Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-28E
Boeing 777 loses one engine, luckily it has two!
Yes! Another good story that could have turned much worse. A Boeing 777 lost an engine shortly after take off at Sea-Tac airport in Seattle, WA. Asiana Flight 271 took off heading to South Korea with 179 passengers and 16 crew.
Then, something none of us want to hear and see — a few loud explosions and flames coming out of the left engine. At this time, it is not known what happened, but we will be keeping a close eye on this story.
CLICK HERE to see a video of the safe landing.
Image: Thomas Becker Source & Video: KOMO
Southwest Boeing 737
It has been about a year since all these wonderous bag fees have started. Southwest (which I have called the “new frills airline” a few times already) has resisted any of these fees and keep all their prices pretty straight forward. Now they are saying they feel they have earned more money with having no fees, since customers are choosing Southwest over airlines that do charge fees.
However, other airlines are sticking to their fees with bringing millions more in in revenue. In fact more airlines are increasing and adding new fees.
Alaksa Airlines just announced they will start charging fees and US Airways will charge $5 extra if a passenger doesn’t pre-pay for baggage fees.
Personally, I understand the fees. I mean the airlines are hurting and people are willing to pay for them. However, it has become nearly impossible to do a true cost comparison for tickets, not knowing what your final price will be.
Source: Dallas Morning News Image: MayorGreg
US Airways A319 with Arizona Cardinals livery
PETA is well known for previous controversial advertisements showing the abuse to animals around the world. Their latest attempt is a proposal to put an ad on a US Airways aircraft that showed a seal next to blood-looking text stating, “Canada’s Olympic Shame – End the Seal Slaughter.”
No matter what you think about this topic, putting anything with “blood” on the side of a plane is not going to go over well. PETA wanted to put the ads on flights between the US and Canada in time for the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC.
In February, US Airways also turned down an ad for PETA where they wanted to go after KFC for the way their treat their chickens.
Although in these hard economic times, it is hard for any airline to turn away extra money, I think US Airways probably made a smart decision.
Source: Business First Image: ~C~U~B~B~I~E~
Flight 891 from Buffalo. This plane was delivered to Eastern Airlines on 11/30/1979 and transferred to Delta in 1991
Although it is frustrating at times, I understand when airlines have had to send jobs overseas to help them survive.
Delta, in a rare showing, is now doing the opposite — and at a good time nonetheless! They are no longer outsourcing their reservation call center to India and will be moving the jobs back to the US.
There will still be call centers in Jamaica and South Africa, but staffing would most likely be reduced there as well in the future.
When Delta outsourced their call centers to India in 2002, they estimated saving $25million per year, which is nothing to sneeze at.
However, customers made it clear they weren’t happy with the service they received from the call centers in India. “The customer acceptance of call centers in foreign countries is low, and our customers are not shy about letting us have that feedback,” said Richard Anderson, Chief Executire of Delta Airlines.
I would imagine the number of reservation calls has greatly decreased since 2002, with most people choosing to reserve tickets online.
Source: AP Image: AV8NLVR
Mexicana Airbus A320 in Las Vegas
If you read the main headlines of most new sources it seems the world might end soon with the Swine Flu outbreak. Although not as bad as the media hypes it, some are still concerned about travel. Because of this some airlines are waiving change fees for flights through Mexico.
It is estimated that about 1,600 have been infected and about 149 deaths in Mexico, and airlines don’t want to put people out for wanting to cancel or change their flights. The airlines that are offerring no change fees (with some restrictions of course):
– United Airlines
– American Airlines
– Mexicana Airlines
– Continental Airlines
– US Airways
– Air Canada
Hopefully this will all be over soon!
Source: AP Image: ~C~U~B~B~I~E~