Seattle Debuts New International Arrivals Facility
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s new International Arrivals Facility is complete and ready to welcome the world to the United States with a firm body search courtesy of U.S. Border Patrol agents.
The facility will be put into use very soon, with a limited number of flights and passengers to serve as guinea pigs for the facility, with all arriving passengers transitioning to use the new facility in the coming weeks. The new facility is expected to reduce connection times by at least 15 minutes, which will make passengers feel better – now they’ll just miss their domestic connections, rather than miss them by 15 minutes or more.
The structure includes a walkway, 85 feet above the active taxiway that will bring passengers from their flight to the facility. The bridge is tall enough to accommodate aircraft taxiing underneath it – or at least it’s supposed to – that’s what the test period is for.
American Fires Employee for Having a Side Hustle
Everyone is trying to get ahead in life, and American Airlines fired a contract worker who cleaned airplanes for the carrier for the minor violation of removing five life vests from an airplane and swapping them with five kilos of cocaine.
It’s a situation everyone’s experienced – you’ve got five kilos of cocaine and you need to get it to the United States – and quickly. Luis Ortiz, Jr. put the drugs on American Flight 2227 from St. Croix to Miami and hired two couriers to ride as passengers and bring the stash into Miami. The drugs had a street value of about $815,000, or about what American charges to get out of Basic Economy on a cross-country flight.
The incident took place on July of 2019 when Ortiz placed the drugs in rows 17 and 18 of the plane in the middle of the night. His two co-workers were booked on the early AM flight to Miami the next day and were instructed to find a way to pre-board the aircraft. The two were caught when they arrived in Miami and had no connection – no one flies from the Caribbean to Miami with a connection – which alarmed law enforcement.
Ortiz is facing 10 years in prison, where as part of his sentence he will only be fed meals from AA’s on-board catering for the duration of his sentence.
Ryanair Plans End to Onboard Masks
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary took a moment Friday in-between lawsuits to say that he expects passengers on his airline will not be required to wear masks this summer – and beyond.
O’Leary stated that the carrier is in consultation with cabin crew as it explores making a change to its mask policy. One option is expected to be the institution of an on-board mask and mask removal fee. Passengers boarding a Ryanair flight would be required to pay a €12 fee to fly without a mask to cover costs for those who want double masking because of the unmasked. Conversely, passengers who choose to wear a mask would be hit with a €12 mask fee as well.
- El Al pinky-swore that it wouldn’t use slots as collateral without prior approval from the Israeli goverment.
- Etihad will use Boeing’s Jeppesen FliteDeck Advisor for its B787 fleet.
- Firefly expects to resume B737-800 ops on April 11.
- Link PNG‘s codeshare agreement with its fellow Papua New Guinea domestic carrier PNG Air is on hold.
- Lufthansa plans to introduce new first and business class seats on its ten A350s next year.
- Lynx is adding 11 new B737 MAX 8 on lease from BOC Aviation.
- Nigeria Air is postponing its launch date until mid-2023.
- Philippine Airlines is negotiating an additional $100 million three-year loan.
- Qatar is adding two new cities in Nigeria — 4x-weekly service to Kano (KAN) began Wednesday and 3x-weekly service to Port Harcourt (PHC) began yesterday.
- Spirit is opening two new crew bases in Atlanta and Miami after getting a good deal on yellow paint in both cities.
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