JetBlue Coming To Bradley?

JetBlue Airways is considering a move into Bradley, The Hartford Courant reports. The trendy budget carrier already flies from Boston, Providence and all three New York area airports.  I say bring it.

Transcontinental Flight Returning, Bradley To LAX

Delta will restore its Bradley to Los Angeles service in June, bringing back Connecticut’s only nonstop flight to the West Coast, the Associated Press reports.

The flight will operate every day of the week except Saturday. When Delta suspended that service in September 2008, flights had been cut down to four times weekly.

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Bradley To Denver, Nonstop: $219

Southwest Airlines will inaugurate its new nonstop flight from Bradley International Airport to Denver with $99 fares each way, which comes out to $219 round-trip with all taxes and fees.

The once-daily nonstop flights begin March 14 but you can buy tickets now.

If you prefer to change planes and pay for your checked bags, you can  fly on any of several major carriers that are matching Southwest’s price, or nearly so, between April 7 and May 25.

Coast to Coast From $238

All the major airlines are selling fares from Bradley to Seattle for $238, round trip, all taxes and fees included.

Other Northeast airports have similar fares. Other West Coast destinations, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, are running around $240 to $270.

The fares look to be good from Jan. 26 to March 10. Each route and airline is a little different, but availability looks best on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

These fares are not advertised, so they may go away at any minute. If you’re looking for a late winter trip to the West Coast, get to your favorite booking engine soon.

News Report Describes Strange Jet Behavior

Despite the adage about glass houses and stones, I can’t help pointing out this hilarious story I just ran across about the emergency landing of a private jet at Bradley International Airport recently.

I’ve had a typo or three in my blog entries, and plenty of the kind of mental errors that a friend calls “mindos,” so I sympathize with the writer of this story for WGGB-TV in Springfield, Mass., who clearly had other things on his or her mind.

The story (and headline) imply that the jet had an emotional consciousness and the story goes on to suggest that it reported this itself:

A distressed plane landed at Bradley International Airport shortly before 8 a.m. Monday after reporting the smell of smoke in its cockpit.

The story subsequently clarifies that the pilot reported the smell of smoke but describes the Learjet as a “Leer jet.”

Ah, those smoldering, leering jets. Quite the danger to civil aviation.

Southwest At Bradley: Cautious Growth

I had an opportunity last week at Southwest Airlines Media Day in Dallas to talk with Bob Jordan, the airline’s executive vice president for strategy and planning, about the future of Southwest in the Northeast and at Bradley in particular.

Southwest has been at Bradley for nearly 10 years, and trails only the merged Delta / Northwest and its subsidiaries in the number of passengers carried from there. Last week Southwest also announced the addition of a daily flight to Denver, restoring a route that Frontier Airlines dropped last year.

Here’s a video of our discussion. Enjoy the part at the beginning where I refer to Southwest as “Southeast.” (D’oh):

Fewer Flights To Where You Want To Go

People flying out of Bradley want to go to San Francisco more than any other place, according to Kayak.com.

They’d better be prepared to change planes, though, because there are no longer any direct flights from Bradley to anywhere on the West Coast. In fact, search data from Kayak, which has just been made available to the public, shows a disconnect between where people want to go from Bradley and how convenient it is to get there.

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Power Fails Briefly At Bradley

Bradley International Airport’s Terminal A shut down for nearly an hour this morning because of a power failure, WTIC News reported. Six departures were delayed. Terminal A serves the airport’s two largest carriers: Southwest and Delta. The older Terminal B and the control tower did not lose power, WTIC reported.

Embraer Closes Bradley Jet Maintenance Center

Embraer has closed a maintenance facility that it opened less than a year ago at Bradley International Airport to service private jets, Eric Gershon reports in The Hartford Courant. The Brazilian jet manufacturer suggested it might reopen the service center when the economy recovers.

Light Rail To Bradley Back On Track?

A light rail line between Hartford and Bradley International Airport? The dream has a faintly discernible pulse, according to a story in The Hartford Courant by a reporter I know. But let us not hold our breath.