New airport threat: killer electric carts?

by Scott Carmichael on

In the video clip above, you’ll see a scene I have always dreaded when I walk through an airport terminal – about 35 seconds into the clip, an electric airport cart slams into passengers. What caused the crash is something that should have been prevented – the driver picked up a passenger, and that passenger placed her suitcase on top of the accelerator pedal.

Before the driver even had a chance to warn others, he had been thrown off the cart and ended up underneath it. It took seven passengers to lift the cart off the driver. Four passengers ended up in the hospital, but none were seriously injured.

According to ABC News, there have been 19 other incidents involving electric carts at Bush Intercontinental alone – and that is in just three years. I understand the need for an airport transportation method that can aid the elderly or disabled – but these carts can pick up quite a bit of speed, and any time you combine a very heavy and fast moving vehicle around crowds, something is bound to go wrong. I’d prefer that the carts only be allowed in the terminal during off-peak hours, and that airlines only use wheelchairs during peak hours. Then again, I’ve sometimes been picked up at the lounge by a cart for a speedy trip to the gate, and I didn’t mind that one bit…

What do you think?

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More flight cancellations in Ireland and Scotland

by Sean McLachlan on

Those hoping that yesterday’s closure of airports in Ireland and parts of Scotland would only be a one-day affair were disappointed when the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull came back with renewed strength.

Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, and numerous smaller airports have closed, and the Civil Aviation Authority says northern England may also be affected. Officials added that airports further south, such as Heathrow and Gatwick, will probably escape for now.

Airplanes are not only forbidden to fly through thick concentrations of volcanic ash, but must also stay more than 60 nautical miles (69 terrestrial miles) away from them.

Officials say the ash will be thickest over Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and western Scotland all of today.

The last time Eyjafjallajökull erupted was 1821, when it ejected clouds of ash on and off for more than a year.

The ten safest African airlines

by Sean McLachlan on

Airlines based in Africa have a bad reputation. When the European Union published a blacklist of airlines banned from flying in the EU, it included 111 carriers from 13 African countries. Carriers got on the list for having out-of-date planes (often Soviet-era “flying coffins”), poor government oversight in their own country, and not fixing problems pointed out by EU inspectors. You can read more about the criteria and the list here.

Airlines from other countries got on the list too, including a large number from Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines, but the preponderance of Africa-based carriers was noticeable.

In response, Flight Africa blog has published a list of the ten safest African airlines based on “attainment of IOSA Certification, number of accidents per flight and fatalities per passenger kilometres.” That last phrase actually made me wince. Here’s the list:

1. South African Airways
2. Ethiopian Airlines
3. Air Botswana
4. Air Mauritius
5. Air Seychelles
6. Kenya Airways
7. TunisAir
8. Royal Air Maroc
9. Nigerian Eagle Airlines
10. Air Zimbabwe

This is an encouraging list because it includes carriers from every region of Africa and some of the most popular tourist destinations. One common mantra of adventure travelers is that they’re helping the local economy with the money they spend. This list proves they can start helping before their adventure even starts.

Icelandic volcano disrupts flights again

by Sean McLachlan on

Irish airline operators had a bad case of déjà-vu this morning when a cloud of ash from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull swept over the Emerald Isle and grounded all flights. The Outer Hebrides islands of Scotland were also affected. Flights in the rest of the UK operated normally.

The Irish Aviation Authority canceled all flights in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland starting at 7am local time and allowed them to resume at 1pm local time. The few small airports affected in the Hebrides also plan to reopen sometime in the afternoon.

The ash cloud only reached about 20,000 feet so flights crossing Irish airspace at cruising altitude were not affected. The cloud was thin and sparse compared with the massive one that grounded flights for six days last month. It thinned out to safe levels by the afternoon, prompting aviation officials to reopen service.

Clear speedy airport security lanes making a comeback?

by Scott Carmichael on

Last year, Clear abruptly shut down – but after a bankruptcy hearing last month, a large portion of the business has been handed over to new owners. And these owners are very serious about getting the service back online as soon as they can.

With Clear, passengers paid a yearly subscription fee, and were able to jump to the front of the line at airport security checkpoints. The service was fairly successful, but obviously not enough of a success to stay commercially viable.

The new company, called AlClear, spent $6 million to acquire the remaining assets of the company that operated Clear. Sadly, those assets did not include the individual contracts with airport operators, which means the new venture may not arrive at your airport as soon as you’d hope.

Within the next couple of weeks, former subscribers will be contacted, offering them the chance to reactivate their subscriptions. If airport negotiations go as planned, AlClear may begin service this fall. The fee for AlClear will be $179 – plus an additional $50 to convert the individual plan into a family plan. Customers that do not wish to reactivate their old Clear account will have their personal information purged from the database.

Whether or not AlClear will be able to overcome the hurdles that put Clear out of business remains to be seen – the price was not the biggest issue Clear faced. Lack of availability around the nation and a security breach probably hurt them more than anything else. Personally, I wish AlClear lots of luck – I’m a huge fan of airport biometrics, and have been ever since I signed up for the Privium system at Amsterdam Airport back in 2002.