Some of the Orange Line’s due to open next year, of course: Bachman Station to the Las Colinas Convention Center bows July 30, with the section that continues on to the Belt Line Station set for a December 3 roll-out. But it’s the final leg to the airport, where DFW’s building the Terminal A stop, that has DART President Gary Thomas the mostest excited, as you’ll see in one of two videos that follows. Says he, the DFW station “completes that big-city system we’ve been working so hard on for the last several years.” He forgot to mention “world-class.”

The low-cost airline said it will fly three daily round-trip flights between DFW and Boston using a 100-seat Embraer 190 aircraft, with the first flight May 1. Tickets will go on sale Tuesday, but JetBlue didn’t disclose the initial fare.

“We’re excited to bring our Boston customers what they’ve been asking for — more options for their business and leisure travel to Dallas/Fort Worth,” said Dennis Corrigan, vice president of sales and revenue management.

The new service was announced shortly after DFW’s largest carrier, American Airlines, entered bankruptcy. American controls 85 percent of the flights out of DFW.

Several new airlines have started serving North Texas passengers this year. Virgin America, Qantas Airways and Spirit Airlines added flights at DFW, and Emirates Airlines plans to launch a nonstop flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from DFW in February.

AirTran Airways recently stopped its DFW service after merging with Southwest Airlines.

“We are pleased to welcome an innovative and respected carrier such as JetBlue, and we are confident DFW travelers will enjoy the great service, flight options and low fares that JetBlue provides,” airport CEO Jeff Fegan said.

The company, which also owns American Eagle and several subsidiaries, says it is at a “substantial disadvantage” versus competitors who have previously gone through reorganizations in bankruptcy. It cited circumstances it faces such as global economic uncertainty as well as volatile and rising fuel prices.

American said there were would be no immediate changes to its service as a result of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in New York on Monday.

However the company did not affirm it would eventually cut some flight routes. The company said in a Q&A sheet on its website that it intends to maintain a “strong presence” in both domestic and international markets.

“American Airlines and American Eagle are operating normal flight schedules, and our reservations, customer service, AAdvantage program, Admirals Clubs and all other operations are conducting business as usual,” AMR Corp said in a statement.

The company said payments to suppliers for goods and services tendered before the petition cannot be made without court permission. However it says it will be able to pay vendors for goods and services it orders after the bankruptcy petition.

“It is impossible to predict before approval of the Plan of Reorganization how much holders of general unsecured claim will receive,” the company said.

For the fifth year in a row, DFW was ranked in the top five in Airport Service Quality by the Airport Council International. The airport was also inducted into the ACI’s Roll of Excellence, one of only two American airports of the 14 airports added to the roll. Austin-Bergstrom airport was the other.

“While we are extremely gratified to receive this honor, we also know we must continue to actively pursue outstanding customer service in order to retain our customers and our position as one of the world’s best airports,” said DFW Airport chief executive Jeff Fegan. “Excellence in customer service has been a high priority goal for DFW and will remain so in the future.”

Here is DFW vice president for Customer Service Byford Treanor accepting the award from ACI World Director General Angela Gittens at an event in Morocco last night.

The Air Service Quality program benchmarks 34 service items in a passenger’s airport experience including flight information screens, restaurants, restrooms, security, cleanliness and baggage delivery. The ACI says that 190 airports worldwide participate in the Air Service Quality surveys.

Jeff Meisner, head of tradeshow exhibit company, Skyline DFW Exhibits & Events, tapped his team of tradeshow consultants to work directly with customers and help them to find promotional items and logo apparel that deliver results and impressions rather than “trinkets and trash.” The promotional items team has access to thousands of items and helps customers choose high-quality giveaways and promotional items that help to drive awareness and sales.

Meisner commented on his experience, “Many of our clients come to Skyline DFW for assistance with their branding at shows and other marketing events. Unfortunately, many of these same people fail to consider how their brand is being perceived through their giveaways. If you want the market to perceive you as high-quality, make sure your choice of giveaway reflects this.”

According to a 2009 Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) study of more than 1000 who recalled receiving a promotional product, 89% could recall the advertiser of the promotional product. The study also compared promotional items to traditional media such as print and television and found that promotional products “were the only media that showed staggering results in recall and reaction.” The study showed that promotional items had the lowest cost per impression when compared to traditional media.

Kristin Kimmell, director for Camp Thurman, a Texas day camp program, asked the Dallas area trade show display company, Skyline DFW to help select promotional items to sell in the camp store and to provide to prospective camp donors. “The Skyline team analyzed our needs and provided us with great options for our camp store and donor program. The store items were a huge hit – some of our best sellers,” remarked Kimmel.

Skyline DFW estimates that over 60% of promotional products are never used. The company works with clients to find high-value items that connect with their brands. Clients look to Skyline DFW to help them find promotional items that will end up on their customers’ desks not in them. And, the company consults with customers on strategies for giveaway programs for special clients and prospects. “There is a psychology behind tradeshow or event giveaways,” said Jeff Meisner, president of Skyline DFW Exhibits & Events. “We know that anyone can sell you a giveaway item, but our goal is to help you put the right giveaway item in your customer’s hands – the item that reflects the company’s brand is actually used. In addition to giveaways, we help customers find the right logo apparel items for booth staffing or events – taking just one more thing off their ‘to do’ list and ensuring that they get high-value, quality items to represent their brands.”

Through Skyline DFW’s proprietary booth staff training program, corporations learn about how to implement dress standards for events and tradeshows that help companies to stand out among their competition.

DFW ranked 47th out of 100 metro areas in five-year manufacturing job growth and 64th in one-year growth, the analysis found.

The DFW region had 249,900 manufacturing jobs at the end of June and had a five-year job growth rate of minus 17.17 percent. The one-year job growth rate was a negative 0.40 percent.

Only four of the top 100 metro areas had positive manufacturing job growth in the past five years: Bakersfield and Modesto, Calif., Charleston, S.C., and Houston, On Numbers said.

The worst in the nation was Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., which fell at No. 100 with a negative 49.4 percent rate since June 2006.