AIRLINE BIZ

1. The fight for Haneda slots could get vicious. Delta has an interesting argument -- it should get more slots because it doesn't have a Japanese partner (although SkyTeam partner Korean Air does fly between Haneda and Seoul).

2. Why is that when you're prepared, you don't need to be prepared. It's only when you should have been prepared that you're not prepared. (Thanks, Department of Transportation, for making this an issue.)

3. Place your bets -- Which American Airlines union will be the first to ask the National Mediation Board to release them from mediation, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants or the Transport Workers Union? It looks like it could be a close race. As a tiebreaker, in what month will the NMB release them? In what year?

The long-awaited report by the U.S. Transportation Department's inspector general into FAA oversight of American Airlines' maintenance practices is being released today. We have a story in today's paper based on a copy we obtained.

In a nutshell, the report says FAA has failed to notice breakdowns in American's own maintenance and reliability programs. In one case, the inspector general discloses that FAA's AMR CMO (the oversight office in Fort Worth) failed for two years to perform "required routine surveillance" of American's CASS system, which is the key system for identifying maintenance deficiencies that could cause accidents. Had American's system been better, it might have prevented an in-flight engine fire that occurred in Sept. 2007, according to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the incident.

That nugget recalls the findings of another IG's report from 2008, which probed similar maintenance problems and oversight lapses involving Southwest Airlines and the FAA. The IG's report on that matter found that FAA inspectors in Dallas didn't check Southwest's program for complying with federal safety directives between 1999 and 2008. The check was 90 months overdue, the review found.

The FAA says in its response to the latest DOT IG's report that it already detected many of American's weaknesses in a special audit conducted in 2009. It says corrective measures are either completed or underway.

The IG's report is now posted on its Web site.

Here's the top of our Web story on the fine:

The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a $2.9 million civil fine against Fort Worth-based American Eagle Airlines over improper landing gear door repairs.
The report said Eagle flew 1,178 flights with repairs that did not meet an airworthiness directive. Eagle, which is owned by American Airlines parent AMR Corp., has 30 days to respond to the proposed fine.
"Following airworthiness directives is not optional,'' said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt in a statement Wednesday. "The FAA does not hesitate to levy fines if maintenance standards are violated. Compliance with mandatory maintenance requirements ensures the highest levels of safety."

Here's the response from American Eagle - sorry I didn't get it up sooner.

American Eagle is disappointed that the FAA has issued a notice of proposed civil penalty for this case. Eagle conducted the inspections as called for in the Airworthiness Directive and made repairs when the inspection indicated a repair was required. Eagle self disclosed to the FAA that the repairs on certain aircraft may have been performed while the landing gear doors remained on the aircraft. Subsequent to Eagle's self disclosure, the FAA and the aircraft manufacturer approved the process for Eagle to repair the landing gear doors while they remained on the aircraft, therefore, we do not believe that this case involved a safety of flight issue, or that a civil penalty is warranted.

Having said all of this, the FAA has an established enforcement process to allow a carrier to review the FAA findings with the Agency and provide additional information concerning its case. Consistent with that process American Eagle looks forward to meeting with the FAA to discuss this matter.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek.com and management consultanting firm Hay Grouphas come up with a Top 20 list of companies for leadership and how they develop leaders. Southwest Airlines ranks second on the list, behind General Electric.

Here's what the article had to say about Southwest:

"In an analysis of how survey respondents described their companies' cultures, three categories of organizations emerged. Some, such as Zappos.com and Southwest Airlines, are modern, learning-oriented, fun workplaces. Other large, global giants, such as P&G and GE, are complex companies with cultures that are more traditional. And some, including ABB, are known as 'collaboration for innovation' companies that accomplish work though self-organizing project teams and encourage employees to seek new approaches to solving problems.

"According to Elizabeth Bryant, senior director of talent management at Southwest Airlines, the leadership-development process reflects the company culture. 'It goes beyond formal training and is part of everyday life at Southwest, where employees at every level are exposed to leaders so they get to see how the leaders think,' she says. 'Even informal mentoring and exposure to company executives helps to broaden people's perspectives and stimulate their passion about the job.'

"According to Jeff Lamb, Southwest's chief people officer, the culture in which Southwest's employees work every day is no different from the culture in which the airline develops its future leaders. 'This kind of thing happens organically. There's no course on how to get so engaged that you volunteer to come in on a weekend.'

"Lamb insists that what makes the airline a great place for leaders is the same thing that makes it a great place for employees: 'the freedom to be yourself ... a lack of pretense; the hunger to learn.' He says it's not about any kind of program or leadership training, or how well the company develops talent, but in 'allowing people to enjoy their work.'"

