Unruly Airline Passengers hit with mass fines

 Even Fox News reports on this bad behavior.

"Rowdy airline passengers have now racked up a record $1 million in potential fines this year, a toll of the tumult in the sky as travelers have returned after most were grounded by the pandemic in 2020."

And one major hub, Atlanta, Georgia. is recorded as:

"A passenger was fined $30,000 for an incident involving a Frontier Airlines flight from Atlanta to New York, N.Y., on Jan. 3, 2021. The passenger was allegedly interfering with the flight attendants’ deplaning procedures upon arrival. The FAA said he attempted to gain entry to the flight deck by physically assaulting two flight attendants, threatening to kill one of them, and demanding them to open the door. The captain called for law enforcement to meet him after exiting."

No one likes to have to wear a mask while squeezed in a metal tube flying 30,000 feet in the air at 600 mph, but it is essential given the fact that many people have refused to get the free vaccination.  Had we been good people this past spring and summer, the conditions in the air would likely have been better.

Grow up people.  It is not about your freedom, it is about your family, friends and neighbors.

Remember Red Green's famous quote:

"Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together."

American Airlines to cut service to 15 cities

 You can imagine that people reading that headline immediately scanned to the list to see if their town is on the list.  I wasn't too worried about Hartford/Springfield, better known as Bradley International Airport (BDL).

But I still scanned to see if the list included any of the towns I may have flown or might in the future.

None, thank goodness.  But for 9 of the 15, AA was the only air service.  This means of course that people will need to drive to a larger airport.

It has been a while, but I remember flying to a small airport once and it was cheaper than just flying to the major hub.  Maybe those days are gone.

My UK friend noted it appeared that flights were as busy as usual in the US compare to the EU.  I answered, yes, the flights are still there but empty.

(Waiting in KEF)

For southern New England see this website.

And for western Europe, see this one.

I have no plans to fly in the near future.

Boeing's nightmare

It has been over four months since I had a first hand experience with the Boeing 737 Max cancellation fever.  I was returning home from Nevada when I got a text alerting me that a delay would mean I would miss my connection later that day.  Scrambling around to find my options, we opted to take the delayed flight, spend a night in Dallas - Fort Worth and make the connection the next day.

Sorry folks, red eyes are not my idea of fun, although I realize it is a function of those transatlantic flights we need to do to get across the Big Pond.

Seems that the grounded that day in March has caused thousands of rescheduled flights, cancellations of orders from airlines for new planes and is otherwise is a big pain.

Also seems to be a time of name calling, from blaming Boeing, the airlines and the federal government for pawning off the responsibility of regulatory oversight.

Seems to be a time to increase regulations, if not to reduce deaths, but the economic pain experienced by the airlines AND the consumer since the market place has failed here.

And while deaths in aircraft pales in comparison to auto deaths, when it happens, it is quite dramatic.

Flights and the Great Circle Route

Ever wonder about the route your plane takes between two cities?   Since we are so used to looking a flat 2D maps, our view of a straight line is often skewed, especially if the distance is great.

You might have used one of the flight tracking programs where the thousand aircraft are enlarged so much it looks like there will be a crash over the more populated parts of our planet!  The planes are the size of Connecticut at a global view but reduce as we zoom in.

See also my 17 March 2010 report.

So first, fire up your copy of Google Earth.  Don't have it, download it today (it works on cellphones too).

From this program you can zoom out, just like you were in space, and because the earth is a globe, (sorry flat earth people) you will only see half the globe at a time. You will see for example that a flight from NYC to London takes you fairly close to Iceland.  From the flat map view, it would appear to to a arch across the Atlantic.

But sometimes, we can't take the shortest route.  Some countries don't like foreign aircraft flying over their territory.  See this interesting article about how flight paths can change.

So this might explain why a trip can vary in length.  Happy flying.

Travel this weekend?

Are you or a family member flying right now?  Trying to get back home or to school after the Thanksgiving Break?  Well, check out this site to see live air trafic.

And currently not too many delays right now!  Safe travels.

Caribbean Flights disrupted?

Check out what is in the air in the Caribbean or anywhere else for that matter using this really cool site   Currently 89% of flights have been canceled at Miami (MIA).

75,000 flights cancelled since 1 December 2013

and 14,000 just this week!

Seems weather is the big culprit.  But can we really call weather the culprit since we may be the blame for at least some. of it?

The site FlightAware keeps these kinds of records (reported by wire services). The site is also good for tracking flights and even estimating arrival times, something I do when I need to pick up someone at the local airport (BDL).  Also you can weather reports, news reports related to the industry and lots of useful information for us, the client/passengers.

Thanksgiving and Flying

In my opinion, this is not the time to travel.  When we first moved to New England, we tried to drive to family on the East Coast and every trip took at least twice as long and frequently was disrupted by by weather.  Today is likely going to be the same for those who need to go to "Grandmas."

Track the flights on this website and put in your local air[port code.

Safe travels!

Flight Tracking

I use flightaware.com to track flights now. It is useful to estimate the time I need to leave home and travel to BDL. Since the airport is 18 miles away, I can figure out when to leave based on the estimated time of arrival for returning flights.

But for right now I am tracking AA3873 from Bradley to Chicago. My wife is over Lake Michigan as I type this.