Fare alert! Take advantage of the fare war to Dublin!

by Grant Martin on

It’s been a little while since we’ve had a good hootenany like we’re having this weekend. Dublin, as you know, is on sale from the United States, from almost every good port of departure.

From Chicago, Grand Rapids, New York, Cleveland and many cities in the midwest, tickets are as low as $330 for travel into March. West of the Mississippi, from departures such as Los Angeles, prices are only $45 higher at $375. You can even score tickets from your local podunk airport — Bay City, Michigan is rocking prices as low as $308.

But the most jaw dropping price appears to be out of Miami, where you can score tickets for only $220 round trip. That’s outrageous!

To find tickets, start by running a flex search at Kayak.com. Use +/- 3 days if you want the best prices, then when you find a good set of tickets, bounce over to the airline of choice’s website and book tickets. Right now I’m sitting on top of some Feb 20 – 22 tickets, but seeing as I was just there, I’m a little gunshy to book.

Interested in learning more about what’s going on in Dublin? Check on Gadling’s list of 10 Things you Didn’ t Know about Dublin.

Delta wonders about Atlanta

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Is Delta playing chicken with Atlanta? The airline is getting ready for negotiations with Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport … and has opened by threatening to lean on secondary hubs like Memphis and Cincinnati. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution questions the airline’s likelihood of pulling the trigger, though.

Delta is concerned that the costs of running through Hartsfield-Jackson, the world’s busiest airport, could be twice as high as those of other airports. Moving two-thirds of connecting traffic away could save a pile of cash for a company in a perpetually struggling industry.

When you need an expert, you can always find one to take your side, it seems. Airport consultant Jerry FitzGerald believes that pulling out of Atlanta could cost Delta a good chunk of business traveler dollars – and that Memphis or Cincinnati may not be able to cover the difference.

Well, like anybody sitting on the tarmac, all we can do is wait and see.

[Via USA Today]

Airfarewatchdog’s 2009 tips for saving on airfare

by Grant Martin on

Our friends over at Airfarewatchdog are still working hard, day and night, finding cheap tickets for America. Their grass root efforts have gained them a cult following, and these days, most people I know subscribe to their newsletter.

To help us in our daily scouring, George and the team put together a list of 10 tips for saving on airfare in 2009. With the evolving airline industry, crazy oil fluctuations and new carriers on the market, this sort of stuff is important to keep track of every year.

AFWD’s tips range from the simple, like “use flex searches” to the subtle, like using direct airline websites instead of booking engines, but each of the points is relevant, significant and important to keep in mind while doing your fare searching. Make sure you stop by and take a look at the entire list — it could save you a bundle!

Airbus A380 is a big plane and a big pain in the behind

by Scott Carmichael on

The Airbus A380 has been in service for over 16 months and a total of 13 of these monsters have been delivered to airlines around the world.

One of those airlines is Qantas, who use the plane on their Sydney-Los Angeles route.

Of course, a plane this big offers some major logistical challenges to designers, but the airports they visit get their fair share of hassles too.

Los Angeles airport has had to make special arrangements for the superjumbo, including shutting down service roads and halting other aircraft on taxiways when the plane is being positioned. The wingspan of the A380 is so big that it actually intrudes on the safety zone on either side of the tarmac.

When the A380 is ready for takeoff, air traffic controllers make sure their tower is fully staffed, and the plane receives priority over any other traffic. The plane is so big, that when it prepares to take off in bad weather, the tower tries to let it get airborne as soon as possible to prevent its jumbo size from blocking radio transmissions from airport towers.

Still, despite the hassles, the plane is a blessing for an airport suffering from the global decline in air traffic – LAX has lost 650 flights a day, and since airports make money off planes and passengers, having a superjumbo visit your airport is a sure way to make up for some of those losses.

(Via: LA Times Online)

Atlanta tops traffic list 4th year in a row

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport leads the list of the busiest airports in the United States … again. According to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration, it was home to 978,084 takeoffs and landings in 2008. That’s a 1 percent drop from the year before but still indicates that the tarmac was awfully busy. Chicago O’Hare followed with 881,566, down 5 percent from 2007, 926,973.

Put simply, either airport had more flight operations than Boston has people.

I guess this is something to keep in mind the next time you complain about a delay, sigh over long lines or wear a frown when that moron in front of you doesn’t remember to pull out his license at the ticket counter.

Who am I kidding? I’ll still be miserable, and I’m sure I won’t be alone.

[Via USA Today]