Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
October 22 2008
An Edmonton woman has filed an $85,000 lawsuit against Air Canada after a flight attendant spilled an unspecified hot beverage on her (by accident) during a flight from Vancouver to London. The plaintiff claims that her “inner thighs and pubic area” were burned when the flight attendant spilled the aforementioned drink. She also says her vacation was ruined because of the emotional stress she suffered after spilling her drink.
I believe this speaks for itself.
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October 20 2008
(Thanks, USA Today Blog…)
The Boston Globe has an interesting profile of Cape Air, which serves small cities in the northeast by flying 9-seater Cessnas. The tiny carrier, which expects to earn a profit on its $70 million operation, has weathered the fuel storm because they have used aviation gas instead of jet fuel - aviation gas has always been expensive, and they didn’t face a huge spike in their fuel costs. There’s plenty of detail in the article - it’s a good read…
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October 16 2008
The OTR’s Offices will be closed on Friday for a staff retreat in New Orleans.
In the meantime, do yourself a favor and read this week’s Ask the Pilot column in Salon. This will make no sense whatsoever, but it’s about Dakar’s airport, poverty, and a hedgehog. It’s a really wonderful piece of travel writing.
Have a great weekend…
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October 16 2008
A drunk passenger on a Turkish Airlines flight from Antalya, Turkey, to St. Petersburg gave a note to flight attendants saying he was hijacking the plane with a bomb. Turns out he was only joking, which is generally frowned upon. Passengers on the plane confronted the man and discovered he did not have any weapons (despite his threat). He was arrested upon arrival.
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October 15 2008
(Thanks, Airliners…)
A TSA screener at Newark Airport was accused of stealing more than 100 items from passengers’ luggage at the airport and selling some of it on eBay (you can see his great feedback here). He was caught when he stole a nearly $50,000 camera belonging to CNN and in a very, very bold move, tried to sell it on Ebay. Clever. Bail is set at $100,000 (though he’s apparently on paid leave. Your tax dollars at work.)
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October 13 2008
I thought I’d pass along an interesting article about what’s happening with the US Airways and Delta Shuttles (as you might have guessed, what’s happening isn’t good). The short version is that Wall Street misery + Acela = mess. During the first half of the year, some months saw load factors in the 36% range (that is not good), and a 17% drop in passengers year-over-year. Ouch. The airlines are loathe to cut any flights from the Shuttle schedule (as that would no longer make it a shuttle), but the shuttle’s days as we know it may be numbered. Which is fine with me, as the Acela blows away Shuttle service.
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October 13 2008
Norhtwest announced that it will drop nonstop flights between Hartford and Amsterdam for the usual economic reasons (they’re also dropping nonstops from Detroit to Dusseldorf and suspending Minneapolis-Paris for the winter). I really only bring this up because one of the arguements for the Boeing 787 was that it would allow airlines to fly mid-haul between non-hub cities (ie, Hartford to Amsterdam). We’ve seen a number of these second-tier markets dry up during this economic rough patch and it makes me wonder whether those flights are viable or not. I don’t have an answer, but I’m wondering if we’ll see the diversity of flights initially promised by the new airplanes.
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October 10 2008
2 moderate profile international flight suspensions I thought I’d pass along:
Air France will cancel its nonstop service from LAX to London Heathrow - without any major SkyTeam hub on either end, and quite a bit of competition, it was a non-starter. Instead, it will fly a codeshare with Delta from London Heathrow to JFK, essentially giving Delta a 3rd daily nonstop on the route.
And Jet Airways will cancel its San Francisco - Mumbai flight (via Shanghai), as it could no longer handle the losses on the route. That doesn’t bode well for Kingfisher’s announced entry into the busy US-India market.
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October 07 2008
A Qantas flight from Singapore to Perth was diverted to a remote Western Australia airport after the A330 encountered serious turbulence. 30 passengers were injured, including 15 with broken bones when the flight plunged after hitting rough air. As I say each time (and you should be sick of it by now), keep your seatbelts fastened when your in your seat.
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October 07 2008
Those following the Sun Country debacle will not be surprised to hear that Sun Country has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a tumultuous week in which its parent company’s offices were raided by the FBI. Yesterday’s announcement that they may have to shut down by December 1st was made because companies now have to give employees 60 days notice if the company forsees layoffs. But, as Tom at Channel 9 says, once you announce you may shut down, you have effectively shut down.
(In case you’re wondering why I keep writing about Sun Country, I’m pretty fascinated by their story. They’ve managed to survive despite 10 years of Northwest doing everything in their power to shut them down. It’s a bit of a Little Engine That Could story, and you don’t see that too often in the airline industry.)
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Woman Sues Air Canada for $85,000 for Spilled Drink