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Northwest Airlines announced it will waive the fee for a third checked bag by military personnel traveling on NWA and Airlink flights in its continued support of military efforts around the world. Effective Friday, military personnel traveling on orders domestically or internationally may check up to three bags, up to 70 pounds each, at no fee. If military passengers are not on orders, then the regular luggage fees apply. Excess luggage fees will apply if military luggage is over 70 pounds. The decision comes the same day that Delta Airlines announced it would waive all excess baggage fees for active...

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Delta Air Lines on Tuesday doubled the fee to check a second bag for domestic flights to $50 from $25 to help offset record fuel prices. Delta announced a number of baggage fee increases on domestic and international flights, including a rise in the fee for items that require special handling such as surfboards or ski equipment. Delta also increased the fee for a third checked bag from $80 to $125 on domestic flights and from $150 to $200 on international flights. It also raised fees for bags that exceed its weight allowance. These changes will apply to tickets bought...

A joint American and European oceanography satellite designed to continue a growing legacy of monitoring changes in sea levels and the impacts on the global climate awaits an overnight blastoff Friday morning from California.

The aging planes of United, American, and Delta guzzle more gas and make the U.S. carriers more vulnerable to soaring oil prices—and to their global competitors For a look at one of the biggest headaches facing U.S. airlines, head out to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport any day and watch the big jets taking off for the U.S. There goes United Airlines to Chicago, American Airlines to Boston, Delta Air Lines to Atlanta, and Air France to New York's John F. Kennedy airport. What's the big deal? Many of the U.S. carriers' planes are Boeing 767s, a model that dates...

So, America isn't sue-crazy, eh? Last Christmas, a Manhattan man arranged to fly his family and several cousins to Argentina for his mother's 80th birthday. With the free tickets he got with his frequent-flier miles, the family flew to Atlanta, but missed their connecting flight because their plane from New York left almost two hours late. For the sake of brevity: Their vacation was interrupted and they had to drive to Miami to catch a plane for Buenos Aires on another airline. Oh, yes; Delta lost their luggage. In between, Mr. Roth said, he encountered Delta employees who were nasty,...

Federal authorities will consider whether to designate another delta fish for protection under the Endangered Species Act after a sharp population decline last year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday it will review the status of the longfin smelt to determine whether it is a threatened or endangered species. The 4 inch-long fish is native to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Last year it registered its lowest population count in four decades of monitoring. Environmental groups had requested a review in August. The longfin's cousin, the Delta smelt, has been listed as a threatened species since 1993.

I am posting this important and breaking news ahead of Sacramento TV stations and The Sacramento Bee. The California Resources Agency this evening in Clarksburg, California held a meeting in which they presented their plans to "save" the vital agricultural heartland of California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region. Option four of the presentation (which can be found here: http://baydeltaoffice.water.ca.gov/sdb/bdcp/bdcp_draft_scoping_meeting.pdf ) includes a PERIPHERAL CANAL starting south of Freeport in Scribner Bend and following the exact route of the proposed 1982 Peripheral Canal to the pumping stations of Clifton Court Forebay. But that's not all. Option four as presented this evening also...

Rival US companies Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines have agreed to merge in a $5bn deal that would create the world's biggest carrier. The directors of the two companies agreed the stock-swap deal on Monday. The combined airline, which will be called Delta, will have an annual revenue of more than $35bn and employ more than 75,000 staff. The merger could trigger similar moves by other US carriers struggling with rising oil prices, correspondents say.

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines this week are expected to announce a long-anticipated merger, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The merger may to be unveiled as early as Tuesday, The Journal reported, adding that the deal could go through without support of Delta's 6,000 pilots. Delta and its pilots were holding separate talks this weekend on a post-merger contract, while negotiations with Northwest's 5,000 pilots were to be held at a later date, the daily reported. Last week, US authorities gave tentative approval for Delta, Northwest, and four of their international partners to combine their transatlantic routes in...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. apparently won't be rushed into a merger until the carriers' pilots have ironed out their own integration plan, highlighting the importance of successfully negotiating thorny labor issues that have plagued industry mergers in the past. "If you don't have the pilots in, the success of the merger is definitely questionable because you won't get the efficiency you need over time to make the deal worth it," said Henry Harteveldt, analyst with Forrester Research. Pilots, not to mention mechanics and flight attendants, have to be satisfied with their pay...

