The journey of feisty upstart Virgin America ends on April 24 as new owner Alaska Airlines retires the airline’s flight numbers and transfers all customer functions to its website.

Starting on April 25, every check-in will be performed by alaskaair.com as the bigger airline also takes overall customer service and mobile app functions.

The Virgin America brand will be removed from airports and all images and signs updated to the Alaska brand at 29 airports around the US and Mexico.

“Signs and screens will all change to Alaska branding at curbside locations, lobbies, ticket counters, gates and baggage areas,’’ the airline says on its website. “While there will be some Virgin America painted aircraft still flying for a period of time after April 25, tickets will be sold only under the Alaska name.”

The airline has already painted some Virgin America aircraft in its colors. It will start installing new interiors from the US autumn with work expected to be completed by 2019.

Read: Alaska, Qantas double codehare operations

Alaska bought Virgin America for $US2.6 billion in 2016  and the two carriers have been operating under one operating certificate since January. Obtaining the single certificate took 110 employees 70,000 hours as they analyzed more than 39,000 pages of material and instituted about 15000 changes to policies.

The merging of staff from the two airlines took another step forward the following month with a tentative merger agreement for the company’s 5400 flight attendants.

Virgin American was launched by billionaire Richard Branson on August 8, 2007, and delivered a breath of fresh air into the US domestic airline market.

It was a hit with travelers and won a slew of awards, including from AirlineRatings.

Alaska has used Virgin’s fleet of Airbus aircraft to drive into new markets and expand its network.

Read our ratings for Alaska Airlines.

Today, the combined airlines and their regional partners operate 1200 daily flights to more than 115 destinations and employ more than 23,000 people.

Separately, Alaska announced Thursday that it was joining other carriers in introducing new rules for emotional support animals for tickets purchased after May 1.

Passengers traveling with emotional support or psychiatric service animals must provide animal health and behavioral documents after this date, as well as a signed document from a medical doctor or mental health professional, at least 48 hours in advance of departure.

The change does not apply to the airline’s policy for traditional service animals such as guide dogs.

Engines similar to one involved in a deadly incident on a Southwest Airlines flight between New York and Dallas will be subject to a new regime of checks within weeks.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it would issue an airworthiness directive within the next two weeks requiring inspections of certain CM56-7B engines.

Engine maker CFM said after Tuesday’s shock engine failure that the CM56-7B had powered about 6700 planes worldwide since entering service in 1997 and had compiled “an outstanding safety and reliability record”.

WATCH Spectacular Landing and Take-off video

The FAA said the directive would require an ultrasonic inspection of fan blades when they reached a certain number of landings and take-off.

“Any blades that fail the inspection will have to be replaced,’’ it said without specifying the number of cycles or how many engines would be involved.

Southwest, which had a similar engine incident in 2016, had already announced an accelerated its fan blade inspection program and expected it to be completed within 30 days.

A 43-year-old mother of two was killed when she was partially sucked out of window that had been broken by shrapnel from the engine. Passengers managed to drag the woman back inside but she died of injuries.

The plane diverted to Philadelphia where it made an emergency landing.

Read: Fan blade missing in SouthWest Airlines engine involved in shock passenger death.

The AD comes after NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt revealed that a fatigue crack believed to have initiated the engine failure was on the inside of the number 13 fan blade and not detectable by looking at the component from the outside.

Sumwalt said the blade separated in two places with the fatigue fracture at the hub holding all 24 blades and the second fracture halfway along.

“But it appears that the fatigue fracture was the initiating event which later caused that secondary failure,’’ he said.

The NTSB chief said investigators had the root of the blade, but not the rest of it,  and it was too early to tell whether it was a pre-existing anomaly such as a manufacturing fault.

Asked whether there was a broader flaw with  737 engines,  Sumwalt said investigators wanted to carefully understand what had happened at Southwest.

“As  I mentioned a few minutes ago I’m very concerned about this particular event,”’ he said. “To be able to extrapolate that to the entire fleet, I’m not willing to do that right now.

“We need to understand what happened here.’’

Sumwalt said that if the NTSB had the capability to issue urgent safety recommendations if it believed there was a deeper issue.

“We’re not doing that tonight because we don’t fully have all the facts surrounding this,’’ he said. “But I will say the CFM56 engine is a very widely used engine and it’s got a great record generally speaking.’’

Pieces of engine cowling — the exterior engine covering — have been found 65 miles north-west of Philadelphia and the NTSB is hopeful other parts may be found.

Sumwalt also revealed in his briefing the plane rolled sharply to the left after the trauma and reached a 41-degree bank angle but this was quickly corrected by the pilots.

He said there was “a fair amount of vibration’” during the 22 minutes between the initial event and touchdown at Philadelphia.

A  decision by the flight crew to land with a flaps setting at 5 because of concerns about aircraft controllability meant the aircraft touched down at about 165 knots (190mph) compared to a typical 737 approach speed of around 135 knots.

Among the many issues investigators are probing is how the window failed.

Although the assumption in new reports is that it was shattered by shrapnel, Sumwalt said no window materials had been found inside the aircraft.

Despite real progress in the last couple of decades in upgrading terminals and the airfield, getting to, through and around Los Angeles International Airport can still be a first class pain.

The epicenter of the problem is the closed-in, U-shaped configuration of LAX itself, a set-up that has flummoxed flyers for years.

