American Airlines delays the start of Chicago O’Hare-Beijing to May 4

American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth) was unable to launch its daily, nonstop flight service from Chicago (O’Hare) to Beijing yesterday (April 26) as planned and will delay the start-up tentatively until Tuesday, May 4 (Chicago-Beijing) and Wednesday, May 5 (Beijing-Chicago).

American did not receive the commercially-viable landing and take-off slots for Beijing Capital International Airport from the Chinese aviation authorities.

American stated “In line with established International Air Transport Association (IATA) and industry guidelines and procedures which give preferential treatment to new-entrant carriers to a market, American applied for commercially reasonable — and industry accepted — slots at Beijing in October 2009.”

In other news, American Airlines, American Eagle and their employees have continued their long-standing support of veterans and active military service members through a variety of special activities in recent weeks.

During the first quarter of 2010, American, American Eagle and employee volunteers supported a number of initiatives related to the military and veterans, including:

Medal of Honor charter flight: On March 25, National Medal of Honor Day, American Airlines flew 40 of the remaining 91 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients from New York to Washington, D.C., aboard its special Flagship Liberty yellow-ribbon aircraft. The trip included a visit to the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony.

WASP event: March 6-8, American Airlines flew 382 Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) and their family members from various points throughout the United States to Washington, D.C. President Obama presented the WASPs with the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The first women in U.S. history who were trained to fly military aircraft, the WASPs served heroically during World War II.

Gary Sinise concerts: Award-winning actor Gary Sinise (“Forrest Gump,” “Apollo 13,” “CSI: NY”) and his band, the Lt. Dan Band, partner with American Airlines to present concerts to benefit the troops, veterans and their families. On March 18, Sinise and his band gave a performance to welcome home more than 700 soldiers of Task Force Phoenix VII during a day-long celebration for the soldiers and their families at the home of the “Fighting 69th,” the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. Sinise’s tribute concert also benefited the SSG Chris Engledrum Foundation, established in memory of a member of the Fighting 69th who was killed in the line of duty in Iraq in 2004.

Medal of Honor Portrait presentations: American Airlines assists artist Phil Taylor and the American Fallen Soldiers Project (AFSP) in his mission to deliver original hand-painted Medal of Honor Portraits of fallen heroes to their families. On March 17, American Airlines transported a portrait to New York City for presentation to the family of SFC Jared Monti of Raynham, Mass., who was killed in action on June 21, 2006, in Afghanistan.

Honor Flights: On March 10-11, American Airlines, along with HBO®, Marriott Hotels & Resorts and The Honor Flight Network, flew 250 World War II veterans to visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the first time. These veterans were honored with send-off ceremonies as they embarked on “Honor Flights” at various airports across the country aboard American’s Flagship Liberty aircraft. The flights were held in conjunction with the premiere of The Pacific, HBO’s epic 10-part miniseries based on the true stories of World War II Marines who fought in the Pacific Theater.

Legends of Aerospace Tour: American Airlines joined with Armed Forces Entertainment and the Morale Entertainment Foundation to transport a group of famed aviators and astronauts on a “Legends of Aerospace Tour” to visit U.S. troops stationed in Germany and Southwest Asia. On March 4, the group, including Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, and Captain Jim Lovell, Commander of Apollo 13, traveled aboard a special yellow-ribbon aircraft from American’s hub at Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany, where the men continued their journey, meeting with more than 10,000 troops, giving motivational speeches and joining in panel discussions.

United States Honor Flag (USHF): American Airlines is a proud supporter of the United States Honor Flag, a non-profit organization dedicated to memorializing fallen heroes and to educating the public about the heroes of yesterday and today. The first Honor Flag was given to the USHF’s founder, Chris Heisler, by the Texas House of Representatives following Sept. 11. The flag had flown over Ground Zero, and the USHF was established to ensure that it continues to fly in support of America’s heroes.

Veteran/Military Employee Resource Group (VMERG): American’s VMERG, the first of its type in the U.S. airline industry, is composed of employee volunteers whose purpose is to promote the roles and contributions of veterans and active-duty military employees, and to serve as a liaison between American Airlines, American Eagle, and the veteran and military communities. Among its many activities, in March, members of the VMERG, along with the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Air Transport Division Veterans Committee, visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to distribute donated items, such as toothbrushes and other common personal items, to the patients. With the help of the USO and the VMERG, the TWU Air Transport Division Veterans Committee donated more than $9,000 and dozens of needed items, helping more than 100 wounded warriors and their families.

Frontier Airlines Offering Cheap Airline Tickets to Celebrate Colorado Day

Frontier Airlines is celebrating Colorado Day because Denver is their base location that they operate out of. They are offering the lowest airfare tickets for the year going to Colorado. The sale is going on from August 1st and ends at 11:59 p.m. EDT on August 4, 2010. The prices are advertised as one way fares. If you aren’t traveling to Colorado, you still can find other discounted flights with their Duck Sale which has several flights starting at $29 one way and is on sale for the same days.

Frontier Airlines have been operating out of Colorado for over 16 years now, which is why they are offering discount airline tickets for the next couple of days. Denver is their largest hub that Frontier Airlines operates out of in United States. Colorado Day is celebrating its 134th anniversary of becoming a state.

You have to book your discounted flight tickets at least 14 days in advance and are for travel dates for off-peak travel August 24 through November 17, 2010. The cheapest flight days are on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. The other days have a slightly higher airfare price. Seats are limited and some flight days might not be available, especially during busy travel days.

