Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport, the ATL, is the busiest passenger airport in the country. Serving Atlanta and Northern Georgia, Atlanta Hartsfield also serves as a hub airport, for transfers throughout the United States and the world.

Airlines that service Atlanta are Air Canada (AC) ,Air Jamaica (JM) ,AirTran (FL) ,American (AA) ,America West (HP) ,British Airways (BA) , Continental (CO), Corporate (3C),Frontier (F9) ,Independence Air (D9) ,KLM (KL) ,Korean Air (KE) ,Lufthansa (LH) Midwest (YX), Northwest (NW), United (UA), US Airways (US), Aeromexico (AM), Air France (AF), ASA (EV), Comair (OH), Delta Air Lines (DL), Hooters Air (H1), South African Airways (SA).

Click here for the official web site for Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.

Map of Atlanta Hartsfield. Driving Directions.

Official TSA Security Wait times at Hartsfield (ATL) and Georgia Airports. 

Local  TSA Security Wait times at Hartsfield (ATL) tool.

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Zagats released their US Airline Rankings today, with Midwest Express and Jetblue leading the way.

The Top Ten Airlines Rated By Zagat Readers

1. Midwest Airlines
2. JetBlue Airways
3. Song
4. Frontier Airlines
5. Independence Air
6. Hawaiian Airlines
7. Alaska Airlines
8.Aloha Airlines
9. Continental Airlines
10. Southwest Airlines

The airline industry is caught in a catch 22. The discounters have forced the mainline airlines to lower costs on tickets drastically. But the passengers want the mainline airlines to provide the same level of service they have in the past. Unfortunately, this is impossible without the airlines going out of business, and it is creating friction and discontent that showed up in the Zagat air travel survey released today.

Ratings for every surveyed U.S. airline were down. The survey of frequent fliers has been done every three or four years since 1990 by publishers of the Zagat dining and travel guides.

Top-scoring domestic airlines on Zagat’s 30-point scale, reflecting comfort, service and food: Midwest Airlines (21.40) and JetBlue Airways (19.29). They also were 1 and 2 in 2001. Respondents hailed Midwest for “business-class performance for economy cost,” says Zagat CEO Tim Zagat; JetBlue’s live TV, comfy leather seats and smiling service earned points.

Big names, including American, United, Delta and US Airways, didn’t wing into the 2005 top 10. “Many airlines are in deep trouble, and they’re nickel and diming everything — cutting everything they could possibly cut,” Zagat says. Fliers “are being treated badly as human beings. … I’ve never surveyed an industry where there’s this much biting commentary. (Fliers) are really mad.” via USA Today

The email scam of phishing has a new target. Members of Frequent Flyer Programs. Phishing is the act of sending out an email in the name of a company you have an account with. The emails typically inform you of a supposed problem with your account, and then redirect you to a fake site. There they try to extract information out of you so they can steal from either your account or steal you identity.

These attacks previously had targeted banks and paypal accounts. Now these thieves have set their sites on frequent traveler accounts.

Anywhere [consumers]strong> might have a stored profile might present the same risk,” said Eric Olson, a vice president at Cyveillance, an Arlington, Va., company that specializes in tracking Internet risk and fraud.

It may be especially risky for the Internet-savvy frequent traveler.

“Super-platinum members of hotel chains spend a great deal of money on travel. That is a perfect target for a scammer.”

Two of the largest hotel frequent-guest programs appear to have been targeted by phishers, the hotels’ websites suggest: the Hilton HHonors program and the Starwood Preferred Guest program. Neither Starwood nor Hilton returned phone calls asking for comment about phishing.

In an attempt to make a splash in the high traffic New York to Boston travel corridor, JetBlue is now offering an introductory airfare of $25 for travel between these two cities. Rival Delta has been the dominant player previously between the two, with their Delta Shuttle, and JetBlue is trying to work its way into the marketplace. JetBLue recently announced their purchase of the 100 seat Embriar 100 seat aircraft, and are planning on using them on this route.

Reuters:

JetBlue will offer introductory fares of $25 each way on what will be up to 10 flights between the cities, with fares later settling at between $40 and $120 each way, undercutting the established shuttle.

JetBlue has ordered 99 of the Brazilian-made Embraer jets through 2016 in what some analysts have called a risky change from most discount airlines’ practice of flying a single aircraft type to minimize training and maintenance costs.

JetBlue is also still taking deliveries of its main, larger, aircraft type, the Airbus A320.

Breaking from the single airframe model that has defined the low cost airlines, JetBlue has added 100 seat Embraer regional jets to its fleet. This will allow them to compete with the major airlines in the smaller markets.

While this is an interesting move, it will add significantly to their cost structure.

With 50% of the airlines in bankruptcy and schedules and capacity being reduced, the opportunity for discount airfares over Thanksgiving and Christmas will hard to find.

The quirk of the calendar is also playing a role: Christmas and New Year’s fall on Sundays this year, bunching up the peak travel window. When those holidays are midweek, bookings are more diffuse, putting less pressure on prices for peak flights.

To make matters worse, many airlines have restricted the number of cheap tickets available during the holiday season. The upshot is that while in the past three years, consumers could find bargain prices booking just a few weeks before busy holiday periods, this year many flights are filling up three months before Christmas.

So the calendar has not helped either.

The lowest price AMR Corp.’s American Airlines offered nonstop from Boston to Orlando on Dec. 23 with a return Jan. 2 was $1,161 Monday on its Web site. The same trip flying two weeks earlier would cost only $205 round trip. But the peak-period holiday flights — American has only one daily nonstop on the route in each direction — are mostly sold out already. Flight 1645 from Boston to Orlando on Dec. 23 showed only 18 of its 115 coach seats open for booking, according to American’s Web site. “We are booked more than in the past” systemwide for peak holiday travel days, said a spokesman for American.

From Philadelphia to Cancun on Dec. 23, US Airways has bookings for about half of its coach seats on its three nonstop flights, according to its seat maps. A round trip with a return Jan. 2 on the nonstop flights was priced Monday at $1,096, according to Orbitz. Two weeks earlier, the trip was only $425 round trip.

So if you are planning on traveling to see family, book your travel now. Otherwise the costs may be too much this year.

Purchasing tickets online is one of the great way to save money when planning a trip. However, some sites in trying to show a lower fare online are not posting the true airfare. While this is not illegal, the practice will make a consumer work that much harder to get the best deal.

From the LA Times:

Air travel shoppers on the Internet visit, on average, more than three websites before making a purchase, according to PhoCusWright, a Connecticut-based research firm. Yet websites differ greatly in how they display taxes and fees, which can make an apples-to-apples comparison difficult.

(more…)

The New York Times reports that the dramatic landing in Los Angeles last week was the 7th time that their had landing gear issues. This has to be disconcerting for JetBlue that their fleet is primarily composed of the A320 aircraft.

 

The National Transportation Safety Board sent the plane’s “black boxes” to Washington for analysis and was preparing to send the front landing gear as well, said Howard Plagens, a senior air safety investigator.

Mr. Plagens said the gear was last serviced on Tuesday, in New York, where technicians replaced a sensor that measures distance to the ground.

JetBlue contracts out its major maintenance work, with 60 percent going to Air Canada and 40 percent to TACA, the Salvadoran airline.

Among the earlier problems was an incident in February 1999, when an A320 operated by America West Airlines landed at Port Columbus International Airport, in Columbus, Ohio, with the landing gear twisted.

By the time of the incident, Airbus had advised A320 owners to replace a part in the landing gear control, but America West had not yet done so. After that incident, French and American authorities made the replacement mandatory. But the problems have continued.