PARIS (AFP) - The Mississippi Delta is sinking fast, posing a challenge for the rebuilding of coastal Louisiana after the devastation wrought in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, a study released Sunday confirmed. Across large swathes of southern Louisiana, average annual subsidence of five-to-10 millimetres (0.2 to 0.4 inches) have contributed to sea-level rise, shoreline erosion and wetland loss, they said. The findings have implications for delta regions around the world -- home to tens of millions of people -- already threatened by rising sea levels caused by global warming, the researchers told AFP. But the study, published in Nature, also...

New Mississippi delta would limit hurricane damage 13:20 18 February 2008 NewScientist.com news service Phil McKenna The proposed diversion would create up to 1000 square kilometres of new delta by 2100 (Image: Science) Diverting parts of the Mississippi would create up to 1000 square kilometres of new wetlands between New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, forming a vital storm surge buffer against hurricanes, researchers say. The formation of new delta lands could also help stem ongoing coastal erosion without disrupting important shipping traffic. "The scientific and engineering barriers are easily overcome," says Gary Parker, a geologist and engineer...

ATLANTA (AP) - UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc. have been discussing a combination between the nation's second- and third- largest carriers that would keep the United name and the corporate headquarters in the Chicago area, The Associated Press has learned. There is a sense of urgency in the talks, which have been going on for some time and continued as recently as a week or so ago, an official with knowledge of the talks said Wednesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly. "They want to get...

A coalition of water users filed a notice Thursday stating its intent to file a lawsuit alleging that power plants are harming fish in the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The four water districts allege that Mirant Corp.'s natural gas-fired power plants in Antioch and Pittsburg are harming species including the delta smelt. The smelt's decline triggered a recent federal court decision that was expected to limit the amount of water available from the delta for people and farmers, including those served by the Belridge, Berrenda Mesa, Lost Hills, and Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa water districts. The plaintiffs say that Mirant's power plants...

Could ruling to protect smelt drive foes to the table to agree on restoring the Delta? For years, anyone watching the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has known that a smack-down was looming over endangered smelt. These tiny fish, a bellwether for the ecosystem, have declined over the last decade while water exports from the Delta have been rising.The Endangered Species Act gives judges wide latitude in curtailing government operations that prompt the extinction of a species. And while the smelt and other Delta fish appear to face a variety of threats -- including invasive species, water pollution and loss of habitat...

Los Angeles (AP) -- State and federal officials must collaborate to restore the delta's ecosystem and preserve water deliveries to farmers and cities, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday in calling the crisis one of the state's most pressing challenges. The two leaders appeared together at a summit in Los Angeles, underscoring the growing attention being paid to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the heart of the state's water-delivery system. "This is not an easy subject, but a subject that should involve all of California," Feinstein said. "Whatever it is that we do, we have to do...

The Delta Force has a recruiting video? Interesting for a unit that the Military will not even say exists. The local on Bragg appears to be real. Some of the techniques are common in all SF operations. The faces being shown I question. Have fun watching. I have never seen the "emblem" in the video anywhere. The only one I have seen for Delta looks close to the one in the video but not exactly. It is common knowledge that the Delta force shows up 2 or 3 times a year in Ranger units for recruiting purposes. It is even...

Robert McKee is a Fort Worth resident who just spent SEVEN HOURS on the tarmac at JFK aboard the same Delta scheduled flight to DFW that I took so disastrously a few weeks ago. Unlike me or any of the passengers on our airplane, he took video ... and has made a terrific YouTube film of the experience. Note especially the part where his wife Emily, back in Fort Worth, called Delta to check on the status of his flight, and was told that that flight had left hours ago. She told the guy no, it hadn't, that she had...

Environmentalists sued Tuesday to cut off water deliveries across California after state and federal water managers refused to follow a recommendation from scientific experts to slow down massive Delta pumps. The legal showdown comes after hopes were dashed that a crisis pitting Californians' need for water against a dying ecosystem would abate during the weekend. Instead, hundreds of imperiled fish have been killed since an unprecedented 10-day pumping shutdown ended June 9 and water officials began gradually restoring water deliveries. Water officials, who have been increasing pumping rates for more than a week, plan to continue ramping up water deliveries...

A congressional panel will hold a hearing in Vallejo in two weeks on how to restore the Delta's ailing ecosystem without destabilizing California water supplies. A recent 10-day shutdown of the state's giant Delta water pumps shows that state and federal agencies lack a sustainable plan to meet California's water needs and protect its environment, federal lawmakers said. Court rulings that the state failed to protect the threatened Delta smelt triggered the state pump shutdown from May 31 to June 9. Federal pumps in the Delta also were turned down, but not off, to help protect the smelt. "We have...

