Archive for June, 2006
June 19 2006
A 21-year old Zimbabwean student attempted to hijack a South African Airlines flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg and divert it to Maputo, Mozambique, on Saturday. His efforts were thwarted by passengers, including an off-duty pilot, who wrestled away the hypodermic needle he was using to threaten crew members. The airline and police are now under attack for the way they handled the incident, including police who boarded the plane and, allegedly, attacked the passengers who stopped the hijacker.
Crazy Passengers | No Comments » 
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June 16 2006
After years and years of bickering, a compromise has been reached on the Wright Amendment situation that affects Dallas Love airport. As mentioned here a bunch of times, the Wright Amendment forbade airlines from flying from Dallas Love to states that were not contiguous to Texas. Nor could they sell tickets between, say, Dallas Love and Baltimore with a stop in Oklahoma City. Well, that’s about to change.
Southwest and American reached an agreement whereby the Wright Amendment restrictions will disappear by 2014. In the short-term, airlines can sell tickets between, say, Dallas Love and Baltimore with a stop in Oklahoma City (this is called through-ticketing).
This deal has to be approved by Congress, and there’s a possibility that they will permit airlines to fly long-haul nonstop flights immediately (despite the terms of the agreement), in which case Southwest will have to give up 8 of its gates at the airport.
Many thought that Southwest would fight for immediate long-haul flights, but Southwest was likely most interested in being able to plan their business. This will be a huge win for consumers (and I wouldn’t be shocked if Congress forces immediately long-haul flights.)
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June 15 2006
Air New Zealand has launched an investigation into whether some of its employees have been exchanging travel passes for sex with prostitutes. ANZ employees can buy tickets at 10% of the normal fare and have reportedly been giving them to prostitutes in exchange for services. I’m not sure why the most surprising aspect of this story to me is that there are prostitutes in New Zealand.
Weird Airline Stories | No Comments » Print This Post
June 15 2006
Rumors are swirling that Emirates is seeking to purchase British Airways. Shares in British Airways are up, despite Emirates’ denial that it was interested in the British flag carrier. Emirates has been on a massive expansion, becoming a major force in the Middle East, and scaring the hell out of European carriers who thought that they would always have a monopoly on Europe-to-Asia flights. I doubt this deal would actually happen, but I also thought the America West-US Airways deal wouldn’t happen either, so what do I know?
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June 14 2006
Things are not going well over at Airbus. After a couple of years where they could do no wrong (and Boeing seemed to do nothing right), it’s getting messy over in Europe. The company announced another delay for the double-decker A380, pushing launch back another 6 months. Singapore Airlines, the launch customer, will take delivery in early 2007 (instead of last month). Qantas and Emirates will have their deliveries pushed back to 2008, also 6-12 months later than expected. Singapore and Emirates are now seeking compensation from the manufacturer for the delays. (As you can imagine, each of these airlines had financial targets based on putting these 500+ seat aircraft into service. Delays are extremely costly. And nerds like me were sorta excited to go and fly on one of these sooner rather than later).
Meanwhile, there’s been a bit of a mess around the launch of the A350, which will compete with the rather successful Boeing 787. There’s been a public debate about the aircraft’s design and a number of revisions about the actual performance of the airplane. It’s gotten so bad that Airbus’ COO felt the need to come out and say that the "chaos" around the program must end. Add the uncertainty around the A350 to the uncertainty around the A380, and the near-term future of Airbus isn’t looking so hot. The team at Boeing is gloating, I’m sure.
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June 13 2006
A food writer carrying a stash of goodies back home caused a 3 hour shutdown of Tallahassee airport yesterday. For some reason, his bag filled with an oyster shell, honey, spice rub and a tape recorder seemed so suspicious that authorities shut down the airport to fully investigate. They investigated and found that the guy was just carrying a tape recorder, spice rub, honey and an oyster shell. Keep up the good work.
Weird Airline Stories | 1 Comment » Print This Post
June 13 2006
I apologize because 99% of you will not give a rat’s ass about this (excuse my French), but if you are a serious fare dork, you’re going to like this. The fine folks at Farecompare.com (who have a cool tool that allows you to see the lowest fares for every route around the world quickly), have just released a tool for fare managers that allows you to see every fare on every route, along with the associated rules. You can check out their alpha release here. As I said, most people won’t care, but if you do want to know every…single…fare between New York and wherever, this is for you. Best of luck.
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June 12 2006
The NY Times has a pretty good article about airline employees commuting crazy distances to go to work (Honolulu to LaGuardia for 2 weeks each month was the wackiest). The next time there’s a bit of traffic on the way to work, just be happy your job isn’t an 11 hour flight away.
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June 08 2006
I’ve always kinda wondered if something like this could happen:
A guy returning home to Liverpool, England, on Continental from Los Angeles somehow ended up in Manchester, New Hampshire, instead of Manchester, England. After landing in Cleveland and boarding a regional jet, it occurred to him that the 50 seater was not going to reach Manchester, England, from Cleveland. Not without a stop or 7. Please don’t ask why he got on the plane when it was obvious it was not going to be able to fly 4,000 miles. I have no idea.
Anyway, he took his landing in New Hampshire in stride, and Continental was nice enough to get him home without charging him for the connecting flight to Newark. His only complaint? He felt Manchester, New Hampshire, "could use a few more pubs."
Weird Airline Stories | No Comments » Print This Post
June 08 2006
It’s getting nasty in Hawaii: New carrier Go! is pissing off Hawaiian and Aloha by dropping fares on some routes to $19 each way (book by June 9th for travel by July 9th). Aloha is so annoyed they’re refusing to match, which is understandable because even the chief of Go! said he can’t make money even at $39 each way. It’s gonna get ugly.
Great Deals | No Comments » Print This Post
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Man Attempts to Hijack South African Flight