Why does Gadling seem so fond of Virgin, OpenSkies and Southwest?

by Grant Martin on

If you’ve been around the blog for more than a few weeks, you may have noticed that we seem to cover some of the newer and edgier carriers a bit more often. Virgin America and Atlantic, Southwest and OpenSkies seem to edge into our network fairly often and it seems like there’s always a Gadling blogger close at hand (usually with a vodka tonic) to report on the hijinks.

Why is this? Are these companies secretly paying for extra exposure? Do Gadling bloggers get free tickets any time they want to jet set across the country supporting their vokda binged lifestyle?

The simple answer is Public Relations. Every day Gadling bloggers are out, scouring the interwebs, newswires and telephone lines finding out new information for you, the reader, and reporting on daily developments. And what we learn and how we report is directly related to how friendly, prolific and open the PR staff is. Contacts and friends that we’ve made at the above carriers keep us in the loop, let us know when things are happening and occasionally send us piles of spam. Unfortunately, that’s about all we get for free.Conversely, most legacy carriers don’t give a rip about what Gadling writes or what we publish – so they’re not interested in talking to lowly bloggers.

From what I can tell, PR warmth is directly related to marketing strategy. Hipper, younger airlines trying to cater to the Gadling demographic (you know who you are) know they have to keep the blogosphere positively spinning. Older, more established carriers who may cater to more of an elder or family demographic, on the other hand, might communicate in more traditional places like, oh, church bulletins.

And its not like we haven’t tried fostering relationships with legacy carriers – most firms just don’t realize the leverage that blogs can provide. So we’ll let them be and continue the subliminal message that we’re sending from Gadling. I’ll have another vodka tonic please. Thanks.

GO JETBLUE!

Flight attendants threaten passengers with criminal charges more often

by Jamie Rhein on

Being a flight attendant may be a job that is getting harder, like Jeffery posted. After reading this article originally published in the St. Petersburg Times about flight attendant passenger altercations, it reminds me of what it is like in an unruly classroom of adolescent middle-schoolers. Instead of threatening people with a trip to the principal’s office for not staying in their seats, for example, the threat is criminal charges, usually made in a loud voice.

An aviation lawyer in Sarasota, Florida said that flight attendants are using the threat of criminal charges for passengers who are not behaving more often ever since 9/11. I wonder how much the threats are working? The article mentioned several of the altercations we’ve covered on Gadling.

With the news of poor behavior it makes me wonder, if there wasn’t the threat of criminal charges, would people act worse? Or, since threats with middle-schoolers often don’t work well, I wonder if threats by flight attendants like, “If you don’t stop that right now, you’ll be in serious trouble,” make people behave worse?

NOT pre-boarding people with young ones saves time

by Jamie Rhein on

In an article in the St. Petersburg Times, writer Bridget Hall Grumet tells about her experience waiting with her pre-toddler to pre-board, only to not pre-board after all. The unnamed airline had dropped the practice unbeknown to her. (She later mentions an American Airlines and United flight, but they are not the ones Grumet initially described.)

We’ve posted in the past about airlines who have stopped pre-boarding families with infants and small children. Southwest, American, Delta and United no longer have pre-boarding, although Grumet says that if you ask gate attendants with American and Delta, they may let you board early if you have a small child. Grumet personally found that to be true on an American flight.

Although Grumet misses the perk of boarding early with a kid because it makes settling in on a plane that much easier, she does understand the airlines’ latest practice. The idea behind not making allowances for people with small children and infants, and others who need assistance, is that when they get on the plane in one group, it creates a bottleneck.

If people who need extra help are randomly spread out during the boarding process, it saves 10 to 12 minutes. That may not sound like much, but as airlines struggle to get people to their destinations on time, 10 to12 minutes can jam up arrivals and departures for more than that one airplane.

My thought is that if I were traveling with a small child, I’d not be in any hurry to board. Spend less time on the airplane. The problem with that strategy is that with overhead bins becoming more packed as people avoid the cost of checking a bag, there won’t be space in the bins. Then you’d be stuck searching out a bin rows from your seat. See Heather’s post on how the trying to find bin space can look to a flight attendant.

Here’s one of my solutions for combating the headache of traveling on a plane with a small child. When at all possible, take the train. Stay tuned tomorrow for my post on how train travel worked out for me. My six year-old got us on the train first.

Plane Answers: More takeoff and landing fears

by Kent Wien on

A number of questions came in this week relating to takeoffs and landings, and a few issues that passengers worry about. So, we’ll continue on last week’s Takeoff and Landing theme.

Eric asks this timely question:

I would like to know what purpose the wing flaps play in take off and in landing?

With the recent Spanair accident in Madrid, some reporters focused on whether or not the MD-80’s flaps and slats were extended for takeoff.

