On-Time at What Cost? American Airlines’ Tech Pressure on Employees and Customers

by Gary Leff

Nov 12 2023

American Airlines’ new ConnectMe tool, equipped on employee-issued iPhones and iPads, aims to enhance communication and ensure exact on-time departures, but it also creates pressure on employees, leading to stressed staff and decisions that potentially compromise customer service, such as premature requests to check carry-on bags. This technological push is part of a broader strategy to automate and streamline operations, although it raises concerns about the impact on both staff workload and passenger experience.

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Turkish Airlines To Place Order 345 Jets, Become World’s Largest A350 Operator

by Gary Leff

Nov 11 2023

Turkish Airlines, which has around 435 planes in its fleet and another 100 on order, is set to announce a major order from Airbus for 345 planes. It will likely be reported in many places as 355 planes, folding in 10 Airbus A350-900s whose purchase was already announced. When you see coverage of the order, talking about how much it is ‘worth’, remember to divide by two.

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Pilot Who Tried To Crash Alaska Airlines Plane Dishes On Mushroom-Fueled Episode

by Gary Leff

Nov 10 2023

He’d gotten together with friends to celebrate his friend who had died, and he mixed mushrooms and alcohol – and days later thought he was dreaming and couldn’t wake up. All he was trying to do was wake up and that’s why he tried to kill the engines, and also tried to open the plane’s emergency exit once taken to the back. He even says that the grabbed a coffee pot from the galley and drank it straight to wake himself up.

While being held by police at the airport he took off all of his clothes, he urinated on himself, and he tried cuffing the carrot… all to ‘wake up.’ When he was given a phone to call an attorney, he instead rang his wife and sang It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday by Boyz II Men.

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