You’re not the only one who hates the fees for checked bags. Flight attendants do too. Or at least that’s what one union says.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA says it recently conducted a survey of its membership,  “in which one out of two flight attendants witnessed carry-on items falling from overhead bins in the previous 60 days. The survey validated anecdotal reports that carry-on baggage is out of control, mostly due to recent fees to check luggage…According to the survey, over 80 percent of flight attendants sustained injuries over the past year due to dealing with carry-ons in overhead bins. The most common injury being strained and pulled muscles in the neck, arms and upper back.”

The union has set-up a website dedicated to this subject.

We’ve got good news, good news, and some more good news. It’s good news in spades.

Let’s start with Delta. Beginning June 10 the airline restores our service to Detroit and Minneapolis. We got word earlier this week in a face-to-face meeting with Delta’s general manager for network planning. Our airport lost service to those cities during the depths of the recession. The fact that they’re returning is testament to the tremendous growth our airport has seen over the past year.

Delta says the Minneapolis service well probably be seasonal (meaning a summer schedule only), unless it sees strong advanced bookings for the fall season. On the subject of Detroit, the airline says its “intent” is to make the service year-round. Delta plans to add several western routes out of Detroit, including Honolulu, Sacramento, and Phoenix. So that means Springfield customers will have more options for connecting West.

I’m happy to report that things seem to be settling down at Delta. The furor, and willy-nilly cutting of service, that initially resulted from the merger of Northwest and Delta, seems to be at an end. The airline is now talking coherently about how the combined airline will operate. I’ll blog more on this subject in the next few days.

Allegiant good news! The airline’s summer schedule is out and it is, in a word, awesome. Take a look at this graph:

The blue bar represents 2008. Red is 2009. Gold is 2010. The number on each bar shows the number of Allegiant flights in the given month. Look at July.

In July 2008  Allegiant flew 50 flights from Springfield. This July the airline plans 102 flights. That’s more than a 100% increase over the same month in 2008! No doubt about it — Southwest Missouri loves Allegiant and Allegiant loves Southwest Missouri.

Now we’re to the spades. Our 2009 momentum, that made us the only airport in the region with positive growth numbers, continues to roll!  In February the airport’s total passenger numbers were up 5% over the same month last year. It’s our 14th consecutive month of positive or flat growth, and we did it with 16% fewer flights (in February).  Dig into the nitty gritty numbers by clicking here.

Just four months after predicting a $6-billion loss for the world’s airlines in 2010, the International Air Transport Association has changed its mind. IATA now says the loss will be more like $2.6 billion. Why? IATA says, “The improvement is largely driven by a much stronger recovery in demand seen by year-end gains that continued into the first months of 2010. Relatively flat capacity translated into some yield improvement and stronger revenues. ”

Here’s the translation from Aviation Speak:  the world economy is getting better faster than expected. And since airlines have cut the number of seats in the air, they’ve lowered their operating costs. And since there are fewer seats in the air, the airlines can charge higher fares.

We learned earlier this week that Allegiant Air plans to purchase six Boeing 757-200 jets for the sole purpose of flying to Hawaii. Late yesterday Allegiant made the news public in a press release. The other airlines providing Hawaiian service must be hyperventilating…

This move is a huge step forward for Allegiant, the small, low-cost airline that specializes in providing service between small cities and major vacation destinations (Allegiant provides our service to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Orlando and Tampa/St. Petersburg). Why a huge step? Because it’s the first time the airline has broken with it’s business model of using MD-80 jets. MD-80s are long out of production and can be purchased for a song and dance. Buying them is is one of the ways Allegiant has kept it’s operational expenses and fares so low. The 757 is a larger plane, a more expensive one to buy, and a more expensive one to maintain.

So why buy them? Very simply put, because the MD-80 doesn’t have the range to get to Hawaii.

Okay, Okay, I know what you want to know, but I don’t know. I Don’t know if Allegiant will provide service between Springfield and Hawaii. I don’t know, but I’m inclined to doubt it. 3400 nautical miles lie between here and there. That would/could be pushing the maximum range of a 757–especially one that’s packed to the gills with passengers, baggage, and the required fuel. There are a lot of variables and questions that play into such airline decisions and we don’t know how Allegiant will deal with them. Regardless, it will be very interesting to see how this new Allegiant chapter plays out!

A Wall Street Journal column provides a good overview of the new federal laws concerning airline customer service. The only thing we’ll add is that the author gives a free pass to the government for the role it plays in delayed and canceled flights.

The current air traffic control system (run by the Federal Aviation Administration) is woefully inadequate and is one of the main causes of delays and cancellations. The FAA has been attempting to fix it for years and years with a new system called NextGen. "http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100209_3651.php?oref=topnews" target="_blank">

Read about recent NextGen efforts here.

We came across an unusually lucid piece of business reporting the other day. The Secrets Behind Crazy Air-travel Prices cuts through the muck and gives a very good overview of how airlines price tickets. Read it once, then read it again. You won’t like it, but it will start to make sense.

Here are some important takeaways—if you don’t remember anything else, remember these points…

• Operating an airline is very expensive
• Its source of revenue, the airline seat, is highly perishable. The moment the plane takes off, that revenue opportunity is lost forever. It is often compared to a rotting banana
• Your seat might look the same as the guy’s in 15F, but he actually bought a different product. Most likely, so did everyone on the plane
• The landscape is littered with failures

United Airlines says it plans to fly between Washington, DC and Accra, the capital of Ghana. The service begins June 20 with once-a-day service.

The service opens with special fares for travel between June 20 and August 29, 2010:

• From Washington Dulles – $706
• From, San Francisco/Los Angeles – $879
• From Denver – $865
• From Chicago – $738

For more information visit the airline’s website.