We started this site in 2006. Things have changed a lot since then, but the realization that it has been ten years since a plane landed on the Hudson River has made us realize it may be time to revisit this site, which has been idle for a bit now. [caption id="attachment_856" align="alignright" width="225"] USAirways…
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Image by Getty Images via @daylife"][/caption] Angeline O’Grady wants to know what happened to her husband. On November 1, she was traveling through Philadelphia International Airport with the ashes of her late husband, Brian. She was told by TSA agents that she could not bring the ashes through security with her.…
A woman is seeking answers after she claims US Airways lost track of her special needs brother, who was physically and mentally disabled. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by Caleb's Photography via Flickr"][/caption] He missed his connecting flight in Charlotte, and when she called, they would not give out any information. Now, this is actually…
Why is this a story? [caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by soupboy via Flickr"][/caption] A family flying from Charlotte to Chicago was removed from an aircraft by US Airways. The family consisted of two adults, and four children: a 3-year old, two 20-month old twins, and an eight month old. Â The family purchased three tickets.…
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.
Senator Charles Schumer, who publicly criticized Spirit Airlines for their announcement that they would begin charging for carry-on bags, has secured the commitment of five airlines that they will NOT follow Spirit in this practice.
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This week, Flight Wisdom and the entire Weneca Media Group family are celebrating National Library Week. Support your local library.
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Greetings from the Flight Wisdom Summer Palace. Today’s briefing is hosted by the Infrequent Flier. If you enjoyed his presentation of the news, please drop him a line on Twitter @Infrequentflier.
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After this Briefing, our editor will be heading on the road for a few days. Lots of interesting things going on, but we’re bringing along our portable recording equipment to report on it.
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Today, we introduce a new opener for the Briefing, recorded by special guest announcer, the Bow-Tied Blogger. Comments are welcome.
Back in August, Delta Air Lines and US Airways announced a deal to give Delta dominance at LaGuardia in exchange for Delta helping US Airways dominate Washington-National. The DOT advised that in order for them to approve the transaction, the airlines would have to divest a certain number of slots at each airport in order for it to be approved. This week, the two airlines shot back with their own proposal. They will transfer up to five slot pairs each to AirTran, Spirit, and Westjet at LaGuardia. And at National, they will transfer five slot pairs to JetBlue.
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Thus ends the first week of the Flight Wisdom Briefing. How are you enjoying it so far? Comments are open, as in Twitter. If you are interested in submitting a commercial aviation related story to the Briefing, please contact us. We’ll be back next week with new briefs and we’ll keep tweaking it to try to make it better for you.
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For those of you who enjoyed the first brief, here’s the second one. If you want to subscribe to the brief in your podcatcher, our podcast only RSS feed is here.
We did want to followup on last week’s story, where a religious Jewish teen caused a plane to be diverted by praying using his tefillin. In case you missed it the first time, the above is an Associated Press video of the initial announcement. Note the police referring to the device as an “Olfactory.”
This week’s latest in route developments.
Image via Wikipedia US Airways announced it would lay off 1000 people, approximately 3 percent of its workforce, and focus on four cities and the shuttle service. Here are the details: Reducing Las Vegas from 64 to 36 daily departures – No one is really surprised by this. Las Vegas was a big hub for…
Yesterday, we were reading Chris Elliott’s Travel Troubleshooter blog. He posted excerpts from letters sent and received by a regular flier and US Airways. And we started contemplating the issue of how airlines might handle things when the airline and the passenger cannot see eye to eye.
The Middle Seat Terminal blog reports that the rate at which passengers were bumped in the second quarter of this year increased forty percent compared with the same period a year ago. As carriers have slashed capacity to the bone, and with overbooking a common practice, there are too many people crammed onto flights.
[caption id="attachment_1711" align="alignright" width="225" caption="In Flight Service - Virgin America"][/caption] A lot happened while we were away. As we said in our Virgin America trip report, Every Plane should have In-Flight Wi-Fi. But, we felt there were a few things we didn’t mention during the trip report. There was actually a lot we didn’t mention.…
Image via Wikipedia As part of our continuing coverage of Slotgate ’09(just kidding), we’re going to review some of what is going on down at National Airport. US Airways is gaining slots for 42 additional daily roundtrips at the airport. They will be adding new service to fifteen destinations, eight of which are new to…
Image via Wikipedia Due to the discontinuance of US Airways Express service(Wilmington, NC excepted) from New York’s LaGuardia Airport, the following routes will be discontinued unless Delta picks them up. Albany, NY Hyannis, MA Raleigh / Durham, NC(Served by Delta and American) Baltimore, MD(Still served by Southwest) Indianapolis, IN(Already served by Delta, soon by Airtran)…
Image by mtsofan via Flickr So, now Continental has gotten AirTran out of Newark in exchange for slots at LaGuardia and National, where they are hardly a powerhouse. Delta is taking over US Airways extensive regional slots at LaGuardia, and US Airways is getting international route permissions and greater dominance at Washington National. It allows…
[caption id="attachment_1663" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The Marine Air Terminal, circa 1940 (Courtesy Library of Congress)"][/caption] The saga of LaGuardia Airport began when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia struck a blow for all proud New Yorkers when he refused to call Newark Airport New York. LaGuardia was flying on a TWA flight which arrived into Newark, and pointing out…
Image via Wikipedia US Airways will be transferring 125 pairs of slots currently used to provide US Airways Express service at LaGuardia to Delta Air Lines. They will be getting 42 pairs of slots at Washington National. The plan will allow US Airways to expand service at National Airport and acquire the rights to fly…
Image by caribb via Flickr Charleston International Airport is having some major repair work done on its 7000 foot runway, which last received major repairs forty years ago. The airport will be closed from 12AM to 6AM till August 9th. The work has been going on since June 9th, and the airlines were well aware…