U.S. Airways has received approval from the Department of Transportation to begin flights to Brazil.The carrier applied to start services from its Philadelphia hub to Rio de Janeiro this year.It is tentatively scheduled to begin operations on its new route in the fall, flying using Boeing 767 aircraft which have 186 main cabin seats and 18 business class seats.

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For all of us, sometime in our lives, there’s a moment of truth – a point at which all that we are is tested. US Airways Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s came on a bitterly cold afternoon above Manhattan.A scant minute into its flight from New York LaGuardia to Charlotte, Sullenberger’s A320 apparently hit a flock of large birds. He radioed air traffic control that 1549 had sustained a double bird strike, apparently affecting both engines.With the kind of airmanship incubated during his days as a fighter pilot, and polished as a safety expert, Sullenberger trimmed up the Airbus, turned it south and prepared to ditch in the Hudson River.

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U.S. Airways is planning to cut passenger capacity on its services this coming year. The carrier is making the decision on the basis of poor financial results in 2008.In a filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Airways said that it planned to cut capacity on domestic mainline routes by eight to 10 percent.Total mainline capacity, which includes international flights and seats, would be reduced by four to six percent.

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