I don’t fly so I can’t speak from experience here but the Wall Street Journal has been looking into some of the extra fees that airlines are charging and how much money those fees, which include cancellations, are making the airlines. Going through the new Department of Transportation filings these fees are making the airlines literally millions of dollars and they don’t show any sign of decreasing.

In February, the Transportation Department clarified rules on how airlines report ticket-change penalties to the government. The first-quarter numbers for 2009 offer the first accurate snapshot of how much consumers pay to make changes to non-refundable tickets. It turns out to be more than many realized.

Change and cancellation fees amount to an added 3.2% of U.S. airline passenger revenue, totaling $527.6 million for the first quarter. Business travelers pay the lion’s share.

With the information in a post on footnoted.org here’s a short list of some of the airlines and the money they’ve made on the various fees charged

1. AMR, which is the parent company of American Airlines, using “other revenues” as a way to lump all the fees, which include cancellation and baggage fees, went up by 7% to $565 million
2. Delta said its “other revenues” increased by $81 million during the quarter
3. USAirways didn’t give a money figure but has said that their “ancillary items” has seen a hefty increase
4. JetBlue will only say that “other revenue” was up by 7%

Of course some airline customers aren’t overly happy with this ‘feeing’ to death and Delta is facing several class action lawsuits challenging the baggage fees for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.

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An American Airlines jet had to make an emergency landing in Halifax, Canada Tuesday night after pasengers and crew reported smoke in the cabin.

American Airlines flight 64 was on it’s way from New York to Zurich, Switzerland when some sort of fire broke out on board. The plane diverted to Halifax airport and landed safely where emergency crews were waiting.

Paul Baxter, vice president of operations at Halifax International Airport said the passengers were slightly alarmed but none sought medical attention. They walked off the plane without having to deploy the emergency chutes.

American Airlines dispatched another plane to pick up the stranded passengers and their flight continued to it’s destination.

American Airlines service technicians will perform any repairs to the plane and thoroughly inspect it before putting it back into service.

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In September, American Airlines flight attendants, through the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, asked the carrier to filter its in-flight Internet service to block access to pornography and other web sites that are inappropriate.

The company contends that despite the move, it has not experienced any reported incidents of customers viewing inappropriate content via its Internet service. I don’t believe them. Someone must have tried looking at one. Really. There must be someone. You?

American Airlines was the first airline to launch Internet access to customers flying its Boeing 767-200 aircraft between New York JFK and San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami as part of a three-to-six month trial of inflight connectivity. The introduction of inflight Wi-Fi provides customers the opportunity to be productive and stay connected while in flight and not to satisfy clamor for porn.

So, if you want porn in the sky, American Airlines should not be your airline of choice.

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Because of this, Bloomberg reported that American Airlines flight attendants, through the Association of Professional Flight Attendants is asking the carrier to filter its in-flight Internet service to block access to pornography and other web sites that are inappropriate.

“We’ve heard a lot of complaints from flight attendants and passengers” about travelers pulling up objectionable Web pages,” union spokesman David Roscow said.

This is a good call from the flight attendants and its union. Besides, why go to those websites while out in public and way up in the sky? Such idiots.

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