AIRLINE BIZ

What's more useless when you get home than a five-cent coin from Aruba, 10 centavos from Brazil, 50 haleru from the Czech Republic, a 1,000-yen note from Japan or a one-Euro coin?

I've got an envelope full of orphan coins and currency at home, the money I couldn't quite spend at the chocolate store at the foreign airport before flying home.

But there's a way to recycle that money and put it to good use. UNICEF's Change for Good program allows travelers to donate their unused coinage and currency, to help children.

American Airlines has been participating in the program since 1994. Last year, travelers donated $1.2 million in U.S. and foreign currency, the most ever for American.

The money is collected on select international flights and at Admirals Clubs and Flagship Lounges. Donations received in January and February are earmarked to provide assistance to Haitian children.

"American Airlines and its participation in the Change for Good program is invaluable to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF for its ability to bring both funding and attention to UNICEF's work," said Caryl Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

"A little change goes a long way. We are so thankful for the generosity of American Airlines customers and the dedication of the committed American Airlines employee volunteers who choose to help improve children's lives," Stern said.

The carrier also participated in a trick-or-treating program to bring in other donations in Admirals Clubs, on board airplanes and in the workplace.

""Special congratulations and thanks to the American Airlines flight attendants whose remarkable volunteer efforts have made this all possible," said Dan Garton, American's executive vice president of marketing.

For more information on the program and how you can donate, click here.

Once again, Fortune magazine has come out with its list of most admired companies, and once again, the process has us scratching our heads.

Southwest Airlines ranks 12th on the list, which is headed by Apple, Google and Berkshire Hathaway. The only other passenger carrier on the list is Singapore Airlines, No. 27. Cargo carriers FedEx is No. 13 and UPS is 33rd.

But if you go to the list by industry, Southwest ranks fourth among airlines, behind Singapore, Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

Here's the difference, I think. The Top 50 list is voted on by businesspeople from all industries. The industry lists are voted on by the people from that particular industry.

Here's what Fortune wrote about Southwest:

Despite facing the most difficult economy ever for the airline industry, the leading low-cost U.S. carrier gained market share and extended its flight map. Southwest added new routes, including gates at New York's LaGuardia, and made an unsuccessful bid in August to acquire bankrupt rival Frontier Airlines for $170 million.

And while other cash-strapped carriers have started adding fees for checking a bag, Southwest will still carry two for free, earning from consumers and business the respect it touts with its stock ticker symbol: LUV.

Last year, Southwest ranked No. 7 overall and third on the airline list. Continental led the group last year, followed by Air France-KLM. Singapore was fourth, Lufthansa was fifth and Delta was sixth.

Only Delta and low-ranked US Airways improved their scores from 2009.

Check out Fortune's March 22 issue for the full story, but keep reading below for the airline list, with 2009 and 2010 scores.

1. The problem in predicting an airline strike is that the National Mediation Board has to allow it. And who knows what its three members are thinking?

2. I like to look at auto makes like Ferraris and Porsches at the car shows. If I cannot afford a car, I prefer to not afford the very best.

3. My activities over spring break will depend on showtimes at the cheap theater and which restaurant 2-for-1 coupons haven't expired.

We had a conference call today with the undersecretary of defense in charge of procurement and Lockheed Martin's top boss Bob Stevens. The topic: How the mixed-up F-35 program is gonna get better fast.

The program, only the world's most expensive weapons buy in the history of buying weapons, was looking to be 30 months behind schedule by the last check. For a jet fighter program like this -- three variants built off the same manufacturing line, each loaded with the highest of high-tech surveillance gear -- being that far behind is not totally unexpected but turns out to be very, very expensive when you've got 8 "partner" nations and three U.S. service branches involved in the building of it and they want their planes, well, on-time.

So the Pentagon and Lockheed have a plan to cut that "delay" down to a tidy 13 months instead of 30. I tried to get pretty excited about this press conference but what it means for North Texas is: The same. Jet gets built here. Lots of them. Creating many, many jobs down the road. Lockheed, headquartered elsewhere and hence really not on our radar screen, gets its hand slapped hard and is told to get ahold of itself, but the Lockheed program manager Dan Crowley is staying and gets a vote of confidence.

Moving on...

The damage reports from February's winter storms are still arriving, and the results aren't pretty.

