American Eagle: Deep in the Heart of Texas

One of our 7 airline partners American Eagle, a division of American Airlines, along with its parent company, is headquartered in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Our roving photog decided to embark on a journey to this amazing metroplex and chronicle the trip on Twitter, Facebook and eventually in a video on the HIA Observation Deck. The point of the social media journey was to take you, the follower, fan, subscriber; community member along too!

The journey began with a 7:30 am departure from MDT to Chicago - O'Hare (ORD) on American Eagle, followed by a 9:55 am connection from ORD to Dallas/Fort Worth airport (DFW) on American Airlines. The air travel experience from start to finish was a breeze thanks to capable and friendly airline staff and easy experiences at ORD and DFW. The air travel came to a close with an 11:50 (local time) arrival at DFW.

Upon arrival in DFW, our photog was off to visit the American Airlines Training & Conference Center (AATCC) and the nearby C.R. Smith Museum. These two facilities are an aviation geek and prop-head's dream come true. The AATCC shares it's campus with the Flight Academy, home to different training programs, including but not limited to pilot, first officer, and flight attendant school. The campus is located at what was formerly the Stewardess College in the 1950s.

The C.R. Smith Museum is a chockful of American Airlines goodness: memorabilia, audio/visual learning, aircraft parts, simulators and of course a retired member of the AA fleet, the Flagship Knoxville, a DC3 that began her maiden voyage in 1940. We would need an additional blog post to share entire museum experience; very interactive, and fun!

Have we interested you yet in hopping on a plane to visit DFW via ORD on American? Have you already visited these facilities? What did you enjoy the most about your visit to DFW?

Guest Blog: In-Flight WiFi Availability on Airlines at MDT

We have asked a few select guest bloggers to join us on this blog as part of a six week mini series on hot button aviation topics that effect you, the traveler. These guest bloggers will no doubt enrich your travel experience by bringing in their own various perspectives and experiences from different horizons. Today we would like to introduce Dan Webb as the fifth guest blogger*.

Dan Webb, is sophomore at Bryant University. After a year of thinking, he decided to major in business administration, concentrate in finance, and minor in actuarial math and supply chain management.

He absolutely loves planes ever since his first flight from Boston on a Northwest Airlines Boeing 757-200. When he was young, he made an airport made out of Legos, and drew the “Dan Airways” route map in inflight magazines my dad would bring home from trips (he still collects them to this day). He actually keeps track of all the flights he's ever been on. He's fairly confident that he wants to enter the airline industry after college. His professional profile is available on LinkedIn.

You can find more about Dan and his aviation/travel interests at his blog Things in the Sky and by listening to his podcast Airplane Geeks online. You can also follow Dan on Twitter.

Today Dan will share with us the in-flight wireless internet availability on the airline partners at Harrisburg International Airport (MDT).

It really impresses me how quickly inflight Wi-Fi has been installed on aircraft across the country. I've yet to be on a flight with the service, but friends who have really enjoy it. Here's a summary on the availability of Wi-Fi on carriers that fly out of MDT:

Air Canada
Like many airports in the Northeast, MDT gets its Air Canada service from Air Georgian Becch 1900 aircraft, which have no Wi-Fi. Air Canada has been testing the service on flights to Los Angeles from Toronto and Montreal, but there's no word yet on if they will expand it to the rest of their network.

AirTran
AirTran was the second carrier to get Wi-Fi on all of its aircraft, so if you're flying them out of Harrisburg, you'll have the service! The only exception is flights operated by AirTran's partner SkyWest, but that's a small operation based out of Milwaukee.

American
It was simply fantastic news when American announced that it would be returning to MDT with flights to Chicago O'Hare in April. Unfortunately, none of the flights to MDT will have Wi-Fi as they will be operated by regional subsidiary American Eagle. Nevertheless, it could be available on a connecting flight. American has Internet service on all of its 767-200 aircraft, and some MD-80s and 737-800s. You can check if your flight has Wi-Fi with it's handy widget.

Continental
The airline is still figuring out what it's doing with Wi-Fi. It will be testing out Aircell's Gogo service (the industry leader) on 21 757-300 aircraft, while the 737-900s are getting a different service from LiveTV. So, we'll just have to see what happens. Commutair flights to Cleveland and Newark from MDT won't have the serivce, though.

Delta
Like other carriers, service to/from MDT won't have Wi-Fi has they're operated by regional partners, but the service could be available on connecting flights. But Delta has made great progress - pretty much the entire pre-merger Delta fleet has Wi-Fi. So if you're connecting to a mainline flight out of Cincinnati or Atlanta, there's a great chance of Wi-Fi availability. The airline is just getting started on the Northwest fleet, however, so if you're going through Detroit your chances aren't the greatest.

United
The airline has only installed Wi-Fi on its 14 757-200s that fly to Los Angeles and San Francisco from New York as part of it's P.S. (premium service) brand. There are no plans in place to expand the service right now, but that could always change.

US Airways
US Airways is planning on installing Wi-Fi on A321 aircraft this year, but that hasn't started yet. Currently, the airline doesn't fly that aircraft to/from MDT.

*The opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Harrisburg International Airport.