Continental Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines announced a comprehensive partnership, with frequent flyer and airport lounge access reciprocity to start in October. Continental will place its flight number on Kingfisher flights connecting to Continental’s daily flights between New York and Delhi and new service between New York and Mumbai.
American will be switching its daily Raleigh-Durham to London Gatwick flight to serve Heathrow instead…a switch made possible by the EU Open Skies agreement. It will switch one of its two daily Dalla/Ft. Worth flights to Heathrow as well…which will leave only one daily flight serving Gatwick.
American also plans to inaugurate service from New York’s JFK Airport to London’s Stansted Airport with a once daily flight on October 28th, adding a second next Spring. Since slots into Heathrow are limited, and American is adding the other Heathrow service, they may be switching one or two of their JFK flights to serve Stansted in order to free the slots for Dallas and Raleigh. Stansted is also the destination for airlines like Eos and MAXjet…offering all business class service to London. American has tried service to Stansted before, but the increased demand due to these other services may make the service more viable.
We reported that Jetblue had joined up with the Simpsons Movie for promotions…and Mr. Burns had taken over Neeleman’s “interwebular chronicle.” We’d like to hat tip back to Elliot, First Aid for Travel, for giving us credit for advising them of it. We’ll be adding a link to the site as a way of thanks…Either way, our image showing Orlando, CA must have gotten to someone, as their site now correctly identifies it as Orlando, FL.
The Consumerist has a story from a passenger whose Continental Airlines pilot allegedly paid for ten pizzas out of his own pocket for a flight after an over four hour delay.
Male air traffic controllers donned dresses in protest of the silliness of FAA’s dress code. The dress code, instituted in September, bars jogging outfits, halter tops, shorts and jeans. Approved clothing items include dress slacks, casual shirts with collars and sweaters. Midnight-shift workers are exempt. At the FAA’s Cleveland Air Route Control Center in Oberlin, one controller was disciplined because he wore an orange shirt that a supervisor said “looked like a highway traffic cone,” and another was told his aquamarine pants were “not gender appropriate” for a man…yet the dress code does not prohibit men from wearing dresses. There have been 15 to 20 disciplinary actions across the country, ranging from letters of reprimand to a three-day unpaid suspension for a worker in Chicago who wore a yellow suit and all are being contested. In their larger negotiations, the controllers are upset about changes in schedules, no mandatory breaks every two hours, and pay issues, including a pay cut for new hires.