Archive for March 2007

JetBlue’s Continued Weather Woes

Mar 16th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

JetBlue is cancelling more than 200 flights because of a storm in the northeast, but that doesn’t mean its passengers know if their flight is cancelled. I rarely bring up personal gripes here, but I will:  My grandfather, who is 90, is travelling (alone) from Florida (of course) to New Jersey on JetBlue this morning.  [...]

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Blind Woman Files Complaint with Air Canada

Mar 16th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

This is an odd one, but it’s a slow news morning:
A blind woman has filed a complaint with Air Canada, after she said she was mistreated by a flight attendant on a recent flight.  She was not helped on board, slammed her head into the overhead compartment after the flight attendant pushed her, then berated [...]

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Pilots Fired for Drug Smuggling, Sightseeing

Mar 15th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

Two naughty pilot stories:
(Via Sanj):  A pilot with City Star Airlines (?) was fired after he took an unscheduled detour to show his co-pilot some scenery during a flight from Aberdeen to Shetland in Scotland.  The bad part is that he told the co-pilot to turn off the plane’s automatic warning system after it sounded [...]

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New Airline Will Deport Asylum Seekers in Europe

Mar 14th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

Lou Dobbs will be proud:  A group of Austrian businessmen are planning to launch Asylum Airlines in the next 3 months.  What is Asylum Airlines, you are asking?  Well, so many people have unsuccessfully sought asylum in Europe that it has been costing European governments a bundle to return said people back to their countries [...]

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Air Canada Launches US Flight Passes

Mar 14th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

Air Canada has had a great deal of success with their flight passes in Canada – basically, you buy a book of tickets in advance that are good for flights within a certain area. 
The airline has now announced passes that originate in the US.  Passes start at about $1650, but go way up from [...]

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Spirit Airlines Launches Club for Low Fares

Mar 13th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

Say what you will about Spirit Airlines, but you cannot deny that have been pretty innovative on the marketing front lately.  In their latest move, they have introduced what they’re calling the $9 Fare Club.  Basically, you pay $30 a year (or $10 for a 3-month trial), and you’ll get access to their super low [...]

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Qantas: Prisoners Are Not Cleaning Our Planes

Mar 13th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

Qantas is denying accusations that the airline is using prisoners to clean aircraft at Singapore’s airport.  An engineering group says that prisoners on a day release program from a local prison were cleaning Qantas’ aircraft before they went in for maintenance.  I have no idea what this is all about, but it seemed a little [...]

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Airline Flies Empty Planes to Keep Heathrow Slots

Mar 12th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

British Mediterranean Airways has been flying empty planes between Cardiff and Heathrow 6 times a week for 5 months so it doesn’t lose the landing slots allocated to it at the crowded airport.  Environmentalists in Britain are quite upset because of the environmental impact of flying empty planes (carbon footprints have been a huge issue [...]

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Biman Bangladesh Aircraft Incident Closes Dubai Airport

Mar 12th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

A Biman Bangladesh A310 had an accident while taking off at Dubai’s airport this morning, causing the facility to shut down for 8 hours.  Early reports suggest that 14 passengers were injured when the plane either burst a tire (tyre) or had its landing gear collapse on takeoff.  The airline has been a mess, cancelling [...]

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First Class Cannot Use Business Class Checkin

Mar 9th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

(Via View from the Wing)
Enjoy this ridiculous tale of a Lufthansa flyer with a first class ticket who was not permitted to use the business class checkin line even though it was shorter than the first class line.
(yes, it’s been a slow news week in airlineworld.)

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