The U.S. Department of Transportation has applications in hand from five airlines for routes between the United States and Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, and it should be making its decisions rather quickly.

Tuesday was the deadline for applications. The original deadline was Wednesday, Feb. 10, but the mountains of snow along the mid-Atlantic blew up the original schedule.

Interested parties have until March 1 to file answers (or provide legal trash-talking, as it usually is) to the applications. They'll have until March 8 to respond (trash-talk back) to those answers.

In their applications, the airlines talked about launching service in October, when a new runway at Haneda is expected to become operational. They need a decision well in advance of that so they can schedule their aircraft, set up their Haneda facilities and market the new service.

But as the DOT said in its original order setting up the Haneda proceeding: "The selected carrier or carriers cannot request Haneda slots for the IATA 2010 winter season until the Department has issued a final order formalizing the results of the proceeding."

Vereinigung Cockpit, the pilots union at Lufthansa, said Wednesday its members voted in favor of a walkout and it will start a four-day strike Monday.

Ergo, here's what Lufthansa is saying about it:

Lufthansa regrets any inconvenience that the industrial action may cause our passengers.

Lufthansa has set up a toll-free number in the US and Canada for customers to obtain information about their flight bookings, and for any re-bookings or cancellations.
The US number is: 1- 800 645-3880
The Canadian number is: 1 800- 563-5954

Information about ongoing flight operations can also be found at www.lufthansa.com under "Arrival and Departure."

Passengers who are already booked on a Lufthansa flight during February 22 to 25, 2010, and wish to change their travel plans can rebook once free of charge to another Lufthansa flight -- provided their ticket is issued before February 18, 2010 and their new travel date is before March 31, 2010. Their departure and arrival destinations must also remain the same.

Applicable rules for flight cancellations caused by strike action:
Should the purpose of a journey become null and void because of a flight cancellation, passengers can annul their flight booking free of charge.

Lufthansa has daily service between Dallas/Fort Worth and Frankfurt.

American Airlines spokeswoman Missy Latham has responded to the Transport Workers Union's statement that it will ask for a release from mediation if talks don't result in a deal by March 8:

"American believes any talk of 'impasse' or 'release' at this time is premature. A self-help determination is also not up to the union, even if it asks the mediator for such a ruling. Only the mediator, working with the NMB, decides when the parties will be released from mediation.

"Historically, negotiations settled during mediation in the airline industry last an average of 19 months after the mediator comes on board, and again on average, a declaration of impasse by the NMB takes even longer.

"American remains committed to the mediation process and focused on making further progress with TWU at the negotiating table. American Airlines and the Transport Workers Union have been in mediated talks with most groups for just about a year and have reached tentative agreements on 71 percent of all items."

The Transport Workers Union said Wednesday it will ask the National Mediation Board to release it from mediation if it doesn't get a deal in the next round of contract talks with American Airlines.

"Four years is time enough to settle a contract," TWU international president James C. Little said in TWU's statement.

"In the dark days of 2003, when AMR was in desperate financial straits, it took us just two weeks to reach an agreement which included major sacrifices from our members in order to keep this company alive," Little said.

"If we could get the job done in two weeks in 2003, an agreement years in the making can certainly be reached by March 8," he said.

The TWU represents more than 28,000 AA employees, including mechanics, baggage handlers, fleet service clerks and others -- nine bargaining units at American.

If the TWU does request a release, that could make two American unions wanting a clearance for a possible strike.

Association of Professional Flight Attendants president Laura Glading has told members her union will seek a release from mediation if it doesn't get a deal in the next round of talks, set for Feb. 27-March 3 in Washington, D.C.

To refresh everybody's memory, neither side in airline negotiations can engage in "self-help" until the talks go through a process set out in the Railway Labor Act. The NMB must make the decision to decide talks are at an impasse, not the negotiating parties.

If the NMB agrees that the talks are stuck, it will offer both sides binding arbitration to decide the remaining items that haven't been settled. If either side rejects arbitration, the NMB starts a 30-day clock ticking, the so-called "cooling-off" period.

If the 30 days end without a deal, either side can resort to self-help. For the union, that can be strikes or slowdowns, for example. The company could impose its last offer or lock the employees out, for example.

It's been a long time since the NMB has declared an impasse at one of the big U.S. passenger carriers and allowed a strike. Just asking for a release doesn't mean a union will get one.

In late October, Hawaiian Airlines pilots asked the National Mediation Board to release them from mediation. The NMB kept them in mediated talks, and in December, the airline and Air Line Pilots Association reached a tentative agreement. Members approved the deal in January.

For more from Little and John Conley, TWU air transport director, keep reading.

We've already developed our working theories on which U.S. airlines will win the much-desired slots at Haneda International Airport.

The envelope, please.

