Primera Air Abruptly Shuts Down, Other Airlines Offer to Help Stranded Passengers

Passengers aboard Delta Air Lines flight 1437 had to disembark with emergency slides after the plane burst one of its tires when landing in Atlanta.

A New Jersey-bound Delta Airlines flight turned around mid-air and headed back to a Massachusetts airport after an anonymous caller told police that a passenger on the plane made threats about the flight, authorities said early Monday.

Alaska Airlines is justly lauded for its Mileage Plan loyalty program, which among other features boasts 17 airline partners, allowing program members to earn and redeem miles for flights throughout the world.

Tickets go on sale today from a brand-new airline.

Ever since Delta began ramping up operations in Seattle, Alaska Airlines’ hometown and main flight hub, the relationship between the two airlines has been disintegrating. And there was plenty to disintegrate. The carriers were long-time partners in each other’s frequent-flyer programs, and they code-shared on a host of flights. They were, in the industry vernacular, preferred marketing partners.

By traditional measures, Alaska Airlines is a carrier of decidedly modest size, even after its acquisition of Virgin America. Its own flight network is small, compared to those of American, Delta, and United. And it’s not a member of one of the three global airline alliances.

I recently dubbed Alaska Airlines’ loyalty program, Mileage Plan, the “Best Mileage Program for Average Travelers.” It’s a hard-won honor, awarded for two principal reasons. First, Alaska has chosen to retain Mileage Plan’s distance-based earning scheme, even as most other airlines have adopted less generous spend-based earning. And second, Alaska has cobbled together a roster of earning and redemption partners that rivals those of the world’s largest airlines.

This summer, Norwegian plans to fly from New York to Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Shannon—and for these flights, “New York” means Stewart International Airport (SWF), also called Stewart Field.

There’s no shortage of new airlines servicing North America right now: Norwegian, WOW, Primera, XL Airways, Level, Flair, and Joon have recently sprung up or expanded. But none of these new carriers is based in the U.S.

Pilots from Southwest and American Airlines are rallied at the White House today in the hopes of blocking Norwegian Air’s planned expansion in the U.S., reports the Dallas Business Journal.

Google “La Compagnie” and the top non-sponsored result describes the airline thusly: “Discover Paris and London with La Compagnie, the unique French all-business-class airline, at an affordable price.”