Spirit Airlines Airbus A321 with unique Blue/White livery
When I first heard this story I thought, “oh yes, I get to award another ‘Crazier Than Ryanair‘ medal.” However as I learned more about Spirit Airline’s new carry-on fees, I wonder if it is really all that crazy?
If you have missed it, Spirit Airlines is looking to charge passengers for carry-ons. There has been a lot of coverage of this, but here are the facts of the new carry-on fees:
* They start August 1st, 2010
* Spirit will be the first airline to charge for carry-on bags
* Your one personal item can go under your seat and is free
* It will cost $45 at the airport, $30 online and $20 for club members to have a carry-on in the overhead bin
Is this THAT crazy? Maybe not. If you have flown in the last few years you might have noticed how HUGE passenger’s carry-on bags have become. Three bags and one bin is totally full. It becomes a rush to the airplane to make sure you get space in the overhead bin. These fees would limit the number of people having a carry-on and would probably guarantee space for everyone who wants it.
Weight costs money. Airlines have been looking at ways to offer a basic ticket which will get your body from one destination to another and anything else going with you will cost money. It was only a matter of time before an airline [Ryanair anyone] would try something like this.
People will still pay. Passengers complain about new fees, but when it comes down to it, the fees make airlines a lot of money. Passengers might say they will never pay the carry-on fee, but when they are confronted with Spirit Airlines possibly having the cheapest fares, they don’t think twice. If passengers weren’t willing to pay these fees, airlines wouldn’t have them.
Yesterday Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood voiced his opposition to Spirit’s new fees. “I think it’s a bit outrageous that an airline is going to charge someone to carry on a bag and put it in the overhead. And I’ve told our people to try and figure out a way to mitigate that. I think it’s ridiculous.” FlyersRights.org also voiced their opinion that the government should step in and stop the madness of the airlines.
I am sorry, but this just angers me. The airlines were rightfully deregulated in the United States long ago and run via the free market. If passengers really don’t want to pay the fees, they won’t and Spirit will lose money and change their policies back. Airlines just don’t make up rules and policies in a vacuum that aren’t influenced by customer demand.
Yes, if the fees were not clear and were hidden, I could see the government stepping into make sure an airline was not deceiving passengers, but if you look at Spirit’s website (or been watching the news over the last few days), it is quite obvious what the fees are for.
Personally do I want to pay these fees? Heck no! But if I am flying somewhere and Spirit has the cheapest (even with paying the fees) will I care what my money is paying for? Probably not. It will be very interesting to see how this all works out.
Image: vnvlain
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Canadair Regional Jet (B-6050) at Vancouver
Normally when I fly, my in flight entertainment is taking a nap. Recently Kris Lines was on Air Canada Jazz flight 8229 from Calgary to Vancouver when he decided to take a little nap in the back of the aircraft. His flight landed, passengers de-planed and no one woke Lines up.
Lines admits he is a heavy sleeper and was up for 24 hours traveling, but he isn’t invisible.
“It’s absolute craziness,” said Lines. “The last thing I remember was taking off from Calgary. I knew I was safely on board and there was no further destinations and it was all good.” He was confident that somebody would wake him up in Vancouver.
No one did. After his flight was de-planed, the aircraft was towed to a hangar and 90 minutes after landing a maintenance worker finally discovered Lines.
Flight attendants are human and mistakes can be made. However, things could have turned out much worse with this. What if was an unaccompanied minor? Someone would could have caused harm to the aircraft unsupervised?
Lines wrote to the airline looking for answers and MaryAnn Morgan, with the airline, responded, “Although there was no excuse for the incident that occurred, it appears the flight attendant on this occasion was dealing with several wheelchair passengers and coordinating their departure from the aircraft. Although the flight attendant advises he did look back into the aircraft to check for any passengers still on board, he did not walk through the aircraft cabin as he was engaged with handling the passengers in wheelchairs requiring assistance.”
Morgan continued, “I can assure you that no previous incident of this nature has occurred and that this matter has been thoroughly reviewed with the crew member concerned and other crews operating similar aircraft to ensure an incident of this type does not happen again.”
She assured lines that the airline operates over 800 flights per day and this was an isolated incident. Lines was also offered a 20% discount on four future tickets with Air Canada.
