Call it a PR stunt if you must, but the record for fastest US transcon flight fell last week, and the airports involved are an interesting pair.

Flights from Santa Monica are becoming increasingly rare, especially as the city does things like shorten the runway as it tries to shut the facility completely. Still, it is an impressive record, especially considering the congested airspace around NYC that was involved. That congested airspace also included JFK arrivals and some Long Island residents are unhappy about the major airport they have just 10 miles away.

Also in this episode:

* The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey appears to have violated some laws with regard to funneling landing fees away from operations at Newark Airport. Also, some interesting commentary about how the airlines' lobbying group is misrepresenting some details around passenger facility charges (PFCs) and where the money comes from and goes to.* Another impressive BizAv flight was a nonstop on the Bombardier Global 7500 from London City to Los Angeles.* Hyatt and American Airlines have a new partnership that might be useful for some challenge-related games* US carriers were allocated a dozen new slots at Tokyo's Haneda Airport for Summer 2020 operations, with Delta and United winning big* JFK Airport finally has an on-property hotel. The TWA Hotel at T5 – housed in the old TWA terminal – is now open. Lots of little kinks to still work out to get to full operations but it is there. Also, some questions around how long that will last.* Should Machu Picchu have an airport nearby? Construction is starting and a lot of people are pretty pissed.* US residents in Austria have a new and unlikely (or maybe not so unlikely) place they can turn for help: McDonald's.

Some follow-up from last week's conversation about the Delta/Union sparring and plenty of other bits in this week's show, too. Enjoy!