In the past you've lamented an "isolationist" attitude among U.S. airlines. No scheduled passenger carriers fly to Africa, you've pointed out, and whole other regions of the world are neglected, while foreign airlines have no qualms. Points taken, but every time I crack open the paper these days I'm reading about new flights to India, China, Vietnam, Brazil and so forth. Are things finally changing?

Immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, it did seem that many American carriers were backpedaling in foreign markets. One of the first things Delta did, for instance, was close its stations in Cairo and Dubai. In retrospect, this was probably the result of more straightforward economic factors than a case of xenophobic cold feet, and I regret playing up the isolationist angle (a Q&A on this matter, now in dire need of revision, appears in my book). If there's profit to be made, be it in Kalispell or Kazakhstan, it's naive to think airlines wouldn't be hungry to fly there.

"Airlines are not philosophically opposed to serving areas of the world for any reason other than money," says J.A. Donoghue of Air Transport World, the industry's leading trade publication. "It may appear that other issues are at play, but starting up and maintaining an international route is a major investment." Donoghue notes that many of the countries receiving expanded service, including those listed above, represent some of the planet's fastest-growing economies. "It's the 'Build it and they will come' syndrome," he says.

Some of the struggling legacy carriers have been reducing flights domestically -- in effect, surrendering a certain market share to their nimble, low-cost rivals -- and refocusing overseas, where yields are higher and the competitive matrix is, for the time being, less ruthless. Delta has started flying to Chennai, India, has reinstated service to Rio de Janeiro, and will launch routes to Israel and Ukraine next spring. Part of the appeal is not having JetBlue, AirTran or Southwest to contend with in cities like Tel Aviv and Kiev. The new routes are part of Delta's Chapter 11 restructuring plans, through which it intends to grow international flying to about 20 percent of total revenue.

Earlier this year, US Airways began calling port in Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala and El Salvador. In late 2004 United commenced service to Ho Chi Minh City -- the first scheduled flights by a U.S. carrier to Vietnam in nearly 30 years. American Airlines opened up Dallas-Osaka, and will introduce Chicago-Shanghai next April.

Most exciting of all, on Nov. 1 Continental Airlines inaugurated nonstops between Newark, N.J., and Delhi, India. The daily pairing, flights CO082/CO083, using a 283-seat Boeing 777, marks the first-ever nonstops between the United States and the subcontinent. (The flightpath goes up over the high Arctic, near the North Pole, then down the other side through Siberia and Kazakhstan. The westbound trip, scheduled for just under 16 hours, is one of the world's longest flights.)

"Continental is making history again today by linking these two great nations," said Jeffery Smisek, Continental's president, speaking in the Hindustan Times. (I include Smisek's quote because it allows me to point out, against my better judgment, that it was made during an event attended by the chief minister of Delhi, Mrs. Sheila Dikshit.)

Not to be outdone, American will debut a Chicago-Delhi route beginning Nov. 15. Northwest, Delta and Air India currently also link the subcontinent with the U.S., but all flights are staged through Europe. Delta serves two Indian cities, Mumbai (Bombay) and Chennai (Madras), both via Paris. United flew to Delhi until fairly recently, and at one point announced plans for a nonstop from O'Hare that never materialized. Air Canada goes Toronto-Delhi using an A340.

About 2 million people travel annually between the U.S. and India. The ongoing expansion of flights is a direct result of an open-skies agreement ratified by the two nations last April. Commercial aviation in India is growing rapidly, and at least three Indian airlines have designs on reciprocal routes into North America.

With the addition of Delhi, Continental has added six transatlantic flights to its network thus far in 2005. It would have been seven, had an intended route to Nigeria not been scrapped. Planned for last June, the Newark-Lagos run would have heralded the return of scheduled U.S. passenger service to Africa. So, for now, Africa remains a final frontier, though it's worth noting that no Arab countries, not even Egypt, exist on our route maps either. "Any local economic or political instability goes on the negative side of the accounting ledger when figuring out whether to go or not," adds J.A. Donoghue. "Some carriers tend to weight these factors higher than others."

Combined, the Africa and Middle East regions make up less than 5 percent of global passenger traffic, so a lack of presence isn't terribly shocking, but airlines like Pan Am and TWA once had reasonable successes there. The closest we come today is Continental's (and soon Delta's) flights to Israel, and Delta's JFK-Istanbul. Elsewhere, we're content with proxy ambassadorship provided by our code-share partners. Numerous European, Asian and African carriers have route networks that reach all six continents.

