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Continental Airlines has joined rival Delta in boosting the price for checking bags on flights within the USA and to Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Delta began charging $8 more for the first checked bag and $7 more for a second on Jan. 5. Continental did the same thing beginning with tickets sold Jan. 16. So far, no other big U.S. airline has followed suit.

Continental and Delta now charge $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second if the bags are checked at the airport. The fee is slightly lower for bags checked in online.

source: poughkeepsiejournal.com

The Justice Department on Wednesday approved a much-anticipated merger between Delta and Northwest, clearing the way for creation of the world’s largest airline.

After a six-month investigation, government lawyers concluded the merger would likely drive down costs for consumers without curbing competition.

The proposed merger “is likely to produce substantial and credible efficiencies that will benefit U.S. consumers and is not likely to substantially lessen competition,” the Justice Department said in a statement issued by its Antitrust Division.

source: Associated Press

Now Delta is looking to capitalize on the popularity of in-flight Wi-Fi by outfitting its entire domestic fleet of aircrafts with Aircell’s GoGo service.

GoGo will cost Delta flyers $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 for flights that are longer than three hours. Delta says it expects to begin to offer in-flight Wi-Fi early 2009.

American Airlines and Virgin America have been on-board for some time with in-flight Wi-Fi. Both have announced testing of Wi-Fi aboard its airliners for a limited number of flights. But Delta is making a big splash with an ambitious rollout of Wi-Fi to all its domestic fleet. This is big news coming from an airline that has been struggling lately.

source: PC World

The first ever direct flights between Edinburgh and New York were launched today.

Delta Air Lines will start the year-round service connecting the Capital to John F Kennedy airport from tomorrow.

UK commercial director Armin Venencie said: “We are delighted to offer our customers from Scotland the opportunity to fly nonstop to New York, the world’s largest travel market and leading financial centre.”

source: Scotsman

Delta Air Lines Inc will buy Northwest Airlines Corp for more than $3 billion under a proposal unveiled Monday to create the world’s biggest airline, as carriers seek to counter skyrocketing fuel prices and a weak economy.

After racking up $35 billion in losses and finally emerging from a five-year slump in 2006, U.S. airlines are hoping mergers could lead to higher fares as combined carriers reduce flights and use their increased market power to raise prices.

source: guardian.co.uk

A merger between Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Northwest (NWA) or United (UAUA) would greatly extend the reach of the resulting airline, giving it influence over service and fares in more major U.S. business markets than any of them has today.

A Delta-United deal would be an industry game-changer, giving the combined carrier heft in eight of the USA’s 12 biggest business markets, according to a USA TODAY analysis of schedule data from OAGback Aviation Solutions. The analysis combines the current shares of each carrier in the big markets, establishing a rough estimate of the share the combined carrier might control.

None of the airlines has publicly confirmed merger talks, but outsiders last week, including U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., confirmed Delta-Northwest merger talks and the possibility that Delta-United talks could heat up.

source: USA Today

Delta Air Lines and Comair, along with their fellow carriers, dramatically improved their on-time flight averages in September.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report ranked Delta 12th of 21 airlines in September, with 82 percent of its fights arriving on time, compared to 69.6 percent in August.

Comair ranked 13th, moving its on-time average to 80.2 percent from 67.2 percent the month before.

source: Business Courier

American Airlines increased fares Thursday due to surging crude oil and jet fuel prices, prompting Delta Air Lines to quickly follow suit and very likely setting a new round of industrywide price increases into motion.

American raised domestic fares by $10 one way and $20 roundtrip in an effort, the airline said, to recover some of the costs associated with recent large increases in the price of fuel. Delta raised its fares by $10 in most domestic markets, a spokesman said.

source: SFGate.com

Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines have agreed a tie-up over translantic flights which they say will offer more choice and value for passengers.

Under the deal, the two airlines will share revenues from flights between Europe and the US, expected to total $8bn (5.6bn euros) a year from 2010.

Closer co-operation would allow the carriers to launch new routes and run services more frequently, the duo said.

Airlines want to exploit the opening-up of US-European travel next year.source: BBC