San Antonio Airport Gives In, Will Welcome Chick-Fil-A Despite Past Support For Anti-LGBTQ Causes

by Gary Leff

chick-fil-a sandwhich
Sep 13 2020

San Antonio airport was at the forefront of a nationwide trend to ban Chick-Fil-A over its political beliefs.

While it would be permissible for an airport to have a policy that all of its food outlets must be open 7 days a week – there is limited space in the airport and they need to use it to feed passengers, especially on busy Sunday – statements made advancing Chick-Fil-A bans have clearly indicated the decision is made on the basis of animus towards the chain’s past support of charities which are inconsistent with LGBTQ equality.

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Will Pandemic Airline Furloughs Reduce Worker Appetite For Unions?

by Gary Leff

United Flight Attendants Campaigning in Union Election Outside San Francisco United Club
Sep 12 2020

In a shrinking industry airline unions become akin to a Ponzi scheme, benefiting the first in at the expense of those who joined later. When American Airlines took payroll support money from the government, they paid senior flight attendants to stay home while making junior cabin crew work all of the flights. And while neither Southwest nor Delta are furloughing any flight attendants, it’s the junior crewmembers at American and United that are losing their jobs at the beginning of October.

One British Airways union is even appealing to the company to furlough workers – from a rival union.

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Global Entry Raising Application Fee, Expanding And Making Children Free

by Gary Leff

passport
Sep 12 2020

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bureau is planning to raise the price of Global Entry, making it $120, and raising the price of other similar program so that they match as well. However children under 18 whose parents are part of the program (or who apply together) will be free, and CBP plans to expand Global Entry to immigration preclearance facilities (or at least make the rules consistent with practice) and to U.S. territories.

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US Immigration Wants To Collect DNA Samples, Iris Scans, And Voice Prints From 50% More People

by Gary Leff

Sep 12 2020

A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking has been published by the Department of Homeland Security authorizing a significant increase in biometric information that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be able to collect.

The government redefines biometric to include behavioral characteristics along with biological characteristic that can be used to identify someone. And it outlines new types of biometrics that they plan to authorize themselves to collect.

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Will Airlines Ending Change Fees Mean More Overbookings – And Involuntary Denied Boardings?

by Gary Leff

Sep 12 2020

With U.S. airlines eliminating change fees on domestic trips (excluding basic economy fares), will that least to more cancellations? And will higher cancellation rates mean that airlines need to overbook flights more than before?

If more people can change plans without penalty, will we have more people changing plans – so more people not taking the seats they’ve booked? Will that mean airlines need to sell even more seats for each flight to make up for it?

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American Airlines Appears To Trade Air Service For Political Support In Oklahoma

by Gary Leff

Sep 12 2020

American Airlines announced they were going to stop serving 15 cities once government payroll subsidies ran out, and they were no longer required to fly to all of their pre-existing markets.

They’ve backtracked on several of those changes. The latest is Stillwater, Oklahoma where the airport put out a press release basically announcing that their Senators traded political support for air service.

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Iran Air Auctions Off Part Of Its Fleet

by Gary Leff

airplane taking off
Sep 11 2020

Coronavirus hit Iran early and hard, and the virus has continued to rage there. Two months ago Iran estimated they’d had 25 million Covid-19 cases, despite still having fewer than half a million cases lab-confirmed.

Unsurprisingly there’s been little demand for air travel. The nation’s flag carrier Iran Air is auctioning off 12 of its planes, a veritable grab bag of aviation history.

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