Rochester tarmac delay: “lack of common sense”

by Tom Johansmeyer on

“There was a complete lack of common sense here,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said in a statement released yesterday. “It’s no wonder the flying public is so angry and frustrated.”

When 47 passengers were stranded overnight on the tarmac in Rochester, Minnesota, the pilot repeatedly asked for permission to deplane them. All the pilot wanted was to get the passengers off the plane.

Airline dispatchers refused, because TSA officials had left for the day … and not realizing that the passengers could be released to a “sterile” area. Passengers on the ExpressJet flight (which it operated for Continental) were stuck in the plane for close to six hours with nothing to eat but pretzels.

The pilot clearly advocated for his passengers and deserves the endless respect of anyone who’s been stuck on a plane. LaHood recognizes this fact, saying, “We have determined that the Express Jet crew was not at fault. In fact, the flight crew repeatedly tried to get permission to deplane the passengers at the airport or obtain a bus for them,” Secretary LaHood said.

LaHood continues, “The local representative of Mesaba Airlines improperly refused the requests of the captain to let her passengers off the plane. The representative incorrectly said that the airport was closed to passengers for security reasons, which led to this nightmare for those stuck on the plane.”

The representative of Mesaba, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Airlines and was the only airline on hand to assist Continental at the airport, told the pilot that the airport was closed and that there was nobody from the TSA to screen the passengers. This was incorrect, as passengers can be released as long as they remain in what the Transportation Department calls a “sterile area.”

Interviews with the passengers, flight crew and airport personnel have been conducted by the Transportation Department’s Aviation Enforcement Office, and the team has reviewed the audio recordings of conversations between the plane and the dispatcher. And, Continental’s customer service commitment, contingency plan for flight delays and contract of carriage were reviewed, making this, according to LaHood, “one of the most thorough investigations ever conducted by the Department’s Aviation Enforcement Office.”

Pending the results of the investigation, the Aviation Enforcement Office is considering the appropriate action to take against Mesaba. The group expects the investigation to e finished in a few weeks.

The Transportation Department has proposed regulations requiring contingency plans for airlines to adopt to address lengthy delays on the tarmac. These plans would then be incorporated into their contracts of carriage. The department has also asked for comment on whether it should set a single time standard after which carriers would be required to allow passengers to deplane. The Transportation Department intends to use the results of the Rochester investigation to help formulate a final rule that will provide airline passengers with better protection.

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Heathrow hires author to write about Heathrow

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Hate it? Embrace it! Heathrow Airport has decided to immortalize the plights of their passengers – rather than bury or ignore them. The airport has tapped best-selling author Alain de Botton – whose titles include The Consolations of Philosophy and How Proust Can Change Your Life – to spend a week in Terminal 5 and reveal what really happens in this environment.

He kicked off this project on Tuesday. Sometimes, he crashes behind a desk in the departures area, talking to passengers and just watching the action. But, he’s been given full access to Terminal 5 and the freedom to write whatever he wants (with the upside that someone will probably read it, unlike our endless frustrated tweets). De Botton’s plan is to show what goes on in a terminal, though he claims he’ll write about whatever he feels like.

Themes already coming to mind, apparently, are technology, globalization and consumerism, which suggests that this high-brow author is unlikely to dive into the muck now. I’m sure whatever he devises will be insightful … but how much does that matter when you’ve been stuck in a sweaty cabin for two hours and still haven’t pulled back from the gate?

The feds want to know how to make international travel better

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Here’s your chance to gripe! The U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries is looking for your thoughts … on how a questionnaire is structured. So, rather than weigh in on the issues facing the industry, you can set the framework for how you’ll respond later. Yeah, it seems like a bit of bureaucratic overhead, but let’s face it: this is the language of government. And, you have the opportunity to shape the lexicon.

The questionnaire will be open to U.S. and non-U.S. residents to provide some insights on how to make international travel to and from the United States easier. You have to provide your recommendations by 5 PM on October 1, 2009, and then begin to hold your breath. The changes are expected to be put to use in January 2011!

So far, it’s pretty bland, so we’re relying on you to spice it up a bit.

Thought you’d heard the last of Clear? Think again!

by Scott Carmichael on

Clear, the bankrupt airport service that let travelers speed through the checkpoint, abruptly closed up shop last month.

The company had burned through all its cash, so within a matter of hours, the entire service was gone, and customers were left with a useless membership, to a bankrupt service.

