For the unnecessary press release pile:  Aer Lingus breathlessly announced today that its customers will board their aircraft and find water at their seats.  Says some guy quoted in the release, "The new security processes are
critically
important for overall safety. If we can ease the hassle
just a bit by
having water ready for each customer then the [...]

A Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Mumbai returned to the airport after takeoff when 12 passengers were seen acting oddly in a way that concerned other passengers.  The passengers pulled out cell phones during the flight and would not remain seated when the fasten seatbelt light was on.  This caused a major ruckus, and [...]

I have no idea why there’s so much Ryanair news lately, but the LA Times has a good piece about the low fares that Ryanair advertises.  The reporter learns that the 34 cent ticket from London to Dublin will actually cost him $70 once you add in all of the unadvertised taxes and fees.  The [...]

A Pulkovo Airlines plane crashed in the Ukraine yesterday en route from the resort town of Anapa to St. Petersburg, killing all 170 on board.  The crash of the Russian-made Tupolev 154 was the 3rd accident in the region in less than 4 months– an Armavia A320 went down in May and an S7 Airlines [...]

Michael O’Leary, the head of Ryanair, is not happy about the way the British airports have handled the latest terrorism scare.  No, he is not happy.  He is now threatening to sue British airport authorities for the new security regulations, which he calls, "nuts."  He added that terrorists "must be rolling around the caves of [...]

A US airline would never mention terrorism in an advertisement, let alone use terrorism as a way to sell tickets.  But Ryanair is not a US airline, which is why they have this ad, which says that you can beat terrorism by flying Ryanair.  You can’t argue with that.
(thanks to reader Sanj for the heads [...]

Connexion by Boeing, the company that provided in-flight Internet access to a bunch of airlines, announced that it is shutting down the service.  This won’t affect airlines using the product for another couple of months, but it will likely be gone by the end of 2006.  Airlines affected include Lufthansa, Japan Airlines, ANA, SAS, China [...]

I wish I had a bit more info on this one:  An Asiana flight from Seoul to Jeju somehow departed without any flight attendants on board.  The pilot didn’t figure this out until 30 minutes into the flight (possibly when his coffee didn’t arrive?) upon which he returned to Seoul.  Investigators are looking into the [...]

A United Airlines flight from London to Washington, DC, was diverted to Boston when a passenger suffering from claustrophobia had a bit of a freak out.  Fighter jets escorted the plane to Logan airport where it continued on without incident.  As these are rather hysterical times, an initial report said that the woman had Vaseline, [...]

So let’s say you’re a bankrupt airline.  And let’s say you have to lay off a bunch of people.  You put together a booklet to help laid off workers save money.  Now, if you’re Northwest Airlines you include helpful hints in the booklet like, don’t be "shy about pulling something you like out of the [...]