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1. American Airlines traffic falls in August

FORT WORTH (AP) – Traffic on American Airlines fell in August, as an uptick in international travel failed to offset a slump in U.S. flying.

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Tuesday that paying passengers flew 11.46 billion miles last month, down 0.4% from 11.51 billion miles in August 2010.
Domestic travel, which accounts for nearly three-fourths of the company's operations, dropped 2.6%, while international traffic rose 3%, mostly because of strong trans-Pacific travel.
American reduced passenger capacity by 1.2%, to 13.45 billion available seat miles, which is one seat flown one mile. Airlines often reduce capacity by cutting flights.
With capacity falling faster than traffic, the average plane was slightly more full. Occupancy averaged 85.3%, up from 84.6% a year earlier.
Unlike Delta and US Airways, American did not disclose Tuesday how much it lost from last month's Hurricane Irene that caused the cancellation of thousands of flights on the East Coast.
Delta said it lost $15 million from the storm, and US Airways estimated its losses between $8 million and $10 million.
On American, traffic for the first eight months of the year was running 1.4% higher than the same period last year. Capacity was up 1.7%, and average occupancy fell to 82% from 82.2% last year.
Shares of parent AMR Corp. fell 10 cents, or 2.9%, to close at $3.32.

2. Southwest boots rock star off flight for saggy pants
The lead singer for rock band Green Day was booted off a flight this past Thursday after a flight attendant deemed his pants to be inappropriately saggy. The incident cost Billie Joe Armstrong his spot on a Southwest Airlines' flight from Oakland to Burbank.

"And then," writes The Wall Street Journal's Scott McCartney, Armstrong "did what celebrities do when they do dumb things, he tweeted about it."

The indignant Tweet from Armstrong: "Just got kicked off a southwest flight because my pants sagged too low! What the (expletive)? No joke!"

The Associated Press writes "an ABC7 news producer who was on the same flight told the station that a flight attendant approached Armstrong as the plane was getting ready to take off and asked him to hike his pants higher. The producer, Cindy Qiu, says Armstrong initially responded by asking the attendant if there weren't 'better things to do than worry about that?' "

However, the flight attendant did not drop the issue, eventually following through on a threat Armstrong would be removed from the flight if he did not boost his britches, according to the Contra Costa Times.

Once Southwest became aware of the incident, it responded with a Tweet of its own, says US Magazine.

"Very sorry for your experience tonight, someone from our Customer Relations Team will reach out to you to get more details," says the Thursday Tweet from Southwest, which is considered to be one of the leading carriers in terms of social media presence.

And by Saturday, things seemed to be smoothed over, according to San Francisco TV station KGO.

"We reached out to apologize," Southwest says in a statement quoted by KGO. "We followed up ... and understand from the customer the situation was resolved to his satisfaction."

Of course, this is not the first time saggy pants have led to a high-profile blow-up at a Bay Area airport.

The San Francisco Chronicle notes Armstrong's "saggy pants saga echoed the troubles of Deshon Marman, a University of New Mexico student from San Francisco who was asked to pull up his pajama bottoms as he boarded a US Airways flight at San Francisco International in June."

Everything was going peachy on a Nepal Airlines Boeing 757 at the international airport in Katmandu earlier today until a furry critter upset the balance of things.

A mouse darted out of the pantry and made its way toward the back of the plane, Fox Television reports. At that point, the crew did the only thing that made sense - they canceled the flight headed to Bangkok, Thailand, until they could find the fleet-footed rodent.

Unlike most passengers, who reach their plane via the terminal and security, the mouse likely boarded the plane via a food-catering truck, airline .

The crew had the jet towed to a hangar and evacuated the passengers, who did not see the critter. The plane will not hit the skies again until the mouse is found, the airline told the Associated Press.

4. Southwest, JetBlue object to Delta-US Airways slot swap

Southwest is urging federal regulators to block the proposed "slot swap" between Delta and US Airways, The Arizona Republic reports.

Southwest says the deal -- in which Delta and US Airways would essentially "swap" most of their landing rights at New York LaGuardia and Washington National airports -- is anti-competitive.

"Dallas-based Southwest, US Airways' top competitor out of Phoenix, said the proposed swap would quash competition at Reagan National Airport and New York LaGuardia … . It also contends that the slot swap would lead to higher fares at those airports."

Delta and US Airways first proposed the slot swap in 2009. But they balked when the Department of Transportation -- as a condition of approval -- required the airlines to divest more "slots" than the airlines were willing to relinquish.

Delta and US Airways revived their bid earlier this year, agreeing to end an appeal of the DOT's decision with a new proposal that closely mirrored the original. While the carriers acknowledged the similarity, they contend "the competitive landscape in both cities has changed significantly since the transaction was first proposed in 2009."

That's largely the result of recent mergers between United and Continental and -- perhaps more importantly -- between Southwest and AirTran. A provision in the United merger gave Southwest flight rights at Newark Liberty, while Southwest's acquisition of AirTran will give it entry to Washington National and an expanded presence at New York LaGuardia.

Despite that, Southwest is not scaling back its objection to the Delta-US Airways deal.

"The current slot swap has the same anti-competitive features as the earlier version, namely, that it will fundamentally change the character of both these critical airports by transforming them into dominated 'hubs,' " Southwest says in a filing to the Department of Transportation.

"JetBlue Airways and Virgin America also filed objections."

The DOT has tentatively approved the swap, and past precedent would indicate that the deal is likely to go through, despite the objections.

Aviation NEWS By
Neha Jain
Aviation NEWS Reporter