The summer travel season got off to a roaring start, fares are up, and money is rolling in from fees on things like checked baggage.

The six biggest U.S. airlines earned about $1.3 billion in the second quarter, and more profits are expected for the rest of the year. Even so, airlines are still woozy from the one-two punch of record-high fuel prices followed by a recession. Those six big carriers lost $22.7 billion in 2008 and 2009.

There were plenty of fare sales when the airlines were struggling to fill seats. Now those seats are in demand, so deals are less common. And travelers are paying for “extras” such as an aisle seat, checking bags and buying a ticket over the phone — things that used to be part of the fare.

Here’s a look at what travelers can expect in the months ahead:

FARES AND FEES

The airlines are hooked on fees after two years of using them to overcome, first, high fuel prices and then slumping travel demand. A new study shows that worldwide, carriers took in $13.5 billion from fees in 2009, a 43 percent jump in just one year.

“Fees are going to stick and they’re going to become more pervasive,” says Jay Sorensen, a former airline executive who is now president of consulting firm IdeaWorks, which did the study on fees.

United and American led the way on “ancillary revenue,” including fees, at about $1.8 billion apiece last year, according to IdeaWorks. United Airlines President John Tague calls fees “an unequivocal success,” and suggests his airline could still double the amount it’s bringing in with baggage fees.

Everyone is watching to see if travelers pay Spirit Airlines‘ fee of $45 for some carry-on bags on flights starting Aug. 1. Most of the big airlines have promised Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., they won’t follow Spirit’s lead.

Airlines have been able to boost ticket prices too. Summer fares are up an average of 18 percent, according to figures from a trade group for the big airlines.

Travel demand will taper off as fall approaches — Continental Airlines is already seeing that. Still, airlines will try to avoid slashing prices. Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, says the airlines are getting better at waving sale prices in front of customers but selling most seats at higher fares.

PACKED PLANES

Planes are stuffed like never before. Including regional flights, Delta filled 88 percent of its seats in June, Continental sold 87 percent, and American 86 percent — that’s about 2 percentage points higher than last summer.

“Leisure demand has been strong, and we expect it will remain so throughout the remainder of the summer,” Continental CEO Jeff Smisek told analysts.

Continental also hinted that demand is trailing off. Advance bookings for the next six weeks are running behind the last year’s pace.

Normally when airlines start making money after a slump, they’re tempted to add new flights to snag returning travelers. This time might be different. Sluggish bookings and concern about the weak economic recovery will put pressure on airlines not to add flights that might operate half-empty.

Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. were punished last week partly because the world’s biggest airline said it would increase passenger-carrying capacity up to 3 percent next year. Too soon, investors seemed to be saying. If the airlines add too many flights, it will increase their costs and push fares down.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:

1. “Inception,” Warner Bros., $42,725,012, 3,792 locations, $11,267 average, $142,883,424, two weeks.

2. “Salt,” Sony, $36,011,243, 3,612 locations, $9,970 average, $36,011,243, one week.

3. “Despicable Me,” Universal, $23,689,060, 3,600 locations, $6,580 average, $161,289,905, three weeks.

4. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” Disney, $9,651,495, 3,504 locations, $2,754 average, $42,609,020, two weeks.

5. “Toy Story 3,” Disney, $8,917,512, 2,766 locations, $3,224 average, $379,416,551, six weeks.

6. “Ramona and Beezus,” Fox, $7,810,481, 2,719 locations, $2,873 average, $7,810,481, one week.

7. “Grown Ups,” Sony, $7,428,742, 2,859 locations, $2,598 average, $142,240,828, five weeks.

8. “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” Summit, $7,186,170, 3,121 locations, $2,303 average, $279,827,262, four weeks.

9. “The Last Airbender,” Paramount, $4,217,021, 2,127 locations, $1,983 average, $123,308,790, four weeks.

10. “Predators,” Fox, $3,120,656, 1,846 locations, $1,690 average, $46,839,081, three weeks.

11. “The Kids Are All Right,” Focus, $2,594,758, 201 locations, $12,909 average, $4,909,949, three weeks.

12. “Knight and Day,” Fox, $1,694,003, 1,265 locations, $1,339 average, $72,675,724, five weeks.

13. “The Karate Kid,” Sony, $1,100,315, 780 locations, $1,411 average, $171,713,173, seven weeks.

14. “Cyrus,” Fox Searchlight, $709,464, 454 locations, $1,563 average, $6,329,401, six weeks.

15. “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” Music Box, $563,790, 156 locations, $3,614 average, $2,944,891, three weeks.

16. “Iron Man 2,” Paramount, $438,975, 330 locations, $1,330 average, $310,840,824, 12 weeks.

17. “I Am Love,” Magnolia, $338,000, 166 locations, $2,036 average, $3,217,709, six weeks.

18. “Winter’s Bone,” Roadside Attractions, $322,661, 130 locations, $2,482 average, $3,556,647, seven weeks.

19. “Hubble 3D,” Warner Bros., $314,587, 53 locations, $5,936 average, $11,505,090, 19 weeks.

20. “The A-Team,” Fox, $289,198, 296 locations, $977 average, $75,737,628, seven weeks.

