengers per year at Shannon, where it had once expected in 2009 to hit 1.9 million passengers per year.

Will it work? Who knows. Ryanair has always been complaining about airport costs, but at least it's fun to watch.

Edmonton’s New jetSet Parking

I like keeping up with news at the Edmonton airport, as I head over there every few years to visit some family I have up there. So I was intrigued when the airport announced today that is has opened a new "innovative" parking product called jetSet.

OK, innovative might be a stretch for some of the features. The two offerings, youPark and wePark, are basically fancy names for self-service and valet parking. Not that big of a deal. Another new feature is a cell phone waiting not, something that has been cropping up at a lot of airports recently, as it's a good way to cut back on congestion on terminal roadways. The airport says that this has been a feature that airport users have been requesting for awhile.

But there are some other features of jetSet Parking that I really enjoy. For example, if you purchase a weekly pass at youPark more than 60 days before you travel, you'll save 25%, or $11.87. The discounts become smaller as the date closes in, but it's nice to save a bit of cash and plus you know there will be a spot waiting for you.

What I really like, however, is jetSet's partnership with WestJet. Those parking at the jetSet lot can check-in and check luggage at the parking lot! Then they can just hop on a shuttle to the terminal and walk through security. Less time lugging around bags is a great thing!

If you're interested in finding out more, you can head over to jetSet's website here.