The Senate amendments to the FAA reauthorization bill include Section 714, which updates the law on “transporting musical instruments,” which is clearly an important issue for our elected representatives. I bet you’re on tenterhooks waiting to read this groundbreaking legislation. Here are some highlights from among the bureaucratic tedium:
“An air carrier providing air transportation shall [...]
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I’m traveling this weekend, so cross your fingers that US Airways doesn’t need to pull its 737s out of service. But I’m flying out of Baltimore-Washington International tomorrow at 6 am. From Washington, there are no early-morning transit options on weekends, so I’m going up to the airport tonight and crashing there. For that, I [...]
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Benet Wilson writes that Chicago Rockford International Airport, an airport on Chicago’s far western fringe with limited commercial service, is going to partner with a charter airline (actually, a brand — Southern Skyways) to offer scheduled services to Denver and Detroit, the former to replace service United is withdrawing this summer. Rockford will control routes, [...]
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Last week, Sean O’Neill addressed the tricky nature of measuring changes in airfares. Air fare indexes pick up or decreases in base fares over time, but they don’t pick up “nickel and diming” (the addition of lots of charges for luggage, food, over-the-phone booking) or declines in service (cranky flight attendants, less legroom).
I’m on record [...]
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I subscribe to the Daily Airline Filings feed (can’t link to the post; the site is password protected but the feed is not), and an interesting item came through today. Virgin America has filed for confidentiality for its Form 41 filings of operations, traffic, and financial data with the Department of Transportation. Why?
Public release . [...]
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The Internet is abuzz about the latest example of “eco- scandalous” airline behavior. An American Airlines flight from Chicago to London flew February 9 with only five passengers, using — reportedly — 22,000 gallons of Jet A. Why is this causing an uproar? The advocacy group Friends of the Earth considers it an “obscene waste [...]
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The Guardian reports that the U.S. government is circulating a memo and beginning negotiations in Europe to intensify security measures:
Airlines would be required to give passengers’ personal data to the Transportation Security Administration even for flights merely overflying the United States.
Travelers from countries in Europe for which the United States waives visas would be required [...]
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As part of Merger Mania 2008, United and Continental are now in talks to merge. United has been eager to merge with someone — anyone — for a few years now, but Continental has been reluctant to do so, preferring to remain profitably independent and well-managed unless industry-wide consolidation forces its hand. There are any [...]
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My review of the National Air and Space Museum’s “America by Air” exhibition is in the February 11 issue of The Weekly Standard. It’s subscription only, for the moment.
UPDATE: Nonsubscribers can read the article here.
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Ryanair, long known for its saucy and subversive ads, is in hot water over an ad featuring French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his lady love, Carla Bruni. With rumors of their engagement swirling around Paris, the ad shows Bruni musing at Ryanair’s low fares: “With Ryanair, my whole family will be able to come to [...]
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