Almost 260,000 people were also left without any way to get their money back, as Clear made it very clear (pardon the pun) that they wouldn’t be handing out any refunds.

Thousands of customers signed up and renewed each week, and even people that paid for the service the same day Clear shut down, were out of their money, and had to resort to credit card chargebacks.

Now, even though Clear is gone, they are working behind the scenes to make things worse. A court ordered the company to refrain from selling the customer information collected from the service.

It isn’t entirely clear why they wanted to sell the data, but it is very troubling that a company with very strict privacy rules would even consider violating their own membership agreement. Their database contains everything from names, birth dates, social security numbers, and numerous biometric entries.

Last month, Verified Identity Pass (the company that created Clear) issued the following statement:

“Personal information is safe – all airport kiosks have been wiped clean, and Lockheed Martin (the IT provider for Clear) has started wiping all the databases containing Clear customer data. No customer data will ever be sold, and once the cleaning process is done, there will be no traces of personal information left.”

Now that they are in court making a case for being allowed to sell personal data, obviously means they were lying when they wrote that statement.

Another development is even more troubling – I have been hearing from Clear members that they are receiving phone calls from Clear employees, asking whether they’d be interested in signing up for the service should it start up again.

It is obvious that something is going on behind the scenes – either a buyer was found for the entire service, or a new company is planning to start from scratch, picking up the pieces left behind. Whether they’ll be able to do this with the membership database maintained by Clear will be up to the courts.

Airports go green with new eco-friendly initiatives

by Katie Hammel on

Airports are little cities unto themselves. Many are even large enough to have their own zip codes. With so many people coming in and out, cars dropping off and picking up, and planes departing and landing, airports produce a whole lot of air pollution and physical trash. But, many are making an effort to reduce their environmental impact by implementing new green features. Here are some of the coolest green initiatives at airports around the world.

Using Alternative Power
Last July, Boston Logan Airport installed 20 wind turbines that will offset about 3% of the building’s annual energy needs (doesn’t sound like much, but consider the amount an airport uses), and it’s not the only airport investing in alternative sources of energy. The airports of Munich, Zurich, San Francisco and Denver have also installed solar panels to help power their buildings. Dallas/Fort Worth Airport converted its bus and shuttle fleet to run on compressed natural gas and hydrogen-based fuel, as has Mineta San Jose. Heathrow is testing its new Personal Transport Pods, battery-powered, zero-emission vehicles that will whisk passengers from the terminal to the parking lot, and Boston provides preferred parking spots to drivers of hybrid cars.

Refilling Empty Water Bottles
The Portland Airport allows travelers coming through the security line with water bottles to dump the liquid but keep the container to refill once they pass security. That doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize that other airports, like Chicago O’Hare, require the bottles to be thrown out. Not only does that policy generate tons of unnecessary waste, but all those full or half-full bottles weigh more and therefore the removal produces more emissions. Portland’s rule seems pretty green in comparison. San Francisco Airport goes one step further than Portland by providing water refill stations past the security checkpoint so people can refill their water bottles free of charge.

Recycling and Composting
Many airports have limited recycling programs in place, but some are going above and beyond when it comes to making sure that nothing that can be recycled gets added to a landfill. Seattle-Tacoma Airport, rated by the Clean Airport Partnership as one of the greenest in the country, charges concessionaires by the pound for waste(but doesn’t charge for recycling), encouraging vendors to recycle as much as possible. Portland makes it easy on flyers as well by providing a “single sort” recycle bin. Everything gets tossed in one bin and later sorted by a recycling company, so people don’t have to worry about which receptacle they throw their items into.

Seattle doesn’t end its recycling efforts with paper, plastic, glass and aluminum – it also composts 145 tons of coffee grounds per year and recycles 1,000 gallons of cooking oil each month, which is then used to produced biodiesel fuel. Munich Airport has a similar program: the organic waste from the airport’s restaurants is collected, sent to a farm, and used as pig feed. San Francisco hopes to require its concessionaires to serve all food in containers that can be composted and turned into fertilizer and Denver Airport will begin its own composting program this January.

Other green airport practices include using energy-efficient LCD screens on all computers and monitors, landscaping with native plants, installing low-flow toilets, and replacing paper towel dispensers with electric hand dryers. With the amount of waste and emissions airports produce as a result of their sheer size, the have a long way to go to truly be called “green”, but it’s nice to know that many are taking steps to reduce their environmental impact in whatever small ways they can.