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No-fly list among airlines has doubled following the attempted attack in December
Airport security news has been slow. Nothing major to report, which is a good thing. I did find out that the Transportation Security Administration has doubled the no-fly list since the arrest of Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab. The list has gone from about 3,400 people to about 6,000 people.
I wonder how accurate the list is, and does knowing this information give consumers a piece of mind when flying the friendly skies. You tell me.
FAA finds no humor in child tinkering with air-traffic control
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) learned that on February 17, an air-traffic controller brought his son to work and allowed him talk to pilots from John F. Kennedy International Airport’s tower. I guess what you do for one, you have to do for the other. The next day, he then brought his daughter to work and let her have a turn instructing pilots.
I’m all for kid-friendly work environments, but this is no laughing matter. There are thousands of lives at stake. Kudos to the FAA, they suspended the father and his supervisor for such child’s play.
I even have the audio of the little boy instructing the pilots. I must admit, it’s cute, and I’m sure this is an experience that the children will never forget.
AUDIO: Child directs pilots
USA Today in the Sky | Thomas Frank
WASHINGTON — An air-traffic controller who let his son talk to pilots at John F. Kennedy International Airport’s tower also brought his daughter to work the next day and let her instruct aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday.
The unnamed controller and his supervisor were suspended after audiotapes surfaced on the Internet of the boy speaking to departing flights on Feb. 16, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said. The agency later discovered that the girl had come to the tower the next day, it said in a statement.
“This lapse in judgment not only violated FAA’s own policies, but common-sense standards for professional conduct,” Babbitt said. “These kind of distractions are totally unacceptable.” (READ MORE)
High winds and winter storms cause some travel delays
Before you head to the airport, check to see whether your flight has been delayed. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport reported that their flights won’t take off until this evening, due to severe weather conditions.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says airlines are opting to cancel flights because of expected very strong crosswinds.
At FTS, we’ve made checking your flight status more convienent. Check out the new tool, in the left column of this blog below my travel picks, to see if your flight is on schedule.
Have a safe trip!
New year promises cloud with a silver lining for air travel
www.mediabistro.com
Air travel has been, without a doubt, more stressful for many family travelers over the last few weeks. According to today’s report, air travel is looking up for passengers, well, in some areas.
USA Today Travel | David Grossman
In recent years, surging oil prices, airline bankruptcies and consolidation, terrorist bomb plots, invasive security procedures, pandemic scares, ancillary airline ticket fees and the deepest recession in decades have transformed business travel into a Darwinian struggle for survival. Once the havoc created by the recent attempt to bring down a U.S. jetliner abates, 2010 may prove to be a less turbulent and more benign year for air travelers. Barring the return of the H1N1 flu, an unexpected oil price surge or another unforeseen crisis, air travel may even hold a few bright spots in the coming year. Here are eight factors likely to affect air travel for business travelers in 2010.
Capacity changes in a gradual economic recovery
To combat the recession, many corporations slashed travel budgets by as much as 30% and downgraded travelers from first or business class to coach. In response, U.S. airlines reduced domestic capacity by nearly 11% and international capacity by 7% according to the Air Transport Association.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) projects the world’s airlines lost $11 billion in 2009 and will lose another $5.6 billion in 2010. Despite these horrific losses, IATA believes the worst may be over as passenger demand is slowly rising again. Airline passenger traffic has now reached the halfway point between its highest peak in early 2008 and its lowest levels in early 2009. (READ MORE)
Airline passengers update latest security measures
Happy Monday!
News is slow today. I thought it would be nice to post the latest video about airport security. Have any of you experienced the full-body scanners yet?
I have not, but it’s in my very near future.
Associated Press | USA Today Travel
No fingerpointing here, president to improve airline security
Now, if only the airlines can follow President Obama’s lead. Stop playing the blame game and step up to what needs to be done to ensure safer, more reliable air transportation. I think that this was a great wake-up call for the president. Stimulus package, check, healthcare, check, safer airlines…hmmm, this one is tricky.
The FTS team still advises against flying right now. We’re exploring all the talk about body scanners and just how this will affect family travel. More to come.
Los Angeles Times | Michael Muskal and Christi Parsons
President Obama today accepted responsibility for improving airline security and intelligence gathering as he outlined a series of failures that allowed an alleged bomber to board and try to destroy a jetliner bound for the United States on Christmas.
In televised comments, the president released a declassified investigation outlining what went wrong in the incident that ended safely but became a political firestorm. Obama called for more vigilance, recommending changes in airline security as well as better use of a government watch list designed to let authorities know about potential terrorists.
“Ultimately, the buck stops with me,” he said. He said he wanted the intelligence community to assign “clear lines of responsibility” for immediately pursuing leads on those threats. (READ MORE)
Civil liberty groups say stringent airline screening spurs racism
Full-body scans and intense pat downs are all part of TSA’s new airline screening procedures for passengers arriving from nations listed as “state sponsors of terrorism.”
The American Civil Liberties Union oppose this type of screening stating that there is no no realistic way to predict the national origin of a potential attacker. What do you think?
Reuters News Service
NEW YORK (Reuters) – More stringent screening launched on Monday for airline passengers from 14 nations, part of a crackdown after the botched Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound flight, are ineffective and unconstitutional, civil liberty groups charged.
The tighter security measures, which range from passengers being patted down to advanced explosives detection and full-body scans, constitute racial profiling when there is no realistic way to predict the national origin of a potential attacker, the American Civil Liberties Union said.
The measures announced by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration affect passengers arriving from Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria — nations listed as “state sponsors of terrorism” — as well as Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.
“Every individual flying into the U.S. from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening,” the TSA said. (READ MORE)
