US Airways Airbus A320 Tail. Image from US Airways.
Back in 2007 the state of New Mexico pulled US Airways liquor license due to an incident involving a drunk passenger in 2006. This passenger had a lot to drink on the flight and ended up killing six people including himself. Of course, this is a horrid tragedy and should have never happened, but one that is not the direct fault of the airline.
The FAA decided not to take any action against US Airways, but the state of New Mexico demanded the airline followed their Liquor Control Act and revoked their liquor license. Although the airline probably should have cut off the passenger from having more to drink, it was the passenger’s personal responsibility to make the decision not to drive, not the airline’s. Who knew if someone was to pick him up, he had a layover or was taking a taxi.
US Airways fought New Mexico stating that the state had no authority to stop them from selling alcohol since it was a federal issue. The airline took the state to Federal court and in October 2009, the Federal court sided with the state of New Mexico. US Airways was not satisfied with the outcome and took the case to the federal appeals court. Last Friday, the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with US Airways, reversing the decision the previous federal judge made, stating that judge failed to balance state and federal interests. The court showed that the airline is already regulated by the Federal Aviation Act and the state must follow the 21st Amendment.
Now the case will head back to the district court to be re-tried, hopefully in giving US Airways the right to serve alcohol in all 50 states . Cheers to the 10th Circuit court for overturning New Mexico’s poor decision and US Airways for moving this case forward.
Source: Business Week
Virgin America Airbus A320 and Southwest Boeing 737-300 at Las Vegas
I couldn’t care less what celebrities do on airplanes. You see them all the time in the news getting in trouble. I hate the idea that I am writing about a celebrity and an airline, but I just can’t help myself. Back in February Director Kevin Smith had a little issue with Southwest Airlines and I managed to not write anything on it, even though I had a lot to say. In case you missed it, Smith was on a full Southwest flight and the flight crew made the call that he was a bit too large for one seat and was asked to leave the plane since there was no second seat available. Smith used his 1.5 million Twitter followers at the time and fame to turn the incident into a huge deal. Southwest tried to work to make him happy, but it only caused him to get more upset. Many were delighted that Southwest stood up against passengers of size and others felt they were being too harsh. I just found it interesting that Smith had a new movie coming out around the same time.
Smith declared he would never fly Southwest again and from what I have heard, he has kept his promise. Yesterday Smith had a flight on Virgin America from New York to Los Angeles and ran into a little trouble. In an open letter to the airline on his blog, Smith stated that he and his guests arrived at the airport an hour before boarding time. Since they were early they headed to the lounge to relax. Boarding for their 11:45am flight started at 11:15am and they arrived at the gate at 11:35am to find the gate agent was in the process of closing the door. Smith had hired a concierge to make sure he boarded the plane last so people wouldn’t gawk at him being on the aircraft. He states that his concierge does this all the time and boarding 10 minutes before departure is standard procedure for clients.
They pleaded, but the gate agent wouldn’t let Smith’s group board the aircraft. Smith’s main concern was that their bags would already be on the aircraft and his wife needed her medication. Now, why anyone who needed medication would not keep it in their carry-on, I do not get. The gate agent wouldn’t remove their bags and would not let them board the aircraft and Smith got angry and took his ranting to the web.
On his first rant at 2:00pm, Smith stated that he will be avoiding Virgin America, “like the plague.” It was almost like history repeating when he described how he flies so much and spends so much money and no one he knows will ever fly on Virgin America or Virgin Atlantic again. Of course us airline geeks know they are separate companies with similar branding, so it doesn’t mean too much. By the time he landed in LAX at 5:10pm his tone changed a bit. He stated, “@VirginAtlantic [sic – guessing he meant @VirginAmerica] seems to care: lovely, apologetic email, full refund for flight, free tix offer – all before I’ve landed. I appreciate the gesture/effort.” In another update posted at 5:45pm Smith stated that Virgin America, “did EXACTLY what any corporation/company should do when their customers have issues with their service: they almost instantly self-corrected.
I contacted Virgin America, but the are deciding to stay out of the comment business… which is probably smart. Southwest tried to interact with Smith via their blog in a public format and that only ended up making him more upset and created a bigger national story.
Although Virgin’s contract of carriage clearly states that passengers, “must be at the boarding gate at least fifteen (15) minutes prior to scheduled departure time,” that seems to be a pretty flexible. I know I have been running late and ran on a flight just minutes before departure time. If you look just at the rules, it looks like Virgin America had every right to deny Smith and his party from boarding, but that doesn’t mean it was the right call. I don’t feel that Virgin America just paid off Smith to make him happy; it looks like they did it since a few local gate agents stood by the rules a little too harshly. However, with Virgin America being on top of social media, they were able to stop this incident before it got any worse.
Image: gTarded
American Airlines MD-83
Although some airline food can be quite good, I would say most airline food is not the best. No matter how bad the food, I certainly wouldn’t go suing an airline for getting an upset tummy.
A Puerto Rican woman is claiming she ate a lizard on her recent American Airlines flight. She states that on her flight from New York’s JFK airport to San Juan, she was watching a movie, eating her in-flight meal, when she inadvertently ate this supposed lizard. Now, don’t just take her word for it… she has a witness. Of course this witness just happens to be her 5 year old son, who claimed that the food she spot out was in fact, “an animal.”
Now she stated in Federal court that after chewing for a bit, she spit out the meat she couldn’t swallow and then claimed it was a lizard. So, let’s imagine for a moment this is all true. That somehow a lizard got into her food, she chewed on it for a bit and spit it out. Although she claims she, “wanted to die” and became bloated and had diarrhea after her meal, no way is this worth $15 million. Maybe American could give her a free trip voucher and a meal at a nice restaurant in San Juan, but it seems unlikely a lizard was in her food.
American’s attorney states, “there may have been some feathers, or what looked like feathers . . . but there was no lizard.” I am not saying that some bad meat with possible feathers is anything that should be in airline food (or any food for that matter), but it is surely not worth suing over. I guess her 5 year old son was right… it was an animal. I just doubt it was the kind of animal she claims it to be.
Image: caribb Sources: News.com.au/NYPost
Airplane Geeks makes a weekly podcast with all sorts of great information.
Do you like airlines? Do you like podcasts? Well then Airline Geeks is a great podcast for you to check out. I have enjoyed their previous shows, but one of the most recents, episode 125, is probably my favorite. Of course I am a bit biased, since Dan Webb, who writes his blog Things in the Sky, interviewed me for his bits and pieces segment.
We got to talk about bit about social media and what it is like to communicate with airlines when starting a new airline blog. You can listen to the full podcast on the Airplane Geeks website and be sure to follow their future broadcasts and check out some of their older ones.
RA-85626 Donavia Tupolev Tu-154M
If you look at Donavia Airlines livery it might look a bit like Aeroflot’s. There is good reason, the airline is 100% owned by Aeroflot.
Donavia started in 1925 out of Rostov Airport and has a long history serving Russia. After the fall of the Soviety Union, The airline’s name was changed to Donavia and absorbed regional parts of Aeroflot Airlines. Then in 2000, Aeroflot bought 100% stake in the airline and was changed to Aeroflot-Don. Then in September, the name was changed back to Donavia.
Donavia currently runs a fleet of TU-154s, Boeing 737-400 and 737-500‘s. The airline flies in Russian, Europe, Egypt and western Asian countries.
Image: Danner Gyde
