Gogo Inflight Internet coming to 223 Delta Airlines regional jets

by Scott Carmichael on

Good news for regulars on Delta Airlines regional jet flights – as the first airline in the nation, Delta has committed to bringing Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi to 223 of its Delta Connection regional jets.

This is in additon to the expedited rollout of Internet access to its entire mainline domestic fleet. When completed at the end of 2011, Delta will offer Gogo Inflight Internet on 772 planes, or 80% of its fleet.

Delta Connection flights operate on routes like New York LaGuardia and Boston, Chicago and Washington D.C.

Recent enhancements to Delta Connection planes include the addition of first class cabins and upgraded meal services. For more on Gogo Inflight Internet, head on over to the Gogo Inflight Blog.

[Photo credit: Flickr/hyku]

Could you handle a gate agent’s job?

by Grant Martin on

Running a travel blog and working with twenty wonderful writers, thousands of media and industry contacts and maintaining a dozen side projects keeps my stress level remarkably high, but I could never handle what an airline gate agent goes through.

Airfarewatchdog‘s Ramsey Qubein spent a day working as a Delta gate agent recently, and his experience was as dramatic as I had expected. In one day, he experienced the full spectrum of travelers, from crazy, angry and delayed passengers to the nicest people in the world. Among the experiences that he collected in one single day were passengers who handed him boarding passes with their teeth, decrypting the archaic booking system and angry flight attendants offloading from Detroit. You can read about them all over at Yahoo news.

Needless to say, I now have further respect for a vocation that I already thought was pretty darn dramatic. I’m amazed that anyone can handle that job every day without developing an ulcer.

Video: Delta 747 and airport tug battle it out at JFK airport

by Scott Carmichael on

Looking for a little aviation entertainment for the last day of the work week? Check out this video clip, shot at JFK airport, showing a Delta Airlines 747 take on a tug. Care to guess who’ll win?

Fast forward to the 0:45 mark to see the action, and a bunch of ramp workers running for their lives. Now, oddly enough, none of this made the news until Live Leak obtained the footage. Apparently the incident wasn’t important enough to be released by the airport or airline, which hopefully means nobody was injured.

Minka Kelly flips out on plane when separated from dog

by Grant Martin on

I’ve never been the most affectionate person with dogs (they don’t like me, I swear) so it’s difficult for me to empathize with those who get separation anxiety from their pets. Especially with pocket dogs. On flights. In first class.

Comfort totems are comfort totems, however, and like many people need their Blackberries to get through a flight, maybe some people need their dogs. That’s what happened late last week with Minka Kelly, one of the stars of hit TV show Friday Night Lights. Apparently separated from her pet on a flight boarding to New York, the actress blew a fuse, becoming hysterical and tangling up the departure process when a flight attendant took her dog back to coach just for takeoff.

Depending on the account that you believe, Kelly then either called her boyfriend Derek Jeter or her lawyer to help calm her down and rationalize her whole dog separation issue, partially with the help of several of the crew members and the flight captain. And all while the confused and irritated passengers looked on.

If only we all had access to a lawyer and Derek Jeter for our travel woes.

[image credit, Getty Images]

Delta set to expand at JFK, tear down Pan Am terminal

by Grant Martin on

The battle for New York’s John F. Kennedy airport continued in earnest this week, as Delta Airlines announced plans to remodel and expand it’s currently leased footprint.

With current operations now taking place in both terminal 4 and the former Pan Am Worldport (aka, terminal 3), the airline plans to expand all of their operations to terminal 3 with a full remodel, all set to be complete by 2013. The somewhat legendary yet sorely outdated Worldport will be demolished and used for taxiway and aircraft positioning.

Delta’s remodel at T4 will play a key role in expanding their presence at JFK, both in integration of passengers, gates and operations and in increased capacity for a stronger flight network out of the largest city in the nation. For New Yorkers, the good news is that you’ll have better access to Delta’s cities around the globe. In turn, competition from other carriers may also mean lower prices across the board.

For everyone else, more flights from the delay-prone New York corridor means that we may experience more trickle-down delays from the east coast.

Expect operations at terminal 3 to wind down as the year comes to a close. Fans of the nostalgic Worldport best book your tickets and bring your cameras while there’s still time.