State, federal agencies expect to have spent at least $240,000Although analysts haven't finished calculating the total cost of rerouting two humpback whales that strayed into the Delta last month, the bill to taxpayers is in the six figures. The massive rescue effort spanned more than two weeks and involved 35 groups, including agencies at every level of government and multiple nonprofit organizations. Five Delta counties and as many U.S. Coast Guard stations took part; so did a handful of universities, a couple of pharmaceutical manufacturers, and even a business that customizes medications for animals and a San Diego theme park....

California's electricity crisis a few years back is remembered for its bizarre blackouts. They resulted from a system that grew more dysfunctional over time until the lights simply couldn't stay on. Now California's water world is getting a taste of its version of blackouts. In the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, an endangered two-inch smelt is forcing a historic shutdown of pumps that supply 23 million residents and 5 million acres of farmland. Water will continue to flow from taps and onto fields during this shutdown as the water districts find various ways to maintain a steady supply. Never before have Delta...

ew alarm that a tiny Delta fish has taken yet another dramatic plunge toward extinction has triggered emergency measures that could threaten water supplies in parts of the state. On Wednesday, the first day after an annual monthlong slowdown of the pumps, water managers did not take the usual step of beginning the annual ramp-up to normal summer pumping levels. And officials are preparing to tap a $13 million fund that has never been used before to buy water that could be used to help prevent Delta smelt from going extinct. When that money runs out after five to 10...

Delta Air Lines is exiting bankruptcy and re-entering an increasingly competitive market in which its success depends on operating with a lean labor force and expanding its international flights. The newly restructured airline was under Chapter 11 protection for almost two years and cut 6,000 jobs and $3 billion in annual costs. On Wednesday, it received approval from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Adlai Hardin to emerge from bankruptcy as an independent company. Delta, the nation's third-largest airline, estimates it will be worth $9.4 billion to $12 billion. More than 95 percent of creditors voted to endorse the plan for Delta to...

We all remember the great Christmas movie classic "It's a Wonderful Life." The hero, played by Jimmy Stewart, stays home to save his family-run savings-and-loan institution, while his brother heads off to become a war hero. Stewart's character, George Bailey, forsakes his own comfort and tries to find some for his depositors and his town. When a mix-up puts Bailey and his company in great peril, the townspeople rally around the selfless man and rescue him. I'm happy to report that real George Baileys exist. At least one does. That's all the more gratifying because we live in a distinctly...

The Delta Regional Authority will unveil an $18.5 billion transportation plan for the southeaster region it serves on Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The group also plans to present the Delta Development Highway System proposal, as it's called, to Congress and the President. (snip) "Good highways lower the cost of doing business, keep the economy strong, improve our nation's productivity and make travel safe and efficient," he said. "We believe this plan provides members of Congress and the administration a road map as they consider future funding needs for our region."

US Airways on Wednesday withdrew its $10 billion takeover bid for Delta Air Lines, complaining that it did not get a fair hearing from Delta's bankruptcy court creditors. The Tempe, Ariz.-based airline's decision came on the eve of a Thursday deadline for the creditors to show support for US Airway's two-month-old takeover run. US Airways withdrawal clears the way for Delta management to continue its plan to emerge from bankruptcy this spring as an independent airline. A court hearing on Delta's reorganization plan is set for Feb. 7 that could allow Delta to begin seeking creditors' votes for its plan....

Nigerian gunmen have abducted two or three Chinese oil workers in the southern delta state of Bayelsa, police said on Thursday. Following is a chronology of some major attacks on the Nigerian oil industry in the last three months.Oct. 21, 2006 - Seven foreign oil workers held hostage since Oct. 3 are released. The men, four Britons, one Romanian, one Malaysian and an Indonesian, were kidnapped in a raid on a compound for expatriate contractors working for Exxon Mobil. -- Nov. 7 - An American and a Briton, working for Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) and kidnapped from a survey ship...

Clay: (05:40:27.1) It's amazing though right now. They are using everybody pretty efficiently. Um, just shows you what they can do. Like I mean I don't have more than 10 hours in a hotel, any of these days that I've been on. Polehinke: (05:40:38.2) Really. Clay: (05:40:38.7) And it's been that way for all month. Now September rolls around, and I'll guarantee you it'll be a different story. Polehinke: (05:44:04.9) I guess, when I'm, I'm deciding on making a major decision, if it doesn't feel right in my gut. Or if I don't have a little voice, if it starts...

(CBS 46 News) -- Officials at Hartsfield-Jackson airport found a body aboard a plane arriving from South Africa Friday morning. The body was found in the wheel well. Apparently the person was a stowaway. The body was frozen and completely chopped up. The plane is currently parked in the middle of the concourse.

