American comes to SE Texas: Will its new paint job & updated eagle follow?

Commercial air service returns to our local airport next month when American Eagle begins flights between Jack Brooks Regional Airport (BPT) and Dallas-Fort Worth International (DFW). Whether this will bring American’s “new look” or its oldest, I suppose we shall have to wait and see.

American has just unveiled its new look with a new logo. Perhaps it is because the airline has taken a new order of Boeing 777-300ERs for delivery so they figured it might be a good time to repaint its old fleet as well. As the airline’s chief commercial officer explains:

AMERICAN AIRLINES NEW LOOK
“Just drop me off at that next mountain top, Cap’n!” A new paint job and logo for American Airlines. Could there be new fares to match?

“Our new logo and livery are designed to reflect the passion for progress and the soaring spirit, which is uniquely American,” said Virasb Vahidi, American’s CCO. “Our core colors — red, white and blue — have been updated to reflect a more vibrant and welcoming spirit. The new tail, with stripes flying proudly, is a bold reflection of American’s origin and name. And our new flight symbol, an updated eagle, incorporates the many icons that people have come to associate with American, including the ‘A’ and the star.”

There is nothing like an updated eagle to get your motors running. Just ask the Philadelphia Eagles and the wonders the updated eagles have done the team in recent years.

But seriously it is nice that we are finally getting an airline to our little airport even if one has to fly to D-FW first, no matter where they are going. It would have been nice to have an airline that flies to Hobby or G.H.W. Bush in Houston, a 20-30-minute flight from Brooks. Continental, under the guise of Colgan Air, did that. But Colgan quit the friendly skies as part of its parent firm’s, Pinnacle Airlines, restructuring plan.

I am not sure but I would think the public relations folks for the Jack Brooks airport, owned by Jefferson County, Texas, did not write this little factoid in BPT’s Wikipedia page:

“Jack Brooks Regional Airport has the distinction of being the only destination that Southwest Airlines has ended scheduled daily service to (1980), and has never returned.”

Ouch. And I don’t know if that is a fact, Jack. I don’t know why anyone would lie about such a matter. Then again, in Wikipedia, anything’s possible.

One attraction of the new airline is that with the initial flights, at least, it doesn’t seem as if they’ll clean out the old bank account. Since I don’t talk regularly to American, or any other airline for that matter, I have no idea what they are up to with what seem to be reasonable fares (certain March and April round-trip, no extras, flight from Beaumont to El Paso via Dallas, for $223 plus tax (and check bags, and seating INSIDE the plane rather than on the wing … ) Check it out yourself if you are interested. Surely there’s a catch. After all you have to find someway to pay for a new paint job and an updated eagle. Of course, with my bank account at the present time, a bag of Munchos would wipe me out.

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