Atlanta airport nation’s busiest

by Justin Glow on

The results are in: for the third year in a row, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest (in terms of flights) in the United States. How many flights do you need to log to become the busiest in the nation? Lots.

“The Atlanta airport logged 994,466 flights in 2007, up 1.8 percent from 976,447 flights in 2006,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration. “Its rival, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, was listed second busiest, with 935,000 flights in 2007.”

Atlanta’s airport was also the busiest in terms of passengers (as of 2006, the most recent year with available data) with 41.35 million travelers bouncing around its terminals.

The heavy load can be blamed on a mixture of two things, a spokesman for AirTran said. “… you have the world’s largest hub in Delta‘s Atlanta hub. AirTran operates the world’s largest low-cost carrier hub.”

Boondoggles: Way less funny than they sound

by Aaron Hotfelder on

As if U.S. taxpayers needed another reason to doubt whether their taxes were being spent well. Yesterday, USA Today reported on the Essential Air Service program: “Each day, about 3,000 passengers enjoy mostly empty, heavily subsidized flights, financed by a 30-year-old program that requires the government to guarantee commercial air service to scores of small communities that can’t support it themselves.”

The Department of Transportation apparently pays about $110-million dollars a year to a couple small airlines, ostensibly to keep citizens of rural communities a cheap flight away from an urban hub. What the program has actually done, according to its critics, is to keep small airlines artificially profitable and “waste money by providing what amounts to luxury travel to people within driving distance of a larger airport.”

To get an idea of the effect of the program, the article provides a number of examples. Here’s one: “[A] round-trip in Montana from Miles City to Billings – a two-hour drive away – costs passengers just $88 with a 30-day advance purchase on Big Sky Airlines because the government kicks in $779.”

Still more on this boondoggle:

“In October, the DOT agreed to one of the program’s largest subsidies ever – $2 million a year to Atlantic Southeast Airlines. That pays 60% of ASA’s cost to fly two round-trips a day between Macon, Ga., and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, 81 miles away.

The airline projects that passengers will pay an average of $78 for a one-way ticket – and that flights, typically on planes with fewer than 70 seats, will run 83% empty. That means the DOT will pay $145 per passenger for the 19-minute flight.

“That’s a tremendous waste of money,” aviation consultant Michael Boyd says, noting that Macon residents can easily drive or take a bus to Atlanta. Groome Transportation, for example, runs hourly vans from Macon to the Atlanta airport. Cost: $31 a ticket.”

Whole thing here, via Marginal Revolution.

[Note: Not paying your taxes, while being a surefire moneysaver in the short term, is actually not a wise strategy to cure your money woes.]

Travel tip: Do not hide monkey in hat during flight

by Grant Martin on

Next time you want to bring your favorite animal friend on your flight, consider getting a cage or maybe at least a box. As a man this week flying from Lima – New York City just established, it’s not a great idea to store your furry friend in your hat.

Somehow he was able to smuggle the animal through security in Peru (although we’re not sure how tight that is) then get through customs in Fort Lauderdale with the primate in tact. Only on the flight from Fort Lauderdale to New York was the animal discovered when it crawled out of the man’s hat and onto his pony tail. By the end of the flight, the poor monkey was dead.

The authorities are still trying to determine the cause of the animal’s death. After the CDC quarantine, they did however determine that the monkey was not sick. Perhaps it was because he was stuck in a man’s hat for an entire day.

CDC says TB patient on plane may have infected others

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are saying that a woman who was diagnosed with a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis may have exposed others to the disease on a December 13 flight from New Delhi to Chicago.

According to a USA Today story, “Altogether, 44 passengers sat in five rows close enough to the woman that they might have been exposed to her illness. Health authorities recommend that they all undergo testing for tuberclosis, with follow-up in eight to 10 weeks. They’re concerned because the woman reportedly was coughing on the plane.”

The woman, a 30-year-old native of Nepal, is currently being treated in isolation at a California hospital.

More coverage here and here.

And a bonus prize for whomever can find the first “Andrew Speaker: Where is he now?” article in response to this new TB scare.

Next week: batteries banned from checked luggage

by Justin Glow on

Attention gadget-packing travelers: starting January 1, 2008, you will no longer be able to pack “loose lithium batteries” in your checked luggage, says the Department of Transportation. By loose, they mean either A) not attached to an electronic device in your checked luggage, or B) not in a zipped plastic baggy in your carry-on.

“Common consumer electronics such as travel cameras, cell phones, and most laptop computers are still allowed in carry-on and checked luggage,” reads the report. “However, the rule limits individuals to bringing only two extended-life spare rechargeable lithium batteries, such as laptop and professional audio/video/camera equipment lithium batteries in carry-on baggage.” Spare is the key word there.

For once, as Chris Elliott notes, this new regulation isn’t due to a terrorism threat. Instead, the ban is a safety precaution, as “lithium batteries are considered hazardous materials because they can overheat and ignite in certain conditions.”

In case the light-on-details report is unclear, this means that you can still bring your digital cameras and laptops on-board in your carry-on, but loose batteries — such as an extra one for your laptop or camera — must be limited to two, and placed in a plastic baggy if carried on. What isn’t clear is how the TSA will determine whether or not your audio, video, or camera equipment is “professional.” And if it’s not professional, is there still a limit on how many batteries you can bring on board?