Category Archives for Aircraft.
On Thursday, a horse escaped inside the cargo hold of a Boeing 747. The Air Atlanta Icelandic flight from New York JFK to Liage, Belgium declared an emergency while still in climb out as it reached 31,000 feet: “We are a cargo plane with a live animal, a horse, on board. The horse has broken out of its stall. There’s no issue with flying, but we need to go back to New York as we can’t resecure the horse.”
Delta Air Lines overbooked a flight, so as is common they offered passengers gift cards to give up their seat and take a later flight. One passenger who had already boarded the flight in Atlanta accepted their offer of $700 but when he got off the aircraft the airline would not pay.
The FAA’s docket on public charter regulation advocated by American Airlines and Southwest Airlines has closed.
So far over 58,000 public comments have been posted to Regulations.gov. JSX says the number of submitted comments is 76,000 (there is a lag in posting comments to the web). Already it’s the most comments ever received on a Department of Transportation or FAA proposed rule. Drones topped 50,000. Emotional support animals topped 15,000. Usually there are just a handful.
Will Mandis posts video of a Delta Air Lines plane appear to pause in mid-air, and it’s striking. Some are calling the phenomenon a “glitch in the matrix.” The video is not altered.
A brand new Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 had a piece of its tail fall off enroute from Seattle to Chicago on Monday. The plane landed at 6:13 p.m. local time and remained on the ground overnight. It had only been in revenue service for four days, made sixteen passenger flights, and had been registered to Alaska for just a week.
When airlines purchase planes new they usually pay about 50% of ‘list’ price. But what about used aircraft? And how do airlines actually pay for their purchase?
A receipt has surfaced for an actual used aircraft acquisition – Swift Air’s $8 million 2014 deal for then-29 year old ex-US Airways Boeing 737-400 registration N418US.
A picture of an aircraft wing with more speed tape on it than I’ve ever seen in my life has been making the rounds in social media, under the caption “This is my last time flying with Spirit Airlines!!!!!”
This is not a Spirit Airlines aircraft.
The FAA took to social media to tell airline passengers not to fully charge their lithium ion battery-powered devices, like phones and laptops, if they don’t need the full charge for the flight. This is because, the government agency says, “a full charge may increase the chances of a fire.”
Aircraft lavatories have been getting smaller and smaller, as airlines try to squeeze in more seats. They can get a half an inch per row with less padding in the seats. They’ve been removing closets and making the galleys where flight attendants work smaller. That’s ok, they’re serving less food too, so there’s less to store there. And they’ve been making the bathrooms smaller too.
The Biden administration plans to do something about that, in the name of accessibility.
Pilot unions will fight against this, and as far as replacing them today there’s probably no one willing to push that button. But the technology will arrive that will make travel safer replacing a human at least as co-pilot, even if full automation is farther off.
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 »
