News and notes from around the interweb:
- Good times. You can see the man tackled. That never ends well.
NEW
EasyJet flight to Scotland diverted after passenger made a bomb threat and shouted “Allahu Akbar.” @nyssa7 pic.twitter.com/ARLkA5xrJB
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 27, 2025
- Spirit Airlines furloughs more pilots will cut more flights. It’s tough to cut your way to profitability because so many costs are fixed.
- New Dallas McKinney airport has terminal renderings.
- Alaska Airlines reportedly now only does water on the second drink pass on longer flights, outside of the extra legroom section. This may just be for Phoenix flights.
- Airline jerk versus passenger jerk, the only ones I feel for here are the cops who were called.
I almost got arrested at the airport in DC for asking for a hotel voucher for my canceled flight @SouthwestAir please do better pic.twitter.com/e0ioFbBcJg
— Alex Stein #99 (@alexstein99) July 28, 2025
- Ryanair passenger drops to her knees in tears after being denied boarding over large luggage (HT: Paul H)
So, who is this Akbar guy anyway? And why is everyone all worked up about hummus?! It’s delicious, especially with some toasted pita bread. C’mon folks…
A few observations — I like how the bomb guy completely folded to the floor after just being touched. Then the SWA guy says the flight was cancelled due to weather – that means they are not going to give you a hotel. He was told, ignored the SWA decision, and then became a nuisance. Kudos to the cops for handling it professionally. Finally, everyone knows Ryanair are sticklers for luggage size. Her bag does not fit in the checker. She needs to own up to the mistake, stop the dramatics, and check the bag.
I think he’s related to Ali Baba of Open Sesame Street fame.
You know, the guy with the big pet named Babar. Eats babaganoush.
Sigh…
To this moron NO airline will provide a hotel in the event of a weather cancellation. Even a top elite it’s a no go. That’s the choice you make when you fly. That you may not get where you’re going today. Don’t like it, drive.
Spirit cutting flights, not gonna work in an industry with high fixed costs. The airline will limp on for another 9-12 months but the writing is on the wall unless management can coax Frontier into an acquisition.
Ship them back home via Air Trump. The Europeans have had enough of this mass immigration stupidity.
Never got why in the west it’s always shortened as “Allahu” – it’s two separate words” “Allah” and “Hua” (“he is”)
In any case, I won’t be surprised if he gets a psych eval and then let loose with some kind of slap on wrist. UK is lost as much as many other west European nations. The place is will be unrecognizable in a few decades.
Not just due to uncontrolled numbers of anti-western valued immigrants (some aren’t of course, but most are muslims which absolutely the majority of them are Islamists non-integrating in their ideology), but also population collapse of those segments that are of those nations origin.
So, the nation state will die as such.
Unfortunately, the time to try and reverse it was once, but has passed. It’s now en route, only thing is the pace and speed in which it will occur.
Looks like I have been banished permanently.
@Dude26
Absolutely correct. The extreme liberal arm of the Democrat Party should learn from what is going on in Western Europe.
@Steve M — That must be it. Alibaba and the 40 thieves!
@George Romey — No one is reasonably backing this crazy, so let’s get to bigger issues:
Oh, the convenient excuses airlines will use. For instance, lately, I’ve witnessed how United likes to blame ‘FAA staffing’ as a panacea to absolve them of any responsibility, and not just at EWR.
Let’s talk ‘weather’ for a moment. Should ‘weather’ where your inbound aircraft originated from qualify (even if it’s a totally different location from your origin or destination)? At some point, it’s within the airlines’ control to properly plan for their own operations (well-maintained aircraft with proper staff, etc.)
We are so used to favoring for-profit corporations over workers and consumers in this country.
At least in the EU, UK, and Canada, they penalize airlines and compensate passengers when it’s within the airlines’ control (See EU/UK 261, Canada’s APPR). These regulations don’t bankrupt airlines, or raise costs (they still have ample ULCCs like Ryanair that sometimes have fares as low as €20; so, yes, an affected passenger could literally ‘make’ money off the airlines’ failures.) Ultimately, these rules create incentives for airlines to operate more reliably, and if not, at least passengers are paid for the inconvenience.
I presume you (and a few others) will ignore all that, and continue to endorse these companies screwing over you and your fellow passengers. Something about ‘bootstraps’ or ‘handouts’ or whatever. Oh, why must we keep harming ourselves…
@Coffee Please — Nah, you’re still here, bud. Some words seem to get auto-mod/ban. It happens.
As for your comments about the ‘extreme liberal arm of the Democrat Party,’ sir, they’re outta power, and those kids on college campuses hardly had any power to begin with; not to mention, these days, there are hardly even any protests (on campuses or anywhere) anymore.
Maybe, just maybe, we should look at the far-right’s abuses of power in the USA today, you know, since they’re actually in-power (and abusing it).
Of course, we could get lucky and both airlines go out of business.
@Denver Refugee — Even if you never fly them, as consumers, we should want additional options and more competition in the industry.
The SWA passenger is a jerk. I’m guessing that he, like most other member of the dumb masses, doesn’t read the contract of carriage. Weather is a force majeure event. The airline has no further responsibility. However, the SWA agent should properly explain the situation. We don’t know whether he did or not. The dumb masses can go to the SWA web site and rebook their flight or find alternatives. Now, SWA DOES and SHOULD refund the ticket.
@1990 – I’d normally agree, but I admit to holding a particular animus toward Frontier, having flown them pretty frequently before the Republic acquisition.
On top of that, the United States is experiencing one of its occasional protectionist streaks, so I fully expect a push by the Big 3.5 to bring back some flavor of Airline Regulation (in the name of “improving customer experiences” or the like) in order to freeze out smaller players and new entrants.
Gary, nice blog, but every one of your articles/blog entries should have a date (year, month [and optionally, day] ) BOTH in the first paragraph AND in the headline.
Opinions about credit card bonus competitions in 2014 are of only historical value.
@Denver Refugee — I’ll admit, it’s been a long time since I’ve flown Frontier, though, the folks I know who have are often delayed, like many, many hours, and taking a lot of unnecessary red-eyes.
Oh, the ole ‘regulatory capture’ (and other monopolistic tendencies). It’s funny how the party of ‘de-regulation’ and ‘free markets’ ends up just helping ‘its own’ anyway (usually to the benefit of the super-rich and mega-corps). I, too, hope for the pendulum to swing back, yet, I doubt there will be anything meaningfully labor or consumer friendly anytime soon.
@Jay Mack — Nah, that’s overkill; he’s already got the date for each post.
@Jay Mack – not sure I follow what you’re after that isn’t already there?
@Dude26: “Not just due to uncontrolled numbers of anti-western valued immigrants (some aren’t of course, but most are muslims which absolutely the majority of them are Islamists non-integrating in their ideology),”
What?