Planes were more likely to land on time and bags less likely to get lost in 2009, according to an annual analysis of airline quality by private researchers.
As a result, passengers reported fewer complaints even while cash-strapped airlines reduced flight schedules and charged for everything from bags and pillows to prime spots in boarding lines.
Airline performance has improved over the past two years. U.S. air travel surged to 770 million passengers in 2007, when airline performance suffered a near meltdown. Last year, with nearly 70 million fewer passengers boarding planes, airlines did a much better job as measured by such - - - - >

Southwest has planned for more than a year to sell travel to Canada on board flights operated by Canadas WestJet.
But Canadian media reports indicate that WestJet is talking about a similar deal with Delta, which would transfer a few takeoff and landing slots at New Yorks LaGuardia Airport to the Canadian carrier.
Southwests executive vice president of planning, Bob Jordan, said Thursday that a WestJet-Delta deal could conflict with the Southwest-WestJet partnership. Jordan also said WestJet has made unacceptable demands of Southwest, which he didnt describe.
If the two cant work out their differences, Jordan said, Southwest will look for other ways - - - - >

The International Air Transport Association said carriers began bouncing back late last year, and have continued to see stronger demand after posting record losses during the global economic crisis. The group also lowered its 2009 loss estimate to $9.4 billion from $11 billion because of the year-end rally.
“We are starting to see some blue skies ahead of us,” said IATA chief executive Giovanni Bisignani.
The group, which represents 240 airline companies worldwide, had predicted in December that 2010 losses would total $5.6 billion because of the “extraordinarily low” yields airlines are generating - the average price someone pays to fly one - - - - >

The European Commission said it would ask other airlines whether freeing up slots at London Heathrow, London Gatwick and New Yorks John F. Kennnedy airports would be enough to create more competition and entice rivals to start new routes from those airports to New York, Boston, Dallas and Miami.
If rivals are supportive, regulators said they would move to make the three airlines offer legally binding and drop an antitrust case that could have racked up millions of euros (dollars) in fines.
One rival, Virgin Atlantic, said the airlines offer was “woefully inadequate in counteracting the anticompetitive harm of a combined BA/AA,” - - - - >

The $173 million injection “would not only ease the cash flow situation of the company but would also preclude borrowings from the markets at a high cost,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
Other carriers have stumbled in the wake of the global financial crisis - notably Japan Airlines which filed for bankruptcy in January. Analysts say many of Air Indias problems are homegrown, born of decades of mismanagement and underinvestment.
And some feel the proposed fixes dont go far enough, largely because political pressures make layoffs difficult.
The National Aviation Company of India Ltd. (NACIL), which runs Air India, - - - - >

But to protect competition, the joint venture must make four pairs of takeoff and landing slots available to competitors for new service between the U.S. and Londons Heathrow Airport, the Department of Transportation said.
Theres been a surge over the last few years of U.S. carriers seeking joint ventures with foreign airlines to share costs and revenue on certain flights, regardless of which company owns or flies the aircraft. Those tie-ups could affect fares.
The Justice Department has said that allowing the American-British Airways venture could cause fares to rise up to 15 percent on some trans-Atlantic routes. A final decision by - - - - >

The airline, Europes third largest, had an operating profit of 25 million pounds ($39 million) in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, it said today in a statement. That beat analysts predictions of a 132 million-pound loss on that basis, according to the average of four estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
“The cost reductions seem to be kicking in quite well,” said Gert Zonneveld, a transport analyst at Panmure Gordon. “Its a good performance but there is still a long way to go,” said the London-based analyst, - - - - >

The airline industry globally lost $50 billion in the past 10 years, with $11 billion in 2009 alone. Revenues declined by $80 billion last year, Bisignani said.
“These numbers are really shocking,” Bisignani said in an interview in Singapore today. “Weve had a terrible 10 years. It would take at least three years to recover the level of growth we have lost.”
Airlines worldwide suffered the worst drop in passenger demand since World War - - - - >

The state-run agency restructuring Japan Air aims to close the fund if the airline doesnt win the needed agreement of more than two-thirds of 9,000 retirees, the people said. That would result in benefits being slashed by about 65 percent, they said, declining to be named before any decision is made public.
Japan Air has lobbied retirees to accept lower pensions as the carriers largest creditors are set to agree on a court-led bankruptcy. The Tokyo-based airline, also known as JAL, has already won approval from current - - - - >

The U.S. demanded more careful screening for people who are citizens of, or are flying from, 14 nations deemed security risks. But enforcement of the U.S. rules appeared spotty Monday.
“Everything is the same. There is no extra security,” said an aviation official in Lebanon, one of the countries on the list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The administration of President Barack Obama ordered the changes after what authorities say was a failed attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a jetliner bound from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.
The U.S. - - - - >