Southwest suffers softer stats

by Tom Johansmeyer on

For Southwest Airlines, the numbers are down all over the place. The low-cost carrier flew 5.1 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in February 2009 – a 6 percent drop from the 5.4 million in February 2008. Available seat miles were down 6.5 percent to 7.4 billion. This continues January’s trend. RPMs for the first two months of the year are down 6.2 percent (from 10.9 billion RPMs to 10.2 RPMs).

So, what does this mean in cash? Southwest’s revenue softened from January to February, with business travel one of the major culprits. The drops are hardly catastrophic, but they do suggest a tough year for the airline … as if we needed the data to know that.

Passengers take fun out of Southwest’s supermodel airplane

by Grant Martin on

Try to have a little bit of fun and those pesky passengers get all bent out of shape. Last month, Southwest Airlines joined up with Sports Illustrated to paint the side of one of their Boeing 737s with the image of Bar Rafaeli, an Israeli supermodel, in a white, two-piece swimsuit. It’s a brief promotion aimed at promoting the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition and tickle a few passengers who happen to randomly be riding on (or near) the aircraft. Wouldn’t your day get instantly better if you were waiting to take off at 7AM and saw a giant supermodel taxi past you?

But not everyone is as tickled as we are. A slew of passengers, many on Southwest’s corporate blog are complaining about the paint job, equating the image to “soft porn.” They want it taken down.

Think they’re being ridiculous? Check out the gallery below. Think they’re right? Read on:

%Gallery-44713%Have you ever seen soft porn? It doesn’t look like this. Women less adorned are all around us, from billboards in New York City to The Sears Catalogue to, oh, I don’t know, THE BEACH.

Southwest is just having a little bit of fun turning heads in the direction of their aircraft, but if you can’t stand the sight of a pretty Israeli woman, cover your eyes or stop flying for the next couple of months until they repaint her. The promotion only lasts a few more weeks.

View air traffic like nothing you’ve ever seen before

by Scott Carmichael on

This photo is not a closeup of your DNA, nor is it the latest work of art at the local gallery. It is in fact, a representation of every single flight in the domestic US airspace over a 24 hour period.

The picture is part of a map built by Aaron Koblin, on display at Wired.com. The portion you see above is of air traffic into Chicago’s 2 airports, and if you look closely, you’ll clearly see planes headed for O’Hare, and those going to Midway.

The map is zoomable and scrollable, and can be sorted by make, model and altitude of the plane. The real time flight data was provided by FlightView. I can highly recommend wasting a couple of minutes of your busy day to play around with the map!

Fare alert – Virgin America $38 flights to fun destinations

by Scott Carmichael on

Bored this week? Virgin America has some nice low fares loaded right now for travel to and from San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles or Las Vegas.

At just $38 each way, you can get yourself a round trip ticket for just $97, all taxes and fees included. The prices only seem to be valid for travel in the coming week, so don’t expect $100 tickets during the summer months.

Normally, good fare deals usually involve trips from bad airports to places nobody wants to go, but a day trip from San Francisco to Seattle would probably make for a fantastic way to spend the day.

That’s right – these fares are also valid for same day returns. You could leave SFO at 7:15am and depart San Diego at 8:35, giving you an entire day to enjoy the city. A similar trip can be made from San Francisco to Seattle, leaving the airport at 9:55am and departing Seattle at 8:55pm, giving you plenty of time to visit Pike Place Market and take a ride up the Space Needle.

You’ll find the deals at the Virgin America web site, and don’t forget to bring your laptop or smartphone, because all these flights are currently served by Virgin America planes with WiFi service on board ($9.95 per flight).

As with most deals like this, the longer you wait, the fewer seats will be available at these low prices, so don’t procrastinate too long!

Man can’t wait for plane to reach the gate – opens door and jumps down slide

by Scott Carmichael on

It’s starting to look like we’ll soon need a “stupid passenger of the week” segment here on Gadling, because there certainly does not seem to be a shortage of material.

The stupid passenger for today was on his way on American Airlines from Charlotte to Dallas Fort Worth when the plane was waiting for a spot at its assigned gate.

Apparently this wait was a bit too long, so instead of grumbling and complaining loudly like most of us do, he got up, ran to the front of the plane and opened an exit door.

Of course, if you have paid attention on your flights, you’ll know that doors are still “armed” until the plane is at the gate, so when the door was opened, it deployed the emergency slide.

This handy getaway was just what this idiot needed to get off the plane and walk to the terminal.

The man has not yet been charged with any crimes, as the airport police are awaiting the results of his psychological evaluation, because apparently you have to be pretty insane to pull a stunt like this.

If he is deemed “sane”, he may be in for a whole bunch of nasty charges, varying from tampering with safety equipment to trespassing on the ramp. Then of course the is the matter of American Airlines presenting him with the bill for replacing the slide, which will run anywhere from $15k to $35k, depending on any damage he caused.