[caption id="" align="alignright" width="120" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] The U.S. Department of Transportation rules announced back in April are set to take effect today. However, many of the aspects of the ruling have been postponed at the request of the airlines, due implementation issues. The following come into effect today: Refund of Bag Fees is your…
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="120" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] The US Department of Transportation announced today that they were implementing new policies designed to protect airline passengers. The rules will take effect this summer and include: Tarmac Contingency rules are now extended to foreign carriers operating at U.S. airports. They must adopt and adhere to contingency plans…
The FAA announced it intends to add more air traffic controllers to the midnight shift at 27 airports that are currently staffed by a lone controller. This follows the suspension of controllers at Washington National, Reno, Lubbock, and Seattle for falling asleep on the job. The situation prompted Henry Krakowski, who oversaw the ATC system, to resign over the situation.
On Friday, a Southwest Airlines flight lost cabin pressure after the fuselage ruptured. This is not the first time that this has happened, of course. There was an unrelated incident last year where a Southwest plane made an emergency landing after decompression, and Southwest has even grounded some of its fleet before.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] Airlines offer lounges to their most loyal customers, and to the general public, usually at a higher price than many will pay. Jaunted reports that a venture for a pay lounge, a concept available elsewhere, but not used in the United States, is being set up at Baltimore-Washington…
Two years ago, US Airways Flight 1549, outbound from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte’s Douglas Airport, suffered a bird strike, which disabled its engines. The flight, operated by an Airbus A320, was piloted by now legendary Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, and first officer Jeffrey B. Skiles.
Gadling reports that the shifting in the Earth’s magnetic north pole has forced Tampa Airport to close one of its runways to repaint its designation. Runway 18R/36L will be redesignated 19R/1L when it reopens on Thursday. The other runways will change over later this month. The magnetic north pole has been shifting toward Russia at a rate of forty miles per year for the past decade.
It was over ten years ago that online ticket purchases were in their infancy. We remember ordering tickets from these new online travel agents and having the tickets mailed to us, even a few years into the e-ticket revolution, when it was still advised that paper was safer. Now, it is starting to look as if the age of online travel agents may come to an end. Maybe that is overly pessimistic, but airlines are looking to cut out the high cost associated with selling tickets through a Global Distribution System(GDS).
In the face of the recent storm in the Northeast, many travelers are claiming that the airline’s customer service outlets failed. The trouble with customer service is that most businesses, not just airlines, see it as a money-losing proposition. They do not see it as an investment in customer loyalty and brand reputation.
On December 16, 1960, United Airlines Flight 826 crashed into a church in Park Slope, Brooklyn. While no memorial marks the spot, it was, at the time, the worst aviation disaster in American history. The crippled plane set fire to ten apartment buildings, the ironically named Pillar of Fire church, a funeral home, a Chinese laundry, and a deli. Six persons on the ground died as a result.
Continental Airlines is introducing a service called Farelock, which will be available when booking reservations on their website. Continental has long offered a 24 hour flexible hold, during which changes and cancellations are permitted without penalty. This is mirrored by many major carriers.
We here at Flight Wisdom are not big fans of Kevin Smith. This has nothing to do with his movies. Last year, Kevin Smith went on the offensive against Southwest Airlines over its long-standing customer of size issues, and we were not pleased with many of his comments. Now he’s on against Virgin America and the ten minute rule.
Southwest Airlines announced a tentative agreement by its pilots to add the Boeing 737-800 to its contract. Southwest currently expects to take delivery of its first 737-800 in the first quarter of 2012. The Southwest Flight Attendants have already had a tentative agreement of their own.
Leslie Nielsen, known to aviation enthusiasts as Dr. Rumack from the classic aviation spoof, Airplane, according to reports, has died at the age of 84. Airplane launched a second career for Nielsen as a comedic actor, delivering comedic lines with a deadpan expression.
That isn’t the junk we’re talking about. The TSA has a new multi-pronged security measure. If you’ve been missing the news, it has to do with the enhanced pat-down. We’ve spent a few days over here at Flight Wisdom wondering what to say about it.
Tomorrow, November 1st, is a key date in the TSA’s Secure Flight program. In short, the Secure Flight program requires the TSA to assume responsibility for watch lists from the individual airlines. which seems a good idea, if we much have watch lists.
United announced some new routes for 2011 that will start the process of optimizing their combined networks. They will add:
The new control tower that has been rising up over New York’s LaGuardia Airport will begin operations midnight Sunday morning. The old tower will be turned off and decomissioned.
United and Continental are…on paper, no more. They are now wholly owned subsidiaries of United Continental Holdings Incorporated. It will take until 2012 for them to combine into one airline. Until then, they will run as separate companies, despite the fanfare. That means separate websites, check-in operations, etc. The synergy will not even start till spring.
We were bowled over when we heard that Southwest is going to acquire AirTran. Even more shocking is that Southwest and AirTran apparently started discussing this acquisition in the spring, which means they’ve kept this under wraps for a surprisingly long time.That is surprising in this modern world. Everything seems to leak out.
We started the day this morning with surprising news. Southwest Airlines is going to acquire AirTran Airways. It is going to take us a bit to really think about this, and we’ll have more later in the day, but let’s go over the big points now.
After a lot of consideration(we started fiddling with this a few months back), we here at Flight Wisdom are proud to announce the beta launch of our latest spinoff site…Airporthistory.com.
An ATR-42 twin-engine turboprop operated by Conviasa has crashed about twelve minutes after takeoff from the airport in Guayana, Venezuela. The plane had at least forty-seven people onboard, and twenty-three passengers were taken to local hospitals. Of those, up to eleven have died. There are some conflicting reports about the number onboard, injured, and deceased, and we will update as more definite numbers come in.