March a good month for on-time arrivals

by Tom Johansmeyer on

We all love to hate the airlines, and on-time arrivals are among our largest gripes. There’s nothing worse (well, within reason) than seeing the toe-tapping that comes with the disgruntled looks of people waiting to pick you up … it’s not like they had to spend endless hours on the runway or circling LaGuardia. Well, in March, they weren’t as bad.

The 19 largest airlines in the country reported an improved rate of on-time flights compared to March 2008, according to some data from the Feds. Well, the bar wasn’t set very high. On-time results for March 2008 were 71.6 percent, according to the Department of Transportation‘s Bureau of Transportation Statistics and reached 78.4 percent this year. Before you get too excited, it’s down from 82.6 percent in February.

So, what does all this mean? Airlines were late almost a quarter of the time, and that includes the padding applied to routes. Aviation analyst Michael Boyd says that a flight from Binghamton, NY to New York City is scheduled for an hour and 15 minutes – not the 45 minutes it takes.

Aviation system delays were responsible for 7.3 percent of delays, with late arrivals from other planes kicking in another 6.5 percent. Factors within airlines’ control were responsible for almost 5 percent delays.

Extreme weather? A mere 0.62 percent.

Why you don’t stand near the jet engine on the tarmac

by Grant Martin on

Ever look out the side of your airplane while on the ground and see those red semicircles painted around the jet engine? Those are there for a reason. If the engine powers up quickly and someone is nearby, someone (or something) could easily get sucked in. Those red regions are the “no walk” zone.

But that’s what happened at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday when a Japan Airlines 747 was pushing back in preparation for its departure to Tokyo. As the engines powered up, a metal baggage container got too close to the engine and was swept up and lodged inside of the cowling. Oops.

Nobody was hurt in the incident, but I’m sure it’s a huge inconvenience for the passengers and airline who were displaced.

Software quick look – Flightstats for Android

by Scott Carmichael on

Yesterday, the folks at Flightstats.com added the first Android compatible flight tracker to the Google Android market. For those of you not up to date on the latest and greatest in the smartphone world, Android is the operating system developed by Google that powers the T-Mobile G1 (and several other phones).

Flightstats for Android offers several convenient travel features – live flight status, flight tracking with live map updates and airport/airline information.

Searching for flights is very simple, and can be done by flight number, route or even by airport. Search results show all flight numbers as well as any codeshare flight numbers.

The results can be added to a favorites list, making it easy to keep an eye on upcoming trips.

The application can be found in the Marketplace by searching for “flightstats”, it costs $5.99 which is about the most I’d be willing to pay for such an application, especially since a lot of the information provided can also be found for free on the web. That said, the application is very clean and easy to operate, the developers clearly put a lot of effort into designing the interface.

You can learn more about the application directly from Flightstats, or feel free to check out the screenshots I made of the application on my T-Mobile G1.

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Man stuffs his pants full of birds – tries to pass customs at LAX

by Scott Carmichael on

Some airport stories are so funny, you’d think we made them up.

Sony Dong was stopped at Los Angeles International airport last Tuesday, when customs officials noticed feathers and bird poop on his socks.

Upon inspection, the officers found more than a dozen songbirds strapped to his legs.

Now, once you get over the thought of flying with your legs covered in bird crap, imagine how bad it must have been for these poor birds.

Three red-whiskered bul-buls, four magpie robins and six shama thrush are now in quarantine, and Mr Dong is locked away, along with an accomplice. The men have been charged with conspiracy in an eight count indictment.

Worst of all, this isn’t even the first time (or the last) that people have tried this – back in February we wrote about a man arrested in Australia with 2 pigeons up his pants.

Man arrested for pointing his green laser at Phoenix planes

by Scott Carmichael on

You’d think that by now, enough people have seen the news warning us that shining a laser pointer at a commercial plane is a very bad idea?

Apparently, that news did not reach 19 year old Vincent Bodin in Phoenix, because this young man was just arrested for doing just that.

He’d been up to no good for several days, and it took a police helicopter to finally catch him.

The really stupid part? Mr. Bodin is a French citizen here on a student visa, which means he runs the very real risk of being deported back home. Crime does not pay, and being a total idiot pays even less.

The current generation laser pointers are extremely bright, you can purchase pen sized pointers with enough power to light a match, so imagine the intensity of that beam when it hits the cockpit window – most certainly not something a pilot will want to see when he’s on his final approach or take off.