Now comes word of some hope of untangling the ground transport mess. The Los Angeles City Council recently approved a $US4.9-billion plan to construct an Automated People Mover (APM) system, set to be up and running in 2023.

Read: New concourse aims to reduce gate wait at LAX.

LA Basin flyers have been clamoring for answers to the airport’s ground transport woes for years, even as the rest of the airport moved ahead with terminal and improvements.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says travelers “have been asking for reliable, convenient transportation to and from the terminals.”

AMP is the linchpin for an airport’s ground transport set-up that planners see encompassing a consolidated car rental facility and connection to LA Metro’s regional transport system.

Plans call for LA Metro to pick up and drop off flyers outside the terminal loop. Officials say that should cut congestion as well as emissions.

Bombardier Transportation will build the AMP. It’s got the experience and knowhow. It’s been involved in similar projects in Dubai, London Heathrow and Munich, among others.

Trains will arrive every couple of minutes. Doors will be wide to ease the burden of lugging luggage around.

Los Angeles World Airports, which runs LAX, says the system will be able to handle some 10,000 passengers per hour. That adds up to 87.7-million riders each year.

LAX has racked up tremendous growth over the past few years. The planet’s fifth-busiest airport—second-busiest in the U.S.—fields 737 daily nonstop to 100 domestic cities a formidable 1,386 nonstops to 88 cities in 73 foreign countries.

Bank executive and mother of two Jennifer Riordan was flying home with Southwest Airlines on a routine business trip to New York when the unthinkable happened.

An engine on the Boeing 737-700 on which the 43-year-old was flying was shredded by an the failure of least one component. Shrapnel from the disintegrating engine shattered the window next to her.

Witnesses said the sudden, explosive decompression meant she was partially sucked through the window and was stuck for some time before two men were able to haul her back in.

Read: Fan blade missing from Southwest engine involved in shocking passenger death.

A nurse answering a call for help administered CPR but she was critically injured and later died.

Her shocking and unexpected death —  she was the first passenger killed on a US airline since 2009 —   has prompted a wave of sympathy across the US.

The chances of such a freak accident are astronomically low and there were significantly higher odds of the well-liked executive being struck by lightning.

US media reported Riordan was well-known in New Mexico, where she was vice president of community relations with Wells Fargo Bank.

Married to the City of Albuquerque’s former chief operating officer,  Michael Riordan, for more than two decades, she was the mother of two children, Averie and Joshua.

Her two-decade career had included work in marketing for the state’s hospital system and in public relations for Citi Group.

She joined Wells Fargo in 2008 and was responsible for reputation management, volunteerism and community involvement in New Mexico and greater Texas, according to a United Way of Central New Mexico profile.

She served on a number of committees and was a commissioner for New Mexico Office of Volunteer Engagement and on the board of trustees for the New Mexico Natural History and Science Museum.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said on Twitter that the city had lost “a thoughtful leader who has long been part of the fabric of our community”.

“This is a tremendous and tragic loss for Jennifer’s family and many others throughout our city,’’ Keller said. “Her leadership and philanthropic efforts made this a better place every day and she will be terribly missed.”

A statement from her family, also posted on twitter,  said: “Jennifer’s vibrancy, passion and love infused our community and reached across our country.

“Her impact on everything and everyone she touched can never be fully measured.

“But foremost, she is the bedrock of our family. She and Mike wrote a love story unlike any other. Her beauty and love is evident through her children.”

United Way, where Riordan was a long-serving member of the organization’s Mission: Graduate Vision Council, said she  “cheerfully championed so many causes in our region and was a real force for good”.

Wells Fargo said it was saddened by the news and described Riordan as a well-known leader who was loved and respected.

This is a Southwest record no one wanted to see broken. Ever.

Southwest Airlines had gone some 47 years—its entire existence—without a single passenger death attributable to an accident.

That changed tragically today after Flight 1380—New York LaGuardia to Dallas Love Field—blew its number one engine, sending metal fragments that penetrated the passenger cabin.

At least one window was shattered, the occupant of the seat beside the window partially sucked out of the 737-700 according to eyewitnesses. The United States National Transportation Safety Board says the woman died.

READ: one passenger killed, seven injured in Southwest engine explosion.

The captain executed an emergency landing at Philadelphia International where 144 passengers and five crew were taken to the terminal.

The NTSB is investigating the accident. They’ll be focusing on the aircraft’s left, portside, powerplant which appeared to suffer an uncontained engine explosion. Jet engines are designed so that in the event of engine problems a protective casement will not allow fragments to escape the engine and penetrate the fuselage or fuel tanks.

The engine in this accident, a CFM56-7B is a proven industry workhouse. That’s what compounds the rarity of Tuesday’s accident. In a company statement,  manufacturer CFM said the sophisticated, high-bypass turbofan powerplant has “compiled an outstanding safety and reliability record since entering revenues service in 1997 while powering more than 6,700 aircraft worldwide.”

“The engine has accumulated more than 350 million flight hours as one of the most reliable and popular jet engines in airline history.”

Southwest’s other fatal accident occurred at icy Chicago Midway Airport December 8, 2005, when a Southwest 737-300 skidded on an icy runway at MDW, hitting a car on a street adjacent to the airport. One child in the vehicle died.

The other death Southwest experienced occurred March 11, 2000. That’s when a passenger broke through the cockpit door of the 737. He was forcibly subdued by crew and passengers and later died of his injuries.