This week’s big news was the massive American Airlines order split between rival manufacturers and the potential partial shut-down of the Federal Aviation Administration. But there were other things going on, below.
- There were hundreds of stories on the American Air order, but I really liked this one in Aviation Week from my colleague, Darren Shannon. In this story, Shannon explains why the carrier had to split its order between Boeing and Airbus.
- Aviation Week has been all over the potential shut-down of FAA because Congress can’t get it together and stop doing short-term reauthorizations over and over again.
- Delta Air Lines and US Airways finally got approval from the Dept. of Transportation to do a swap that will give Delta more slots at LaGuardia Airport and US Airways more slots at Washington National Airport, reports USA Today’s Today in the Sky blog.
- Back when I worked at Delta Air Lines, it was during a time when the carrier was struggling to make its pension fund more stable. With questions on what would happen to the fund in the long term, there were cases where pilots divorced their wives so their spouses could get a lump-sum payment, but they would still live together. The airlines caught on and Continental took nine of its pilots to court over what they called “sham” divorces. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling dismissing the lawsuit, reports the Houston Chronicle.
- Anyone who’s ever flown on a plane knows the drill — when the boarding call is made, people start flocking to the boarding gate even though their row isn’t called. Sometimes it’s so bad you feel like a salmon spawning upstream when it’s time for you to board. Which is why I read Scott McCartney’s Middle Seat Terminal blog post on the boarding process with interest. In my humble opinion, I think Southwest Airlines has it right.
We have some really crazy stuff in this week’s edition of Strange But True Aviation News, including airline panty checks, the Octomom having a bit of kid trouble in business class and folks with TSA screener issues. Next week I’ll be in aviation geek heaven, covering the annual EAA AirVenture air show, the world’s largest. So I have to decide — will I try and post from the show or do a best-of next week? We’ll see. Meanwhile, enjoy your weekend!
