Odd: Donald Trump Goes On “Bizarre Rant” About Airlines

by Gary Leff

Oct 04 2022

Donald Trump, who himself used to own an airline that lost so much money it was taken back by the bank, launched a “bizarre rant” about the airline industry at a campaign rally on Saturday.

In a speech during which he thanked Ginni Thomas, spouse of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for “telling the January 6 House Select Committee that she believed the 2020 election was stolen from him,” he transitioned from the issue of crime to the state of U.S. airlines and airports.

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Regulators Push Back As Boeing Desperately Tries To Avoid Making 737 MAX Safer

by Gary Leff

Oct 04 2022

By law, any plane that’s certified starting in 2023 requires new cockpit alerts. That’s part of the U.S. government reaction to problems with the Boeing 737 MAX.

Boeing doesn’t want to implement these new safety requirements for the 737 MAX 10, and as a result has been rushing to either get the largest variant of the MAX certified before the end of 2022, or get legislators to pass an exemption. Certification before end of year is not going to happen.

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Government To Announce New Flight Attendant Rest Rules On Tuesday

by Gary Leff

Oct 03 2022

There are some absolutely brutal schedules that many flights attendants have to work. Flight attendants who used to work 3 days trips may have worked 4 day trips when airlines were short staffed. These longer trips may have had more waiting time between flights, or more running from flight to flight, often with legal minimum rest. Complaints of burnout are common.

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American Airlines CEO Has Never Flown JetBlue Business Class, Knows Nothing About It

by Gary Leff

Oct 03 2022

With American Airlines CEO Robert Isom on the witness stand, government lawyers in the anti-trust trial trying to break up his airline’s partnership with JetBlue asked the executive about JetBlue’s “Mint” product – a lie flat business class that operates on certain domestic and short haul international routes (as well as on their transatlantic routes which are not part of the partnership).

Isom explained that he had know idea what Mint was, or what it entailed, never having flown it or paid attention to it, it seems.

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KLM Wants Passengers Banned By One Airline To Be Banned By All Airlines Worldwide

by Gary Leff

Oct 03 2022

Delta’s CEO called for a national no fly list for unruly behavior, act poorly on one airline be unable to fly any airline. Highly problematic, with no standards for being placed on that list (each airline applies its own!) or opportunity for judicial review. That didn’t go anywhere though it’s something the Biden administration toyed with.

Now Dutch airlines KLM and Transavia want this as an international system, and will begin by sharing unruly passenger behavior which each other.

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