The winners are...Oneworld, SkyTeam, Star Alliance and Hawaiian Airlines.

To refresh your memories from yesterday, here are the airlines and the gateways from which they want to serve Haneda:

Detroit: Delta

Guam: Continental

Honolulu: Delta and Hawaiian

Los Angeles: American and Delta

New York: American and Continental

San Francisco: United

Seattle: Delta

American is Oneworld, Delta is SkyTeam and United and Continental are Star Alliance. Let's examine the possibilities.

First, it's hard to argue against San Francisco. That's a major airport for Asian travelers, particularly for United. Let's tentatively award the Star Alliance route to United.

That leaves Continental out in the cold, even thought its Newark hub serves the very big Asian population in the New York metro area, and Guam is a major hub for its Continental Micronesia subsidiary.

But I would guess that DOT will decide that if it has to give the flight to some Star airline, the SFO gateway is a better one.

That's because there's another applicant for a New York gateway, American's request for service from New York Kennedy. That takes care of Oneworld.

Delta is the one SkyTeam applicant here, so we'll presume they'll get one route, picked from Seattle, Los Angeles and Detroit. I'd rank Detroit and Los Angeles as a tie, with Seattle third.

It won't be considered for a Honolulu-Haneda flight because Hawaiian Airlines also wants to serve that market. Approving Hawaiian would give DOT a new entrant into the U.S.-Japan market, and DOT always wants to bring in new competition if there's a logical entrant.

Hawaiian flies to the Philippines, Australia, Tahiti and Samoa, but not Japan. Considering the large number of Japanese tourists that visit Hawaii, it would be a logical addition.

We could also see a scenario where Continental gets the New York flight, American gets the Los Angeles flight and United is left out of the mix.

We'll see. The lawyers are already busy at work on filings to tell the DOT why their airline's application is the best and why the other ones just aren't as good.

American Airlines is applying to fly to Tokyo's Haneda International Airport from New York Kennedy and Los Angeles.

Haneda is a close-in airport that wasn't available to U.S. carriers. But a memo of understanding inked last year would allow U.S. airlines to operate four flights a day to Haneda, which recently completed expansion that allows more flights.

Continental Airlines also announced it was applying for Haneda flights from Newark and Guam, and United Airlines is seeking a San Francisco-Haneda flight. Hawaiian Airlines wants to fly to Haneda from Honolulu.

The requests from American and Continental might seem a bit aggressive compared to the applicationis from United and Hawaiian for one flight each. At least they appear so before we saw the Delta Air Lines application, which seeks four flights from Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle and Honolulu.

In other words, Delta would take all four pairs of takeoff and landing slots that are being made available. But, again, it is the world's largest airline, and the world's largest airline logically would have the world's largest appetite.

The Haneda flights are in addition to the carriers' service to the larger Narita International Airport, which is farther out from central Tokyo. American flies to Narita from New York, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles.

We haven't seen American's submission, but we presume it'll stress its newly strengthened partnership with Japan Airlines.

The U.S. Department of Transportation acts as the referee in route awards.

Keep reading for the better parts of the press releases from the five carriers. I'm made a partially futile effort to delete the puffery.

American Airlines and American Eagle will return to Haiti on Friday, about 5½ weeks after the massive earthquake hit the Caribbean nation. American said its flights would be the first commercial flights back into Haiti.

"All of us at American Airlines and American Eagle have been eager to restore our normal operations into Haiti," said Peter Dolara, American's senior vice president for Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America, in a press release.

"These flights serve as major milestones toward helping the country rebuild," he said. "With commercial air service restored, we can better connect loved ones and provide consistent transportation to and from Haiti."

American said it will provide the following service to Port-au-Prince:

• Two daily flights from Miami

• One daily flight from Fort Laurderdale

• Four flights a week from New York Kennedy

• One daily flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico

• Beginning March 12, two daily flights from San Juan to Port-au-Prince through Santo Domingo and Santiago, the Dominican Republic.

American also offered this quote from Ralph Latortue, Haiti's consul general for the southern United States:

"We have begun our journey to recover from the catastrophic earthquake, but with support from companies like American Airlines, we hope it won't be nearly as long.

"We are very grateful to American Airlines and American Eagle for their continued commitment to Haiti. Not only are they the first passenger airlines to return to Haiti, they were the first commercial airlines to start bringing relief supplies to help our people."

Isn't it interesting how Southwest Airlines always seems so often to be in the middle of controversial, yet ultimately insignificant, issues that capture the public's attention?

The latest is the brouhaha over actor and director Kevin Smith's unhappiness that he was allowed to grab a standby seat on a full Southwest Airlines flight Saturday night, then asked to get off because the airline thought he was too broad to occupy one seat.