Source: Ottawa Citizen via Blue Tales Image: djlpbb40
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NC-51 over Tehachapi Mountains photo by Chad Slattery
I have started a new quest: fly on a Beechcraft Starship. It won’t be easy and I might not be able to, but I am at least going to try. There are five that are currently flying and my goal is try to get a seat on one of them.
I think like most aviation enthusiasts, I have always had a big fascination with the Starship. Seeing one hanging up at the Future of Flight (which I am at often) has fed my motivation to learn more about this amazing aircraft.
Development for the Beechcraft Starship was started in 1979. In the early 1980’s Beechcraft contracted with Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites company to help build proof-of-concept models for the new aircraft. The first full scale test was flown on February 15, 1980 and the first production Starship flew on April 25, 1989.
The aircraft was unique at the time for using carbon fiber, having a canard design, lack of central vertical tail and pusher engine configuration. At the time carbon fiber had not be used on many aircraft and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had a hard time certifying the plane. Playing it safe, the FAA required the Starship to increase its structural supports , which added overall weight to the airframe. The Starship was supposed to have a max cruise speed of 352 knots and fly for over 2,500 nm, but after the modification, the speed was reduced to 338 knots and a range of only 1,575 nm.
The added weight, economic slowdown and high tax on luxury items at the time meant that Beechcraft was only able to sell seven Starships in its first three years in production. The last Starship was produced in 1995 and then in 2003 Beechcraft determined it was not cost effective to support a small number of planes and started destroying the ones left.
Starships waiting to be destroyed. How sad. Photo by: Derek Hellmann
Different sources state different numbers of how many are actually flying. I have found anywhere from three to nine. However with more research it looks like there might be six still flying, one of which is in Mexico somewhere. That leaves me with five StarShips I can hopefully hitch a ride on:
* N8244L NC-29 Owner: Radio Flyer, LLC
* N8074S NC-33 Owner: Allen Investments Aviation & marine
* N45FL NC-45 Owner: Tulsa Renaissance Energy, LLC
* N8285Q NC-50 Owner: Starship Holdings, LLC
* N514RS NC-51 Owner: Scherer, R – chase plane for SpaceShipOne
Stage one was to track down which planes are still around. Stage two will be to try to contact the owners of these planes and talk them into giving me a ride in their plane, which I can blog about. Will it happen? Maybe, but even if it doesn’t, I will enjoy learning more about the plane. Either way, I will be sure to blog about this experience.
Of course if anyone has any connections to the owners of one of the planes, I would love to touch base with you (da***@ai*************.com).
Website: Great page on the Beechcraft Starships + Thanks to Ed at Future of Flight for all his knowledge!
My Quest to Ride on a Beechcraft Starship:
IDEA | CONNECT | TOUR | FLIGHT-PLAN | FAIL | FLIGHT | PHOTOS | VIDEO
Qantas Airbus A380 with Sydney in the background. Often the A380 flies from Sydney to Singapore.
No, there wasn’t a Jedi master flying on Qantas flight QF31 from Sydney to Singapore. However, there was a man who appeared to be high on drugs and/or alcohol who thought he could crash the plane using his mind. Passengers around the delusional man stated he wanted to bring down the flight using only his mind. Although the fear of it actually happening was low, the flight attendants took no chances and cuffed the man’s arms and legs for the remainder of the flight.
Like most people who end up in cuffs during flight, the gentleman was met in Singapore by police.
Source: ABC.net.au via Seattle PI Image: griffs0000
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View from Delta Air Lines flight into Seattle I took last year. That is Bellevue, WA in the distance.
A lot of people wish we could go back to a time where flying was magical again. I tell those people it still is! It is cheaper and more people fly more often, so it might not seem as special.
Passengers complain about the lack of food and service, but that has little to with the fact you are flying at 30,000 feet in a cylinder, almost at the speed of sound, across the world in a matter of hours. That magic (ok, ok yea there is a lot of science behind it) has never gone away.
Whenever I have the choice, I always pick the window. Why? Because the window is still where you can see the magic of every flight happen.
Airline pilot, freelance writer and Airline Reporter reader, Mark Vanhoenacker recently wrote a wonderful piece for the New York Times about the beauty of the window seat, make sure to check it out!
If you have your own window seat photos, you can share them via the New York Times.
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