To save fuel, should planes fly unpainted? Here’s the surprising answer
While walking through an American Airlines office I saw a post that said, “It’s a fact — Replacing paint with decals can reduce aircraft weight by 400 pounds and, across the fleet, save approximately $19 million in annual fuel costs.” If that is true, why are all the other airlines slathering their planes with paint?
Airlines predict fewer passengers over Labor Day holiday
Major airlines will see a six percent drop in passengers over the Labor Day holiday, according to a prediction by the Air Transport Association of America (ATA). They say it is due to high oil prices, among other factors.
Airline fees confusing passengers
Airline fees, coming fast and furious, haven’t yet settled into the traveling consciousness of the American public. Most of them know there are fees out there, but those who don’t travel regularly have no idea of the extent of the new record-high fees.
United Airlines pilots want Tilton to resign
Accusing Glenn F. Tilton of leading the carrier down a path to poor customer service, employee morale and financial performance, the union representing the pilots for United Airlines called for his resignation and set up a new website to carry on the fight.
Airplane mishap headlines over the past 10 days
Here is a collection of airline mishap stories that adorned the pages of newspapers and were featured on TVs during the past 10 days. It is not encouraging. Operating with bargain basement maintenance seems to have its price. These stories speak for themselves. ’nuff said.
Tongue-in-cheek awards from the DOT’s latest monthly report
Another month, another report from the US Department of Transportation. I know I’m weird, but I always enjoy digging through these to see what sort of nuggets I can find.
After years of airline subsidies, how about a payback for taxpayers?
Taxpayers have been subsidizing the airline industry since its inception. Now, three non-profit organizations have put together a report that details a litany of airline subsidies from low-cost loans to pension guarantees and offer proposals about how the airline industry can repay taxpayers.
Best price guarantees are just about useless
When an airline or a hotel says they have a “Best Price Guarantee” hold onto your wallet. We have detailed the problems with airline “guarantees” and now new research shows that hotels are failing with their “guarantees” as well.
Worrisome state of aircraft maintenance — little things count
Last week an explosion tore a hole in the side of a Qantas 747 over the Pacific. Yesterday a Cathay Pacific flight descending into Vancouver is reported to have lost a fuselage panel. In both cases, the aircraft and passengers are safe. These are high profile cases, but what about the toilet that doesn’t function, the seat that doesn’t recline and reading lights that don’t work. They speak volumes about attention to detail.
Beware a new wave of online airline scams and viruses
By now we are all used to the Internet scams involving Nigerian princes and various other ways to separate people from their money, from their personal information or simply send a virus to infect computers and steal data.