Articles tagged “faa”

We like it when these people make headlines.

Let's see: Now we have a powerful Congressman telling passengers to keep their personal lives to themselves as one of his arguments against in-flight voice calls. Passengers on European, Asian, Middle Eastern and Latin American Airlines have been making in-flight voice calls for years, and without major flareups.

For once, this isn't totally Boeing's fault, but it's still their problem because nobody is writing headlines that blame GE's engines.

The FAA has been fairly rigorous in taking remedial steps to respond to the Colgan Air crash even if sometimes the bureaucracy moves very slowly.

Global aviation authorities followed the FAA's decision to ban electronic use during takeoff and landing so it is likely that they will follow its decision to allow electronic use during all stages of flight as well.

JetBlue's first out of the gate status on permitted use of portable electronic devices below 10,000 feet isn't going to upend market share dynamics, but it definitely makes United, American, Southwest and others look pretty lethargic.

Both airlines were part of the panel that investigated the impact of devices during takeoff and landing. They were able to file their paper works when most airlines were receiving the rules. It will be a few weeks before others catch up.

If Southwest starts letting its passengers use Wi-Fi when the aircraft leaves the gate or soon thereafter that will amount to a lot more time online than other airlines are offering. That's more opportunity for increasing Wi-Fi fees, too.

JetBlue and Delta will get a lot of street cred with passengers for being swift in implementing the new procedures for portable electronic devices, although it will be unlikely to change any market share dynamics.