The results show people’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses are linked to differences in the volume of gray matter in certain parts of the brain.

As such the findings offer “the possibility that brain scans could be used in the future to develop a profile of a person’s gray matter in different areas of the brain,” Richard Haier of the University of California, School of Medicine (Emeritus), Irvine, told LiveScience. “And this profile could be used to help people decide what kinds of vocations they might be good at just like test scores are used.”

Brain voxels

Haier and his colleagues analyzed data from 40 people, ages 18 to 35, who took eight aptitude tests used by the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation (JOCRF) for career guidance. They also had structural brain scans, which showed the volume of gray matter for each of millions of 3-dimensional units, called voxels, in the brain images.

The tests included those for two kinds of memory (verbal and number), two types of numerical ability, speed of reasoning, and two types of spatial aptitude.

Results showed if one were to look at a general memory test score you’d be missing part of the picture. If a person was good at, say, verbal memory and not so much in numerical, their patterns of gray matter would differ from someone with high overall memory but low verbal type.

Future career counselors?

Brain scans could be used to complement the aptitude tests to give a more reliable idea of a person’s ideal career.

“Nobody is suggesting brain scans would predict this so well you wouldn’t need to talk to anybody, although this is a science-fiction possibility – but whether society would accept this is dubious,” Haier said.

The link between brains and jobs makes sense, in the Earthly realm. “It’s not a giant leap to believe the brain has something to do with mental strengths and weaknesses,” which have to do with a person’s vocation.

For instance, while most of us can learn to drive, not everyone can become a professional racecar driver. Whether it’s relatively slow reaction time or a weakness in the spatial reasoning department, there are some special kinds of cognition involved in driving at extremely high speeds, Haier said.

“Theoretically there might be something about their brains that allows them to excel in this profession,” Haier said.

Armed with a gun instead of a light saber, the man entered a Chase bank branch in Setauket, New York, about 50 miles east of New York City, on Thursday and demanded cash from a teller, police said. He fled through a parking lot with an undisclosed amount of money.

The bandit dressed as the “Star Wars” villain was part of a mini-outbreak of unusual bank robbers in the New York area.

Earlier this week, New York City police arrested a man accused of robbing two banks with a bunch of flowers and a potted plant.

Yao went to visit children who lost family members in last year’s devastating flooding triggered by Typhoon Morakot after arriving in Taiwan on Monday.

Morakot was the worst storm to hit Taiwan in a half-century. It took some 700 lives.

The 7-foot-6 (2.25-meter) centre is popular both in Taiwan and China. He will play a game Wednesday with Taiwanese singers and actors and donate the proceeds to charity.

Sarkozy condemned the “odious act” and vowed to keep up the fight against terrorism.

He confirmed that France took part in a military operation in the Sahara in recent days.

The leader of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghbreb said in a message broadcast Sunday that the Frenchman was killed in retaliation for the killing of six al-Qaida members in that raid.

Because of this, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has been active in evaluating the interventions appropriate to preventing tobacco use and tobacco related diseases in adults and now especially in pregnant women. The results of their recommendations were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (Volume 150, page 551, 2009). The task force evaluated all prior publications on smoking cessation and has determined what is the standard of care in the United States.

You can discuss each of these recommendations with your physician to make certain that if you or a family member or friend is smoking, you can use the most important components of these recommendations to be certain all possible help is being given.

Despite the sentence, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, will serve no more than 19 years. The judge took off five years for the time Duch was illegally detained before the U.N.-backed tribunal was established, and another 11 years for the time he has already served behind bars.

The verdict — which also convicted Duch of crimes against humanity, murder and torture — sparked strong reactions as word spread outside the courtroom. Some said it made them lose faith in the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal.

“It’s becoming a sham,” said Cambodian-American Theary Seng, chairwoman of the Center for Justice and Reconciliation.

Seng, who said the Khmer Rouge killed both of her parents, described Monday’s verdict as “scandalous.”

“It’s an insult to the survivors. Effectively, he should have been receiving many life sentences. It makes light of the crime and suffering,” she said.

Duch, 67, was the head of the S-21 prison. Few people brought to the prison made it out alive; only about a dozen were found by the Vietnamese who invaded Cambodia in 1979.

One of the survivors, Bou Meng, said that the verdict made him so angry that he was sweating in the air-conditioned courtroom as he listened to the judge’s words.

Ri described the joint naval exercise in the Sea of Japan as a provocation and challenge to North Korea‘s sovereignty and security as well as the wish for stability and peace in the country. As for the 6-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, Ri stressed the need for early resumption of the talks to resolve the issue.

In the meantime, South Korea and The United States have begun a 4-day joint naval exercise in the Sea of Japan. The two countries are conducting the drill following the sinking of a South Korean warship in March near the North Korean border. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the drill began as the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George Washington left the southern port of Pusan at 7 AM on Sunday.

The US and South Korea and also plan to hold annual joint drills called Ulji Freedom Guardian for 11 days next August.

Director: Jon Favreau (Iron Man)

Cast:
- Harrison Ford (Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde)
- Daniel Craig (Zeke Johnson)
- Noah Ringer (Emmet)

Script: Damon Lindelof (co-screenwriter) and Mark Fergus (adaptation)