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines are in talks on a possible link-up, according to a newspaper report on Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal, which cited sources "familiar with the matter", said representatives of the two carriers, which are numbers 3 and 5 in the United States respectively, have met regularly for weeks discussing a possible link-up after they both emerge from bankruptcy. The two airlines have been restructuring in bankruptcy since September 2005 and aim to exit this year. A Northwest spokesman declined to comment. Delta officials were not immediately available for comment. The report came in the wake...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - US Airways Group Inc. raised its takeover offer for larger, bankrupt rival Delta Air Lines Inc. by about 20 percent to $10.3 billion on Wednesday, sweetening a deal for creditors and putting pressure on Delta management. Delta last month rejected the original bid, valued at $8.5 billion at Tuesday's market close, saying the company was worth at least $9.4 billion, and possibly as much as $12 billion, as an independent carrier.

PALMDALE — Delta Airlines has proposed twice-daily flights from Palmdale to Salt Lake City and United Airlines has proposed twice-daily flights to San Francisco, under bids unsealed Monday by Los Angeles World Airports officials. Both Delta and United met the minimum requirements established in the search for an airline to provide Palmdale passenger service: at least two flights a day to a major hub in the western U.S. using 50-passenger regional jets, said Mark Thorpe, Los Angeles World Airports director of air service marketing. Officials of Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency which operates Los Angeles/Palmdale Regional Airport as...

ACKSON, Miss. (Dec. 5) - For Mississippian Rick Looser, the last straw came on an airline flight a couple of years ago when a 12-year-old Connecticut boy sitting next to him asked: "Do you still see the KKK on the streets every day?" That prompted the advertising executive to spend his own money on a campaign to dispel Mississippi's image as a forlorn state of poor, illiterate, racist good ole boys. "Mississippi has more black elected officials than any other state in the country," Looser said. "The old stereotype of the short, fat, white, bald men in suits smoking cigars...

Thanks to Delta airlines, you can now sit back and enjoy pedophilia while you fly in comfort across America. While there are certain passengers who may appreciate it, I don't think I am alone in my convictions when it comes to the sexual exploitation of our children. I don't like it. I have been living in the United States for over 18 years. I became a citizen ten years ago and I'm extremely proud to be an American. I am proud because Americans are a compassionate people. They love and care for their children, and this is never more evident...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is demanding Congress investigate US Airway's removal last week of six imams from one of its flights. The Muslim-rights group claims the imams, who were behaving suspiciously, posed no threat. It's "very, very inappropriate to treat religious leaders that way," a spokesman fumed. According to CAIR, imams are as harmless as Buddhist monks and deserve no less respect. Tell that to flight attendant Kimberly Banducci. According to police reports I've obtained, the Delta Air Lines veteran was assaulted by a Muslim cleric in a bizarre attack aboard a flight from Miami International Airport three years...

Airline stocks jumped into the spotlight today after US Airways Group (LCC, news, msgs) proposed a surprise merger with Delta Air Lines (DALRQ, news, msgs), in a move that would create the nation's biggest airline. The deal, which would take effect after Delta's emergence from bankruptcy protection, is worth $8 billion in cash and stock.

US Airways Proposes to Merge With Delta TEMPE, Arizona, November 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Transaction Valued at Approximately US$8.0 Billion in Cash and Stock Provides 25 Percent Premium to Current Trading Price of Delta's Prepetition Unsecured Claims Merger Expected to Generate US$1.65 Billion in Annual Synergies Consumers Will Have the Advantages of a Larger, Full-Service Provider With the Cost Structure of a Low-Fare Carrier US Airways Group, Inc. (NYSE: LCC) announced today that it has made a merger proposal to Delta Air Lines, Inc. (OTC: DALRQ) under which both companies would combine upon Delta's emergence from bankruptcy. The proposal would provide...

Since Aug. 10, when a ban on most carry-on liquids sent the amount of checked luggage soaring, airlines have been misplacing many more bags, and the fumbling could well escalate during the busy holiday travel season. The Transportation Department reported that 107,731 more fliers had their bags go missing in August than they did a year earlier, a 33 percent increase. It got worse in September, with 183,234 more passengers suffering mishandled bags than a year earlier, up 92 percent. Globally, about 30 million bags are mishandled each year, according to SITA, a company that sells software to airlines and...

