All airlines offer means of instant communication these days. Travel is easier because of this. Therefore it is something of a shock when you see the edifice of instant IT customer support to be really thin and, actually, non existent.

So take a look at the following series of messages…

Upon receiving this message applying to a minor, a parent in the 21st century does the obvious thing. You reach for Twitter. Clearly the minor at the check-in counter is not being helped. And calling an 800 number is without doubt the most inefficient thing one can do. After all, there is a schedule working here.  That is why you buy the ticket in the first place – you accepted a contract of carriage for a fee. Sometimes there are unplanned changes in that schedule, but in return for being understanding of the vagaries of the airline business, you would expect the airline to be equally accommodating.  You would also expect the airline to have entered the same century as its customers. So how about this messgae?

This is not confidence building at all.  The solution to drive a customer back to the check-in counter impasse is most unhelpful.  What is the point of all this great technology? How come other airlines can do this on the fly?

Like Delta for example? Guess which airline the passenger ended up on? And guess which airline lost the customer forever?  Even if the fare is once again 50% lower in future, this parent simply cannot take the risk of using an airline that can't fix a simple internal issue.

There is sense that both the airline and Boeing are trying to play this news down. "If there is some finding that suggests that there is merit to expanding inspections beyond what we've done, well of course we're going to do that," said Gary Kelly, Southwest's CEO speaking to a conference of business journalists.

Boeing responded quickly to the Southwest incident, and the airline has no plans to seek links with other aircraft makers, Kelly said. "Boeing has been there for Southwest Airlines," he said.

The 737-300 represents roughly 20% of Southwest's fleet. As a result of the inspections, Southwest found "very small cracks" in five of its aircraft — and four of those five aircraft were back in service late on Friday, Kelly said.  Southwest paid a $7.5m FAA fine for operating 737s without required fuselage structural inspections in 2006/07.

Our sense is that the airline needs and wants a solution to ensure this never happens again. Unfortunately the pre-NG 737's design lends itself to this type of fatigue. And Southwest does lots of segments per day – meaning its operations by definition are going stress the fleet in ways most other airlines won't see. We might expect Ryanair to have similar issues, but they have mainly moved over the the NG.

We expect to hear more about this in the coming months.  This story is not over.

In other news:

• SAAF gets three more Gripens
• EU gets its own space tourism option
• An early Monday giggle

Subscribe to our analysis and opinion behind the headlines at Blackprogram

Well, that's kind of what it looks like. If your child has a child
-right?  It appears that Brussels is about to do a deal with Forrest Group to
create a regional airline based in Congo.  The company will initially
fly a single scheduled service between Lubumbashi and Kinshasa and then
extend to other regional routes.

This, in our view, is
a good move by Brussels. The airline is a new name, but there are
distinct links harking back to Sabena and Belgium's colonial past in
Africa. Brussels could create something truly interesting if this
airline works well. Having a regional hub to gather traffic means making
Brussels (the city) an effective hub.  Transfers to the rest of the EU
via high speed rail are excellent.  Transfers to North America are taken
care of.  Transfers to Asia, ditto.  Plugging in small African markets
to the rest of the global economy is very smart – especially when one
considers the demand for resources growing.  Congo is huge and mostly
undeveloped.  Opportunity knocks.  Lufthansa should watch this and feel
rather proud.

In other news:

• Remember the name Avient?
• BA gets customer support- as Unite loses it.
• Conference Board's downer
• South Africa's airlines – a view from Airbus

Subscribe to over 4,700 (and growing) analysis and opinion posts behind the headlines at Blackprogram

Well, that's kind of what it looks like. If your child has a child
-right?  It appears that Brussels is about to do a deal with Forrest Group to
create a regional airline based in Congo.  The company will initially
fly a single scheduled service between Lubumbashi and Kinshasa and then
extend to other regional routes.

This, in our view, is
a good move by Brussels. The airline is a new name, but there are
distinct links harking back to Sabena and Belgium's colonial past in
Africa. Brussels could create something truly interesting if this
airline works well. Having a regional hub to gather traffic means making
Brussels (the city) an effective hub.  Transfers to the rest of the EU
via high speed rail are excellent.  Transfers to North America are taken
care of.  Transfers to Asia, ditto.  Plugging in small African markets
to the rest of the global economy is very smart – especially when one
considers the demand for resources growing.  Congo is huge and mostly
undeveloped.  Opportunity knocks.  Lufthansa should watch this and feel
rather proud.

