A Qantas flight from Singapore to Perth was diverted to a remote Western Australia airport after the A330 encountered serious turbulence. 30 passengers were injured, including 15 with broken bones when the flight plunged after hitting rough air. As I say each time (and you should be sick of it by now), keep your seatbelts fastened when your in your seat.
Those following the Sun Country debacle will not be surprised to hear that Sun Country has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a tumultuous week in which its parent company’s offices were raided by the FBI. Yesterday’s announcement that they may have to shut down by December 1st was made because companies now have to give employees 60 days notice if the company forsees layoffs. But, as Tom at Channel 9 says, once you announce you may shut down, you have effectively shut down.
(In case you’re wondering why I keep writing about Sun Country, I’m pretty fascinated by their story. They’ve managed to survive despite 10 years of Northwest doing everything in their power to shut them down. It’s a bit of a Little Engine That Could story, and you don’t see that too often in the airline industry.)
This is not a good sign for OpenSkies:
The all-premium carrier is offering a $499 one-way fare in Prem+ (a very, very solid Business Class-type product) from JFK to Amsterdam ($599 to Paris). You have to book by October 15th, but the fares are good through March, with only a 7-day advance purchase (sheesh, it seems like only yesterday that discounted business class to Europe required a 50-day advance purchase. And only 2 days ago that there was no discounted business class to Europe.
This is a terrible sign, but it’s a good sign for you if you wanted to hop over to Europe in business class for a really cheap fare.
(Thanks, USA Today):
If you flew into JFK in August and your flight was delayed, you weren’t alone: All 20 of the most delayed flights in August involved JFK (as well as 42 of the top 50 flights). Comair flew 7 of the top 10 delayed flights. Well done. Summer storms, plus an incredibly crowded airspace don’t help the situation in New York.
Icelandair will introduce a Premium Economy section (called Economy Plus) on all of its flights beginning November 1st. You’ll get a bit more legroom than coach, but less than the not-particularly-cushy 39″ you find in Saga Class, but there’s only 2-abreast seating. More choices are always good, and Icelandair’s winter fares are usually quite cheap to Europe, so it’ll certainly be an improvement over coach, and may be available at fares not much higher than other airlines’ coach fares.
If your holiday travel plans include Sun Country, you may want to find a back up: The airline, which just asked its staff to take a 50% pay cut, now says that it may have to shut down by December 1st. The carrier’s parent company is the target of an FBI probe into financial misdeeds (though the airline was not implicated).
Delta Air Lines, which will soon be launching in-flight wi-fi, says that they will block offensive content from their service. American Airlines flight attendants raised the issue when that airline said they would not block any sites. So, to sum up, if you want to watch porn while surrounded by 180 other people, American is a better bet than Delta.
A Northwest Airlines statement said that they will compete with Southwest “on price and service” when Southwest begins Minneapolis service next year. Wait, so does that mean Northwest will eliminate all of their fees on flights to Chicago? And is this the first time in 35 years that an airline says they will match Southwest in service and that will require them ADDING services?
If you’ve found yourself stuck on a six-hour New York to LA flight on a 737, you were probably thinking back to the good ol’ days when the route was served by 747s. Those days are, of course, loooooong gone. To make yourself feel better about being crammed into a narrowbody for that long, check out this thread over at Airliners, which mentions several 10-hour (1-stop) 737 flights, including a whopper from Vienna, Austria, to Mombasa, Kenya. Yikes.
If you live in Minneapolis (and chances are you don’t) you’ve probably wondered at some point why Southwest doesn’t fly there (if I remember correctly, they blamed the winter weather). Well, wonder no longer: the airline announced it will start a small (or very small) operation there in March. Flights (at least for now) will only be to Chicago, but at least it’s a start.