Delta Air Lines has become the US launch customer for Boeing’s 777-200LR. The US major confirms that the carrier will take delivery of two General Electric GE90-powered ultra long range widebodies in early 2008. The two -200LRs are converted from a 777-200ER order previously placed with Boeing. Three more 777 delivery slots are currently listed as unfilled on Boeing’s orders and deliveries website. However, Delta will not say if these too are being converted to -200LRs, adding that the slots “are options at this time�. If exercised, these three aircraft will be delivered “in the 2008 to 2010 timeframe�,...

The U.S. attorney’s office today joined in warning attorneys that they would be fined if they violate federal law barring unsolicited communications with family members of Flight 5191 crash victims. “We are also concerned that victims’ families may be subjected in this time of grief to unsolicited, and thus improper, communications concerning the accident by attorneys and law firms seeking to obtain clients for subsequent litigation,” said U.S. Attorney Amul R. Thapar. Until 45 days after a plane crash, federal law prohibits attorneys from contacting victims’ families about possible personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits. A $1,000 fine can be...

Lexington - The pilots on doomed Comair Flight 5191 initially boarded the wrong plane before taking off from the wrong runway, according to a US newspaper report on Wednesday. The pilots got to the airport at about 05:15, boarded the wrong plane and began flight preparations before a gate worker noticed the error and told the pilots to change aircraft, the Washington Post reported, citing Deborah Hersman of the national transportation safety board. Investigators on Tuesday said only one air traffic controller was on duty when the flight took off from a Kentucky airport, and he had turned his back...

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The lone air traffic controller on duty the morning Comair Flight 5191 crashed had only two hours of sleep before starting work on the overnight shift, a federal investigator said Wednesday. National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said the controller had only nine hours off between work shifts Saturday. That was just enough to meet federal rules, which require a minimum of eight hours off between shifts, Hersman said. "He advised our team that he got approximately two hours of sleep," Hersman said. The controller, a 17-year veteran whose name has not been released publicly, worked...

The FAA has added a second controller to the weekend overnight shift at Bluegrass Airport, following the crash of Flight 5191 Sunday. Only one controller was in the tower early Sunday morning when the CRJ100 attempted to take off a runaway too short for it to gain enough speed to become airborne. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown declined to give a reason for the decision. Brown says two controllers are in the tower on weekdays but only one controller was scheduled for the weekend overnight shift because traffic was significantly lighter.

The Central Kentucky horse industry was reeling Sunday after several prominent members of the equine community and others were among the 49 people killed in the crash of a commuter jet shortly after takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington. With only one of the 50 people aboard surviving, the victims included George Brunacini, who bred 2005 Travers Stakes (gr. I) winner Flower Alley; Central Kentucky horseman Dan Mallory; and trainer Jeff Williams. Also listed among the deceased by the Lexington Herald-Leader was 25-year-old Washington, D.C., resident Marcie Thomason, whose father, Bill Thomason, is financial and administrative manager of Mill...

<p>Possible plane crash in Lexington, KY. My brother works security for Lexington UK Hospital and was just called in. No news locally or on major news outlets yet. I didn't want to post anything for fear of being wrong, but he's still waiting for an official call while on stand-by.</p>

A passenger plane carrying 50 people has crashed shortly after taking from an airport in Kentucky. The Comair CRJ-100 jet, bound for Atlanta, Georgia, went down in woods about a mile (1.6km) from Lexington's Blue Grass airport. There are a "significant number of casualties" said a spokeswoman for the US Federal Aviation Administration. Comair Flight 5191 came down just after 0600 (1000 GMT), and emergency crews were sent to the scene. The plane was carrying 47 passengers and three crew members, the FAA said. Comair is a unit of Atlanta-based Delta airline.

The State Senate voted 24-14 Thursday to approve legislation by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, to strengthen the Delta Protection Commission, enabling the board to better protect the water, agricultural land and other resources the Delta provides Californians. Under current law, the Delta Protection Commission prepares and maintains a resource management plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta primary zone, approximately 500,000 acres of waterways, levees and rich farmland in five counties including Yolo and Solano. AB 797 expands the commission's responsibilities to include the secondary zone, agricultural land conversions and subdivisions in its resource management plan. The bill also requires that...

SACRAMENTO – For the first time, California has started to map an all-in-one strategy to safeguard an economically vital network of highways, railroads and energy supply lines crisscrossing the heart of the state. This post-Hurricane Katrina response broadens the state's initial list of priorities beyond levees and aqueducts to target overlooked lifelines centered in the Sacramento Delta that are just as vital to the state's fiscal well-being, from San Diego to Silicon Valley. A natural disaster in the delta could disrupt the delivery of goods and services along roads, rail lines and deep-water ports. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. facilities...