So sue me, already. The FAA said so, and now the airlines have and so the feds are responding with unusual speed for any agency. And it's all over slots. No, not the kind you find in 
Why now? Out in California, where so many interesting things come from, a group calling itself theairlineoilspin.com has set itself up, "to encourage the public to see through the industry's spin on the issue." The airlines, they say, "have failed to prepare for rising oil prices by continuing to fly older, less fuel-efficient planes unlike many of their competitors in other parts of the world. And even though the airlines promoted multiple pieces of legislation that would place limits on some types of oil speculation, many of the bills supported by the industry include loopholes that allow the airlines themselves to continue speculating. At the same time, the industry has benefited from more than $8.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies since 2001." Some indictment. But....
Nobody like this fellow, it would seem. They may have meant he did a god job. But we think it's pretty clear th
They are not yielding an inch. Or a dollar. The FAA, caught with its pants down in March and April, is standing tough on the record fines it is proposing against two of the nation's largest airlines. The agency said it would fine American Airlines $7.1 million and a day later told Southwest Airlines that it was intent on collecting a $10.2 million penalty. The Southwest penalty stems from the March revelation that the airline let planes fly without doing the required inspections; at the same time it emerged that some FAA inspectors had winked and nodded at the violations - and that whistleblower warnings about this malfeasance were ignored or punished. House Transportation Committee hearings under chairman Oberstar put the frustrated whistleblowers on show.
For the biggest deal to come down the pike since the last big deal, the British Airways/ American Airlines/ Iberia* tie-up is grabbing less
You know it has to be bad day when your most militant union publicly asks you to resign and the nation's leading business weekly suggests it's time to shut your company down and sell off the pieces. But Glenn Tilton, chairman, chief executive, and president of United Airlines and its parent UAL Corp., seems unflustered. The call by the Air Line Pilots Association for him to step down - a call that the union has made with a new website seeking passenger horror stories - came after the airline sued the pilots union, alleging a conspiracy to abuse sick days and cancel flights and after the unions accused the airline of trying to force them to fly broken planes without enough fuel. United dismisses the noise as "just an attempt to intimidate." Bill Brandt, a turnaround specialist with Chicago's DSI, says, "So it's news that the pilots and Tilton don't like each other?" 
The papers are full of reports that American Airlines and British Airways are again applying for alliance antitrust immunity, but they haven't yet. That has not stopped Richard Branson from attacking the proposal, just as he did the last time around. Back then, he decorated his planes with the slogan NO WAY AA/BA; this time he's writing to the US presidential candidates. In his letter, Branson says that "BA/AA would have a combination of high frequencies and a transatlantic network that could not be replicated by any other airline/alliance, and which would make it impossible for other carriers to compete for time-sensitive corporate or business travellers." 
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