FlightStats.com, which tracks U.S. airlines and their flights, said Thursday that carriers cancelled nearly 38,000 flights last month, with Southwest Airlines hit hardest.

FlightStats said Southwest canceled 3,687 flights, Delta Air Lines canceled 3,370, American Eagle cancelled 2,779, American Airlines cancelled 2,509 and US Airways cancelled 2,195.

But US Airways cancelled the highest percentage of its February flights, 6.24 percent, followed by United Airlines with 5.58 percent. Southwest at 4.45 percent was eighth among the nation's nine largest carriers in percentage of flights cancelled.

The worst performers were the smaller regional airlines, led by five regional carriers that cancelled over one in 10 February flights.

The storm predicably had a big impact on on-time arrivals, FlightStats said.

"In February on average, North American airlines managed to deliver just 72.85 percent of their flights to the gate on time - down from January's 77 percent and lower than last year's surprising 81 percent performance," FlightStats said.

"As bad as the weather was, the February's average was still better than the same month in 2007 and 2008," it added.

Continental Airlines, which shut down its Newark hub on Feb. 10 and Feb. 26, pegged the cost of winter storms in February at $25 million in lost revenue. US Airways, also a big player in the eastern United States, estimated its lost revenue at $30 million.

"Due to the length and severity of the storms, flight operations were suspended for a total of six days at three of the hardest hit major airports (three days at Washington National, two days at Philadelphia, and one day at New York- LaGuardia)," US Airways said.

The weather problems helped drop Southwest to seventh in on-time performance among the 39 carriers tracked. Alaska led the big carriers at No. 3, and United Airlines was sixth.

US Airways finished 13th, Continental was 14th, Delta was 15th, American Airlines was 17th, AirTran Airways ranked 19th and and JetBlue was 30th.

Keep reading to see a chart that shows the number and percentage of cancelled flights by airline, ranked from worst to best.

John Conley, Air Transport Division director for the Transport Workers Union, has released a statement addressing contract talks with American Airlines. It discusses the situation with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and the TWU's own talks with American:

"Speaking for all 28,000 TWU members employed by AMR, we're very disappointed that the flight attendants union was not able to reach an agreement with American Airlines. It now appears that APFA will seek release from mediation.

"We know where they're coming from. It has become increasingly clear that management at American Airlines is not committed to reaching an agreement with the airlines' workers and AMR's unions must take additional steps to secure a new agreement.

"Just sitting at the bargaining table is not negotiating. The flight attendants, like AMR's ground workers, require a contract that is 'ratifiable.'

"Our members who kept this company aloft by taking 30 percent wage cuts and making other sacrifices will not accept pennies for their labors, nor will they just grin and bear it when management is taking seven-figure bonuses.

"American Airlines is gaining anti-trust immunity in the Atlantic and strengthening the Oneworld alliance in the Pacific, its stock is up 30 percent in February alone. If management would only address its labor issues it would fly even higher.

"AMR's executives are simply not recognizing the enormous contributions made by our members. Over the past four years we have utilized a facilitated approach, direct negotiations, mediation, super meditation and recess sessions, all to no avail.

"Releasing the parties is the natural order of progression and called for under the Railway Labor Act. TWU will be making an announcement about next steps in the bargaining process for ground workers next week."

Conley has said TWU would seek a release on Monday, March 8, if it doesn't have a deal with American by then.

This is when it gets dicey for reporters covering contract talks at American Airlines.

On one hand, we have the unions raising the specter of work stoppages as a means to create negotiations leverage. The flight attendants have raised the possibility; the ground workers have raised the possibility.

On the other hand, we have the airline soothingly saying everything's fine, talks take a long time, everybody remain calm and go back to sleep.

Our job here isn't to help the unions increase their leverage. Our job isn't to help the airlines decrease the union's leverage.

Our job is to let the public, particularly the traveling public, get a true sense of what is going on and what might happen.

So you tell me - what are the chances that the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Transport Workers Union or Allied Pilots Association will go on strike any time soon?

Unless your name is Elizabeth Dougherty, Harry Hoglander or Linda Puchala, you're just guessing. Those three are the chairwoman and two other members of the National Mediation Board.

They alone will decide if contract talks have gone as far as they can and that the negotiations have reached an impasse.

