Air Jamaica announced expanded Air Jamaica service from the U.S. to Jamaica, as well as offer a wider range of service to Eastern Caribbean destinations.

An Indian low-cost airline is suing a passenger who opened an emergency exit door on a delayed flight after passengers were told they would not be allowed to deplane. The Mumbai-to-Delhi flight had to return to Mumbai after fog prevented it from landing at Delhi. "Air Deccan has suffered $20,000 in damage and explained that the escape slide of the emergency door of the aircraft deflated after the incident. The airline grounded the aircraft to do the necessary repair works. The airline will now have to replace it with a new one," writes IBNLive.com of India.

Midwest Airlines made a series of service announcements today. In one press release, the company says that Midwest subsidiary Skyway Airlines will add non-stop service between Milwaukee and Duluth (Minn.) International Airport beginning March 4. The carrier will operate two daily round-trip flights using 32- seat Fairchild 328JET aircraft. Duluth will be the 48th destination in Midwest's route network. Also beginning March 4, Midwest says that St. Louis fliers will "enjoy enhanced service" to its Milwaukee hub when the carrier switches its aircraft on the route to 32-seat Fairchild 328JET aircraft. Midwest Connect partner Skyway Airlines will continue operating with three round-trip flights each weekday, two on Sundays and one on Saturdays. The airline explains that "the service expansion is another part of Midwest's comprehensive long-term business and strategic plans, which include aggressive route expansion and equipment upgrades, as well as the addition of at least six new destinations and as many as 12 new routes in 2007.

To help mark its one-year anniversary out of Denver, Southwest "is launching a sale today featuring one-way tickets from Denver to several cities for as little as $28," the Rocky Mountain News writes. Those prices, the paper writes, are

"among the lowest airfares offered here in recent memory." The sale fares will be offered through Southwest's downloadonly "Ding!" application, with the lowest $28 fares available to Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Kansas City. But Southwest's one-year anniversary fare sale may simply be heralding the advance of a big ramp-up in Denver. Southwest resumed its Denver service Jan. 3, 2006, with 13 flights to just three cities.

Beginning April 10, American Airlines will add non-stop service between Seattle and Austin. The carrier will fly one daily round-trip flight on 136-seat MD80 aircraft configured with 16 first-class seats and 120 in coach. "The Austin and Seattle markets are important to American and its customers," Henry Joyner, AA Senior Vice President – Planning, says in a press release. "We've done very well with our other flights between Austin and the West Coast – we expect this one to be a success as well." AA's other West Coast routes from Austin fly to Los Angeles and San Jose, California.

American Airlines passengers flying from San Francisco to Dallas ended up being stuck on the same plane for 12 hours. The flight was diverted to Austin and was then stuck on the tarmac for more than eight hours, according to The Dallas Morning News (free registration). The paper said the plane sat in Austin with "no food, dirty toilets and frustration levels rising." The pilot on the flight - AA Flight 1348 – declined to give his name to the Morning News, but said the incident was the first time he had encountered such a scenario. "If I had a place to physically put the plane, I would do it," he told the paper. Passengers, of course, were not pleased about being stuck on the jet. For American's part, the airline faced an unusually high number of flight cancellations, diversions and delays because of storms near its Dallas/Fort Worth hub. AA spokesman Andy Backover was quoted by KRISTV Channel 6 of Corpus Christi that he couldn't say for sure why Flight 1348 was kept on the tarmac so long. But he did say AA did its best to get the diverted flight off the ground.

After several substantial cutbacks at its St. Louis hub, American has announced plans to restore some of the capacity there. Most of AA's increased St. Louis capacity won't come from new routes, but rather from switching from smaller aircraft to larger ones. The changes –- which take effect April 10 –- also call for AA to add more mainline jets on St. Louis routes. The routes slated for a capacity increases include Austin, Raleigh/Durham, San Antonio and Boston. AA will also move ahead with previously announced plans to add an additional jet flight between St. Louis and its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth. That route will begin next month. "These changes in our aircraft offerings reflect a continued effort to match capacity and demand for service at our St. Louis hub," Loretta Kuss, American's Regional Manager-Passenger Sales, says in a press release. "Our corporate customers and business travelers are supporting our flights and that necessitates larger aircraft to accommodate their travel needs."

Varig Airlines will be kicked out of the Star Alliance frequent- flier group. The Brazilian carrier barely survived a tumultuous year, greatly reducing its route network since it was purchased in bankruptcy proceedings by a group called VariLog. Varilog writes that Varig "is being dropped from the worldwide alliance as of Jan. 31 because it no longer meets membership requirements, which include operating a major global network." The loss of the Brazilian carrier also could hurt Star Alliance in that region. Air Transport World writes that the group now "will be the only one of the three major airline groupings to lack a member based in Latin America."