Smith was all a-Twitter about it, Tweeting about how stupid and wrong he thought the carrier's actions had been. He's kept it up, even though Southwest fairly quickly offered an apology and $100 voucher.

In September 2007, we had the "too sexy to fly" incident in San Diego in which Kyla Ebbert was briefly booted from a Southwest flight because a Southwest employee determined that her outfit was too revealing.

In February 2008, we had the "too pretty to fly" incident in which two 18-year-old girls were removed from a flight. They said they thought the older Southwest flight attendants were just jealous of their youth and good looks; the airline said it was because the two behaved very, very badly on the airplane.

We had the case of the 2001 flight in which two older African-American sisters were deeply offended because a young Southwest Airlines flight attendant said over the public address system: "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe, grab a seat, we got to go."

The flight attendant had never heard the racially offensive version of that rhyme, but the two passengers were well aware of it from their youth. In 2004, the sisters lost their racial-discrimination lawsuit.

We had the October 2009 case in which a noisy California toddler and his mom were removed from an Amarillo flight. The reason, Southwest said, was that the boy was yelling so loudly that passengers couldn't hear the flight attendants' safety instructions.

And, of course, the Saturday incident with Kevin Smith isn't the first time that Southwest's policy on large passengers has come into play.

Just last September, a 350-pound Illinois man was outraged when Southwest wouldn't let him fly back from Las Vegas to Chicago. He said he was told he was "too fat."

Southwest said he was advised that he could buy a second seat for half price, and that he was removed for becoming belligerent, not for obesity.

And this doesn't get into controversial situations that Southwest willingly embraces, such as its decision to put the photo of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model down both sides of one airplane. The model was wearing nothing but a (you guessed it) swimsuit.

There's no conclusion here, just an observation that Southwest and splashy controversies seem to go together.

The International Air Transport Association said Monday that premium passengers on international flights increased 1.7 percent in December over December 2008, the first year-over-year increase since May 2008.

"2009 was a year of very distinct halves," IATA said, "with severe recession early in the year and post-recession upturn in the second half." IATA added that "at its low point in May premium travel was down 25 percent.

IATA said the number of international passengers flying in premium seats is still down 17 percent from early 2008, even though the premium numers are up 11 percent from May 2009.

"This implies that premium travel has lost six years of growth," IATA said.

Inside North America, the picture isn't so rosy. IATA said the number of premium passengers was down 13.3 percent in December from a year earlier, and down 20.1 percent for the full year.

Across the North Atlantic, premium traffic decreased 1.1 percent in December and 12.2 percent in 2009. Across the North and Mid Pacific, premium traffic dropped 1.1 percent in December and 12.2 percent for the year.

But to and from North America, international premium traffic increased 18.9 percent to South America, 5.9 percent to Central America,

About budget passengers, IATA said:

• "Economy travel was 5% higher in December than a year earlier; • "Economy travel hit a low in February with a year-on-year decline of 9%;

• "Since then economy travel has risen 7% but by December the size of this market was still 3% smaller than in early 2008;

• "Economy travel has lost just over two years of growth."

For those of you craving the lastest from Director Kevin Smith and his Quest To Shame Southwest Airlines for yanking him off a flight, you can follow his Tweet-rage right here.

The headline is that Smith, director of several very funny films (your mileage will vary on them) and several films that no one understands how they were released (I'm looking at you, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"), says that he actually passed the carrier's test on whether a "person of size" gets to stay in his seat and not have to buy 2 tickets. He says on his tweets that he typically buys 2 tickets because he, frankly, doesn't like to interact with people on the plane and he's darn shy. (His "Silent Bob" character is known for not really saying much of anything in his films)

The background: Smith had purchased 2 tickets for his scheduled Southwest flight and had no problems on the way there; on the way back he tried to stand by for an earlier flight, which went well except for the flight was full and there weren't 2 extra seats for him. No problem, Smith says, as he put the armrests down on each side of the middle seat in the front row and also buckled his seat belt without an extender, which he claims in his tweets is also part of the test but others say it's NOT part of Southwest's test.

Smith argues that since he passed those tests, he didn't need 2 seats and the whole incident was taken to crazy proportions by Southwest. Maybe the flight captain really despised Smith's "Jersey Girl."

Hm. I'm not sure Southwest is going to say much beyond the apology it already gave out and reiterating its "of size" policy guidelines. Southwest says this a.m. that there's nothing to add. Here's Southwest's response via its BlogSouthwest if you want their initial take on this.

A little behind-the-scenes tale about how I wrote a story Saturday about American Airlines' getting approval for its Oneworld alliance across the North Atlantic.

And may I add, if I were smart, I would have just let the Dallas Morning News run the Associated Press or Bloomberg story.