The NMB historically has been very reluctant to reach that point. Its job is to help the two sides reach a deal they can live with, and to authorize self-help like strikes and imposed contracts only after all else fails.

Can this board be convinced by American's unions that the good-faith efforts at a negotiated deal have gone as far as they can go and that they should be released into the 30-day cooling-off period that precedes a potential job action?

Don't know. Only the NMB knows that in its collective heart of hearts.

On Feb. 21, a reader emailed me for advice. "We're planning a trip to Ecuador in June, and I'm debating whether to fly American because I know about their labor situation and don't want to get stranded/have our trip messed up because of a strike," he wrote.

I was absolutely no help to him. I just don't know.

Here's what the Association of Professional Flight Attendants put in its Wednesday night hotline:

This is APFA President Laura Glading. It is Wednesday, March 3, 2010. This is a special report from the lockdown bargaining talks with American which just concluded in Washington. DC.

At 6:30 this evening, we gave the company a realistic proposal that addressed our Flight Attendants' needs and the company's concerns. Rather than take any time to consider this offer, the company exited the room, informing APFA that it would not be in position to make a counter-proposal tonight.

After over 21 months of talks, this action by management is inexcusable.

AA management showed its true colors in full view of our Federal Mediator. Their team departed the scene without so much as a response.

Management has continuously come to meetings ill-prepared to bargain in good faith as required by the Railway Labor Act. These last five days have been no different. More than just ill-prepared, they have shown that they refuse to fairly deal with our Flight Attendants who under any measure have sacrificed enough.

We are through with the disregard and the disrespect.
Now we must move to the next step. Talk is clearly getting us nowhere with this company. We will be contacting the National Mediation Board on Thursday to request release into a 30-day cooling off period.

We will be meeting with the APFA Board of Directors beginning Sunday for a full review and to initiate the steps to move forward with a strike authorization ballot of the membership.

American Flight Attendants have been down this path before and we remain unified and strong. Now, with no other options on the table, management has forced us to take the next step necessary to get the contract we have worked so hard for.

As we have more information from the NMB, from your Negotiating Team and from the APFA Board, we will post it online at APFA.org.

Please continue to support your Team and your fellow Flight Attendants. Our futures and our careers depend on it. Thank you.

American Airlines Inc. and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants ended their five-day negotiating session Wednesday evening without a deal. In two items below this one, we have American's position and we have the APFA position.

As you'll note in the APFA statement, union president Laura Glading said the union will contact the National Mediation Board on Thursday to schedule a meeting to talk about releasing the union from further mediation and starting the clock ticking on a possible strike.

American in its statement said the union's last proposal was too expensive and would make American uncompetitive.

We don't have any indication that the NMB is ready to release APFA yet. It's been loathe to do so in recent history, preferring to hold management and union in mediation.

For example, Hawaiian Airlines pilot asked in October 2009 to be released so that the 30-day cooling-off period could begin. Instead, the NMB kept both sides at the table, and they reached a tentative agreement in December.

Also, as you'll read, the union said American walked out of negotiations. American spokeswoman Missy Latham has this followup comment:

"The notion that we walked out is categorically untrue. In fact, American Airlines negotiators are still in Washington, D.C. This round of talks was always scheduled to conclude at the end of business Wednesday evening and American Airlines actually agreed to wait to hear the union's counter-proposal. We agreed to review this version and the mediator recessed the session, after 7 p.m. ET. We will respond to the counter-proposal at our next negotiating session."

American Airlines version of the latest round of talks:

February 27 - March 3, 2010

The last five days of negotiations concluded Wednesday, March 3, as scheduled by the mediator.

Demonstrating our willingness to negotiate an agreement in a timely manner, the company presented a comprehensive proposal that significantly moved toward APFA in several areas of the contract, including compensation where the company offered structural increases.

As we've said all along, the company is willing to be creative in finding solutions that meet the needs of both parties. We recognize that structural increases are very important to the APFA. In order to offer those increases and other items key to APFA - like sequence pay protection and increased vacation and sick - we've proposed an eight-year deal that would help us to balance our costs over the long term.

APFA's current proposal would cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars over the life of their proposed six and a half - year contract, which would keep our labor costs at an uncompetitive level in relation to other carriers. This is an economic reality the company has asked APFA to recognize so both sides can work out an agreement that will allow the airline to compete successfully and provide competitive pay and benefits and a good career for its employees.

