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Summer travel up in the air: Cramped seats, rising fees and delays
TransportCall it the spring of uncertainty: The government says you can travel with little pocket knives, then decides no, you can’t. Budget sequester trims air traffic controllers’ hours, resulting in airport backups, then Congress restores schedules — for now, anyway. Homeland security curbs airport security checkpoint overtime and says lines aren’t longer, but some travelers [...]
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U.S. airlines’ on-time rate dropped below 80 percent this March
TransportThe government says that fewer flights arrived on time and more were canceled in March than a year ago, but fewer passengers lodged formal complaints against the airlines. The Transportation Department said Wednesday that 79.8 percent of flights arrived within 14 minutes of schedule in March. That’s down from 82.2 percent in March 2012. Hawaiian [...]
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Australia’s airports receive a damning review from flyers and industry watchdog
TransportSix of Australia’s 22 airports might be ranked in the world’s top 100, but according to the leading Australian consumer and competition watchdog, none can be rated as “good.” The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has delivered a damning report card that will either ring true or shock the tens of million of people who [...]
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Lawmakers surprised that FAA ends furloughs but still may close towers
TransportThe furor over the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) sequester budget cuts has receded from the fever pitch it reached during flight delays at the end of April, but the agency’s plan will continue to hit bumps as lawmakers turn their attention to air traffic control towers. Forty-one senators have written the FAA to push the [...]
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FAA furloughs end after U.S. Congress relaxes the agency’s budget constraints
TransportThe U.S. House passed legislation to end air-traffic controller furloughs, joining the Senate in letting the Federal Aviation Administration work around across- the-board budget cuts to end days of flight delays. The House cleared the measure 361-41 today after the Senate unanimously passed the bipartisan legislation last night just before a week-long congressional recess. The [...]
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JetBlue CEO says sequestration is “holding traveling public hostage”
TransportJetBlue CEO Dave Barger candidly told participants in this morning’s first-quarter earnings call that “there are so many adjectives I could share” to describe the current delays that are “holding the traveling public hostage” this week. JetBlue has yet to see any impact from the FAA furloughs, although the executives agreed it was too early to [...]
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FAA boss Huerta says there is no way to avoid furloughs
TransportThe head of the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday said that the agency could not find the kind of “sizeable” non-payroll budget cuts that would have avoided furloughing air traffic controllers, but added that passenger safety is not at risk despite lower staffing levels. “We are focused on maintaining our core operational and safety responsibilities,” [...]
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Life in travel hell: 3-hour tarmac delay rule may be lifted due to sequester
TransportU.S. Department of Transportation is considering lifting a rule that says airplanes can’t remain on the tarmac for more than three hours for domestic flights before allowing passengers to deplane. The tarmac delay rule was put into place in 2009 after a series of incidents in which passengers were stranded on airplanes for lengthy periods [...]
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FAA: Air-traffic control furloughs could lead to 3-hour delays this summer
TransportFlight delays of up to 3-1/2 hours are expected at some busy U.S. airports this summer because of furloughs of air-traffic controllers, the top U.S. aviation regulator warned on Thursday. The estimate from the Federal Aviation Administration is the first to detail, in minutes and hours, the potential delays from the agency’s decision to furlough [...]
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American Airlines’ statement on flight delays and Twitter apology to Sabre
TransportHere’s American Airlines’ statement on its systemwide outages: “American’s network system is experiencing intermittent outages. At this time, we are holding all flights on the ground until later this afternoon, when we will provide another update. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as we can, and we apologize to our customers for [...]