But it galled me to have someone else write a story that I should write, and I'll tell you one very good reason why: I had already written the story.

I prepared a long article Friday and was just waiting for the DOT to issue the order that afternoon so I could add the actual findings and get some quotes.

But the DOT for unknown reasons (see my theories a couple of items below) did not issue the order Friday. It never issues these things on Saturday, and Monday would be a federal holiday. So Tuesday would be the first possible date it would be issued.

About 3 p.m. Saturday, a DMN editor, John Gandy called me to tell me that the DOT had issued a ruling and asked what we wanted to do since I was off.

In fact, I was way off - about 280 miles away in a backyard in Pasadena, Texas, helping dismantle and load a weight-machine I had bought for my wife.

Well, dang. I had the story written. We couldn't run a wire story. But I didn't have my computer with me. So here became the sequence of events.

1. I called my wife at home, where she was sitting in the dark wondering when the power would come back on (the answer was after about 10 a.m. Sunday, some 50 hours after the electricity failed). I asked her to take the computer somewhere where she could access the Internet.

2. She took the computer to the Arlington branch library near our house. I guided her through logging on, finding the story, logging onto email and sending the story.

3. My iPhone battery died around 4 p.m. just as we were finishing. I didn't have a charger with me.

4. I found a payphone to make a call - 50 cents anywhere in the U.S. I had about 65 cents in coins, enough for one call. I called my wife to tell her to send the story to Gandy. Instead, I got her voice mail.

5. I jumped in my minivan and drove 31 miles to a Fry's Electronics in north Houston where I could get an iPhone car charger. Got there about 4:45 p.m.

6. Checked out of Fry's in the longest Fry's line I've ever seen, not including that time in Arlington when all the credit card readers at the cash registers didn't work.

7. Got the charger plugged into my iPhone about 5:10 p.m. Waited a long, long five minutes for it to charge up enough to turn back on.

8. Called John Gandy, found that he got the story, without any modifications yet. Called my wife, thanked her.

9. Drove to a nearby Burger King with Wi-Fi. I had 15% power on the iPhone. Bought a small drink and cheeseburger.

10. Downloaded and read the 44-page order on my iPhone (try that sometime).

11. Copied and pasted my original story from an email to Notes on the iPhone.

12. Downloaded American's comment from Internet, pasted into the Notes file.

13. Downloaded DOT announcement from Internet, pasted into the Notes file.

14. Rewrote the story on the iPhone (try that sometime, too).

15. Phone ran out of power, shut down again.

16. Returned to minivan, plugged in charger, waited a long, long five minutes.

17. Emailed the story to Gandy, looked for more comments, emailed them to Gandy.

18. Called my wife, told her I was about done.

19. Read email from Gandy with edited story, liked it, emailed back. Talked by phone to say I was heading out.

20. Drove four hours back home to Arlington, arriving to a Hampton Inn shortly before midnight.

21. Joined family where they had relocated while the electricity was out. Got onto my laptop and read the final version.

22. Around midnight, hunted down a copy desk chief to ask for one last change to the story.

23. And then I was done.

Isn't technology wonderful? Isn't technology frustrating?

Look at this airplane and explain its history.

Answer below.

Movie director Kevin Smith wasn't happy when he was asked to get off a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank because he took up too much room.

To be less delicate, he is wide enough that he often needs two seats.

He flew on a later flight, but he was so irritated that he Tweeted up a storm about the incident.

You know Smith? He's the director of such movies as "Clerks," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and the just released "Cop Out."

I've reassembled the different entries on his Twitter page, and replaced a common yet obscene four-letter word with (blank).

I know I'm fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?

I flew out in one seat, but right after issuing me a standby ticket, Oakland Southwest attendant Suzanne (wouldn't give last name) told me Captain Leysath deemed me a "safety risk".

Again: I'm way fat... But I'm not THERE just yet. But if I am, why wait til my bag is up, and I'm seated WITH ARM RESTS DOWN. In front of a packed plane with a bunch of folks who'd already I.d.ed me as "Silent Bob."

So, @SouthwestAir, go (blank) yourself. I broke no regulation, offered no "safety risk" (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?). I was wrongly ejected from the flight (even Suzanne eventually agreed). And (blank) your apologetic $100 voucher, @SouthwestAir.

Thank God I don't embarrass easily (bless you, JERSEY GIRL training). But I don't sulk off either: so everyday, some new (blank)-you Tweets for @SouthwestAir.

Southwest Airlines has a policy of requiring passengers encroaching into the next seat to buy a second seat so they don't crowd their neighbors.

Southwest offered Smith a "heartfelt apology" on its Nuts about Southwest blog, with an entry titled "Not So Silent Bob." Here's the part specific to Smith's trip Saturday:

"Mr. Smith originally purchased two Southwest seats on a flight from Oakland to Burbank - as he's been known to do when traveling on Southwest. He decided to change his plans and board an earlier flight to Burbank, which technically means flying standby.

