Airlines had fewer runway close calls, down 50%

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The federal fiscal year just came to a close, and that means it’s time for a look-back by government agencies. Well, the FAA has some good news for us: runway near-misses fell 50 percent, registering a second consecutive year of drops. There were six serious runway incursions in fiscal year 2010, the FAA says, down from 12 in fiscal year 2009.

This represents incredible progress from 2000, in which there were a whopping 67 close calls. The move in the right direction is in part because of efforts by federal regulators and airports, reports USA Today.

Okay, let’s all breathe a sigh of relief.

[photo by as737700 via Flickr]

Stop the plane! Coyote crossing

by Annie Scott on

Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina is having an unusual problem which is increasing in frequency: Coyotes, one of our Top Ten Most Badass Animals Native to the USA, won’t stay out of the runways.

You’d think the noise, the frequent airplanes zooming by, and the lack of much flora or fauna in the area would deter them, but no. “The critters can wreak havoc, causing delays in takeoffs and landings. In September, an American Eagle jet struck a coyote on a runway,” reports the LA Times.

Apparently, airport and federal wildlife employees have been attempting to scare off the coyotes using cap guns and bottle rockets, but they’ve taken things a step further — or should we say “taken things a step out of their backyards from the 1950s” — and drafted up a wildlife management plan for the Federal Aviation Administration to review. The proposed solution is age-old: Build a better fence. (And keep the grass cut.)

[via LA Times]

Another plane mishap in Africa. This time lava is the problem

by Jamie Rhein on

If you’ve ever seen a lava flow, you know that once the stuff cools and hardens, it’s hard to move. In the Congo, this has created a big problem at the airport in Goma. Back in 2002, when the Nyiragongo Volcano erupted, lava flowed onto the runway, thus shortening it. A shorter runway does not sound good. It’s not.

Today, this was proved true once more when an airplane flying from Kinshasa to Goma overshot the runway and landed on the lava instead. Ouch! According to the report, 20 people out of the 117 on board were injured.

This is not the first time that lava has created issues at the Goma airport. The last time was in 2007 when a cargo plane caught on fire after it hit the lava. This incidence caused 7 deaths.

As unusual as it is to hit lava on a runway, it’s probably more unusual for a plane to hit a bush pig. The plane hits a bush pig incident happened a week ago on in Zimbabwe. When this pig made it’s last oink, high drama ensued which included a couple of injuries that were caused when passengers fell into a ditch at the side of the runway.

As for the lava on the runway woes, hopefully this latest incident in Goma will help provide incentive to remove the rest of it.

When it comes to bush pigs on runways, pilots in Zimbabwe–and I guess elsewhere where bush pigs roam–are probably keeping their eyes on the lookout.

The photo taken by Julien Harneis from a helicopter shows the lava flow around Goma.

Heathrow gets go ahead for third runway – Greenpeace not happy

by Scott Carmichael on

London Heathrow airport is in desperate need of a third runway.

Despite being one of the busiest airports in the world, all 481,000 yearly aircraft movements take place on just 2 runways.

Anyone who has arrived or departed from Heathrow has probably spent a decent chunk of time waiting in line for a take off slot, or received a complimentary 45 minute sightseeing trip making circles over London waiting for permission to land.

The UK government has been working on a proposal for a third runway for years, and finally agreed to grant building permission for it yesterday.

Of course, nothing airport related ever goes without some major opposition, and this one is no different.

Greenpeace is so strongly opposed to the expansion plans, that they purchased a chunk of land right in the village of Sipson. Sipson is one of the communities destined to become extinct when construction on the runway begins.

Their plan is to break the land up into smaller chunks, and sell it to as many people as possible, making it harder for the government to claim ownership.

Greenpeace argues that the third runway is not necessary, and they have a long list of reasons for being against this expansion.

Of course, environmental clubs like Greenpeace have a long history in trying to prevent new runways from being built, but very little history in actually stopping the construction.

A similar situation happened in the Netherlands in the mid 90’s when a local environmental protection club purchased a small plot of land just outside Schiphol airport and planted it full of trees. It delayed things a bit, but the runway was still built.

