Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

United Airlines Is Letting Customers Test New Business Class Suites With Doors

by Gary Leff

Sep 24 2022

Delta Air Lines was the second airline – behind only Qatar Airways – to launch business class suites with doors into commercial service. American Airlines is going to enclosed suites with their Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A321XLR new aircraft deliveries in 2024. British Airways has been putting doors on business class seats, and Air France is going to be doing the same.

United Airlines isn’t going to be left behind in this race. In fact they’ve been vetting new seats with doors for a new Polaris product, as I reported this past spring.

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No, There’s No ‘Ghost In The Machine’ On Board American Airlines Aircraft

by Gary Leff

Sep 21 2022

The P.A. system is wired – it is not wifi or bluetooth-enabled. My first reaction when I saw this was, that’s simply not possible, right? It does not seem to be.

American Airlines inspected the Boeing 737-800 as well as the P.A. system itself after these reports. They tell me that maintenance “determined the sounds were caused by an issue with the PA amplifier. There was no external access to the system.”

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Delta Is Testing A New Way To Board Flights – Using Two Gates At The Same Time For Just One Plane

by Gary Leff

Sep 20 2022

Delta Air Lines is conducting a test boarding planes using two jet bridges at the same time. This way they can get twice as many passengers onto the aircraft at once, making the boarding process go faster.

If adopted, in the future this could mean a single jet bridge that splits off and then boards passengers through two different doors on the aircraft. For now they are using two gates next to each other to accomplish the feat. Since Cincinnati is a much smaller station for Delta than the hub it used to be, they have extra gate space to allow this kind of test.

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Pilots Union Goal: Make Sure There’s A Pilot Shortage, Keep People From Becoming Pilots

by Gary Leff

cockpit with pilot
Sep 18 2022

The government makes it difficult to become a pilot. And the government pushes pilots out while they’re still able to work. This is done in the name of safety, but has little to do with safety.

Instead it is rent-seeking by pilots unions who want to limit the number of pilots. And they want to limit the ability of airlines to fill pilot jobs quickly. Both of those give them tremendous leverage in contract negotiations with airlines. When there aren’t enough pilots, pilots earn more money.

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