=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2006/12/27/BUGNRN67SS= 1.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, December 27, 2006 (SF Chronicle) The news in air travel: High fares, roomier jets David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer While you multitask your way through the holidays, sipping eggnog and working your thumbs to the bone on the BlackBerry, changes continue in the airline industry, which typically sees more traffic from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. Here is a holiday sampler from the annals of aviation: More room in coach: What's this? An airline actually increasing the excruciatingly narrow space between seat rows -- "pitch" in airline industry parlance? JetBlue Airways is widening its pitch to 36 inches from 32 inches -- roughly the industry standard -- in its all-economy class, single-aisle Airbus 320s. The makeover, which JetBlue expects to finish by March, will be accomplished by taking a row of seats out of each plane. American Airlines gave some of its economy class passengers more precious legroom a few years back in a program the airline dubbed "more room in coach." The carrier drew praise for the move, but it quietly restored the seats when it found fewer seats meant a reduction in revenue. JetBlue says it can remove seats and still make money because of the configuration of the narrow-body A320. Taking out a row of seats will allow the New York discount carrier to accommodate 150 passengers, down from 156, in each plane. By flying with 150 or fewer seats, JetBlue needs only three flight attendants rather than the four that federal regulations require on an aircraft with more than 150 seats. By saving a flight attendant's salary, JetBlue says it can still make money. Jet fuel blues: High jet fuel costs, though lower than a few months ago, are still a problem for airlines, several of which are just now returning to operating in the black. Indeed, 2006 will be remembered for its 10 fare increases by U.S. carriers, the latest of which came this month, when Delta Air Lines and American raised prices, citing high fuel costs. American raised its one-way fares by $5 to $20, according to distance traveled. Delta, still struggling to emerge from bankruptcy and fend off an unfriendly takeover offer from US Airways, raised all its one-way fares by $10. American says fuel costs 15 percent more than it did a year ago. So the world's largest airline is striving to lower its fuel bill even as it raises fares. According to spokesman Alan Phillips, American is saving 3.7 million gallons of fuel annually at its San Francisco International Airport facility just by cleaning the engines differently than it used to. A high-pressure wash is used, Phillips said. "During normal operations, = an aircraft engine will encounter a number of air pollutants and contaminants that become attached to the compressor blades and can begin to impede the airflow through the compressor. Due to this disturbance in airflow over the blades, the amount of work to compress the air is increased. This causes a higher exhaust gas temperature and increased fuel consumption." The high-pressure wash seems to be helping. Phillips said SFO is the only place the technique is being used. But American may eventually adopt it throughout its system. Shopping SFO: Face it, between fog, rain and wind in the Bay Area, snow = in Denver or all manner of delays elsewhere in the global aviation system, you probably will be spending a lot of time in airports this winter. Why not go shopping? Airport shopping isn't new, of course. It went big-time in the 1980s, wh= en Pittsburgh International Airport built an airport with a retail mall in the building. Since then, airport shopping and eating have grown apace, with upscale brands moving in on the action. So it is that Gucci, the Italian purveyor of luxury handbags and luggage, has opened its first free-standing airport retail shop in SFO's International Terminal. "Gucci selected the San Francisco airport for the importance of the airport as a gateway to Asia, as well as the number of flights to Europe," the Italian company said, according to an airport handout. "Gucci also believes that San Francisco airport, with its new, modern design, is a good fit for Gucci, which has been an important fashion leader with a modern luxury style for many years." SFO, which reaps rent dollars from high-end retailers, figures that affluent travelers might break out the plastic at Gucci and board their flights with a women's handbag or a men's tote bag -- which may well retail for less at SFO than the sky-high prices they command in Tokyo or Milan. E-mail David Armstrong at davidarmstrong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --------------= -------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2006 SF Chronicle