At the end of the day these actions just cost massive amounts of taxpayer money and clog up our legal systems, but it’s a noble cause and I don’t think anyone denies Greenpeace a little publicity stunt.

Looking back at ’08 – 5 things we gained this year

by Scott Carmichael on

Welcome to part 2 of my “looking back at ’08” segment. In part 1, I listed 5 things we lost in 2008, and in this article I will list 5 things we gained. While you reminisce about 2008, why not check out my list of 10 New Years resolutions that could help make 2009 a much better travel year!

There is no denying that 2008 will take up a pretty decent chunk of history books in years to come. Between the Chinese Olympics and the total destruction of our economic civilization, I’d say it’s been a pretty interesting year. Oh, and we also elected our first African American president. Awesome stuff. Of course, not much of this means much to us travelers, so here are 5 things we gained in ’08:

Internet in the air

I’m a geek, so I have listed this one first. Needless to say this is also the one that excited me the most in 2008.

Internet in the skies has long been a something airline passengers have wished for. The first glimpse of its potential came from Boeing back in 2004, but like many new technologies, this one failed pretty quickly.

In 2006, United Airlines tried to breathe new life into the seatback Verizon Airfone handsets, by offering some very basic online access. Needless to say, that one did not last long either. For some reason, people were not willing to pay $10 for instant messaging and 5 pages of news clippings.

Then, out of the ashes of the Verizon Airfone infrastructure came Aircell. This company purchased the rights to some of the airwaves used by the old Verizon system, and began offering high speed Internet access on American Airlines.

The first flight to take to the skies with the Aircell Gogo inflight Internet service was an American Airlines plane on August 20th 2008. But before passengers were able to download their emails in the air, a lot of other milestones had to be reached. I’ll take a closer look at what went on behind the scenes in a separate article.

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Relaxed TSA rules for laptop computers at the checkpoint

Things just kept getting better for us in 2008 at the security checkpoint. After years of harassing us, removing our bottles of water, and treating us like terrorists for carrying a nail clipper, the TSA decided it could put a smile on our faces by allowing certain kinds of laptop bags to pass through the security checkpoint without having to remove our laptops from the bag.

In all, it probably saves no more than 20 seconds, but every second counts at the airport, especially when it involves doing what you can to get as far away from the checkpoint as possible.

We entered 2008 with zero TSA friendly laptop bags, and we’ll be bidding it farewell with over 30 different designs, many of which are listed here.

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More fees and surcharges

Honestly, I wish this list could contain only happy things. Sadly the year has been pretty rough on the airlines, and when things get rough, they take it out on us.

Fees are what the airlines use to make money, because ticket sales alone apparently don’t work. Clearly someone took a close look at the movie theater business and decided that the expensive popcorn trick would work just fine in the aviation industry.

The worst offender this year was US Airways, but almost every major airline introduced at least one or two new ways to make some money.

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New runways

While some airports are still stuck with just a single runway, others can’t get enough of them to keep things flowing.

New tarmac was opened this year at Dulles, Seattle and Chicago. The Dulles runway was their first new one since 1946, and is expected to handle over 100,000 flights a year.

Of course, Chicago’s O’Hare airport was probably the one most in need of a new runway, as they had been operating under special flow control restrictions for several years due to congestion.

The new runway in Chicago is part of a much larger “masterplan” to expand the airport, which includes a new ATC tower and terminal renovations.

In other good news, those awful people movers at Dulles are scheduled to be scrapped later next year!

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New airlines, new routes and new mergers

It sucks to be a legacy carrier. You are doing everything you can to keep your fleet in the sky, and newcomers like Virgin America and OpenSkies pop up, acting like they own the place.

The thing is, many people are so fed up with the state of air travel, that these new carriers are a very welcome addition. Why fly the “friendly skies”, when you can fly an airline that actually is friendly?

In 2008, JetBlue started flying Chicago to Boston, Virgin America added 6 new routes, including New York to Vegas and OpenSkies (a British Airways subsidiary) started flights from New York to Paris and Amsterdam.

And finally, in the “if you can’t beat em, buy em” department; Delta airlines purchased Northwest airlines bringing 2 of the more decent airlines in the skies together as one. One thing is for sure; 2009 is going to be a bumpy ride for many airlines.