"As you may know, airlines are not able to clear standby passengers until all Customers are boarded. When the time came to board Mr. Smith, we had only a single seat available for him to occupy.

"Our pilots are responsible for the Safety and comfort of all Customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr. Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight.

"Our Employees explained why the decision was made, accommodated Mr. Smith on a later flight, and issued him a $100 Southwest travel voucher for his inconvenience."

Word on the street was that the U.S. Department of Transportation would issue a show-cause order in the American Airlines-British Airways-Iberia-Oneworld case Thursday afternoon, Friday at the latest.

Instead, DOT issued the order Saturday morning while we weren't looking (I was driving to Pasadena, Texas, when the order came out).

That leads to the obvious question: Why didn't the order come out Friday? Here are the theories I developed, since I really don't know:

1. Top DOT officials forgot their password and couldn't log onto the DOT computer.

2. Everybody took a snow day.

3. They planned to throw it over the transom at 4:30 p.m. EST Friday and run for it, but nobody remembered what a transom was.

4. They were hoping Richard Branson wouldn't notice on the weekend.

5. They were going over the last details with the Allied Pilots Association.

6. They heard a rumor that Delta and British Airways would file a superseding application.

7. They were arguing with Justice Department officials about whether anticompetitive has a hyphen.

8. They can't agree whether it is "transatlantic" or "trans-Atlantic."

9. A poor secretary was meticulously going through the final draft to turn "Oneworld"into "oneworld."

10. A poor secretary was meticulously going through the final draft to turn "oneworld" into "Oneworld."

11. They were intentionally yanking American Airlines lobbyist Will Ris' chain.

12. They were intentionally yanking Sir Richard's chain.

13. They were unintentionally yanking my chain.

14. They forgot.

15. They were waiting for top attorneys Andy Steinberg and Jeff Shane to review it, then remembered that Steinberg and Shane left the department years ago.

Can't say I've ever see the DOT kick out a decision like this... ON A SATURDAY, but you know, there's a first for everything. Here's the meat of the DOT release:

The U.S. Department of Transportation today proposed to grant antitrust immunity to American Airlines and four international partners to form a global alliance. Under the proposal, the airlines must agree to conditions to protect consumers and preserve competition.

If the decision is made final, American and its "oneworld" alliance partners British Airways, Iberia Airlines, Finnair and Royal Jordanian Airlines would be able to more closely coordinate international operations in transatlantic markets.

In today's show-cause order, the Department tentatively found that granting antitrust immunity to the oneworld alliance would provide travelers and shippers with a variety of benefits, including lower fares on more routes, increased services, better schedules and reduced travel and connection times. The Department also said the proposed alliance would enhance competition around the world by creating competition with the existing Star Alliance and the SkyTeam alliance, which already have been granted immunity.

However, the Department also noted that the alliance could harm competition on select routes between between the United States and London's Heathrow Airport, oneworld's primary hub, where the availability of landing and takeoff slots is limited. As a condition of approval, the Department is proposing in its show-cause order that the applicants make four pairs of slots available to competitors for new U.S.-Heathrow service. The Department also would require changes to the agreement to ensure capacity growth, and require the carriers to submit traffic data and implement the proposed alliance within 18 months of a final decision.

Click onward for AA's gleeful release:

Association of Professional Flight Attendants president Laura Glading has given her members some details from American Airlines' last contract proposal.

And on another matter, Glading has informed the airline that the flight attendants won't sell pillows and blanket sets without a tentative agreement, including spelling out how much the flight attendants will get from the $8 sales.

Read her letter here. Glading letter on pillows and blankets Feb. 11, 2010.pdf

American and the union resume mediated talks Feb. 27 in Washington, D.C.

A round of intense talks in January didn't result in a deal, and Glading has released a new message to members about what union negotiators didn't like about American's offer. This is from a transcript of Glading's YouTube message.

"Here are just a few of the concessions demanded by AA management:

 "No permanent structural pay increases. Our current pay scale would remain the same throughout the duration of the contract.

 "Increase permanent structural costs of health benefits by 250%. Premiums would increase an average of $1600 a year, the equivalent of cutting our salary by 4%.

 "Increase our schedule max to 92.5 hours with the ability to build 30% of the lines to 95 hours.

 "Eliminate pure bids, which would decimate our bid sheet.

 "Cut vacation beyond 33% already given in 2003, and PVDs would be paid at a daily rate, regardless what your sequence is worth.

 "Cut sick leave, or keep it the same, for a large majority of Flight Attendants.

