Travel / Transportation

Seen on the newswires:

[T]he House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved by voice vote a bill that would make the current Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communication Commission ban on cell phone use during flight permanent.

The committee’s action comes as the European Union is moving to allow airline passengers to talk on their cell phones during flight. Some U.S. airlines are experimenting with in-flight Internet access. And some lawmakers worry that domestic airlines might try to get the cell phone ban lifted so they can charge passengers extra to sit in no-phone sections.

"I do believe this is important that we don’t make what is already a crowded and difficult environment for the traveling public and flight attendants" worse by allowing cell phone use in-flight, said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., sponsor of the Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace (HANG UP) Act.

Normally I’d make a little bit of noise and grumbling over over-regulating life, and the futility of legislating good manners.  However, with the FCC having made noises on lifting the ban of cell phone usage in the air, and with the ban having already been lifted in Europe…I’m not too terribly upset.

The potential for being stuck in the back of a sardine can on a long, transcontinental flight trying to ignore half of several cell phone conversations would almost be enough to get me to find a job which required less travel.

As someone who occasionally travels by air for business, I’m used to the chore of unpacking my computer at security for x-raying, as well as the regular worry that someone will walk off with my laptop or that it will be squashed in a luggage pile-up.

So, I was very pleased to see this bit of news in the New York Times:

The Transportation Security Administration has given the go-ahead for passengers to use newly designed carry-on bags that will let them pass through security without having to take their laptops out for the X-ray inspection.[…]

Two of the biggest luggage manufacturers — Pathfinder Luggage and Targus — say they are rushing to produce the new “checkpoint friendly” laptop cases and expect them to be available by late September or early October. […]

Pathfinder is making two models but plans others. One is a briefcase in which the attached laptop holder is exposed when the case is unzipped. The other is a wheeled carry-on with a removable laptop case.

OK…so that doesn’t sound too terribly different than some carry-on designs I’ve seen previously.  However, presumably we’ll need to have the magic TSA-blessed logo on our bags if we don’t want to have to bare our computers.   So, I’ll probably be shopping for a new bag this fall.

While I was busy, and the site was down, last week, many of the large traditional U.S. airlines announced plans to reduce capacity in the face of ever-higher jet fuel costs.   Presumably, such reductions in capacity should bolster airlines’ ability to raise fares to the point where fuel costs can be better funded.

A blurb in the New York Times reminds us of one side-effect of those reductions:

Virgin America opposes an effort by six rivals to protect takeoff and landing slots they may not use in New York, Chicago and Washington this winter because of high fuel costs. The request by AMR’s American Airlines, UAL’s United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, the US Airways Group and AirTran Holdings is “anticonsumer,” Virgin America’s lawyer told regulators in Washington. Under federal law, carriers must use slots at restricted airports or risk giving them up to rivals. The six want to waive the requirement so they can trim flights without later losing the access.

While I appreciate the airlines’ strategic motives in not releasing unused slots, I think Virgin America has a point about the practice being anticompetitive.

Of course, considering how congested those airports can be…perhaps the landing slot bank could do with a little capacity reduction as well.

Seen in the Washington Times:

False identifications based on a terrorist no-fly list have for years prevented some federal air marshals from boarding flights they are assigned to protect, according to officials with the agency, which is finally taking steps to address the problem. [...]

“In some cases, planes have departed without any coverage because the airline employees were adamant they would not fly,” said the air marshal, who asked not to be named because the job requires anonymity. “I’ve seen guys actually being denied boarding.”

Having a no fly list is not necessarily a bad thing.  After all, it makes sense that you’d keep folks who might want to turn aircraft into manually-guided cruise missiles off those aircraft.

The problem with the no-fly list arises from the hassles faced by folks who are confused as being a suspect on the list.  It seems to be rather challenging to prove that you are you rather than someone with a similar name, in a manner to appease paranoid bureaucrat.

That folks working in a different branch of the air-security theater are getting snagged by the no-fly list, is just very amusing to me.

Looks like those orphan miles I have in my Delta SkyMiles account might finally be salvaged. Quoting the New York Times:

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines agreed to merge late Monday, in a $3.1 billion deal that would create the world’s biggest airline and could prompt other airlines to pursue mergers of their own.[...]

Seven board members from Delta and five from Northwest would join the board of the new airline, to be known as Delta. The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents pilots at both airlines, would receive a board seat.[...]

Pardus Capital Management, an investment firm, estimated in November that a combination of Delta and Northwest could reduce costs by about $1.5 billion a year, in large part by combining hubs. Delta’s hub in Cincinnati is close to Northwest’s in Detroit. And Northwest’s hub in Memphis is close to Delta’s in Atlanta.

Some earlier discussion that I read indicated that the merger proposed maintaining current levels of operations (i.e., not shutting hubs) for about a year post-merger. Assuming that’s true, and remains true in light of fuel cost pressures…I’d still expect CVG and MEM to be de-hubbed as soon as the merged Delta can get away with it.

What will be very interesting is to see how the competition responds to that eventual reduced utilization of those soon-to-be-former fortress hubs. If it weren’t for the pressure high fuel prices is placing on airlines’ bottom lines, I’d expect Southwest, for example, to attempt to move in big. After all, Southwest already has a loyal crowd in Memphis who drive to Little Rock or Nashville to take advantage of the significantly lower fares.

I suppose that this reduces the odds that I’ll see direct passenger flights between my current home airport (BDL) and my old hometown (MEM) anytime soon. However, relief from the tortuous cost to fly into Memphis will be welcome.

Update: The BDL spotters mailing list passed along a link to a DL-NW merger propaganda website, which includes information on what the merged airline would look like for different airports. BDL-MEM still shows on that website…but I won’t be surprised if that disappears too long post-merger in a savings-driven dehubbing of MEM.

