Showing the Alaska RNP read outs. Image from AlaskaAir.com
Alaska Airlines is working on ways to save a few million gallons of fuel per year. The fuel savings will not only trickle down to a passenger’s pocketbook, but it would also cut down on environmental and noise pollutions.
Throughout the summer Alaska has been testing next-generation flight procedures at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) that have been dubbed “Greener Skies.”
The new procedure breaks away from the traditional “stair-step” method of descending into an airport. With current protocol, the control tower will assign altitudes airliners will cruise at. The pilot will descend to the new altitude, increase power to maintain the altitude, and wait for the next step. The new process takes advantage of Required Navigation Performance (RNP). With RNP the decent is a smooth, linear, and controlled approach without the need to level off. Alaska says the new system could save 2.1 million gallons of fuel and 22,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year.
Elliott Pesut, Twitterer for Alaska Airlines, pointed out to me that Alaska is the only major U.S. air carrier with a completely RNP-equipped fleet and fully trained crews. I am sure Alaska won’t be the last. Southwest Airlines recently announced their entire fleet of Boeing 737-700’s have the new technology and are in process of training their flight crews. Alaska is working to gain FAA approval to start using it by next year.
It is great to see an airline taking the leadership role of bringing this technology to the forefront and motivating others to follow suit. I hope that all aircraft at SEA will use the technology and it will spread to all airports and aircraft in the US.
Millions of people travel on airlines around the world. I figured there had to be some crazy lawsuits out there and sure enough! Here are some of my favorites:
* Student sues US Aiways for $1million for a lost xBox
* Woman sues American Airlines for $200,000.00 because her seatmate…well…he had too much personal time on the flight. Don’t get it? You can read the story.
* Lawyer sues Delta Air Lines $1 million for making him and his family miss his mother’s 80th birthday.
* Man sues JetBlue for $2 million for allegedly making him sit in the bathroom for part of the flight
* Woman won’t shut off phone, gets arrested, then sues Southwest Airlines for doing their job.
* A married couple sued United Airlines for serving too much wine to the husband, causing him to abuse his wife.
* Man wanted to use his Continental Airline miles on another airline and didn’t want to pay the “other airline fee.”
* Some passengers of Flight 1549 didn’t feel the $5000.00 (and a second chance at life) was enough from the historic landing and are suing for emotional damages.
* Passengers sued when Bonnie Tyler sang “Total Eclipse of the Heart” live on an Air France flight because it was getting too rowdy
* Man sues British Airways for kicking him off the plane for being too stinky.
* Mother sues a Swedish airline after her son’s hamsters got frozen in the airline cargo hold (they bought them a new puppy).
Think about all these crazy lawsuits when you aren’t happy with how much your next airline ticket costs!
Image: Clippergoodwill
Thomas Cook Boeing 757
You hear the stories of a doctor or law enforcement officer on a flight stepping forward to help out on a plane, but this time an engineer had his day in the spotlight.
Passengers on Thomas Cook flight TCX9641 from Menorca, Spain were told their flight would be delayed eight hours while an engineer was flown in to work on the plane. One passenger felt he might be of service and identified himself as a qualified aircraft engineer. After careful scrutiny, it was determined the man was highly qualified to work on the Boeing 757-200, as he actually works for a company that has a reciprocal maintenance agreement with Thomas Cook.
The man was able to determine the issue and fix it rather quickly. When re-boarding the aircraft, he was greeted with a big round of applause. The flight was able to take off and arrive only 35 minutes late to Glasglow, UK.
Thanks Dr. Forbes for the Tip!
Source: BBC Image: fishbed93
Taking away the glory
On July 1st, I was so excited to give out my first “More Crazy Than Ryanair” medal to Spring Airlines for the idea of having people stand on the plane instead of having seats.
Well, Ryanair is now stating they have been in talks with Boeing about creating their own “standing room only” section.
I hereby have to rescind my medal given to Spring Airlines. I wonder if there ever will be an airline that is crazier than Ryanair?!
Delta Boeing 767 - taken after landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
This new segment looks at the airline industry head-on, reporting first-hand experiences of air travel.
Date: June 21, 2009
Airline: Delta Air Lines
Flight: 1059 Atlanta to Seattle
Plane: Boeing 767-300
Seat: 17A/17B (flying with girlfriend)
Extras: $2 for ear phones, $5 for beer, $8 for salad
I was a little excited since I haven’t been able to fly in a Boeing 767 for sometime. I was flying with my girlfriend and it was nice knowing we would have two seats together (this plane was configured in 2-3-2 layout).
Folks loading up on the Delta Air Lines Boeing 767
Had a little issue with checking in. I love using the e-podiums for speed and efficiency, but took about five minutes to have someone come to get the bag and to tell me it weighed 53lbs (3 lbs over the 50lb limit). She said they would have to charge me $90 for the 3lbs. Sigh. I got to play the “Let’s Re-Pack in Line” game. After getting the weight down to 47lbs took another 5 minutes for the lady to come back.
After that, it was easy getting to the gate. The flight was on time and boarded very quickly (I was impressed since it was almost a full flight).
I was hoping the flight would have WiFi (it didn’t), but it did have the Delta on Demand in-seat entertainment system.
I am dpb. And I am not doing well.
It has movies, satellite tv, real-time airplane location, and games…yes games. The movies and games cost money ($6 for a movie and $5 to play all the games), but on a long trip, this can be worth the money. There is a free trivia game, where one can play against others on the plane. Argh. I did not do well and since it shows my score and seat #, people walking by could see who the idiot was who got 0/11 questions right. I stopped playing at that point. I swear I am not that dumb, but there were questions I just didn’t get. Found it interesting that people in first class kept winning. Still, this is quite a cool feature and I hope airlines expand on this concept (like Virgin America) where passengers can interact with one another.
Then I was excited to catch up on some Mythbusters on Discovery Channel, but my sound didn’t work. Turned on my call light and no one came to assist for 10min (it happens, I know), but I finally caught someone while the drinks were being served and they had to reset my seat. Ah, they run linux — neat. And sound worked fine after reset. I am going to say I was able to crash Delta’s on board system!
That is Bellevue, WA (right out side of Seattle) seen before landing. My window was oddly dirty.
It was a long flight and I wanted a (grown-up) drink and my girlfriend was hungry. I got a nice cold beer and she got a pretty good salad. Delta is still accepting cash, but prefers credit cards, so it is nice to have a choice still (although, had to watch the flight attendants try to make change which is always a pain).
About 2 hours into the flight the TV started to go out. After about 15 minutes about 8 channels started working again (there are only 18 channels to begin with — 4 of which are sports). Luckily the channel I was watching was one of the ten that worked. I have to say being able to watch TV while in flight sure makes the flight seem VERY short.
The rest of the flight went smoothly. I was able to do some work (no wi-fi, but offline work is better than nothing).
Was able to check out Bellevue, WA while landing and some sun was popping out of the sky. Yes, it was cloudy and a bit rainy, but that was ok. We had just spent 10 days in sunny, humid Tampa, FL and we were looking forward to the clouds.
My two favorite moments of the flight come at the end. #1 having to sit there, waiting for the plane to unload and #2 waiting for bags. Had a close friend come to pick us up and back home to blog!
Overall very good flight. The only downsides were some customer service difficulties. Mostly dealing with having to wait for someone to take our checked bags and no one coming when I called the flight attendant. The lure of technology let me forget the service issues, but this might have been a different story if my seat reset wouldn’t have worked!
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