A holiday travel preview only a Grinch could love
A holiday travel preview only a Grinch could love — If you like your season full of good cheer, and yearn to be places far from here, we’re sorry to say this might not be your year. Festive feelings could be a challenge to find amid an assortment of bah-humbug holiday travel news: Airline ticket prices have spiked, and planes will be more packed than ever. (Delaware Online)
Chalk flight recorder didn’t work — A day of encouraging progress ended in disappointing silence Wednesday night as investigators learned the cockpit voice recorder had malfunctioned on Chalk’s Ocean Airways Flight 101. The small seaplane was not equipped with a data recorder, meaning the final moments of the doomed flight may never be entirely clear. (Miami Herald)
New York subways still grounded — New York commuters began Day 3 without subways and buses Thursday, and union leaders faced a court date to explain why they shouldn’t be held in criminal contempt for halting the city’s mass transit system. (AP)
Feds sign ‘open skies’ agreement with North Pole — In these days of the global marketplace and heightened travel security, it might seem unreasonable for a jolly fat man in a red suit with a sleigh and a team of reindeer to expect free access to the nation’s skies. (ABC News)
Lawsuit: Northwest Airlines officers made inside trades — A New York law firm on Tuesday said it has filed a class-action shareholder lawsuit against several Northwest Airlines Corp. executives and directors, accusing them of insider trading. (Biz Journal)
Should Bermuda reject large cruise ships? — One of the most pathetic sights in St. George’s is watching herds of cruise ship passengers flopping their way over the hill to wallow like tight-packed hippos in Tobacco Bay. (The Sun)
Study: travel increases DVT risk — The UK Department for Transport said it has established that long-distance travel leads to a small but increased risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT). (AFX)
New screening procedures begin today — The Transportation Security Administration will introduce new screening procedures Thursday at the nation’s commercial airports, allowing passengers to take small scissors and tools on planes but increasing random passenger checks and the thoroughness of pat-down searches. (CNN)
New ‘reality’ TV: plane trouble — On Wednesday it was a Learjet circling above Spirit of St. Louis Airport with mechanical problems and nine people on board. On Tuesday it was a Midwest Airlines plane making an emergency night landing with sparks flying from its faulty landing gear at Boston’s Logan International Airport. (Reuters)
Settlement in NYC transit strike — After meeting with both sides through the night, state mediators have devised a preliminary framework for a settlement of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority contract dispute that would allow strikers to return to work later today, the chief mediator said. (The New York Times)
Chicago airport is Southwest’s busiest — Southwest Airlines officials say they’re committed to expansion that could soon make Midway International Airport the carrier’s busiest, plans unchanged by the airline’s first fatal accident there earlier this month. (AP)
Detroit air travelers help themselves to tickets — About five of six Northwest Airlines customers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport bypass the lines at the ticket counters by checking in for their flights on the Internet or at self-serve kiosks. (AP)
Delta needs more time to file restructuring plan — Citing in part the time it will take to further cut costs, Delta Air Lines, the nation’s third-largest carrier, asked a bankruptcy court judge Thursday to give the company a six-month extension to file its reorganization plan. (AP)
Tsunami survivors return as tourists — About 1,200 survivors or relatives of the dead are planning to return to Thailand as guests of the government for commemoration services marking one year since the tsunami struck. Others will come privately. (AP)