 "The company has also proposed increasing expenses by a mere 15 cents, still below what the pilots currently make. In addition, they want to eliminate expenses for turn-arounds.

 "Establish a four-year contract, with an amendable date sometime in 2014. Any improvements to wages, vacation or any other benefit would not be negotiated until after that date.

"These demands are not only unacceptable, they are outrageous. We must have a contract that recognizes our sacrifices. Management cannot be the only one who reaps the rewards of our hard work and professionalism."

To refresh, American has said its flight attendants are among "the highest compensated in the industry."

It said after the last round of talks that it "remains committed to reaching an agreement that recognizes flight attendants' service and dedication while positioning the company for long-term success. The company's proposals aim to increase flight attendants' earnings and enhance their quality work-life, while at the same time, improving productivity and therefore the cost position of the company."

American Airlines and Japan Airlines have applied for approval for a joint business arrangement, including antitrust immunity.

A curious person would want to know what that means, what is included in the venture.

Here's how American and JAL spell it out in the application:

 Codesharing: Each Applicant will codeshare on the services operated by the other to the greatest extent possible. American and JAL are separately filing for blanket codeshare approvals under the Open Skies agreement.

 Pricing: The Joint Applicants will cooperate in establishing fares, rates and pricing strategies for services provided under their alliance agreements and JBA.

 Yield Management: The Joint Applicants will cooperate on inventory control and yield management as those functions relate to services provided under the alliance agreements. The Joint Applicants will provide each other with access to their respective yield management systems, and will consult closely in the yield management process.

 Schedules: The Joint Applicants will jointly plan their respective schedules and related connecting services in order to maximize and optimize feasible routings and service options available to consumers, and to minimize connecting times for the benefit of
consumers.

 Marketing And Product Offering: The Joint Applicants will jointly market, promote and advertise the services covered by the alliance agreements. They will also seek to harmonize their respective service standards and jointly develop new products where appropriate. The carriers may seek to use an alliance mark or brand to represent their alliance and to link their frequent flyer programs.

 Frequent Flyer Programs: The Joint Applicants will offer reciprocal frequent flyer programs to allow members of one carrier's frequent flyer program to accrue mileage and redeem awards on the services of the other.

 Sales: The Joint Applicants will jointly determine the most efficient strategies for selling alliance services, coordinating their sales forces, and allocating their sales resources.

 Airports: The Joint Applicants will determine how to most efficiently utilize their facilities at the common airports they serve.

 Cost Reduction: The Joint Applicants will coordinate their efforts to reduce costs in a variety of areas, including but not limited to fuel purchasing, aircraft acquisition, and design and purchase of replacement parts.

"This extensive cooperation will allow the Joint Applicants to generate significant efficiencies and to provide an improved range of enhanced and more competitive online services and products to oneworld passengers," JAL and American said in their application. "The benefits and efficiencies of this alliance could not be achieved absent antitrust immunity."

American Airlines Inc. and Japan Airlines Corp. asked regulators Friday to grant them antitrust immunity so they can work more closely together on U.S.-Asia flights.

The application to the U.S. Department of Transportation follows JAL's announcement Tuesday that it would keep its partnership with American and the Oneworld airline alliance. Delta Air Lines Inc. had tried to bring JAL into the SkyTeam alliance.

American said the two will also inform Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of their plans for their "joint business agreement."

"An immunized JBA will benefit the public, offer new competition in the fast-growing Asian aviation marketplace and strengthen the relationship between American and Japan Airlines, which will support JAL's successful restructuring," American chairman and chief executive officer Gerard Arpey said.

"It will improve customer choice by giving the Oneworld alliance, of which American and JAL are key members, strong hub operations at Tokyo, thus allowing more vibrant competition with other global alliances in northeast Asia and beyond," he said.

JAL group chief operating officer and president Masaru Onishi said the deal will allow the two carriers "to cooperate more tightly in raising the quality of our services and thus encourage healthy competition in this promising region for the industry."

In addition, "not only will both carriers be able to improve operational efficiency but most importantly, our valued customers will receive greater benefits and convenience which we hope will place us in a position to always be the airlines of their choice," Onishi said.

Japan and the United States have a tentative deal for an "open skies" agreement designed to increase competition on routes between the two nations.

A key part of the proposed treaty is to permit Japanese and U.S. partners to receive antitrust immunity so that they can set pricing together, coordinate scheduling, share revenues, market their services jointly and otherwise cooperate.

Three key members of the competing Star Alliance - All Nippon Airways Co. Continental Airlines Inc. and United Air Lines Inc. - in December filed a similar application for antitrust immunity.

Delta in its 2008 merger with Northwest picked up Northwest's connecting hub at Tokyo's Narita Airport, including the right to fly from there to a number of other Asian cities. It also works with Korean Air in connecting passengers in Japan.

