October 1, 2009 by kb3ljm.

Roger Flessing was on an American Airlines flight to Seattle recently when he began speaking with his son on his iPhone.

Unsure of how his action might be received by others, the Tacoma resident says he spoke discreetly. But soon, he says, flight attendants were leaning over, asking for a demonstration on how to make calls on their mobile phones. “They were saying, ‘Wow this is great. We have to check our schedule, and we couldn’t do that before,’ ” says Flessing, who flies often for his job as a communications executive for the non-profit relief organization World Vision.
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September 7, 2009 by kb3ljm.

In-flight cellphone usage is creeping ever closer to the United States. Bloomberg News  reports Aeromexico, “Mexico’s largest airline, said it will let passengers use cellular phones on board its planes, after the (Mexican) government lifted a ban on such calls during flights.” The airline tells Bloomberg that flight attendants will be able to interrupt cell calls “if necessary” during flights.
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July 19, 2009 by kb3ljm.

Now that it has become the first major airline to outfit its entire fleet with wireless Internet service, AirTran Airways is offering passengers a few do’s and don’t’s.

Tip #134. “The lavatory is not your personal conference room.”

The bathroom admonition is one of several included in the primer Internetiquette: A Guide to Keeping Everyone In Line, While They’re Online that AirTran (AAI) will place in every seat pocket following its announcement Tuesday that the Internet is now accessible on each of its 136 planes.
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March 9, 2009 by kb3ljm.

Airports are catching on to the Twitter trend. Baltimore/Washington International now has a Twitter account
used to deliver airport status reports and travel information to travelers’ smartphones. Twitter is an online service used to send and receive short messages no longer than 140 characters.
Southwest Airlines has opened its priority security lanes at Seattle-Tacoma. The “Fly By” lanes are
dedicated screening lanes for its top-paying customers and frequent fliers. Launched last year, they’re available
at 64 airports, including Baltimore/Washington, Dallas Love Field and Phoenix Sky Harbor.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2009-03-08-updates-airports-airlines_N.htm

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February 24, 2009 by kb3ljm.

Southwest Airlines Co. has started testing wireless Internet access aboard one of its jets with plans to expand the test by early next month.

Southwest said Tuesday that the test will last a few months and eventually include four aircraft.

During the test, passengers will be able to log on free using their own laptop or smart phone — cellular technology won’t work.
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July 18, 2008 by kb3ljm.

After a 15-month trial at Singapore Changi, a new surveillance system that detects foreign objects and debris on runways will be installed at Chicago O’Hare later this year.

Installed by aviation technology firm SITA, the system uses a series of cameras installed along the runway to constantly capture surface images. The images are sent back to computers, allowing airport officials to verify the presence of a foreign object and determine whether to deploy a clean-up crew.

Traditionally, airports have relied on radar and manual inspection to detect foreign objects on runways.

Umar Khan of SITA says testing at Changi showed that it was able to detect objects less than an inch in size from 330 yards away. Changi is installing the system on two of its runways.

The 2000 Concorde crash in France was determined to have been caused by runway debris. A metal strip on the runway caused a tire to explode on takeoff, damaging the supersonic jet.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-07-13-airport-checkin_N.htm

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July 18, 2008 by kb3ljm.

While airline cuts have passenger traffic on the decline at many U.S. airports, Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) reported its busiest May ever this year. According to the airport, 1,913,777 passengers flew through BWI in May, an increase of 1.8% when compared to the same month a year ago. Southwest was the airport’s top carrier in May with 1,008,912 passengers, a 1.5% increase for the carrier from May 2007. AirTran was BWI’s fastest-growing airline in May. AirTran’s year-over-year passenger count at BWI soared 27.5% to 270,984. BWI says it has had 21.4 million passengers during the last 12 months it has statistics for, making that the busiest 12-month period in the its history.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=52838794.blog

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April 8, 2008 by kb3ljm.

“Baltimore/Washington is the latest airport to embrace the new landscaping trend of installing artificial turf on the tarmac. It’s ideal for unpaved areas on the tarmac because foreign debris in dirt and soil near runways can be safety hazards, says Joe Dobson of AvTurf. Airports have typically grown natural grass in these areas, but grass can be difficult and expensive to maintain and attract unwanted animals and birds. In addition, Astroturf is being used to replace the green paint or yellow X signs used to help pilots distinguish decommissioned taxiways. Painted asphalt can be hard to see at night for pilots, especially if paint fades, says Dobson. Among airports that have recently laid down artificial turf: New York’s John F. Kennedy, Atlanta, Detroit, Toronto, Chicago O’Hare, Chicago Midway and Boston.”

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2008/04/airport-check-i.html

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March 28, 2008 by kb3ljm.

From USA TODAY’s Airport Check-in column: “Last fall, Iowa’s Sioux Gateway Airport gave up trying to jettison the SUX airport identifier code and embraced it. T-shirts, caps and, now, coffee mugs, luggage tags and bumper stickers sport the ‘Fly SUX’ slogan. There was even a Valentine’s Day ‘Luv SUX’ T-shirt. ‘People have been buying this stuff online, at a downtown store and at the gift shop in the airport,’ says airport director Rick McElroy, who adds that the airport allows 30 minutes of free parking to accommodate shoppers.”

“Now, the airport has removed all seven of its leased payphones and replaced them with four phones that let callers make free local and toll-free calls. ‘No one was really using the pay phones anyway,’ McElroy says. ‘These days, most people use their cellphones. But now people are using the free phones for local calls instead of burning up their cell minutes.’ ”

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2008/03/airport-chec-11.html

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March 21, 2008 by kb3ljm.

Emirates says in a press release this afternoon that it has become “the first airline in the world to commercially launch an in-flight mobile telephone service, affording even greater convenience to passengers wishing to stay connected while traveling. The first authorized mobile phone call made from a commercial flight was made today at 30,000 feet en route to Casablanca, onboard an Emirates Airbus A340-300 aircraft — the first in the airline’s fleet to be equipped with the AeroMobile system.” Emirates CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum says: “As the world leader in innovation for our customers, we are delighted to now offer them the choice of using their own mobile phones to contact friends, family or colleagues while flying with us.”
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