Airline service declines
Airline service took a nosedive in 2004 — U.S. airline service was worse in 2004 than 2003, but the rate of late flights, mishandled bags and complaints still was lower than most years, the federal Transportation Department said Thursday. Consumer complaints about airline service soared 25 percent to 7,477 last year, up from 5,983 received in 2003 - the lowest total since complaints were first recorded in 1970. Nevertheless, 2004’s complaint total was the second lowest since 1997.
Floating hotels dock at Superbowl — The National Football League selected Jacksonville, Florida in 2000 to host its annual Super Bowl this year. Although Jacksonville lacked enough hotels to satisfy the NFL’s requirement to be a host, the city made a successful bid by including cruise ships as floating hotels. Floating in the St. Johns River in downtown Jacksonville are five massive cruise ships normally found on the open sea.
Was it too late for NJ Jet? — Federal investigators said yesterday they were looking into whether the pilots of the business jet that plowed into a warehouse near Teterboro Airport had aborted the takeoff too far down the runway, when the plane was going too fast to cancel the liftoff. It’s still not clear why the pilots aborted the takeoff, which forced the CL-600 Challenger through a metal fence at the end of the New Jersey runway, across a six-lane highway, and through a warehouse wall.
Complaints pile up against US Airways — US Airways’ Christmas travel fiasco was bad enough to rank the airline among the industry’s worst in mishandled bags, customer complaints and on-time performance in December, according to a report released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. For the month of December, US Airways was third-worst out of 19 carriers in number of mishandled bags, with 17.1 reports per 1,000 passengers, up from 3.97 per 1,000 a year ago.
Afghan jet with 104 missing — An Afghan passenger plane with 104 people on board is missing after being turned away from Kabul airport the previous day due to a snow storm, an airline official says. The Boeing 737 belonging to a private airline, Kam Air, was on a flight from the western city of Herat to Kabul on Thursday, said Atilla Kamgar, the airline’s financial controller.
Visit Costa Rica, lose a leg — A German professor who went on a dream holiday to Costa Rica woke up in an airport departure lounge to find his leg had been amputated. The professor said he had gone to see a doctor at a hospital in San Jose because his left foot was swollen.