Monthly Archives: August 2010

Southwest Announces Service to Newark Airport

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Continuing its trend of going into overcrowded, delay prone airports it had previously avoided, Southwest Airlines announced it would be coming to Newark’s Liberty Airport. The effort is part of Continental and United’s effort to secure approval for their merger by agreeing to lease them 36 slots at the airport, which will allow for 18 daily roundtrips.

JetBlue Flight Evacuated after Hard Landing

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JetBlue Flight 262 from Long Beach to Sacramento, with 86 customers and a crew of 5 evacuated via slides upon landing due to a brake fire. Minor injuries have been reported and an estimated fifteen passengers have been taken to local hospitals.

NTSB releases findings on Southwest Flight 2294

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Southwest responded to the NTSBs findings on the incident on Flight 2294 last July. For those of you who don’t recall, that was the aircraft that made a landing in Charleston, WV when a hole suddenly opened up in the fuselage. The photos at the time were disconcerting for anyone who flies. After all, we like to think of planes as solid objects, but they are metal tubes that we put under pressure.

American Airlines to Charge for Express Seats

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American Airlines has announced it will now charge for seats in the first few rows of aircraft. The price for this new charge is $19 to $39 and will only be available for purchase at airport kiosks from 24 hours to 50 minutes before domestic flights. The price will include being in the first boarding group of passengers.

More of JFK’s Terminal Planning

We talked not long ago about the end of the Worldport at JFK. But it appears that American is set to counter Delta’s new expansion with its own. Even though it completed a multi-year megaterminal project at JFK which consolidated its operations from two terminals to one and was completed in 2007. American is talking about expanding its terminal make room for OneWorld Alliance members British Airways and Iberia.

Steven Slater Wants a Mulligan

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The fleeing flight attendant, Steve Slater, apparently wants to return to work. This should prove once and for all the man is not a hero. For those who thought he was taking a stand for all the workers in less than desirable jobs…asking to come back does sort of disprove that.

Steven Slater 2008 on Steven Slater 2010

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The Daily News reported this week on an account on airliners.net believed to belong to Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who rode the chute. Airliners.net is a popular forum site frequented by airline professionals and enthusiasts.

Followup: Air France Dispute

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Last week, we talked about a man who had written us over his dispute with Air France. You can find that story here. This week, he sent us a followup, so we thought we would revisit the issue. It included a letter from the manager of customer care for Air France-USA as well as our reader’s response.

Steven Slater is Not a Hero: Another Opinion

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Earlier, our editor expressed our opinion that Steven Slater is not a hero. However, not everyone agrees, but it is a hot button issue, so we got another member of the Flight Wisdom team, the Infrequent Flier, to share his thoughts.

Steven Slater is Not a Hero

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Steven Slater has become something of a cult hero in the last twenty four hours. Someone even wrote a song about it. But why? It is normal to have dreams of quitting their job, telling off one’s boss. It is a form of stress relief. The behavior of Mr. Slater is, to quote Henry Harteveldt of Forrester Research, is “an insult to hard-working professional flight attendants on all airline worldwid

The deHavilland DHC-3 Otter

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466 deHavilland DHC-3 Otters were produced from 1951-1967, and it commonly used as a rugged bush plane, flying into more remote regions, and as a search and rescue aircraft. It was used by the Canadian, U.S., Australian, and other air forces for this purpose. It has a 9-10 passenger plus pilot capacity.

Ted Stevens Dies in Plane Crash in Alaska

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The NY Times is reporting that former Senator Ted Stevens has died in a small plane crash in Alaska last night. Five of the nine people onboard the DeHavilland DHC-3T are reported to have perished. The plane was on its way to a lodge near Lake Aleknagik. The North American head of operations for EADS and former administrator of NASA, Sean O’Keefe, was also onboar

Airplane 30th Anniversary Screening at Lincoln Center

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This evening, Flight Wisdom went out to the Airplane! 30th Anniversary Screening at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City. As long time fans of this movie, it was exciting to see it on the big screen, and listen to an audience full of people laugh at the movie, something even the writers said they hadn’t had a chance to do in years.

Demolishing Worldport to Put Up a Parking Lot

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The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has approved demolition of Terminal 3 at JFK and the overhaul of Terminal 4. Terminal 4 will be expanded with nine additional gates, which Delta will move into, occupying 16 out of 25 total gates, after which Terminal 3 will be demolished to provide 16 aircraft parking spaces. They will also be expanding T4′s international baggage hall and customs facilities to accommodate the increased traffic.

Skywest to Buy ExpressJet

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Remember ExpressJet and its attempt to sell service under its own brand? Or perhaps you remember them through their relationship with Continental?
Well, now, SkyWest has announced that Atlantic Southeast Airlines, one of its brands, will buy ExpressJet. The new acquisition will be based at ASA’s home in Atlanta and will continue to serve both United and Continental hubs…probably good because both are merging themselves.