The parties are awaiting next steps from the mediator, and look forward to continuing to bargain when the mediator establishes the next set of dates.

New elements that the company proffered in its latest proposal are detailed below (more explanation around each of these elements will be included in the next edition of "Flight Attendant Negotiations News"). For the full proposal, click here.

(Keep reading for American's presentation of its last contract offer.)

This is the Association of Professional Flight Attendants' press release after the latest rounds of talks ended without a contract deal:

Washington, DC -- Negotiations between American Airlines Flight Attendants and management broke down today when the company left the bargaining table with ten hours remaining before the scheduled end of the intense five-day bargaining session.

At 6:30 pm ET, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) gave the company a realistic proposal that addressed the Flight Attendants' needs and the company's concerns. Rather than take any time to consider this offer, the Company exited the room informing APFA that it would not be in position to make a counter-proposal this evening.

"This conduct is just another demonstration of the Company's bad faith bargaining that has been in full bloom for the past 23 months," said APFA President Laura Glading. "This display shows complete disrespect and disregard for our hard working Flight Attendants.

"APFA remains prepared to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement, but it is clear, now more than ever, that the company does not share the same interest," Glading continued. "Delay only serves the company. Each day without a new agreement equals another million dollars in the pocket of American.

"The company's actions speak loudly. When the bargaining party that sits across the table does not want to reach an agreement, that leaves the other party with no recourse other than to move to the next step," Glading continued. "We have exhausted all of our options and will now meet with our Board this weekend to move forward with the balloting of the membership for a strike vote."

APFA will be contacting the National Mediation Board tomorrow to schedule a meeting to request a release into a thirty-day cooling off period, at the end of which, APFA can choose to engage in a strike or other forms of self-help.

"Flight Attendants have been down this path before and we remain unified and strong. Now, with no other options on the table, management has forced us to take the next step necessary to get the contract we have worked so hard for," Glading concluded.

That ticking clock you imagine hearing is located at the National Mediation Board in Washington, D.C., near where American Airlines and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants are hanging out.

Wednesday is the last of five days of intense negotiations, and we haven't heard anything out of there yet. No contract, no impasse, no nothing.

Assuming no tentative agreement comes out of these talks, let's lay out the possibilities after about 22 months of talks:

1. The NMB mediator says the parties are making progress, and let's meet again in April or May.

2. The NMB mediator says the parties aren't making progress, that they should go back and rethink their final positions and let's meet again in April or May. Or August. Or September. Or during the next administration.

3. The NMB pushes the flight attendant negotiators to take American's last, final offer to its membership for a vote, even if the negotiating team and the union's leadership won't recommend its passage.

4. The NMB concludes that the talks have gone as far as they can go and proffers binding arbitration to both sides. That's a prelude to a 30-day cooling-off period.

APFA president Laura Glading has said the union will ask for a release from mediation, setting off the proffer-cooling-off-possible-strike timetable, if the two sides don't have a deal from this round of talks, which began Saturday.

But she said that after a previous round in January, and any public request was short-circuited when the federal mediator scheduled the Feb. 27-March 3 sessions.

We like it when airports get "local" - get some local (or, in this case, regional) chain in there and give it a go. We want local flavor in airports. Gives them a sense of place. Alas, local chains have to struggle often in airports because while we know who they are, the connecting passenger who isn't from here just thinks they're odd and don't go. It's a tough market. So what we end up in airports is a landscape of sameness: Friday's, Chili's Too (local in that the parent company is here), and the usual suspects.

So I'm interested in watching how the first Pappas name does at D/FW. Pappasito's is Tex-Mex and has a pretty strong following here.

The really intriguing restaurant for Houston-based Pappas is when they try to get Pappadeaux's going in Terminal A - more upscale, seafood fare. The kicker is that the restaurant is going to be DOWNSTAIRS in terminal A, living in the space that the old TrAAin used to be in.

At yesterday's airport board meeting, staff told the board that D/FW has WAAAY too many restaurants and retail spaces and its shows in its somewhat lame sales per square foot figures when compared to peer airports. The solution? Whittle the group down over the next decade through the terminal redesign project by selectively not renewing leases and such. Basically, give the survivors a chance to make money, because places like Terminal D are frequently struggling because there are too many places to eat and shop and not enough passengers.

