The Continental Blue Skyway livery I got a picture (not a very good one) of today while in Houston.
Alrighty, I am back folks! Sorry about the silence. I took a vacation and was planning on blogging — I don’t see this as work, but as fun. However, you know how vacations can go — I got distracted.
One of the best parts of going on vacation is being able to fly again. On my way back to Seattle from New Orleans, I had a stop over in Houston. I was lucky enough to see Continental’s Blue Skyway special livery (more info).
Anyhow, I don’t want to leave you without your airline news. Here are some of the stories I found interesting this last week:
* Airlines are looking at charging a fee to fly on busy days. (Gadling)
* The hero pilot Sullenberger will start flying again for US Airways (Airline Biz Blog)
* There might be a new flight attendant TV show coming soon (Flight Wisdom)
* United is expanding domestically (BNET)
* New Orleans airport got the green light to go private (USA Today)
* A Southwest Boeing 737-200 ends its glorious career (NutsAboutSouthwest)
That should about do it for now. I will be able to have more regular updates this week, which is great for everyone!
Armavia Airbus A320-214"Hovhannes Aivazovsky"
Armavia was founded in 1996 and is the national carrier of the Republic of Armenia. They have eight different aircraft with six different aircraft types, including 2 Airbus A320’s and 1 Il-86.
Spirit Airlines Airbus A319-132 (N532NK)
Spirit Airlines has been fined $375,000.00 due to customer complaints for overbooking flights, lost bags, and poor advertising practices.
First off, the airline was not properly compensating passengers who were bumped due to overbooking, which Federal law regulates they must. Spirit was also dragging their feet when compensating passengers for lost baggage. Airlines must make payment “within a reasonable period of time” which most people would agree 14 months is not reasonable. If that wasn’t enough, the airline also was charging customers $4.90 for a passenger use fee to fares in their “Travel Deals” portion of the website. According to regulation, such fees need to be added into the advertised price.
This comes at a time where Congress is in process of passing a “passenger bill of rights” which will better protect passengers flying on all airlines in the United States. Over the past two years, Congress has also provided the Transportation Department with $2.5million in the past two years to help enforce customer-protection rules.
’œSelling fares for $9 has made us very popular and, a few years ago when we adopted this model, we had some growing pains during the transition,’ Spirit spokeswoman Misty Pinson said in an e-mail to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. ’œWe have addressed all the core issues that caused customer experience challenges a few years ago, including upgrading our computer systems and utilizing a new reservations partner.’
Customer treatment is currently on the forefront of the airline industry. I am normally for the industry regulating itself and allowing customers to help steer what the industry does, but it seems some airlines just don’t get it and passengers have a short memory span when choosing what airline to fly. A passenger might have a horrid experience and say they will never fly a particular airline again. But the next time they fly, if that same airline is $25.00 less, they ’œforget’ their previous experience and decide to save a few dollars.
Image: ChicagoKoz
A lot of sparks from the ContactAir Fokker 100 landing without landing gear
This Monday ContactAir flight C3-288/LH-288 from Berlin to Stuttgart Germany had a faulty gear warning during approach. They delayed landing and spent 90 minutes trying to troubleshoot the issue with no luck. They decided to land without the gear and created quite the show.
The aircraft landed on its belly and all passengers and crew were safely evacuated. One passenger and one crew member were treated for minor injuries.
More photos via AvHerald
See video on Bild found via Airline Biz Blog
- Aer Lingus A320
The flight crew of an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Paris gave their passengers who knew French a little scare. About 20 minutes into the flight all 70 passengers that were aboard the Airbus A320 were played an automated message in English letting them know the aircraft was about to pass through some turbulence. It was directly followed by a second message that was only in French. As the passengers who knew English were making sure their seatbelts were fastened tightly, others that knew French were getting a very different message.
The new message told passengers the plane was about to make an emergency landing and that passengers should take note of the emergency exits. At the time, the aircraft was flying over water and people feared the worse.
A passenger aboard the plane explains that all the French started freaking out, some cried and some started shaking. It took a few minutes for the flight crew to realize what happened before calming the passengers. The airline apologized and explained that mis-playing messages is a rare occurrence.
Source: Mirror Image: benallsup