Category Archives for Aircraft.
The President takes an intellectually consistent position with his views on trade, focusing on displaced workers when new technologies compete away older products.
Filed under: bad news for Uber and self-driving cars, good news for those who like the continued use of paper flight strips by air traffic controllers.
For seven years I’ve been saying that inflight internet will eventually be free. Since I started making that prediction JetBlue introduced free inflight internet and Aer Lingus has announced usage-capped free wifi. Southwest, Delta and Alaska now offer free inflight messaging.
My 2012 prediction was that inflight wifi would be free in 10 years (so by 2022). Delta CEO Ed Bastian says they’ll do it in a year or two so by 2021.
Australia has temporarily banned the 737 MAX. This affects only Fiji Airways which operates Boeing 737 MAX 8s on Australia routes.
Aeromexico has grounded its 737 MAX aircraft. Groundings have occurred in Argentina and Brazil. In the US Senators Diane Feinstein and Richard Blumenthal, clearly aviation experts themselves, have called for the grounding of the plane.
American Airlines has 24 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in service. Plenty of customers are expressing concern over the aircraft after the Lion Air incident in October was followed by yesterday’s tragic crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX. China and Indonesia have grounded the jet.
Many airlines operating the plane, including Southwest and American, have expressed support for the aircraft’s safety. And it’s too early to know just what happened in yesterday’s occurrence. We’ll know more soon, especially now that the aircraft’s black boxes are being studied. It’s natural though to have concerns.
Just as China’s move to ground the MAX conveniently serves political interests (in escalating trade tensions with the U.S.), Indonesia has an interest in blaming the aircraft itself versus their country’s largest privately-run airline for its tragic incident.
In the aftermath of today’s loss of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 carrying 149 passengers and 8 crew I’m hearing from many frequent flyers wondering whether the aircraft will be grounded, and thinking about whether or not they’re willing to fly on the jet.
China reportedly is grounding the plane. Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Hainan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Shandong Airlines, and XiamenAir all operate Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
Yesterday American Airlines grounded 14 Boeing 737-800s. These are planes that have undergone the ‘Oasis’ modification – to replace interiors with more seats; less comfortable seats; less distance between seats; less recline; no seat back video; and smaller lavatories plus bigger overhead bins.
I’m now learning more about issues with the aircraft being inspected.
When I asked American Airlines whether “there[‘s] any work besides overhead bins being done,” specifically mentioning wiring, I was told “Our team is conducting a full inspection of these 14 aircraft.”
While they’re not confirming specifics, they’re also not claiming the issues are limited to overhead bins.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
VietJet had been an exclusive Airbus customer until President Obama visited Vietnam in 2016 and so far operate 64 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft and no Boeing jets. They have five times as many planes on order as in operation.
Even without the Export-Import Bank giving Boeing’s business a boost, the US government is still their chief benefactor. And in the case of VietJet you might even say the President grabbed these orders by the…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