With that in mind, what's stacked against the good Pappas project in PappaDeaux's later this year is that it's a local chain (so 2/3rds of the passengers there won't know what that is because they're connecting), it's going to require you to walk up and down stairs to see it and there's a chance you'll never even know it's there. Plus, they're going to start a big renovation project in Terminal A -- the Pappadeaux's stays open during this, but in an active construction project. I mean, I love the Pappas stuff -- the Pappas Bros. steakhouse, in my opinion, the best steak in town if you can live with the less-than-thrilling location -- but can you have more things stacked against your new airport restaurant? Is anybody going to go?

Come back, oh barefoot boy with cheek of tan and final clearance for departure.

A New York air traffic controller has been suspended after the Federal Aviation Administration found out that he had permitted his young son to handle a few flights.

""This lapse in judgment not only violated FAA's own policies, but common sense standards for professional conduct," FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said. "These kinds of distractions are totally unacceptable."

He added: "We have an incredible team of professionals who safely control our nation's skies every single day. This kind of behavior does not reflect the true caliber of our workforce."

The FAA described the situation involving the New York Kennedy facility thusly:

The two JFK Tower employees, a supervisor and an air traffic controller, are on administrative leave pending the outcome of an official FAA investigation into the incident which is already underway. ...

In addition, all unofficial visits to FAA air traffic control operational areas, such as towers and radar rooms, will be suspended during the investigation. The FAA Administrator has directed a team to conduct a full-scale review of air traffic control policies and procedures related to facility visitors.

CBS News, which has a report including the audio of the 9-year-old controller, says the incident happened on Feb. 17. Click below to see the CBS report and hear the tapes.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger released a statement Wednesday to mark his last day as an active US Airways pilot:

"Thirty years ago last Thursday, I began my airline career. I have been fortunate to have followed my passion for most of my life, working in a profession I dearly love, side by side with thousands of wonderful colleagues, including the man flying my final flight with me, Jeff Skiles.

"Each generation of pilots hopes that they will leave their profession better off than they found it. In spite of the best efforts of thousands of my colleagues, that is not the case today.

"Though I am retiring, I will continue to serve as the same kind of advocate I have always been - not only for aviation safety, but for the airline piloting profession. I will work to remind the entire industry - and those who manage and regulate it - that we have a sacred duty to our passengers to do the very best that we know how to do."

The US Airline Pilots Association says that Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger will share his last flight Wednesday with first officer Jeff Skiles, his partner on the "Miracle on the Hudson" flight in January 2009.

The union also said that he'll officially retire at a private ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the Charlotte airport.

"Sully has always been a pilot's pilot and a fine example of a professional aviator. He has also done a remarkable job of focusing the American public's attention on the need for well-trained and experienced pilots at the controls of commercial aircraft," USAPA president Mike Cleary said.

"Sully's final flight reminds us all that another veteran pilot is leaving the skies - and an experienced, well-trained pilot is the single most important component of safety on any aircraft," Cleary said.

"Congress, airline companies and the flying public should demand that the next generation of expert aviators have incentives to do the hard work to take the place of Sully and the many others nearing retirement age - and not to further tarnish this once-proud profession," he said.

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger is retiring Wednesday.

And so is Doreen Welsh, one of the three flight attendants aboard Sullenberger's Jan. 15, 2009, flight that landed in the Hudson River.

"I am extremely proud of Capt. Sullenberger and Doreen for their quick thinking and courageous actions on Jan. 15, 2009," US Airways chairman and CEO Doug Parker said.

"They exemplify the professionalism and training US Airways' more than 10,000 pilots and flight attendants demonstrate thousands of times every day across our airline. We will miss them and thank them for all they have given to our customers during their years of service with our airline," Parker said.

US Airways Flight 1549, destined for Charlotte, N.C., had just taken off from New York LaGuardia in mid-afternoon when a flock of geese was sucked into both engines.

While first officer Jeff Skiles tried to regain power in the engines, Sullenberger turned the airplane in a sweeping left turn and quickly decided they could not make it to any available airport.

Sullenberger and Skiles guided the airplane to a landing in the Hudson River alongside midtown Manhattan, with no loss of life and relatively few injuries. The two pilots, three flight attendants and 150 passengers exited the airplane safely.

