Thousands of passengers stranded as low-cost airline Zoom collapses

UK - The carrier, which carried 500,000 passengers a year, became the latest victim of soaring fuel prices and the growing crisis in the aviation industry.
Its sudden demise left passengers having to find alternative arrangements to get home from airports in the USA, Canada and Bermuda.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are understood to be ready to fly passengers home with special one-way deals, following talks with Zoom.
The collapse also wrecked the holiday plans of thousands of people who were hoping to fly west across the Atlantic.
Meanwhile the position of those who have booked to fly in the future is more complex. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Online travel sites lack personal touch

Fewer leisure travelers are booking online, because they're frustrated by online travel reservation sites, according to e-commerce research by eMarketer. "The fact that fewer travelers are booking online is not due to economic concerns — online travel bookers are an affluent demographic — it is caused by frustrations related to the planning and booking capabilities of online travel agencies," says Jeff Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer.
The result is "a renewed appreciation for the expertise and personalized services offered by traditional travel agents," Grau says. This is a complete reversal of what's been happening for the last decade. Looks like human travel agents aren't becoming extinct after all. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Airfares expected to be 20% higher over holidays

Average airfares out of Atlanta will be up more than 20 percent for Thanksgiving and Christmas compared with last year, according to an air fare forecasting Web site.
For Thanksgiving, Atlanta fares are expected to be up 27 percent, an increase of about $86 round trip on the average fare, according to Live Search Farecast, a travel site that gives airfare predictions. For Christmas travel, Atlanta fares are expected to be 22 percent higher on average, about a $73 increase round trip. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

American Airline offers in-flight Internet service

American Airlines Inc. said Wednesday it has launched Gogo, a mobile broadband service that allows passengers on American's 767-200 aircraft to access the Web, e-mail, instant messaging and virtual private networks. The service is available to passengers taking nonstop flights from New York to San Francisco, New York to Los Angeles and New York to Miami. Once the flights with Gogo access reach 10,000 feet, passengers can access corporate virtual private networks, e-mail, instant messaging and the Web using their laptops, smart phones and PDAs. For a fee of $12.95, passengers get full access to the broadband service. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

150 Are Dead in Madrid Plane Crash

PARIS — Nearly 150 people were killed Wednesday when an airliner en route to the Canary Islands swerved off the end of a runway at Madrid’s airport during takeoff, Spanish officials said. The plane, an MD-82, carried about 175 people, and most were feared dead. A Spanish emergency official, Herbigio Corral, said only 28 people had survived, Reuters reported. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Clear Channel to remove airport ad at airline's request

MINNEAPOLIS — A unit of Clear Channel Communications Inc. will take down an anti-nuclear billboard at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at the request of Northwest Airlines, the advertising company said Monday. The billboard was one of two placed by the Union of Concerned Scientists at the Twin Cities and Denver airports ahead of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions to urge the parties' presidential candidates to reduce the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, said Elliott Negin, a spokesman for the group. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

American Airlines to waive baggage fees for military members

EL PASO - American Airlines announced Wednesday that it will waive a $100 excess baggage fee that military service members preparing for deployment overseas have been charged for at least the past five years. The announcement that troops carrying service-required items would not be charged for a third checked bag came a little more than two weeks after a story in the El Paso Times detailed the experience of two Texas Army National Guard Soldiers who were flying out of El Paso. Both were charged for extra baggage as they headed for training before deploying to Iraq later this year. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Australian airline Qantas grounds 6 jets

Australia - Australia's international air carrier, Qantas, says it removed six of its jets from service, because it appears a step in the maintenance check was not completed.Three flights were cancelled overnight and another eight this morning after the Boeing 737 planes were grounded. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Airline oxygen failure alleged

American Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating reports that some oxygen masks failed to work during an emergency landing last week at Los Angeles International Airport, officials said Monday. Several masks did not deploy from overhead bins or completely failed to provide oxygen to passengers aboard the Boeing 757 aircraft, according to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. "We're looking into those reports, but we don't know how many oxygen masks were affected at this time," Gregor said. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Frommer's Travel Guides Now Available on Apple iPhone and iPod Touch

DURHAM, North Carolina - Modality, the leader in transforming premium, branded learning and lifestyle content for personal handheld media players, has begun releasing Frommer's Travel Guides for iPhone and iPod Touch. Frommer's is the market leader in travel guides, and a branded imprint of Wiley Publishing, Inc., helping novice and world-class travelers navigate their journeys with ease. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Grounded Qantas jet had 95 defects

Australia - A Qantas jet grounded in Melbourne today because of noise from an air-conditioning fault was the same plane that returned from routine maintenance in Malaysia two months ago with 95 defects. The 737, registered as VH-TJU, is the same aircraft on which Qantas engineers found 95 defects that had been missed during contract maintenance work by Malaysian Airlines in Kuala Lumpur. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Osteens in Court from Airline Incident

A flight incident from 2005 with a flight attendant says she lost her faith and suffered a hemorrhoidal flare-up after being assaulted by Victoria Osteen headed to court today seeking a jury to hear the lawsuit against the wife of the evangelist Joel Osteen.
Sharon Brown accuses Victoria Osteen, co-pastor of Lakewood Church in Huston, Texas, of throwing her against an airplane bathroom door and then elbowing her in the chest during a confrontation on a Continental Airlines flight to Vail, Colorado, back on Dec. 19th of 2005. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Quarter of all U.S. airline flights late

WASHINGTON - One-quarter of all flights by U.S. airlines were late in the first half of 2008, with the industry recording its second-worst on-time performance rate in 14 years despite carrying 6 million fewer passengers, the government said on Tuesday. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Travel Industry Should Inform Travelers About Malaria, Say Doctors

Tour operators and airlines are wasting an ideal opportunity to warn travellers about the risk of contracting malaria in specific countries, say infectious disease experts on the British Medical Journal website. The authors reviewed 27 travel brochures from British tour companies and found that only 12 contained any information about malaria, yet they all featured holidays to African countries where the disease is endemic. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

No more free drinks from US Airways

CHARLOTTE -- Starting today you will no longer get a complimentary beverage on US Airways flights. All non-alcoholic drinks will be available for $2 on domestic coach flights, and all alcoholic beverages will now cost $7 instead of $5. These changes come at a time when the airline is battling rising fuel costs.
“It’s just another burden for the consumer, that’s all,” said US Airways customer Donna Krehl. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

House Passes FAA Safety Legislation

The House passed legislation that would overhaul the Federal Aviation Administration's approach to airline safety, following disclosures of lax oversight by agency inspectors. The bill would force the FAA to adopt two safety recommendations it has resisted in recent weeks: periodically rotating supervisory inspectors to ensure they don't get cozy with airlines, and establishing an independent group to examine safety concerns raised by FAA employees. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

More Airline Problems For Passengers

American Airlines canceled five flights that were to leave John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Thursday as a result of a glitch that delayed at least 1,000 pieces of luggage, an airline spokeswoman said.
The software glitch caused a conveyor belt problem in the airline's bag room Wednesday, airline officials said. That prevented the airline from getting passenger's luggage onto their flights. Only 10 to 20 percent of bags made it, American Airlines said Wednesday. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News

Airline passengers experiencing terminal stress

When a recent flight from Miami to Cali, Colombia, was delayed five hours on the ground, the bathrooms were picked clean of water, soap, toilet paper and paper towels, potentially causing a health risk, a doctor on board said.
On another flight, a Fort Lauderdale-bound plane lingered on the runway in Newark, N.J., for so long that passengers rebelled and began using their cellphones and leaving their seats, defying the captain's warnings. More... Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - Nutty News