A couple of blogs I follow have mentioned that the May issue of Popular Mechanics includes a feature called, “10 Pieces of U.S. Infrastructure We Must Fix Now”. I’ve seen the feature mentioned in the context of Atlanta’s water shortage, but the entire list is actually rather interesting to me (not surprising, given my interests):

• Circle Interchange, Chicago
   
• Brooklyn Bridge Approaches, New York City
   
• Industrial Canal Locks, New Orleans
  (Ships can wait 36 hours for clearance to transit, creating a drag on the efficiency of the Port of New Orleans. PM doesn’t mention that survivors of the Lower Ninth Ward would like to see the canal itself fixed by being filled in….)
   
• Atlanta’s water system
  (PM estimates 18% of the daily water consumption in ATL is the result of leaky water mains)
   
• Alaskan Way viaduct, Seattle
   
• Lake Okeechobee dike, Florida
   
• Dover Bridge, Bonner County, Idaho
  (Northern Idaho bridge for US95, scores 2 out of a possible 100 in sufficiency rating.)
   
• Wolf Creek Dam, Kentucky
  (Kentucky River dam deemed in enough danger of collapse that TVA reduced the water level behind it, to reduce flood risk to downstream towns, including Nashville.)
   
• Sacramento River levees, California
  (Remind me not to write flood cover on the Arco Arena, or on SMF.)
   
• O’Hare

None of those are surprises, and many of them are slated for repairs in the next few years, assuming funding remains available. However, it’s nice to be reminded every once in a while of some neglected priorities.

(How much money have Presidential candidates raised to date for this election cycle?)

Just in case we had forgotten, the New York Times has reminded folks that litigation against airlines and security companies for failing to prevent 9/11 is still slowly making its way through the courts.

The size of the damages sought is noteworthy. Quoting the NYT:

Larry A. Silverstein, who has won nearly $4.6 billion in insurance payments to cover his losses and help him rebuild at the World Trade Center site, is seeking $12.3 billion in damages from airlines and airport security companies for the 9/11 attack.[...]

His case was consolidated last week with similar, earlier lawsuits brought by families of some victims of the attack and by other property owners. But in seeking $12.3 billion, he is by far the biggest claimant in the litigation.[...]

The claims by the parties involved total about $23 billion, and Mr. Silverstein’s claim for such a large chunk could jeopardize claims from other businesses and property owners, according to defense lawyers. A lawyer for the victims’ families, Donald Migliori, said he was confident that their claims would not be affected because they would take priority over the property claims.

A lawyer for the airlines, Desmond Barry, said that if Mr. Silverstein won his claim, he could push the total claims beyond the amount of insurance that the airlines and security companies have available. “There ain’t that much insurance,” Mr. Barry said.

The federal government has capped the liability at the amount of available insurance, to avoid bankrupting the airlines. The exact amount of insurance available is still being explored in the court proceedings.

Oy, what a mess.

Seen in a wire service story:

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said New York’s law — the first of its kind in the country — interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier.

The law was passed after thousands of passengers were stranded aboard airplanes for up to 10 hours on several JetBlue Airways flights at Kennedy International Airport on Valentine’s Day last year. They complained they were deprived of food and water and that toilets overflowed. A month later, hundreds more passengers of other airlines were stranded aboard planes at JFK after a daylong ice storm.[...]

The court said that while the goals of the law were “laudable” and the circumstances prompting its adoption “deplorable,” only the federal government has the authority to pass such regulations.

“If New York’s view regarding the scope of its regulatory authority carried the day, another state could be free to enact a law prohibiting the service of soda on flights departing from its airports, while another could require allergen-free food options on its outbound flights, unraveling the centralized federal framework for air travel,” the court wrote.

I agree with the ruling. For concerns that span multiple states, regulatory authority rests with the federal government.

While I’m definitely not a fan of excessive regulation, I also think that in many respects the federal government has in the past few years shirked its responsibility of providing even the bare bones protection against the worst excesses of big business I’d reluctantly tolerate. Imprisoning folks on a grounded jet for hours falls in the category of “worst excesses”.

I know that folks in Western Massachusetts just love the idea that they may have to start paying tolls on the MassPike again, thanks to some bad investments.

Seen in the Boston Herald:

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority yesterday began mulling new tolls on portions of Interstate 93, hiking tolls on the western Pike and reinstating charges at exits 1 through 6 to help rescue the agency’s ailing finances and to eliminate inequities.[...]

Turnpike Executive Director Alan LeBovidge said yesterday that finances took another negative turn after State Street Bank pulled out of a deal to help rescue the Pike from a pair of souring derivative transactions.

The Pike is currently losing $336,000 a month because of high interest charges, and faces losses of more than $850,000 a month in July unless it can reach an agreement to refinance its debt. State Street had been in talks with the Turnpike to re-issue $127 million in debt, but the bank decided Friday to pull its line of credit, officials said.

As annoying as Americans’ paranoid security theater has become, it’s perhaps some small relief to know that it could be worse.

For example, consider the U.K., which is increasingly looking like a police state. From the Telegraph:

Millions of British airline passengers face mandatory fingerprinting before being allowed to board flights when Heathrow’s Terminal 5 opens later this month.

For the first time at any airport, the biometric checks will apply to all domestic passengers leaving the terminal, which will handle all British Airways flights to and from Heathrow.

The controversial security measure is also set to be introduced at Gatwick, Manchester and Heathrow’s Terminal 1, and many airline industry insiders believe fingerprinting could become universal at all UK airports within a few years.[...]

The company said the move had been necessitated by the design of Terminal 5, where international and domestic passengers share the same lounges and public areas after they have checked in.

So, because of a poorly-designed terminal, everybody will be treated like a criminal. Great.