Here a just a few sample discounts flight tickets included in the Colorado Airfare Sale:

Albuquerque, New Mexico to Denver $29
Los Angeles to Denver $ 59
Chicago to Denver $59
Fairbanks Alaska to Denver $199

Depending on the fare purchased there could be a $20 fee for the first piece of checked luggage, and a $30 fee for the second piece. There are additional taxes and fees that are not included in the sales price, so make sure to read the fine print when booking your flight.

You can book your flights at Fontier Airlines website.

Continental Airlines Flight Service Growth During March 2010

Continental Airlines reported a March consolidated (mainline plus regional) load factor of 83.1 percent, 3.7 points above the March 2009 consolidated load factor, and a mainline load factor of 83.6 percent, 3.7 points above the March 2009 mainline load factor. Both March load factors were records for the month. The carrier reported a record domestic mainline March load factor of 85.8 percent, 1.5 points above the March 2009 domestic mainline load factor, and an international mainline load factor of 81.7 percent, 5.9 points above March 2009.

During March, Continental recorded a U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) on-time arrival rate of 77.7 percent and a mainline segment completion factor of 99.8 percent.

In March 2010, Continental flew 7.9 billion consolidated revenue passenger miles (RPMs) and 9.5 billion consolidated available seat miles (ASMs), resulting in a consolidated traffic increase of 5.2 percent and a capacity increase of 0.5 percent as compared to March 2009. In March 2010, Continental flew 7.0 billion mainline RPMs and 8.4 billion mainline ASMs, resulting in a mainline traffic increase of 5.5 percent and a mainline capacity increase of 0.8 percent as compared to March 2009. Domestic mainline traffic was 3.4 billion RPMs in March 2010, up 0.3 percent from March 2009, and domestic mainline capacity was 4.0 billion ASMs, down 1.4 percent from March 2009.

For March 2010, consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (RASM) is estimated to have increased between 14.5 and 15.5 percent compared to March 2009, while mainline RASM is estimated to have increased between 13.0 and 14.0 percent. For February 2010, consolidated passenger RASM increased 7.7 percent compared to February 2009, while mainline passenger RASM increased 5.8 percent compared to February 2009.

Continental ended the first quarter 2010 with an unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balance of approximately $3.15 billion.

Continental’s regional operations had a March load factor of 79.2 percent, 3.5 points above the March 2009 regional load factor. Regional RPMs were 838.5 million and regional ASMs were 1,058.1 million in March 2010, resulting in a traffic increase of 2.8 percent and a capacity decrease of 1.8 percent versus March 2009.

Continental Airlines is the world’s fifth largest airline. Continental, together with Continental Express and Continental Connection, has more than 2,500 daily departures throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, serving 133 domestic and 135 international destinations. Continental is a member of Star Alliance, which overall offers 19,700 daily flights to 1,077 airports in 175 countries through its 26 member airlines. With more than 41,000 employees, Continental has hubs serving New York, Houston, Cleveland and Guam, and together with its regional partners, carries approximately 63 million passengers per year.

AirAsia New Flight Destination To Melbourne

Having launched into its third Australian market with a new A330, AirAsiaX is now hunting for its fourth destination.

The Kuala Lumpur-based airline started four-weekly services to Melbourne on Wednesday after recently starting services to Perth.

It already operates to the Gold Coast and Sydney is its next obvious target.

AirAsiaX chief executive Azran Osman-Rani said the airline would be looking at a fourth Australian destination “pretty soon”, but declined to specify.

Noting that the airline wanted to fly to all the major cities, he agreed Sydney was a possibility if the airline could make a service work “with the limitations of the airport”.

AirAsiaX also announced this week that it was axing all fuel surcharges on its fares to Kuala Lumpur.

Mr Osman-Rani said the move, like the airline’s sales fares, was designed to encourage people to travel.

“We do want people to keep travelling, even in these more challenging economic times, and we’ve always believed that lower fares will get people to travel when they would not normally think of travelling,” he said.

Mr Osman-Rani agreed the financial crisis was starting to feed through to the real economy, but said he expected the impact on AirAsiaX to be neutral.

He said the outlook for the next three or four months was “quite robust”.

“There will be segments of passengers who may have travelled with us but during this time would be cutting back,” he said.

“Then there also people who would have travelled with full-service carriers but are perhaps more price conscious, so they are gravitating to us. And that’s why we’re seeing more people at our low-cost terminal in KL.”

The airline hopes to upgrade its Melbourne services to daily for the peak Christmas season and launch permanent daily flights to the Victorian capital from March.

It also plans to start services the Britain in March and still hopes to offer sub-$1000 return fares to and from Australia. Mr Osman-Rani said this would boost volumes on the Australian routes.

Southwest Airlines Change Flight Services

Southwest Airlines will reduce service between Bradley International Airport and Florida beginning in late August.

The number of nonstops between Bradley and Orlando will drop from three a day to two, and nonstops between Bradley and Tampa will drop from two a day to one.

Southwest Airlines currently has 115 departures a week from Bradley.

Brad Hawkins, a spokesman for Southwest, said the company is responding to both the economy and to normal seasonal changes.

“People don’t fly on a Tuesday in October like they do a Friday in June,” he said.

Southwest this month added daily, nonstop service to Denver from Bradley, restoring a Connecticut link to the Rockies that Frontier Airlines shut down.

As the Southwest blog noted, “We’re still growing Boston/Logan, adding three more nonstops to Philadelphia and another to Baltimore/Washington, bringing us to a total of 25 daily departures from Beantown.”