Welsh was the one crew member injured seriously enough to be hospitalized. She is wrapping up nearly 40 years with US Airways and its predecessor, Allegheny Airlines.

In the months after the crash, Sullenberger, 59, wrote a book, appeared on lots of television shows and was in high demand as a speaker.

He joined the carrier's flight operations safety management team in September. He captained his first post-crash US Airways flight on Oct. 1.

Sullenberger in 1980 joined PSA Airlines, another US Airways predecessor.

Photo credit: Associated Press/Jason DeCrow.

United Airlines said Tuesday it will begin daily service from Washington to Accra, Ghana, on June 20.

That will make it the second U.S. carrier to fly nonstop to Africa, joining Delta Air Lines.

"With the addition of service to Accra, United now offers customers nonstop service to points on six continents," said Mark Schwab, United's senior vice president of alliances, international & regulatory affairs.

"We look forward to offering service to Lagos - subject to approval by Nigerian officials - which will enable our customers to travel between Lagos and Washington more quickly and conveniently," he said.

The new flights will put United in a very small club, joining Delta as the only U.S. carriers to offer flights to six continents.

American Airlines and Continental Airlines fly to four continents, with no flights to Africa or Australia, although Continental Micronesia serves Cairns, Australia, from Guam.

Last week, American Airlines sent out "From the Ground Up," an update on negotiations with its fleet service clerks, represented by the Transport Workers Union.

This week, the union has responded with its own "From the Ground Up" document that gives its view of the same negotiations.

A basic point in the TWU document is that American's mailer discussed what it was willing to give employees, but not what it wanted to take.

John Conley, director of the TWU's Air Transport Division, defends the union's positions in the talks, which began in November 2007:

"These proposals were crafted in ways that would not degrade your contract or do harm to current or future members; they were proposals that would provide AA with long term competitive changes that would address their needs in the long run.

"But they want it all now. Management continues to pass proposals that will degrade our agreements permanently in exchange for pocket change. They seek fundamental modifications but refuse to assign dollar values to them.

"In the end they want a bankruptcy agreement without the bankruptcy."

In its mailer, American said the two sides had made "significant progress" in the talks:

"This progress is the result of working together toward the same end goal: a contract that is in the long-term best interest of our airline, Fleet Service and Ground Service employees, customers and everyone depending on American to succeed."

Conley has said that if talks don't result in agreements, the union is prepared next week to ask the National Mediation Board to agree that talks are at an impasse and release the two sides from further mediation.

That's a step that would American has said would be premature. It's a step that would lead to a potential strike.

Association of Professional Flight Attendants leaders have said they're ready as well to ask an impasse declared if the current talks don't result in a tentative agreement. American and the APFA began meeting Saturday in NMB offices in Washington and are supposed to meet through Wednesday.

Look, I'm getting tired as you are of all these YouTube dubbings of Hitler's rant in the 2004 movie "Der Untergang."

But this version was particularly clever, so I recommend it. It has Hitler discussing weather-related cancellations in Atlanta

Traffic grew in all regions of the world in January, but the slowest increase was in North America, the International Air Transport Association said Tuesday.

Overall, industry traffic climbed 6.4 percent over January 2009, but only 2.1 percent in North America, IATA said. The biggest jumps were shown in the Middle East, 23.6 percent, and Latin America, 11.0 percent.

IATA's conclusion overall for January's results - the industry is doing better, but not necessarily well. "Airlines have lost 2-3 years of growth," said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's director general and CEO.

"Demand is moving in the right direction," he said. "The 3.0 percent increase in freight volumes from December to January is particularly encouraging. We can start to see the future with some cautious optimism, but better volumes do not necessarily mean better profits."

Passenger yields, or the average fare paid per passenger per mile, remain 15 percent under their peak, "and we expect 2010 losses to be $5.6 billion," Bisignani said in IATA's press release.

Here's a chart of how the various regions did in January compared to a year earlier:

Traffic is in revenue passenger kilometers, and capacity is in available passenger kilometers, not that that matters. Load factor is percentage of seats filled by paying passengers:

Freight is in tonnage, capacity is how much tonnage could have been carried:

1. American Airlines opened its new cargo facility at New York Kennedy International Airport on Monday.

"After 45 years in our previous facility, we are pleased to provide a state-of-the-art cargo terminal at New York JFK - one of our most important hubs," said Dave Brooks, president of American Airlines Cargo.

