Cockpit Enthusiast Booted off AA Flight
A traveler on American Airlines flight 488 from San Pedro Sula, Honduras (SAP) to Miami was apprehended by police in San Pedro Sula Tuesday for daring to explore his curiosity about the inner-workings of the cockpit of a B737-800 aircraft.
The passenger ran down the jetbridge into the aircraft, beelining directly for the cockpit, which was exposed with its door open as it usually is during the boarding process. Once in the cockpit, the passenger damaged some of the controls and then made the rational decision to try and jump out the window.
The strange actions were especially frustrating for American and its passengers, as the flight was delayed eight hours while AA found a replacement plane and crew (because the crew would time out) in Miami and sent it to Honduras, delaying one of American’s rare flights that was actually planning to operate on-time.
The replacement aircraft arrived at SAP at 10 p.m. local time and was boarded without any cockpit incursions this time and took off at 10:45 p.m., arriving back in Miami at 1:59 a.m., perfect timing for passengers and crew to hit the clubs in Miami Beach.
United Flight Attendants Call for Service Reductions
United Airlines flight attendant union asked its airline to consider reducing on-board service levels to limit the number of interactions between flight attendants and passengers to reduce opportunities for the transmission of COVID-19.
The union noted that Alaska recently announced it would only do one beverage service per flight in the main cabin, regardless of flight length, and is also reducing the amount of buy-on-board stock by about one-third. United says it is reviewing the request and will get to it after it figures out how to make Newark something better than the 8th circle of Hell for connecting passengers… which means never.
The request comes just days after UA announced it plans a trial next month of returning several pre-pandemic service touches in Polaris including expanded desserts and the return of warm nuts (the horror of room temperature nuts). The union is also asking UA to cool its nuts for a couple weeks longer and delay the return of these service elements.
Singapore Starts Spreadin’ the News
Singapore Airlines is growing its presence in the Big Apple (and northern New Jersey) as the carrier expands to three daily flights into New York this March for the first time in its history.
The carrier will operate two daily nonstops from Singapore to New York, one to New York/JFK and another to Newark, both operating with an A350-900 ULR aircraft. The third flight will be its fifth freedom flight from Singapore via Frankfurt, operated by an A380.
The daily flight from SIN to JFK blocks in at 9,537 miles and takes the crown as the longest flight in the world. It’s scheduled to take 18:40 to New York and 18:50 to Singapore. The nonstop to Newark comes in at 9,523 miles, making it the second-longest flight in the world but far more painful since it involves arriving at Newark. The A350 operating both routes for SQ has only 161 seats on-board – 67 in business and 94 in premium economy.
By comparison, the A380 operating the SIN-FRA-JFK route comes with a sardine-friendly 475 seats, including six Singapore Suites up front, 82 business class seats, 44 in premium economy and a hefty 343 in the back for the hoi polloi.
- Aeromexico has 86% of its creditors voting in favor of its reorganization plan, according to Aeromexico.
- Air France-KLM needs cash. Get in line, pal.
- Amelia International Airlines, the pride of Slovenia, is beginning cargo ops after acquiring its first dedicated freighter, an ATR-72F.
- Avianca will begin two new routes to the United States in March — daily service from Cartagena (CTG) to New York/JFK beginning March 27 and 3x-weekly from Medellin (MDE) to Orlando beginning March 29.
- Delta is extending the validity of all eCredits on the carrier through December 31, 2023 for travel through 2024.
- Empire Airlines is growing its empire as it acquired fellow FedEx express carrier West Air.
- Georgian Airways, fresh off celebrating a national championship in American football, was granted bankruptcy protection by a Georgian court.
- Hans Airways, the official airline of Los Angeles’s Nakatomi Plaza, signed an LOI to purchase its first A320-200.
- Norse Atlantic Airways named its second B787 Dreamliner “Rago.” It considered naming the plane “Bjørn,” but decided not to since that’s the name of nearly everyone who works at the airline, and adding a plane with the name would just make things complicated.
- Ryanair‘s latest angry rant is to blame Lufthansa for faking global warming and climate fears to maintain slots at German airports. The carrier also blames Lufthansa for outing Santa Claus and not being real and for throwing banana peels on the runway at multiple airports just as Ryanair planes are ready for taxi and takeoff.
- SpiceJet‘s appeal to dismiss a liquidation order owed to Credit Suisse was dismissed by an Indian court, but the carrier was able to buy itself some more thyme as the court extended a deadline to January 28 for an appeal to India’s Supreme Court.
- South African Express‘s liquidation process has been anything but an express, as it was delayed by a seventh time in South African bankruptcy court — this time until July 4, 2022.
- Virgin Atlantic opened for applications to fill up to 400 new cabin crew positions after receiving permission from Delta.
I knew a guy who collected candy canes, he always kept them all in mint condition.