In their application Friday, American and JAL said allowing their alliance would keep a balance in the routes between the two countries. American and JAL combined operates 33.4 percent of the seats between the U.S. and Japan, they said. Delta and Korean have 31 percent of the seats, as do United, Continental and ANA.

"On a booking level, the proposed alliance will also create competitive parity. Today, American carries just 6.3 percent of U.S.-Japan passengers - far less than Delta (26.0 percent) or United (14.7 percent), the applicants wrote.

"With the proposed alliance (and United/Continental/ANA), Oneworld will account for 38.0 percent of U.S.-Japan bookings, followed by SkyTeam 29.9 percent and Star 28.0 percent," they said in the application.

"That level of competitive choice is unmatched in any other country-pair. Thus the proposed alliance will not harm competition between the U.S. and Japan, and is well within the Department's precedent in prior immunity cases."

American is now seeking antitrust immunity to cooperate with other carriers across both the Pacific and Atlantic.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is expected next week to issue a decision on the application of American, British Airways Plc and Spanish carrier Iberia for a joint business agreement and antitrust immunity. The partners filed their application in August 2008.

But a decision could come much faster in the Japan Airlines case since the memorandum of understanding made the approval of such arrangements a key part of the deal.

We've got two interesting headlines out today:

First, from United Airlines: United Jumps to No. 1 in On-time Performance in 2009

Next, from Hawaiian Airlines: Hawaiian Leads Nation's Carriers in On-Time Service for 6th Straight Year

How could they both be true? Well, it's all in how you slice the baloney.

Hawaiian Airlines indeed finished at the top of the 19 carriers that report numbers to the U.S. Department of Transportation. But United Airlines said it ranked first "among America's five largest global carriers for 2009."

So, even though Hawaiian, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Pinnacle Airlines and SkyWest finished ahead of United, United ranked first ahead of US Airways, Northwest Airlines-Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and American Airlines.

It occurs to us that any carrier can be first if it just draws the line right. Try these on for size:

"Southwest Airlines ranks No. 1 among U.S. airlines that serve at least 16 airports"

"Alaska Airlines finishes first among carriers that have to fly to Alaska"

"Pinnacle tops list of regional carriers in on-time performance"

"SkyWest finishes first in on-time arrivals among carriers with two capitalized letters in name"

"US Airways leads airline industry among large carriers that have merged lately"

"Northwest ranks first in on-time performance among airlines owned by Delta"

"Mesa Air outdoes all carriers operating in bankrupty"

"Continental tops in on-time among Houston carriers with New York area hubs"

"ExpressJet tops in on-time among Houston carriers without New York area hubs"

"Delta's on-time record heads all large carriers with at least seven domestic hubs"

"Frontier leads on-time list of airlines with funny animals on tail"

"JetBlue tromps other New York-based airlines in on-time numbers"

"American Eagle" leads bird-named carriers in on-time stats

"American bests more than two carriers in on-time performance"

"AirTran leads Florida carriers in on-time arrivals"

"ASA is top regional SkyWest subsidiary in on-time numbers, not including SkyWest Airlines"

"Comair leads industry in on-time arrivals, not including 18 competitors"

Hawaiian Airlines and Southwest Airlines finished at the top of 2009's on-time rankings, just like in 2008.

But one could argue that the real improvements showed up in the performance of big airlines.

United Airlines and American Airlines showed the biggest year-over-year increases in on-time numbers. Both launched determined efforts in 2008 to improve the reliability of their schedule, including adding time to their schedules on the ground and in the air.

United increased its on-time record by 9.4 percentage points, from 71.6 percent in 2008 to 81.0 percent in 2009. American's performance climbed 7.4 points, from 69.8 percent in 2008 to 77.2 percent in 2009.

United in 2008 finished 17th overall among the 19 airlines that report on-time numbers to the U.S. Department. In 2009, it jumped to sixth overall, and best among the big hub-and-spoke carriers.

American still ranks dismally - 16th overall and last among the six hub-and-spoke carriers, the others being United, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines (which until this year reported its numbers separately from Delta), Continental Airlines and US Airways.

But it was better than its last-place finish among all 19 carriers in 2008 and, as we said, a big improvement in actual on-time performance over 2008.

Here's a chart that ranks the carriers according to their improvement year over year. The bold-faced airlines are the top 10 carriers. On-time, in DOT parlance, means on time or within 14 minutes of schedule.

1. Don't mess with flight attendants. Even flight attendants shouldn't mess with flight attendants.

2. My minivan should be recalled for unnoticeable acceleration.

3. Watching the falling snow is fun for the first two hours, then it gets old. When you're driving in snow, it only takes about two minutes to get to that point.