Gadlinks for Monday 7.6.09

by Brenda Yun on


Aloha, Gadling readers! Another week is upon us. Here are this Monday’s Gadlinks.

‘Til tomorrow, have a great evening!

More Gadlinks here.

Passenger prevents lengthy delay – fixes faulty plane

by Scott Carmichael on

A passenger on a Thomas Cook flight became the hero of the day when he was able to fix a fault on the plane that was scheduled to bring him and his fellow passengers back home from Menorca.

The plane had developed a fault and was destined to be stuck at the airport for 8 hours awaiting the arrival of a UK based mechanic.

Instead of waiting for this, the passenger identified himself as a licensed mechanic with an affiliate of the airline, and was cleared to perform the maintenance work.

After a brief repair, the plane was on its way back home with just a 35 minute delay, instead of the 10 or 11 hours it would have taken if the plane was made to wait on the UK mechanic.

From now on, I’d like the airlines to load a mechanic on any of my flights, along with a doctor and a decent chef. The airline announced that they were “very grateful he was on the flight that day”. I’m sure the passengers share that sentiment.

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Will passengers stand for latest Ryanair stunt?

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Just when you think Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary can’t come up with another way to mess with his passengers, he takes away the seats. The European low-cost carrier’s latest way to cut costs and cram more people on planes is to stick them on stools with seatbelts. According to the Daily Mail, he’s even spoken with Boeing about making this happen.

The nice expression for this, used Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara, is “vertical seating.”

But, it’s not a sure thing. The Irish Aviation Authority needs to give him the green light. Something tells me that there has to be a safety issue buried in this. There just has to be. If not, well, let them stand.

The airline estimates that it could increase passengers per flight by 30 percent with the standing room approach and at the same time cut costs by 20 percent. That’s a pretty big gap between revenue and expenses – the sort of financial upside that most airlines have been unable to figure out.

J.D. Power North American airline study says traditional airlines suck

by Scott Carmichael on

J.D. Power released the results of their yearly airline satisfaction survey, and the results paint a pretty bleak picture of the traditional carriers. Eight of these legacy carriers were reviewed on 8 different aspects of their service:

Overall satisfaction, reservation experience, check-in experience, boarding/deplaning/baggage experience, aircraft experience, flight crew experience, in-flight services and costs/fees experience.

Of the eight traditional carriers, Alaska Airlines took the top spot, followed by Continental Airlines. Alaska did such a good job this year, that they scored 5/5 in 6 of the 8 categories. This fantastic result means they take home the J.D. Powers award for 2009 airline satisfaction.

United Airlines and US Airways scored “about average” in just one category (in-flight services). In every other category, they scored just 2 points, which is also the lowest possible score. This is a pretty dismal score, and one that shows that United and US are in a serious mess.

Of the low cost carriers, Jet Blue took the prize, though their contest was a very close match between fellow low cost carriers Southwest Airlines and WestJet.

AirTran and Frontier scored mostly 2 pointers in each category, with Frontier managing to snag 2 3-pointers in in-flight experience and aircraft experience.

Bottom line is that the traditional carriers are in a boatload of trouble. As they keep chipping away at their services, and adding more fee based amenities, the low cost carriers have mastered the art of keeping passengers happy.

When you look at the in-flight services, airlines like JetBlue and Southwest outrank even the largest of the legacy carriers, and it has to be quite embarrassing for an airline like United to see the cheap airlines beat them in so many categories.

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Delay grounds entire airline for a month

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Delays in Newark are keeping an entire airline on the ground. We’ve seen how a single flight’s delay can have impacts at airlines across the country, but preventing an entire airline from going wheels up … that’s huge.

JetAmerica has had to defer its launch for a month, citing problems getting takeoff slots at Newark Liberty International Airport. This isn’t the first time an airline’s blamed an airport, but it must resonate with the many passengers who have spent too much time at Liberty gates thanks to delays.

Of course, this holdup is costing JetAmerica, the wannabe low-cost carrier, an absolute fortune. So far, it’s had to refund half a million dollars to more than 6,400 passengers, ostensibly because the folks in Newark temporarily clipped its wings.

If JetAmerica ever does really get off the ground, it will offer 34 flights a day, servicing such desirable destinations as Toledo, Lansing and South Bend.