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Movie Set Travel / Food Travel / Ice Cream Travel / OAK / → All Tags

Eat Some Cartoon Ice Cream at Fenton's in Oakland

It’s Academy Award season, but we usually are too busy watching awful television shows like Real Housewives of Somewhere to get out and see classy stuff like Black Swan. Even if we don’t have time for true cinema, we usually make sure we see all the nominated cartoons, so we were pretty excited when Disney’s Up took home that little statue last year for best animated film.

Sure it’s make believe, but at the end of the picture the two heroes of the film were enjoying some down time over an ice cream cone at Fenton’s. Luckily for everyone, Fenton’s Creamery isn’t a made up place, and we had the chance to swing by for a scoop and a sit not too long ago at the original Oakland location.

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Jaunted Interviews / Tony Fernandes / Kuala Lumpur Travel / Malaysia Travel / Air Asia X / OAK / Air Asia / LCCs / Airline News / → All Tags

Talking With Air Asia's CEO Tony Fernandes About US Plans

A Jaunted Exclusive

We've been following the secretive saga behind the Air Asia X plane gone native—meaning it slipped into some Oakland Raiders livery—ever since May when it's tail was spotted getting the new paintjob. We speculated that perhaps this meant one of two things: either the Oakland Raiders football team was chartering an AirAsia plane for their season, or Air Asia was readying for some trans-Pacific routes to the United States.

After the plane flew to Oakland for a grand unveiling last week, we had to get to the bottom of the deal. Is Air Asia coming to the United States or what? So we dialed up the Air Asia CEO and mogul Tony Fernandes for a quick rundown of the low-cost carrier's North American plans.

And here's what he said...

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Air Asia X / OAK / Oakland Raiders / Low Cost Carriers / Airline News / → All Tags

Air Asia X To Debut Raiders Plane In California Today

Despite the return of professional football, we did not have a good weekend. Our favorite team blew it, and apparently fantasy football is not our forte. There’s always next weekend, so we’ll get over it, and for now we’ll focus our football attention towards Air Asia X and their snazzy Oakland Raiders plane. Seeing a big airplane in NFL livery is pretty cool, especially since we’re still secretly hoping that the low cost carrier will announce a plan to serve the US.

We saw the new plane sticking its tail out from the hangar over the summer, but today it’s flying into Oakland to celebrate the start of the season. After all, the Raiders are playing tonight, so the timing is perfect. However, if you head to the team’s website, you’ll see that tonight’s game is being promoted side by side with ads for Hawaiian Airlines. Maybe team officials didn’t get the memo that another airline has honored them with a custom plane.

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Airports / OAK / Airport Construction / Recessionomics / → All Tags

Airport Renovations Get Scaled Back as Airlines Cut Routes and Passenger Traffic Wanes

Oakland Airport's Southwest terminal during its renovation of 2006.

No surprise here but with the travel industry taking a hard hit this year, airports across the U.S. are having to put their massive renovations plans on hold or in some caese, just settle for just quickie face-lifts.

At Oakland International Airport in California, for example, a $1 billion plan to build a third terminal was shelved last summer after ExpressJet withdrew from the market, Aloha Airlines went out of business and other carriers, especially Southwest Airlines, cut back on flights. Passenger traffic fell by 30 percent, creating a ripple effect at the airport’s restaurants and car rental operations, which also generate cash. Food and beverage revenue dropped by 25 percent; car rental revenue by 20 percent.

Instead of building a new terminal, Oakland is doing a $200 million facelift of an existing terminal.

On the bright side(?), having less passengers allows the construction crews to get their work done faster. A very minor consolation to the airport indeed.

About a dozen other U.S. airports have cancelled or delayed their improvements but Kansas City International Airport is doing something different. The airport is taking advantage of the drop in construction costs to pursue its airport improvement projects which will cost about $161 million. Guess that's what happens when someone calls you a Hot Destination for 2009.

Thank God, JetBlue did their T5 overhaul before the economy crapped out!

Related Stories:
· Oakland Airport Under Construction [Jaunted]
· Airport Projects Delayed or Canceled [NY Times]

Airline Rumors / Air Asia X / New Routes / OAK / KUL / Oakland Raiders / A340 / → All Tags

Are The Oakland Raiders Getting an A340 Jet Or Just An Air Asia Route?

A while back we heard some rumors that Air Asia X, a low-cost long-haul carrier would be opening up a new route out of the U.S. Back then we heard:

Azran Osman Rani (CEO of AirAsia X) has been talking to JFK and 2 California airports regarding launching long haul service from KL. There's nothing definitive lined up, but the time-frame would be in about a year.

This weekend, we were tipped off about a thread over at Airliners.net where a member noticed this plane adorned with an Oakland Raiders logo peeking out of an SIA hanger at the Changi Airport in Singapore. There's a lot of speculation going on in the comments of this thread, ranging from the Raiders owner Al Davis forking out money for a new team jet to the rumor we like the most--Air Asia X is going to start an Oakland service soon.

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Airport WiFi / Airport-WiFi-Map / Airport WiFi Guide / GNV / EWN / BIS / YFC / DXB / IST / OAK / → All Tags

Updated: Jaunted's Airport WiFi Map

It's been quite some time since we last added a location to our Airport WiFi Map, and now that travel-to-see-the-family season is upon us, it's time for an update. And thanks to some tips about free wireless at airports abroad, we're officially taking our map global. Know about some WiFi we've yet to list, either in the US or elsewhere? Let us know.

Oh, and since you can't surf for hours without a power supply, Lifehacker pointed us to an incredibly useful wiki about where to find outlets in airports worldwide. With power and WiFi at the ready, getting bumped this Thanksgiving might actually be bearable.

Related Stories:
· AirPower Wiki [Official Site]
· Airport WiFi Map [Jaunted]

Airport Security / OAK / → All Tags

Oakland Airport Security Runner Causes Flight Delays

A man slipped past security guards and through an exit at Oakland International Airport earlier today, causing long lines of waiting passengers outside the terminal while authorities searched for the man.

Both terminals were reopened after authorities decided the man posed no threat. However, flights in and out of Oakland have been delayed for most of the day.

Anyone know what this guys deal was? Let us know in comments.

Here is a web round up on today's trouble at the OAK corrale:
·   TSA: No Security Breach In Oakland [NewsNet5]
·   Oakland Airport reopened after security mishap [SFGate.com]
·   Oakland airport intruder forces security delays [LA Times]
·   Security Breach Shuts Down Oakland [Oakland Tribune]
·   Passenger Screening Resumed [flyoakland]