Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Appeals Court Rules Each State Can Mandate Inflight Work Rules For Flight Attendants Based There

by Gary Leff on March 4, 2021

Mar 04 2021

One of the more complicated legal issues I come across is what airline practices states are allowed to regulate, and which ones they aren’t. The Airline Deregulation Act makes issues of price, routes, and service a matter for federal regulation, seeking to avoid a ‘patchwork’ of 50 sets of rules for interstate travel.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, though, that California’s meal and rest break rules can be applied to airline crew. And that’s true even for crew who spend a majority of their work time outside the state.

Flight Attendant Narrowly Averts Disaster When De-Icing Company Fails to Clear Snow From Wings

by Gary Leff on March 3, 2021

Mar 03 2021

A near-disaster was narrowly averted for the February 18 Frontier Airlines Nashville – Las Vegas flight.

The aircraft had to be de-ice prior to departure. The contractor informed the crew this was completed. However a flight attendant noticed a significant amount of snow and ice on the wings, and informed the pilots, who returned to the gate. They found around a foot of snow on the wings.

American Furloughed More Workers Than Any Other Airline. Its CEO Got a $7 Million Payday.

by Gary Leff on March 3, 2021

Mar 03 2021

When other CEOs were cutting their pay at the start of the pandemic in order to share sacrifice, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker’s pay wasn’t cut. He takes all of his pay in stock and told employees that the stock is worth less and that was his pay. The number of shares he receives was not reduced.

Surprisingly, Parker may have earned this year’s $7 million stock award – and then some.

American Airlines Is About To Remove Its Last Boeing 737 Seat Back Video Screen

by Gary Leff on March 2, 2021

Mar 02 2021

During the pandemic American Airlines accelerated the removal of seat back video screens from its Boeing 737 aircraft. While other airlines aggressively clamped down on capital spending, American ramped up its effort to add seats to its planes – reducing the amount of space per passenger, even in
first class – and take out the screens.

Now there is just one Boeing 737-800 left with seat back entertainment: N981NN. And unfortunately you won’t be able to fly on it, because it’s been in storage in Miami since November 23, 2020 and is about to be sent in to be retrofit.

Plane Diverts To Khartoum, Sudan When Cat Attacks Pilot In The Cockpit

by Gary Leff on March 2, 2021

Mar 02 2021

Tarco Aviation flight 3T-234 from Khartoum, Sudan to Doha was forced to turn back around half an hour into its flight on Wednesday after “a cat attacked the pilot.”

Frontier Airlines Cancels Flight AFter 18 Month Old Refuses To Wear Mask

by Gary Leff on March 1, 2021

Mar 01 2021

Frontier Airlines cancelled its Miami – New York LaGuardia flight 2878 Sunday evening over a mask incident. The airline says that a ‘large group’ of passengers wouldn’t wear masks. The family, and some other passengers, dispute that characterization – say it was a maskless 18 month old who triggered the incident which caused the planeload of passengers to be rebooked for this morning.

You Can Still Book Delta 65,000 Mile Transatlantic Business Class, Despite Devaluation

by Gary Leff on March 1, 2021

At the beginning of February Delta devalued SkyMiles partner award pricing for the second time during the pandemic, and in a big way. Since the start of Covid-19 one way business class between the US and Europe on Air France and KLM went from 75,000 to 95,000 miles and now starts at 120,000 SkyMiles – for a 60% increase in less than a year at a time when flights are empty and prices low. Because they can.

Delta says they have no award charts any longer, but that isn’t true. They just hide their award charts. Mexico is a separate region from the United States, and while they’ve massively increased their award chart pricing for partner travel to and from the U.S., they haven’t (yet) done so for travel to and from Mexico.

Lufthansa Setting Up Duty Free Vaccination Center, $1200 For Flights And Shots

by Gary Leff on February 28, 2021

Feb 28 2021

Lufthansa will set up a Covid-19 vaccination site inside Moscow Domodedovo airport so that people can fly in, get the Sputnik V vaccine without clearing immigration or customs, and then fly back.

Ultimately we need more jabs in arms, the quicker the better, through whatever means necessary. Many governments have been more focused on who gets shots out of a limited supply than making sure people get shots, and increasing supply. That prolongs the pandemic and costs lives.

Airlines Are Exempting Business Class Passengers From Mask Wearing, And It Makes Good Sense

by Gary Leff on February 28, 2021

Feb 28 2021

It seems to me that this take is both typical and likely wrong: “These new premium cabin mask exemptions are honestly, hilarious. Cathay Pacific’s logic here is essentially, as long as you lie at a 180° angle, you can’t get COVID.”

United Airlines Will Pay $49 Million To Resolve Criminal Fraud Charges

by Gary Leff on February 27, 2021

Feb 27 2021

United Airlines will pay a $49 million fine to the federal government to resolve criminal fraud charges for falsifying records that allowed it to collect payments for transporting U.S. mail on time, when in fact it failed to do so.

United “falsified parcel delivery information…[b]etween 2012 and 2015..by submitting false delivery scan data to make it appear that United and partner airlines with which it worked were complying with the [on time mail delivery] requirements, when in fact they were not.”