Airlines

It's difficult to know when to buy an airline ticket and when to wait. Some sites offer to guide you on the timing of your purchase. I recently examined the fare prognostication tools used by Kayak and Bing, which advise travelers whether to buy plane tickets while searching those websites or to wait. Both sites use data from scores of past searches to predict whether you're finding a fare at its lowest point or whether it may fall. I examined 10 random routes and dates of travel, and the companies were generally united on their predictions, with one exception: For a hypothetical trip from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., in mid-April, Bing and Kayak both brought back the same fare - $178 on both Delta and Alaska airlines - but differed in their recommendations.

An airline seat that shifts to make boarding easier sounds like a crazy idea, but don't be surprised to find it on your next flight. The “side-slip seat” is a concept by Malon Labe Designs, a Denver-based airline interior company that introduced the idea to airlines and manufacturers last week at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany. The president of the company said the seat design was a big hit. Here's how it works: Imagine a row of three seats on a plane.

For an air carrier whose parent company is still in bankruptcy, American Airlines doesn't show signs of retrenching. American announced plans Wednesday to add eight destinations out of Los Angeles International Airport in an effort to secure more big-spending business travelers. It will bring to 51 the number of domestic and international destinations from the airport. The new domestic destinations - Eugene and Redmond, Ore.; Pittsburgh; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; Bentonville, Ark.; and Hartford, Conn.

The nation's airlines reported more delayed flights and a higher rate of mishandled luggage in February while complaints by passengers jumped nearly 30%. Meanwhile, complaints against airport security agents dropped slightly. Airlines reported an on-time arrival rate of 79.6% in February, compared with an 86.2% rate in the same month in 2012, according to statistics released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The rate of delayed or mishandled bags grew to three bags for every 1,000 passengers in February from a rate of 2.64 bags in the same month last year, according to the federal agency.

The nation's airlines improved their on-time performance and baggage handling rates in 2012 but passenger complaints rose anyway, a reflection of increased unhappiness with air carriers, according to authors of a new study. Despite better performance by airlines in key areas, the rate of complaints against carriers jumped 20% in 2012 compared with the previous year. Most of the gripes focused on flight problems, reservations, ticketing, boarding and consumer service, according to a report issued Monday by professors at Wichita State and Purdue universities.

Despite predictions by federal officials that deep budget cuts would lead to long wait times at the nation's airports, airline on-time performance did not change significantly during the busy spring break period. But the cuts brought about by the so-called sequestration did force government agencies to slash travel spending by as much as 30% in March, lowering revenue for the nation's airlines. When a budget battle between Congress and the Obama administration boiled over in February, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano predicted that job furloughs and cuts in overtime pay to airport screeners and customs officers would result in gridlock and airport wait times growing by an hour or more.

The nation's airlines generated more complaints and denied passengers seats at a higher rate in 2012 but improved their on-time performance and lost bags at a lower rate. Those were among the key findings of an annual study on airline service released Monday by professors at Wichita State University and Purdue University. The study looked at several key airline statistics monitored by federal agencies and weighted them based on what services experts believe are most important to air travelers.

Despite predictions that sweeping federal budget cuts would lead to long wait times at the nation's airports, airline on-time performances did not change significantly during the busy spring break period. When a budget battle between Congress and the Obama administration boiled over in February, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano predicted that job furloughs and cuts in overtime pay to airport screeners and customs officers would result in airport gridlock and increase wait times by an hour or more.

When teensy-weensy Samoa Airlines debuted its pay-by-the-kilo policy in January, I doubt it expected to set off an international controversy about fat discrimination. But that's what happened when news seeped out this week after the airline's chief executive, Chris Langton, told ABC News radio in Australia that the system is not only fair but destined to catch on. “Doesn't matter whether you're carrying freight or people,” explained Langton. "We've amalgamated the two and worked out a figure per kilo.” Samoa Air, he added, has always weighed the human and non-human cargo it carries.