"Our investment in high-speed handling systems for containerized freight, expanded dock and storage capacity, and a beautiful interior environment is designed to maximize the experience of our valued customers," he said.

Here's what it touts:

* More than 135,000 square feet of warehouse space

* 24 dock doors

* An "Elevated Transfer Vehicle" handling system which "includes two 20-foot ETVs with a storage capacity equivalent to 385 upper-deck aircraft positions."

* Three coolers for perishable products

* An environmental room

* A live-animal handling area.

2. American's C.R. Smith Museum is focusing on women's aviation in March, with a photographic exhibit. In addition, there'll Saturday movies featuring women in aviation.

The movies start at 11 a.m. with film of Amelia Earhart, followed by film of women's roles in aviation history at 1 p.m. and a film about Women Airforce Service Pilots in World War II.

3. American Airlines is supplying a special Boeing 767 to take aviation pioneers on a morale-building trip to Germany and Southwest Asia. The trip leaves Chicago on Thursday and returns to New York Kennedy on March 13.

On the trip will be Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon (followed very shortly afterward by Buzz Aldrin); Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon; and Jim Lovell, the last man who was supposed to step on the moon and didn't.

Also participating are test Bob Gilliland, the first man to fly the SR-71 Blackbird, and Steve Ritchie, the only Air Force pilot ace after the Korean War (he bagged five MiGs in 1972 during the Vietnam War).

New York Kennedy doesn't have a lot of nonstop flights from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, but the closing Monday of its longest runway for four months will cause problems for many airlines and many passengers.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is having Runway 13R-31L resurfaced and widened from 150 feet to 200 feet. The runway handles about a third of Kennedy's flights every day.

In 2008, Kennedy was the 13th busiest airport in passengers handled, according to Airports Council International, and sixth busiest in the United States. What's more, it consistently ranks poorly among 31 major airports in on-time arrivals.

In 2009, Kennedy ranked 28th with only 73.5 percent of its flights arriving on time or within 14 minutes. That left ahead of only Atlanta, 72.6 percent, and the other two major New York area airports, LaGuardia, 68.7 percent, and Newark, 65.8 percent.

The New York Post had this paragraph:

"I understand you have to keep the infrastructure up, but JFK's already a mess, so no one might even notice," said Roberto Giovanni, a 42-year-old fund manager from Manhattan, as he waited for his wife and daughter to arrive yesterday.

The airport has a parallel runway, 13L-31R, that is 10,000 feet long, or nearly 7/8 of a mile shorter than the one that's closing. JFK also has two other runways, 4L-22R at 11,351 and 4R-22L at 8,400 feet.

This is the first major rework on Runway 13R-31L since 1993. Here's how PANYNJ described the project when officials approved it in February 2009:

"The proposed authorization would include removing six inches of the existing runway surface and replacing it with 18 inches of Portland cement concrete, widening the runway surface from 150 feet to 200 feet, taxiway fillet widening, improvements to access taxiways, runway safety area re-grading, new runway lighting and electrical infrastructure, a new electrical feeder system to the runway and accommodations for future navigational aids."

From D/FW Airport, American Airlines has one daily round trip to JFK on an MD-80 and Comair operates a daily round trip aboard a CRJ-900.

Travelocity has looked at popular spring break destinations and put out a list with some popular places where prices are down.

"Airfare is up, but not everywhere," Travelocity senior editor Genevieve Shaw Brown said in a press release.

"Travelocity found popular spring break destinations where both airfare and hotel rates are down compared to last year," she said. "Travelers who are flexible with their destinations should search these spots for travel deals and book vacation packages to save even more money."

Here's a chart that shows some of Travelocity's findings:

Winter blizzards, summer crowds, spring thunderstorms, fall thunderstorms -- there are a million reasons why some months do more havoc to airline schedules than others.

That's gives us our question for this week: Name the month that has the worst on-time record.

Bonus question: Name the month that has the best on-time record.

Our answer is based on the 15-year average from 1995 through 2009 of the monthly numbers reported by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. An on-time arrival is a flight that arrives within 14 minutes of schedule.

Answers below.