I'm intrigued by the new, premium-class-only carriers like Eos Airlines. On a busy and lucrative route like New York-London, an all-luxury option seems like a great idea.

Eos Airlines started flying in October between New York's JFK International and London-Stansted. Its three Boeing 757s (secondhand from Mexicana) are outfitted with 48 sleeper seats. Each passenger has his own, 21-square-foot semi-enclosed cubicle, and a pull-up ottoman allows a fellow traveler to join in for dinner or conversation.

That'll sound other world to many domestic flyers, but such appointments are in fact standard first-class fare nowadays on leading carriers. Behold the first-class chambers on Emirates' new A340s. Heck, Swissair was doing the ottoman thing on its MD-11s years ago. But Eos offers something these other airlines don't and cannot: a first-class seat at a business-class price. The airline's unrestricted walk-up fare of $6,500 is about half of what you'd pay to ride in Row 1 aboard British Airways or Virgin Atlantic.

On the heels of Eos comes MAXjet Airways, which on Nov. 1 launched its own JFK-Stansted route using slightly larger Boeing 767s. Again it's an upscale, single-cabin product, but MAXjet's six-abreast seating is designed and priced somewhere between traditional-style business class and economy. MAXjet's roundtrip fares begin at $1,358.

Assorted pundits have taken to calling Eos or MAXjet "a new kind of airline." Actually the concept has been tried before, on more than one occasion. Through a subcontractor called PrivatAir, Lufthansa has been selling a biz-class-only option connecting Dusseldorf, Germany, and Munich, Germany, with Newark. But the prototype may have been MGM Grand Air, a spinoff of the famous motion picture studio and resort property owner. The brainchild of billionaire CEO (and pilot) Kirk Kerkorian, MGM's airline division flew luxed-out DC-8s and 727s between New York and Los Angeles in the early 1990s. (Near the end of his book "The Airport," author James Kaplan takes a ride on MGM, whose cabins were outfitted with decadent quantities of pink leather, plush carpeting, and gilt fixtures in the lavs. "All right, it was Vegas," writes Kaplan of the decor. "But Vegas in a good way.")

If the template was going to succeed anywhere, the New York-L.A. corridor must have looked like a safe bet, but eventually MGM Grand Air fell victim to the mid-'90s recession and went back to an all-charter format.

New York-London is a similarly tempting market -- a busy route with lots of high-end business traffic. Can Eos or MAXjet make it work? Maybe, but it won't be easy. Few people, even corporate types on expense accounts, ever pay a published walk-up fare, and with a mere 48 seats -- a typical widebody jet may contain as many or more premium seats, plus an entire economy section -- Eos will require high load factors (percentage of seats occupied by paying customers) to break even.

"But remember," responds Eos Airlines spokesman Tony Telloni, "that larger transatlantic carriers are not solely focused on the business traveler. With each of 48 seats allocated to a high-end customer means Eos is not burdened by the losing proposition that is coach class."

Then there's freight. As these newcomers battle to woo corporate clients, their competitors garner revenue from underfloor cargo even when seats go empty. Further working against them, the convenience of traveling in and out of London's passenger-friendly Stansted airport is offset by the facility's lack of onward connections. "Where other airlines see cargo as a critical piece of their business," says Telloni, "it's an option that Eos can explore if it wants to, but not one critical to its success."

Lest we forget, a premium-only service existed across the North Atlantic for many years. It was called Concorde. Though never exactly profitable, the supersonic superbird was a popular and consistent seller for British Airways and Air France.

In efforts to recoup the jet's astronomical operating costs, Concorde fares were substantially higher than a ride aboard Eos or MAXjet. On the upside, you got there in half the time, and as a bonus came that 007-style cachet of being able to phone up your mistress or business partner to say, "I just arrived on Concorde." Somehow, "I just arrived on MAXJet" lacks the same sex appeal.

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We conclude with a new feature, Missed Approach, showcasing selected critiques from Ask the Pilot readers:

Missed Approach

Re: JetBlue 292 and the hypercriticizing of "This American Life":

Dear Patrick Smith: You're right to criticize media professionals, sitting safe on the ground, for being panic-mongers, but for the helpless people in the plane, objectivity was way too much to ask. The point of the story was how the people onboard reacted, which was fascinating and instructive: a remarkable blend of restrained emotions, compassion, cool stoicism and, yes, reasoned objectivity. Rather than feeling like another voyeur, I came away from it with a much more positive attitude toward citizens' capacity for mature behavior. That's much more than mere entertainment, and better by far than the average broadcast media product.

-- Carl Pultz (former public radio broadcaster)

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