Tag: Delays

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Another Month, Another French Transportation Strike

Where: France
February 6, 2012 at 8:57 AM | by | Comments (0)

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.

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

February 2, 2012 at 9:08 AM | by | Comments (0)

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.

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

January 3, 2012 at 9:37 AM | by | Comments (0)

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.

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

October 31, 2011 at 9:01 AM | by | Comments (0)

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.

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There's Another Iceland Volcano to Worry About This Winter

Where: Iceland
October 18, 2011 at 9:04 AM | by | Comments (0)

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.

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

October 17, 2011 at 8:51 AM | by | Comments (0)

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.

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

August 22, 2011 at 3:34 PM | by | Comments (0)

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.

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Four Tips for Surviving Delays and Cancellations Thanks to an Airline Computer Glitch

June 21, 2011 at 9:08 AM | by | Comments (0)

Yes, in this modern day and age, we're still at the mercy of tech glitches. No one knows this better than international airlines, who move millions of people around the world every day in flying machines that rely on other machines, that rely on other machines and systems and so on and so forth. The most recent victims of computer issues (both within the last two weeks!) were US Airways and United, though any airline worth its salt has had their runin with such digital drama; even the FAA's systems go down every so often.

According to ABC News, the United issue effected over 3,000 travelers at LAX alone. So how do you keep yourself from becoming one of the confused and angry masses when there's no one to scream at (because it's a computer problem)? This way...

Our Top Four Tips for Surviving an Airline Computer Glitch:

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Awesome Video Alert: Hanging Out at the Airport, After Dark

June 17, 2011 at 3:03 PM | by | Comments (0)

Do you ever wonder what happens at airports...after hours? Well, if it's a small airport, it likely shuts down, but if you're lucky enough to be stuck at one of the major ones, like Dallas-Fort Worth, then it's a playground. Case in point: two travelers, Larry and Joe, had a layover at DFW and found their connecting flight cancelled. Instead of moping about and sleeping while uncomfortably stretched across chairs, they whipped out their cameras and got up to some old-fashioned mischief.

We won't spoil the video above for you, but let's just say that the part around 1:35-1:45 is our favorite. That takes more than just a pair of a balls; serious creative processes are at work here.

As a fan of airport spelunking, we usually find it easier to engage in hijinks in European airports. Kudos to these guys for having fun, documenting it and not inconveniencing other passengers while doing so.

[Video: Joe Ayala on Vimeo]

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Chile's Puyehue Volcano Eruption Grounding Flights Across Australia and New Zealand

June 13, 2011 at 8:49 AM | by | Comments (0)

Well this is getting kind of tired. In March Big Ash Problems caused by erupting volcanoes grounding flights throughout Japan. Then in May it was Europe's turn, with the ash cloud from Iceland's Grimsvotn eruption disrupting air travel first in Scotland and then in other parts of the continent.

Now the Puyehue volcano in Chile has blown its top. First the ash cloud first wrecked havoc on Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Then over the weekend it traveled across the Pacific and shut down airports from Melbourne to New Zealand. With some flights still grounded indefinitely, 2011 is shaping up to be even worse than 2010, the year of vengeful air travel volcano gods.

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'Tarmac Delay' Groups Push for Newer, More Expensive Airline Regulations

June 3, 2011 at 2:55 PM | by | Comments (0)

Tarmac delay laws have been a predictable disaster. As we explained at painful and indignant length in the leadup to the new rules, it makes no sense to incentivize airlines not to have public relations nightmares, since as companies trying to make money they already have that incentive.

Long tarmac delays happen because airplanes have to wait in line to take off, and if you return to the gate you lose your place in line and get stuck on the ground indefinitely. So pilots gamble on staying in line and riding out delays rather than returning to their gates. Creating rules that would bankrupt airlines for making those gambles—which is what tarmac delay fines do—would only lead to more cancellations and longer delays, we said.

So obvious were these scenarios that bureacrats could only defend the rules by promising airlines that regulators would "rarely impose the maximum penalties." Pause for a second and let that sink in. When pushed on how they were passing a bunch of really counterproductive new rules, bureaucrats resorted to telling airlines to have faith that the rules wouldn't get enforced. Since that's really stupid—airlines aren't going to rely on the good will of a person whose job it is to fine them—cancellations and longer delays immediately spiked. And now, because the groups who push regulations are apparently filled with shrill, insufferable busy bodies who have nothing better to do than ruin travel for the rest of us, it's happening all over again.

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Tweet of the Week: So Much Anger for the Ash Cloud!

May 24, 2011 at 6:43 PM | by | Comments (0)

We love Tuesdays. Why, you ask? Because the day brings many travel tips and quips as "Travel Tuesday" on Twitter, and we're going to share our favorite with you. Got an avid travel twitterer we should follow? Let us know.

Today is a special edition of Travel Tweet of the Week, because we just couldn't make up our minds about who had the best. Instead, we've been entertained for a couple hours today just by searching "ash cloud" plus any expletive, and watching the vitriol pour in by delayed and concerned travelers around the world.

We'd even go so far as to say that right now, there's quite possibly no other inanimate thing being so actively hated on than the Icelandic Grimsvotn volcano and its ash cloud. Hmm—is a volcanic ash cloud maybe considered animate? Whatever—come, be entertained with us:

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