Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV), the Dallas-based low-cost air carrier, is scheduled to discuss its third quarter 2009 financial results in a conference call Thursday at 11:30 AM ET hosted by CEO Gary Kelly and CFO Laura Wright. You can catch the live webcast on the company's website.

During the three months that ended in September, Southwest began service to Boston Logan, prepared a bid to acquire Frontier Airlines, and declared its 132nd consecutive quarterly dividend. But analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report that earnings fell from 9 cents per share a year ago to a penny per share. Sales for the quarter are expected to be 9.7% lower to $2.6 billion.

Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) were down as much 1.5% in New York trading following published reports that the company grounded 46 planes Saturday due to maintenance concerns. The Dallas-based carrier saw its shares fall to as low as $8.55 just past noon after news broke that the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the airline's use of unauthorized parts and repairs on its aging fleet of 737-300 and 737-500 jets, manufactured by Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA).

An FAA inspector working Friday at a maintenance shop used by Southwest questioned whether some hinge fittings -- used to divert hot engine exhaust from aircraft wings -- installed on the 737 jets were authorized for use. After hasty consultations with the FAA and Chicago-based Boeing, Southwest decided to ground the planes.

Republic Airways Holding Inc. (NASDAQ: RJET) is going shopping. Only a day after making an offer for ailing Frontier Airlines (OTC: FRNTQ), it has made a bid to nab Midwest Airlines from private equity firm TPG Capital. The offer consists of $6 million in cash and a note for another $25 million. If the private equity house takes the deal, Republic will get 100% of Midwest's equity and TPG's secured note of $31 million.

The $25 million in debt is convertible to RJET stock at $10 a share, which gives TPG a bit more upside from the transaction. The seller would also have the right to nominate a member of the buyer's board of directors.

Of course, Republic's CEO, Bryan Bedford, is upbeat about the prospect of buying Midwest Airways, saying it will "enhance the strategic positioning" of his company. Like the proposed acquisition of Frontier, Midwest would continue to operate under its own name, though the target's Boeing 717s would be replaced with Embraer 190s.

At some point last year did you find yourself stuck in a noisy, overcrowded airport terminal for hours on end waiting for your flight to take off? If so, you were by no means alone. According to the Transportation Department, last year was the second worst year in history for delayed domestic flights.

Splitting my time between America and Europe, I find myself on a lot of airplanes during the year, and luckily I only had one sizable delay on my domestic connections. While I found it rather irritating at the time, looking back on it I feel lucky that it happened only once. That is far better than the national average, which showed that 26% of all domestic flights were delayed during the year.

Granted, national averages have only been recorded going back to 1995, but last year ranked as the second worst year on record, with 2000 coming in slightly worse with 27.4% of flights seeing delays.

What reasons are we given for the excessive flight delays?