Tag: airlines (last 300)
The Ugly Indian
(Globalpost) For flight attendants, the Ugly Indian can be so demanding that their monetary lifeline looks like a noose.
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(WSJ) Delhi should be an int’l aviation hub but states are soaking airlines with 30% fuel taxes, among the highest in the world.
After Independence Day, strike day
Jet struggling vs. discounters
14 yr old sole survivor in Indian Ocean crash
(AFP) A 14 yr old girl was seen swimming amid Air Yemenia wreckage in the Indian Ocean, the sole survivor. Bakari Bava is from Comoros, an archipelago between Africa and Madagascar whose name comes from the Arabic qamar (moon).
Passenger jet crashes in Indian Ocean
Kingfishin’ in Delhi
(Forbes) Vijay Mallya prowls the halls of Delhi courting junior bureaucrats for easier Kingfisher loan terms while Naresh Goyal of Jet lobbies against him.
Mallya drowning in debt
(NYT) Kingfisher is wallowing in debt. Indian airlines added 6 planes/mo when demand was only half that, and priced tickets below cost.
Your bitter palace in the sky
(BusWeek) 31K Air India employees are facing 2 weeks of paycheck delay while the airline seeks a government bailout.
Full names while flying
(NYT) The TSA will soon start asking for full legal names. [Your friend Ramachandran Natarajan October de la Valle is screwed.]
Deep-sea plane recovery tricky
(LAT) In ’87, a S. African 747 crashed in 16K ft of water off Mauritius. The U.S. Navy manage to locate the wreckage. The flight’s cargo is thought to have caught fire.
India sends foreign pilots home
(WSJ) A Norwegian pilot joined SpiceJet to fly the newest Boeing. But, like U.S. companies, Indian airlines are laying off foreigners because it’s less politically sensitive.
Acceptable accents
(WaPo) After years of accent complaints, Delta Airlines is no longer using Indian call centers. It still uses some in Jamaica and South Africa.
You there, come with me
(USA Today) The TSA is reviving a program to pull ‘randomly selected’ passengers for a
second security check right before they step onto their plane. (ht: Ennis)
The ATL-BOM route
(Bloomberg) Delta started flying to Mumbai from its Atlanta hometown as it dropped service from New York’s Kennedy to take advantage of connections at its biggest hub.
Flying while Khan
(Cqpolitics) The House passed a bill to help people who have been misidentified as terrorists clear their names from government watch lists. The 3 voting against are named Reps. Smith, Johnson and Jones.
Bird-to-bird combat
(WSJ) JFK and several airports in India are renowned among pilots for having bird strike issues. Pilots try turning on weather radar or landing lights to scare them off.
FAA: Indian airlines unsafe
(ToI) Indian airlines are on the verge of being downgraded by the U.S. FAA for safety violations, which means route freezes and potentially planes being impounded.
$240K settlement for Arabic tee
(Wired) The TSA and JetBlue are paying a $240K settlement to a man asked to sit in the back of a plane and change out of a t-shirt with Arabic writing on it. (ht: Kerim)
AirTran incident sparked by misunderstanding
(SeaTimes) He said he had to sit in the back. She said the back was safest, but Irfan said it was better by the wings. She: ‘I guess it makes sense not to be close to the engine.’ They were interrogated in the jet bridge while other passengers glared.
AirTran apologizes
(WaPo) AirTran apologized for removing 6 Pakistani-, 2 Turkish- and one Afr-American Muslim from flight. Almost all U.S.-born. 2 teen girls reported a remark that sitting near the engines would not be safe in case of an accident.
FBI clearance not enough for AirTran
(NYT) The passengers, all American-born United States citizens except for one, expressed frustration Friday in not being allowed back on the plane once the F.B.I. had cleared them.
Video of AirTran incident
(BBC) Video clip of a Muslim couple, ordered off an AirTran flight for saying the safest part of a plane is in the back. 8 desis, one non; 8 citizens; short beards and hijabs. (ht: Sapna)
Flying while brown IV
(WaPo) 9 Muslims were removed from an AirTran flight from D.C. to Orlando because someone made a remark about the safest seat on an airplane.
Flying while brown III
(Merc) 3 Sikh musicians from Sacramento were told, through a Punjabi translator via phone, that the US Airways pilot refused to take off with the men on board. (ht: MM)
Flirting mandatory at Dubai airline
(Online) Emirates requires attendants to accept a business card or phone number if it’s offered by a passenger. ‘We party hard on the ground,’ said Neha Masillamani, a flight attendant from New Delhi.
Indian airlines posting record losses
(WSJ) Indian airlines will lose $2B this year, second only to the U.S. 27 foreign pilots have been laid off. The Indian gov’t has cut jet fuel taxes and prices to help.
First turbaned U.S. commercial pilot
(Vid) Arpinder Kaur flies regional jets for American Airlines. She’s believed to be the first turbaned Sikh commercial airline pilot in the U.S. [via]
Indian airlines default on fuel bills
(WSJ) Jet and Kingfisher defaulted on fuel payments to Indian oil companies. Almost half of operating budgets goes to fuel, which costs 65% more than in Dubai and Singapore because of taxes.
Jet to cut 1,900 jobs
(WaPo) Jet Airways will lay off 1,900 because of a 24% increase in jet fuel prices this year and slowing global growth. Kingfisher expects to follow suit. Distraught employees protested at Bombay’s airport.
18 die in Yeti crash
(BBC) 18 died as a Yeti Airlines plane crashed during landing at Tenzing-Hillary airport. The plane reportedly caught fire after crash-landing and hitting the perimeter boundary.
M-f- snake on a m-f- plane
(HT) Air India crew found a snake under a seat after a domestic flight from Srinagar. It evaded capture by slipping into an air vent.
Indian airlines in trouble
(WSJ) Jet Airways may defer Boeing deliveries, and the entire Indian industry will post $1-2B in losses. There were 50 daily flights between Delhi and Bombay — four seats for each passenger. ‘We are all in trouble.’
SpiceJet gets $80M from U.S. billionaire
(FT) LBO artist Wilbur Ross is investing $80M in SpiceJet after its shares fell 50% over high oil prices.