Cookie Monster Ponders United & Continental Merger

POST EDITED 30-APRIL-2011 at 9:25am EST : This post erroneously originally stated the video in this post was created by Jon Ostrower. The post is corrected to reflect that Jon posted a video created by ‘Jetsetter.’   Flightglobal’s Jon Ostrower, author of FlightBlogger, posted a video, from ‘Jetsetter,’ today that ponders the United Airlines –…

How Not To Win Passengers & Influence Travelers On Twitter

Many times in my life my father encouraged me to read Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends and Influence People,” and while I’ve never quite finished the book, many of the basic principals of the book have carried over to building corporate social media engagement.   Recently the Twitter tweets of a corporate jet service…

TSA Pats Down A Six Year Old … It’s A Non-Story

Every few days a non-story seems to make its way into the headlines and go viral through the internet, generally ignoring major facts and factors. This week’s non-story that has become a major story once again involves the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), there are many valid stories that can be reported on regarding the TSA,…

What Is An MD-10? It’s A DC-10 … sort of

Sometimes questions come up time and time again because even among the biggest airplane geeks, and experienced aviation journalists,  not everyone knows all the variants of all the aircraft flying around in the skies above our heads. As an airplane geek myself, it is widely known that I have a penchant for ‘three-holers,’ ie: planes…

Can The Shoura Council Damage Saudi Arabian Airlines’ Potential?

Saudi Arabian Airlines has been positioning its self, and its subsidiary businesses, to be privatized and become profitable.  With business units already being spun off from the airline and succeeding as independent profitable businesses, such as the airline catering division, the primary focus is for the airline division to take center stage for becoming independent…

When an Airbus A380 and a Bombardier CRJ-700 meet …

New York’s JFK International Airport is known to be an extremely congested airport, and sometimes stark reminders of how dangerous airport taxiways can be interrupt the perfectly choreographed movements of airplanes that appear to be effortless along the taxiways and ramps.   Yesterday evening as Comair’s Delta Connection Flight 6293, a Bombardier CRJ-700 (CR7), taxied…

Air India’s “Where Is – As Is” Sale of Its Airbus A310s

Airlines around the world routinely sell aircraft they no longer need. Aircraft are sold due to age, fleet commonality, converted to freighters and some are just scrapped. As Air India modernizes its fleet and seeks additional liquid capital in the process it has arranged a somewhat unusual sale to be directly carried out by an…

This Month Three Years Ago The World Lost Four Airlines

It was a rough year for airlines in 2008, fuel prices were climbing at impossible rates, passenger numbers were dropping, the introduction of ancillary fees were being introduced and airlines of all sizes were feeling the impact around the world. As April 2008 began the writing was on the wall for some airlines that managed…

Who Takes Top Honours For Best April Fools Gag? WestJet & TSA

I’ll be the first one to admit it, I really don’t like April Fools Day … especially when its perpetuated by legitimate news and editorial organizations, large corporations and government entities using April Fools Day to create fake news stories.  The intertwining of legitimate news and gag news stories crosses the line and muddies the…

Flight Attendants Smuggle Over 63,000 Pounds Of Euro Coins!

Sometimes the logistics of a crime seems so unlikely that the fact that it happened make the story even more fascinating. One such story is unfolding in Germany as six Lufthansa employees, four of them flight attendants, have been arrested after smuggling more than 63,000 pounds of discarded, out of circulation, €1 and €2 coins…