From the pages of the always interesting Indian aviation world:  An Indian actor named Kamal Khan has sued Kingfisher Airlines because his flight was delayed 3 hours.  The delay caused him to miss the movie shoot he was trying to reach.  You’re probably wondering the same thing I am:  Who gives himself 3 hours of leeway to shoot a movie?  Who knows?  We’ll be following this one closely…

A Reuters article about airlines possibly charging separately for fuel was picked up in a bunch of newspapers today, and I was just about to write about it when I discovered that View from the Wing had already written about it in great detail earlier this morning (I take the kids to gym class, and I fall behind on the blog…But I bet VftW didn’t spend the morning playing with bubbles, a parachute and stickers).  So check out his post for the details…

2 passengers who were stranded for 8 hours on an American Airlines that had been diverted to Austin, Texas, have sued the airline alleging false imprisonment (among other charges).  The highlight of the suit? "The toilets became full and would not flush, and the stench of
human excrement and body odor filled the plane,"adding that passengers were deprived of medication and "suffered hunger,
thirst, anxiety, physical illness, emotional distress and monetary
loss."  How does that differ from a normal flight?  (The writer’s strike is now affecting my own writing, clearly.)

The OTR gets a nice mention in a Cherry Hill (NJ) Courier Post article about Spirit Airlines pulling their Atlantic City – Las Vegas route.  Note my brilliant insight that Atlantic City airport struggles because it’s close to Philadelphia.  You’re not going to get that anywhere else!

Air traffic controllers in Tel Aviv went on strike for a few hours this morning, shutting down the airport.  They were upset about a report that found them at fault for a near-collision between two aircraft at the airport back in September. 

(Remember when I said I was laid off 2 weeks ago and I’d start posting more stuff?  Yes, this is the extra bonus coverage.)

United has canceled more than 1,100 flights since December 23rd, and there’s a bit of a dispute as to why.  The airline says that weather has been the primary cause of the wave of cancellations (which would make sense given the beating the midwest has taken, but AA has canceled far fewer at their Chicago hub), but the pilots union says that the airline simply doesn’t have enough pilots to fly.

If you’re flying out of O’Hare in the next couple of weeks, and you haven’t bought your ticket, it’s worth taking this info into consideration (though, let’s be honest, it’s still a tiny percentage of their total flights).

A male passenger on a United flight from Washington to Seattle last week was arrested for groping the woman in the seat next to him while she slept.  The two had been chatting, but the woman dozed off (must have been scintillating conversation) and while she slept, the man decided that was a great time to feel her up.  The woman woke up, complained to flight attendants, who summoned onboard air marshalls, and the flight diverted to Pittsburgh where he was jailed.