In other news:

• Remember the name Avient?
• BA gets customer support- as Unite loses it.
• Conference Board's downer
• South Africa's airlines – a view from Airbus

Subscribe to over 4,700 (and growing) analysis and opinion posts behind the headlines at Blackprogram

After reading about how difficult it is to buy fairly priced jet fuel in India, this story highlights some good news for the embattled airlines in India. However, India's airlines face the same problem as any other, how much to cut fares to get people flying again. This subtle trade off is now the new test for the industry.

Airlines typically cut fares to get people flying again; the idea being the load factors (volume) will make up for the revenue cuts. But with capacity cuts, Indian airlines have less to worry about. For example, Kingfisher no longer is worried about A345s and Jet has sub leased out three 777s. Even with these cuts, the juggle will be tough. As matters look now, travel demand looks to be weaker than anyone expects. IATA has painted a very bleak picture for the industry globally.

In other news –

• Turkey buys Mi-28s – sends message to NATO
• CAAC rebuff?
• JAL announces biofuel test
• BA staff strike threat – what a joke

Subscribe to over 3,000 (and growing) analysis and opinion posts behind the headlines at Blackprogram

The RAF's 18 remaining Nimrods may be doomed. A detailed study of a Nimrod discovered that two fuel lines were misaligned and that put stress on couplings that caused fuel leaks. The fuel line misalignment was discovered after the UK government ordered engineers to strip down a Nimrod to seek out fatigue or design problems. It was long believed that the fuel leaks were caused by metal fatigue, faulty fuel pumps or aerial refueling problems. Now it appears it was improperly installed fuel pipes.

The remaining Nimrods are considered too old (introduced 1969) to be fixed by anything short of a complete rebuild. The UK does not have the money for that. The UK is leasing two USAF RC-135 Rivet Joint planes in the interim. Many RAF people believe the Nimrod has better surveillance technology than the RC-135.

The RAF is now in a quandary. Afghanistan demands such equipment and UAVs are limited in there abilities. There is no short term solution and successive UK governments' ignoring the RAF's needs has left the service in a hole. Probably the only option going forward will be to find another aircraft of the current era in which to install the Nimrod's surveillance technology. The RAF's larger non-bomber planes have invariably been hand me downs.

Do we see a chance here for Airbus? Could an A320 frame do the trick? Actually we think this would do the trick very well and at a stroke offer the world an alternative to Boeing's P-8. The A320 base is huge, ensuring parts for decades. The solution would ensure close ties between the UK and EU – a European solution that exploits the best of both sides. Now what we need is a leader to take this idea forward. Any suggestions?

In other news –

• BA suspends flights to Pakistan
• Air Canada's GoGo plans
• Oil price yo yo
• Russia & Georgia – again

Subscribe to analysis and opinion behind these headlines at Blackprogram

EADS CEO Lois Gallois says they are watching airlines in the US and India carefully but sees no need to panic. This comes from a piece in today's FT.

But despite the brave face, things are not comfortable at Airbus where the insider trading mess just keeps on going. Despite the bravado, how can anyone seriously expect the investigation (which now has touched 17 executives) assume that the subject does not consume inordinate numbers of hours that should be used elsewhere?

That said, Airbus placed some big orders over the last two years with start ups in India and SE Asia. Hence its huge backlog of work. But much of this can evaporate as airlines start to go away – as SRB predicts. Indeed SRB thinks a large US airline could easily close – anyone else want to offer better names than United or US Airways? And who do you think is exposed more there? Why the nice people from Airbus of course; especially at US Airways.

Which brings us back to that word panic. The dollar slump has not bottomed out; the tanker deal looks real iffy now. Perhaps there is no panic (after all EADS and Airbus have some serious shareholder support don't they?) – but along with investigations and seriously softer markets, sleepless in Toulouse sounds more accurate than sleepless in Seattle.

In other news –

• German mergers
• Boeing wins Fly Dubai order
• Boeing vs. Pentagon – again, can you believe this?
• Pratt gets a boost
• Bombardier makes its first Farnborough splash in a while

Subscribe to analysis and opinion behind these headlines at Blackprogram

Flight International's Kieran Daly has a new blog you want to check out. FI is apparently redoing its blogs, and you don't want to miss this one.

Yes, summer is over, but have you seen fares that are going down and hotel deals are looking great?

Check Betterfares.com

Yes, summer is over, but have you seen fares that are going down and hotel deals are looking great?

Check Betterfares.com