Jaunted - Tag: Delays

Another Month, Another French Transportation Strike

kjb — 2012-02-06T08:57:35-05:00

The week of your trip to Paris has finally arrived, and you’re fully packed and ready to go. There’s just one problem that might screw up your plans, as there might be a little bit of a transportation strike.

French unions are calling for a travel strike beginning today, but don’t worry, the country is still going to be open for business. It just might take a little more patience if you’re getting there by plane. The plan is a four-day strike across all sectors of the country’s aviation services, so that means back-up plans and deep breaths area required if you’re flying through or to spots like Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport.

It's Official, Just Blame Your Airline Delay Squarely on New York City

kjb — 2012-02-02T09:08:24-05:00

The next time you’re stuck in the terminal—or on the tarmac—with nowhere to go, there’s now officially someone to blame for your delay and disturbance. It’s actually not a person but more of a place, as it’s New York City that’s likely the spot causing all of the trouble.

The New York Times looked into the causes behind a lot of these airport and airplane inconveniences, and they found that the city’s busy air traffic and multiple airports are the places to blame. There’s been different flight plans from the FAA and even less planes overall thanks to the dip in the economy, but that still hasn’t helped the congestion up in the skies above the greater metropolitan area. Apparently the city’s three major airports—along with the airport in Philadelphia—accounted for around 12 percent of all the country’s domestic flights, but those few flights created like half of all delays.

AK: There's a New Volcano to Worry About, and This Time It's in the USA

kjb — 2012-01-03T09:37:41-05:00

As you know we’re still in the first week of the new year, but there’s already a brand new volcano—complete with ash-cloud potential—getting ready to wreak havoc on air travel. Unlike the volcanoes over in Europe or down in South America, this one’s a little closer to home, and it’s a heck of a lot easier to pronounce.

Mount Cleveland—just rolls off the tongue—is located within the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska, and scientists believe that it’s getting ready to celebrate 2012 by starting to shake, rattle, and roll. Just over a week ago there was a little volcano hiccup that sent a whole bunch of ash and other particulate into the skies, but things quickly dissipated and flights weren’t really affected. The concern still remains, as the tippy top of the volcano is right in the way of one of the main commercial flight paths between North America and Asia.

What a Weekend! Updates on Qantas, Air France and the Freak Thundersnowstorm

JetSetCD — 2011-10-31T09:01:52-05:00

Wow. This last weekend was not commercial aviation's finest hour whatsoever. In fact, one could say it was a farce! Three events contributed to the stranding of thousands of travelers and the cancellations of flights originating from places as wide-ranging as Australia and Hartford, CT.

Today, air traffic should be running more smoothly, and here's the latest updates on each situation:

· The Qantas shutdown: Confrontations between the Australian airline and its labor unions reached such a level that Qantas CEO Alan Joyce shut down all Qantas mainline flight operations on Saturday, shutting out employees. Passengers boarding onto Qantas planes at the time were told to return to the terminal, and other airlines (mainly V Australia, Singapore Airlines, Etihad and Air New Zealand) mobilized to run extra planes, special routes and limited pricing to essentially rescue the stranded.

There's Another Iceland Volcano to Worry About This Winter

kjb — 2011-10-18T09:04:50-05:00

If you remember back to the not that long ago time known as yesterday, we mentioned how there’s one of those pesky volcanoes causing a little trouble on the bottom half of the earth. Well back up on the top half there might be some problems too, and once again we’re ready to blame Iceland.

At least this year it’ll be a little easier to pronounce and discuss, as the problem child is the Katla volcano. This pesky little sucker is located towards the country’s southern coastline, and unfortunately it’s much larger than the Eyjafjallajokul that we remember so well from last year. Some scientists even think that if Katla gets a little feisty that it could make last year’s ash problems seem small by comparison—oh boy.

Uh Oh. Volcano Ash is Back and It's Upsetting Parts of South America

kjb — 2011-10-17T08:51:21-05:00

Here we go again, as it looks like there’s some volcanoes getting ready to wreck travel plans all over the globe. Something is already brewing again in Iceland—more on that tomorrow—but the latest stuff flying out of the earth is coming from south of the equator.

Chile's Puyehue volcano already caused trouble earlier this year, but its ash is now on the loose again and is messing up flights. Jorge Newbery Airport in Buenos Aires suspended pretty much all its flights on Sunday, as there was just too much darn particulate in the air to safely operate some jets.

Plenty of domestic flights were screwed up, but there were still some international routes available out of the city’s other airport.

Oh, Goody: Tarmac Delay Laws Expand to Include International Flights

Omri — 2011-08-22T15:34:08-05:00

We've explained at length—see here and here, and probably here, and definitely this one—how the Department of Transportation's tarmac regulations are a recipe for travel hell. The assumption behind imposing huge fines for delays is that the airline industry simply wasn't trying hard enough to get its planes off the ground, and that market-based incentives like money and public relations disasters weren't enough to make them want to fly people around.

Put that way—and at the risk of belaboring the obvious—that's a pretty stupid assumption.

But regulations were imposed anyway and, as was easily and explicitly predictable, we ended up with more delays and more flight cancellations. So naturally the government has now expanded tarmac delay laws to include international airlines.