Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Waiting Game at Airports: How to Sidestep Airline Delays and Secure Your Own Comfort

by Gary Leff

Jan 14 2024

Passengers generally don’t have confidence in their travels. I didn’t when I was a kid! When I would fly cross country on my own when I was in junior high, especially if I was connecting, I remember going up to the gate agent and showing them my boarding pass just to confirm what I sort of already knew, that I was in the right place and that I had what I needed to fly?

This concern really resonated with me: someone flying American Airlines who didn’t “feel confident leaving the airport for a hotel” during an overnight delay.

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Why It Would Be A Huge Mistake For Delta Flight Attendants To Unionize

by Gary Leff

gary standing next to a flight attendant
Jan 14 2024

Delta Air Lines earned $5.2 billion in 2023 and will pay out $1.4 billion in profit sharing with employees getting about an extra month’s pay.

Delta flight attendants have it better than their peers. They have something real at risk. This isn’t crew at the bottom where a union organizer can point to a better life somewhere else and say ‘we can get you that’. Unionized crew at American and (AFA-represented) United look at what Delta flight attendants have with envy.

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FAA Could Ban Lap Infants After Terrifying 737 MAX 9 Incident

by Gary Leff

Jan 13 2024

The FAA has warned parents over holding lap infants on planes in light of the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 door plug incident. Had a parent been sitting near the hole that opened in the plane’s fuselage, the child could have been ripped from their arms. The MAX 9 debacle may be used in a push to ban lap infants, requiring parents to buy tickets for their children under two years of age, something that the head of the largest flight attendants union has been calling for for years.

And that’s a bit of a strange concern!

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Visible Safety: The Link Between Cabin Maintenance and Passenger Trust After 737 MAX Door Incident

by Gary Leff

Jan 12 2024

Recently the door plug blew out inflight on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, causing rapid depressurization of the aircraft – and a shirt and two phones even flew out of the aircraft. Had anyone been sitting in that spot things could have been much worse.

To passengers, though, cabin interior maintenance matters. Passengers don’t distinguish between airworthiness issues and cosmetic ones. Indeed, the only insight they have into the likelihood that a plane is being well-maintained is what they directly observe, and they infer from there. In light of what happened to the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9, everyone is especially sensitive.

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From Sensible to Senseless? Maldivian Airline’s Questionable Leap to 787s

by Gary Leff

plane on tarmac
Jan 12 2024

New all business class airline BeOnd has launched service from its hub in the Maldives. That may be a decent business during peak tourist season from November through March but they need somewhere super premium to send these planes the rest of the year.

Local island carrier Maldivian, which flies turboprops from the capital of Male to the country’s island airports, looked at the upstart flying narrowbody planes and said hold my beer.

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