News and notes from around the interweb:
- A United plane slid off the runway at O’Hare and passengers didn’t even notice
- The 10 oldest jetliners using the same continuous tail number. Three of the five oldest are Iran Air 747s, and the other 2 are ex-Continental birds flown by Fedex.
- Is Amtrak’s new revenue-based program imposing capacity controls on awards? That wasn’t part of the deal they sold us.
- IHG Rewards Club e-mails me: “The new IHG® Rewards Club PointBreaks list of almost 170 hotels worldwide will be posted on Monday, January 25 for bookings and stays from January 25 – April 30, 2016 (subject to availability) at this link. Each Reward Night at these participating hotels will be only 5,000 IHG Rewards Club points during the above mentioned dates. Visit the IHG Blog to see a preview list.”
- Shooting in the Lobby of Chicago’s Hyatt Regency McCormick Place
Police say there was a birthday party happening in the lobby of the hotel when someone pulled out a gun and started shooting around 2:30 a.m. [Courtney] Taylor was reportedly trying to break up the fight, but ended up dead.
…Police say the suspect fired several more shots as he ran from the building, fleeing on foot, northbound on King Drive.
- “747 Forever – 40 years of romance” … 47 years of Air France 747 history boiled down to a 2-minute YouTube video, now that the airline has ceased flying the Queen of the Skies.
Those 2 FedEx MD-10s have been extensively renovated. When the aircraft were converted from DC10s to MD10s, they received all the heavy maintenance checks and more. The main point was the conversion from 3 person crew to a 2 person crew. The installation of LCD flight deck made the aircraft common to the MD11, so crews could fly either aircraft. There are also many other FedEx aircraft that are over 30 years old. These aircraft do not operate many hours. The normal operation is a 2 to 3 hour flight to MEM and then a 2 to 3 hour flight back to the US destination city. The total is about 6 hours per day. Much less than the passenger airlines that fly aircraft for 15 hours a day. Furthermore, the MD10s are being retired due to their fuel costs. Gradually the MD10s/DC10s will all be gone, not because of usefulness, but just fuel costs.
Now that we are on the subject of fuel costs, fuel is at a 10 year low and is the main expense of airlines. How come fares don’t come down. It looks like a big time rip off!!!
@Sammy Eppel
You are so right! But Gary has covered this before, there are so few airplane seats being chased by a large population. The airlines figured out how to control the supply and the demand hasn’t decreased enough to lower prices. That is the result of the airline mergers. So much for airline deregulation of 1970s.
Thanks for the link to the article on the oldest jets. I often see those Canadian North 732s at YOW.
Hate to read that about the McCormick Place Hyatt Regency. That was my first stay after I first earned diamond with Hyatt. They upgraded me to a very nice corner suite without even asking. And I thought that would be the life of a diamond from then on. 🙂