For the past several hours I have become the educator in chief for reporters who are struggling to write about Google’s acquisition of ITA today.

Walking them through the acronym soup of ITA, QPX, DACS, GDS and OTA is no small chore – let alone trying to explain what the heck ITA Software actually does to be worth 700 million dollars — as the press tries to make heads or tails of today’s announcement (not that they didn’t have 2 months to prep their stories).

BTW googling “OTA” has the top listing as “Orthopedic Trauma Association” and “Organic Trade Association” – it looks like the folks at the mothership will have to tinker with their relevancy algorithms if they plan on taking over as the world’s largest “online travel agency.”

Not that Google really wants to be an agency per se (one who sells actual tickets) as they note they weren’t interested in that avenue in their press release (which their CEO hedged later during their investor call saying it isn’t “likely.”)

I found the transcript of the investor call fascinating.

Mr. Schmidt (Google’s CEO) states he personally was frustrated with the online air travel shopping experience.

This conjured up a mental image of him slaving over a Nexus One Droid Phone (or maybe even an IPad – on second thought probably not …) hitting the 20+ travel websites that @googletravel say people check before consummating a travel transaction.  Oddly enough the bulk of these 20+ sites have their ticket price quotes powered by the very company he just purchased. (isn’t “Search One and Done” already someone’s tag line …)

I guess the newly minted travel team at Google has some yet undisclosed magical pixie dust they will sprinkle on airlines to stop them from releasing seats at one price at 9am then changing their minds minutes later, while simultaneously halting their practice of changing millions of airfare price points throughout the day and curtailing their headlong leap into obfuscating comparison ticket shopping with a myriad of a la carte options on top of base ticket prices (I’d like a pinch of that dust to dribble on U.S. legislators who want to tax things like bag fees by spinning it as anti-airline and thus consumer friendly).

All needling aside — Google today just changed the air travel landscape in a big way (assuming this transaction clears what could be an interesting antitrust review) — kudos to my friends at ITA for fulfilling the dream, all that hard work has paid off – well done.

After ruminating about the ramifications of this game changing deal for the past couple of months, I still don’t have enough information to formulate exactly how this thing will play out in an ever more socially mobile generation.

I do know one thing – it is going to be a wild ride and I for one am looking forward to it.

It’s a little early, but analysts are already saying that the huge plume of ash from Iceland’s volcano that has disrupted flights and shut down airports in all corners of Europe, is going to be costly.

Say, around $200 million a day. Others say, that’s a “conservative” estimate.

Of course, what’s happening is pretty mind boggling. As a member of Eurocontrol put it (and that’s the body that coordinates flights in Europe), this disruption is “unheard of in the history of European aviation.”

But if you do need a comparison, no need to go back 30 years to the Mt. St. Helens eruption (which saw about 1,000 flight cancelations) – just go back nine years:

“The last time anything approaching this happened was the grounding of all flights in U.S. air space after 9/11″ - Clive Irving, Conde Nast Traveler

The worst of the financial impact is expected to be felt by carriers that depend on a lot of long-haul trans-Atlantic flights, which would include Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, already feeling the impact of that recent strike.

Attention airport goers in the Bay Area: the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is closed in BOTH directions for repairs – and at this point it’s not clear when it will reopen, but check here for updates.

Latest: The bridge will be closed at least through tonight’s commute (Wednesday) – and maybe longer.

Airport Travelers: If you need to find an alternate route to your airport, go to 511.org and they’ll help you out.

Thanks, JoeSentMe, for giving the first heads-up.

This evening, Delta/Northwest has kicked off a great big late summer/fall sale. It applies to about 8,000 cities pairs – in other words, the bulk of Delta’s domestic route system.

Details: 21 days advance purchase – and purchase by Aug. 14. Good for travel from Aug. 18 through Nov. 19. Cheapest days to fly are Tues., Wed., and Sat. – other days are still on sale, but will cost about $40 more roundtrip.

Important Note! I expect some serious matching tomorrow. The sweet spot to shop is just after noon central time.

Take a look at the chart I put together – with prices leading up to the sale, and after — just keep reading…

Just Filed – Huge New Delta/Northwest Sale