These devices, moveable panels on the back and front of the wings respectively, are used only for takeoff and landing.

A jet’s wing is designed to be at it’s most efficient while at altitude and at it’s design cruise speed. This same wing isn’t capable of flying slow enough to takeoff or land on a conventional runway.

So flaps were designed for most airplanes to increase the lift a wing can carry at these slower speeds. When the flaps are extended, the wing is essentially converted from a high-speed wing to a slow-speed wing, depending on the flap setting used.

Flaps are gradually extended based on the speed of the airplane, with the first set of flaps on an airliner usually extended when the airplane is slower than 250 knots.

For takeoff, the optimum flap setting is based mostly on the runway length. Using just the right flap setting improves efficiency and performance once the airplane is in the air. Airlines have a system for calculating that flap setting either manually in the cockpit, or through a computer print out sent via ACARS.

On the MD-80, the leading edge slats are extended and the trailing edge flaps are ‘dialed in’ to the required setting.

Taking off without any flaps extended isn’t possible for most airliners without an exceedingly long runway, maximum power set and some very careful handling by the pilot. This is why there are multiple checks prior to take off to ensure the flaps are properly set.

There’s also a loud warning horn that sounds if the throttles are advanced with the flaps not in the proper configuration for take off. Checklists, however, will likely prevent the need for the horn.

The last accident where flaps weren’t set for takeoff was a Northwest flight 255 departing from Detroit in 1987, and this might be why there has been some initial focus on the flaps as a possible cause behind last week’s Spanair crash.

It’ll be interesting to hear what happened to the Spanair flight, so we can learn from the accident. The media is rarely held accountable for the mistakes made when speculating as to a reason for an accident.

I wouldn’t hesitate to fly on an MD-80. In fact, it’s listed as the second safest airplane flying.

Dave brings up a takeoff related question:

I’m curious, if you have a severe engine problem after liftoff that you can’t recover from or go around, what is the procedure for finding a place to put down. I understand if there is a nice plowed field ahead that’s great, but what if you are in a congested area?

All airliners are required to demonstrate that they can safely operate after an engine failure at liftoff.

I suppose it’s conceivable that a dual-engine failure could happen (on a twin-engine aircraft), so in that case, the only possibility would be to land straight ahead, doing everything you can to avoid any congested areas.

Finally, Sandra asks a three-part question:

I am what I describe as a nervous flyer… I am curious to know why does the prep for landing alway feels so, well ominous?

Lights dimmed, and unless this is just my imagination…there is just something so dooming…

Some airlines require the lights to be dimmed to improve a flight attendant’s ability to see outside when on the ground. Part of their job is to assess the situation on the ground if an engine fire or other such problem were to occur and an evacuation became necessary.

Interestingly, not all airlines have that procedure.

Also, the last time I flew southwest, on final approach, the wings seemed to be dipping from left to right, right to left.

And then I flew the same airline again, and that landing was so smooth–I actually had to look out of the window to see that we were on the ground.

Ahh, yes. You’ve noticed the differences in pilot technique. Some pilots do get into what we call ‘pilot-induced oscillations,’ which are a bit annoying. You’ve had experiences with a bus driver or cab driver who wasn’t very smooth before, I’m sure. Well, you’ve just found the pilot equivalent of that driver.

What amount is attributable to the skill of the pilot, and how good a pilot is, with respect to landings??

Landings are a bit like golf. (Although I don’t play, I just had to take a swing at that analogy-no pun)

You can really feel like you have the landings perfected in a particular airplane, and then, sure enough, you can’t get a good one for weeks at a time. It’s kind of rare though to have an earth shatteringly hard landing after you’ve been flying a particular airplane for more than 6 months.

Do you have a question about something related to the pointy end of an airplane? Ask Kent and maybe he’ll use it for next Friday’s Plane Answers feature.

Southwest Joins Flight-Cutting Club

by Josh Lew on

Even though they seemed to be bucking the trend by adding flights earlier this summer, Southwest is finally joining other domestic airlines in the flight cutting club. This winter, the nation’s biggest budget carrier will cut nearly 200 flights in order to combat the effect that high fuel prices have on its bottom line.

According to a Southwest spokesperson, the cuts are not permanent. Routes like Nashville to Oakland and Tampa to Philly will be halted during the slower winter months (beginning in January), but will return later in the year.

Southwest is not as severely affected as its competition by high fuel prices because it purchased option which allow it to buy fuel at cheaper prices. As a result, their cuts are a lot less severe than those of other major carriers. While 200 flights seems substantial, it is only a 6% drop in the overall number of flights. In comparison, American Airlines and United Airlines are promising cuts of 12% and 16% respectively. So, even as they trim their service, Southwest can still say that they are performing better than others in the industry.