Airports

Category Archives for Airports.

TSA Keeps Rejecting Passengers With Colorado Drivers Licenses

by Gary Leff on February 10, 2023

Feb 10 2023

Colorado updated its drivers licenses in February 2022, but the TSA hasn’t updated its drivers license readers to recognize the new design. As a result, people that have renewed their Colorado licenses over the past year keep getting flagged at airport security.

As if TSA screening isn’t enough of a mess in Denver, the preponderance of Colorado licenses makes things even worse, because the screener then has to identify the passenger without relying on the government ID.

The FAA’s System For Responding To Air Traffic Control Near-Disasters Is Broken

by Gary Leff on February 7, 2023

Feb 07 2023

There were procedural changes after the Air Canada near-miss landing on top of planes in San Francisco in 2017 but those changes do not seem to be followed in these two recent incidents between Delta and American and between Fedex and Southwest. In all cases, the planes continued to operate (though Delta not until the next day). As a result their cockpit voice recorders – which only capture the most recent two hours of data – were overwritten. But the FAA shouldn’t be allowing this.

Near Disaster As Air Traffic Control Clears Fedex Plane To Land On Top Of Southwest Jet In Austin

by Gary Leff on February 5, 2023

Feb 05 2023

FedEx freighter flight 1432 was cleared to land in Austin, while a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737, flight 708 to Cancun, was cleared to take off, using the same runway. The incident occurred around 6:40 a.m. on Saturday morning. Thankfully the FedEx plane pulled up and away, mere feet from landing on top of the passenger flight.

Is Airport Lounge Crowding A Victory For The Masses?

by Gary Leff on January 29, 2023

Jan 29 2023

Airport terminals have been getting better. Arguably what were once the two worst terminals in the country – Tom Bradley International at LAX and New York LaGuardia’s Central Terminal – have been completely redone and both are gorgeous.

And airports are trying to provide more seating, and meet the needs of passengers to power their devices. Who needs lounges?

What Airports Have Grown The Most, And Which Ones Have Seen Available Seats Collapse?

by Gary Leff on January 24, 2023

Jan 24 2023

Data shows which cities added the most airline seats from 2019 to 2022, and which cities saw the greatest reduction in airline capacity. With managed corporate travel still down 25%, leisure destinations dominate.

Oops: Airline Leaked The Entire Federal No Fly List

by Gary Leff on January 20, 2023

Jan 20 2023

CommuteAir, which operates Embraer ERJ-145s for United Airlines, left the entire U.S. federal No Fly List on a server that was easily hacked.

Austin Airport Shop Demands Tip When Buying A Bottle Of Water ‘To Go’

by Gary Leff on January 19, 2023

Jan 19 2023

I ran into a retail shop at the Austin airport that requires a tip when paying by credit card. This isn’t a sit down restaurant with table service. You pay at the counter, and I was buying a bottle of water.

The payment terminal at the concession requires you to select a tip amount prior to processing your card. $0.00 is not accepted.

How American Airlines Has Turned Washington’s National Airport Into A Connecting Hub

by Gary Leff on January 17, 2023

Jan 17 2023

Airport data shows that local traffic at the airport still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, yet connecting traffic has grown tremendously. American Airlines in particular has more than doubled its number of connecting passengers compared to before the pandemic.

TIL: We Almost Got Rid Of The Worst Airport Gate In America 20 Years Ago. US Airways Quashed The Plan

by Gary Leff on January 15, 2023

Jan 15 2023

Washington National airport built an entire new concourse to replace one miserable gate. Gate 35X was a bus gate that served 14 remote stands for 50 seat regional jets. The new regional concourse supports 14 large regional jets. There’s a gorgeous Admirals Club in that concourse, too.

The new concourse was part of the 10-figure “Project Journey” which moved security screening so that all of the concourses and “National Hall” would be airside. It turns out we didn’t need to wait two decades to eliminate ‘the worst gate in the country’.

CLEAR Pricing Going Up For Delta SkyMiles Members

by Gary Leff on January 14, 2023

Jan 14 2023

Both Delta and United own a stake in CLEAR, and all you’ve needed was an account number with either to get a lower price and those with status paid less still. Now the airline discount is shrinking. An email went out to Delta SkyMiles members showing the change in pricing.