Last month, reporter Jane Engle tested out the new system for pre-screened travelers (who’ve also forked over $100) to clear security faster and found many things lacking. Her chief complaint was that, quite simply, it wasn’t any faster.

So much for their good intentions: JetBlue canceled 68 flights out of JFK this morning due to an overnight snowstorm that dropped a measly 2-4 inches on New York.

Poor JetBlue – the friendly little budget-carrier-that-could has spent the past week publicly flailing.

A piece from today’s NYT Travel Section on Madrid has vaulted into the ranks of the paper’s most-emailed. It seems, now that Barcelona has slumped into a deep post-party hangover, that stuffier, but more tasteful Madrid is getting it’s due

As of today, US citizens arriving by air from outside the 50 States, no matter what their point of origin, must have a passport to re-enter the country. (Unless you’re coming from Puerto Rico or the USVI, that is. Loophole!)

The airport security follies don’t appear to be ending anytime soon. According to this week’s “On the Road” column in the New York Times, snow globes, are now contraband at the airport due to restrictions on liquids and gels in carry-ons.

Another look at how the Web 2.0 captured holiday weekend travel traumas: flickr may have the Denver blizzard, but YouTube has footage of the fog that shut down Heathrow.

Denver is up and running after a major blizzard grounded flights and stranded passengers last week. To understand what it takes to put an international air hub into the deep freeze, check out this bird’s-eye image of the snowbound facilities.

That’s right, in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, 65 million americans will be in the air or on the road. That’s almost double the number who traveled over Thanksgiving weekend, and an increase of one million from last year.

If you’re flying for Christmas and expect to arrive toting a Santa-like sack of wrapped gifties, think again. The TSA wants you to know that they retain the right to open all presents to get at any suspicious looking articles inside.