There’s no plural marriage in Chile, where the Supreme Court blocked proposed unions between LATAM and both American Airlines and British Airways. Joint-venture agreements between LATAM and AA and BA have been three years in the making. The proposed...
Meanwhile, Disaster Awaits American Airlines
American Airlines faces an imminent storm if it cannot reach an agreement with its mechanics. Why? The union has promised it. American Airlines and TWU-IAM, the union representing AA mechanics, are locked in a bitter battle. American has filed...
Law & Order: American Airlines Edition
In what appears to be a fit-for-TV storyline, an American Airlines pilot was arrested in Kentucky and indicted for the murder of three people. When passengers saw Christian Richard Martin, a pilot for PSA Airlines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of...
United Airlines May Acquire Avianca
Avianca finds itself in a vulnerable position thanks to a recent default by its controlling shareholder. The default gives United Airlines a chance to take majority control of the growing Colombian carrier. Avianca is majority controlled by BRW Aviation, a...
United Airlines Faces New Racism Controversy
A passenger has accused a United employee of calling her a monkey. There were witnesses. Now the passenger is suing, creating a monumental headache for United. There are certain code words that are so deeply linked to race that...
Thai Airways A380 Clipped In Paris
A catering vehicle clipped the wing of a Thai Airways A380-800 in Paris, forcing an expensive flight cancellation. Perhaps the catering truck that rolled up to the Thai Airways superjumbo jet on Wednesday at Charles de Gaulle (CDG) was...
Chick-fil-A Airport Bans Are Unconstitutional
Whatever your view, whatever your background, whatever your values, I have one goal here: to help you understand why the San Antonio City Council violated the First Amendment rights of Chick-fil-A by specifically excluding them from San Antonio Airport....
Ethiopian Airlines “Believes In Boeing”
Ethiopian Airlines’ Chief Executive Officer Tewolde Gebremariam was either unequivocally supportive or a master manipulator of words in recent statements about Boeing. Addressing the two-week mark since the crash of ET 302, Gebremariam stated: Let me be clear: Ethiopian Airlines...
A Flight Attendant Freed From Detention Demonstrates Power Of Social Media
A Mesa Airlines flight attendant has been freed from federal detention thanks to an onslaught of social media pressure. I had prepared another post today on this topic, a very opinionated one, that I can thankfully spare you from...
Air Canada Banishes Mother To Lavatory To Breastfeed? Nope.
There are headlines making their way around the internet which suggest that Air Canada forced a mother to breastfeed in the lavatory. That’s just not true. A woman was warned that she would need to breastfeed her child in...
Southwest Wages War Against Its Mechanics
Southwest Airlines has sued its mechanics’ union, alleging that the union is engaging in an illegal work slowdown. For the last few weeks, mechanics have taken far more aircraft out of service than usual, citing maintenance concerns. Southwest has...
An Online Travel Agency Invites You To “Break The Rules” (But Be Careful…)
A popular European online travel agency has promised to pay your legal fees if an airline sues you for throwaway ticketing. Or maybe not. Let’s take a closer look. Last week I wrote about Lufthansa suing a passenger for...
U.S. Court Says Americans Can Sue For Wrongful Placement on “Do Not Fly” List
A U.S. Federal Appeals Court has held that Americans can sue FBI agents for wrongful placement on the “Do Not Fly” List. In short, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recruited several Muslim-Americans to become government informants. A handful...
My Prediction: Lufthansa Hidden City Lawsuit Will Backfire
Hoping to dissuade passengers from engaging in the practice of hidden city ticketing, Lufthansa is suing a passenger for skipping a flight from Frankfurt to Oslo. I’m betting the lawsuit is going to backfire. With stiff competition from Norwegian...
The Real Reason Air New Zealand 787 Was Denied Landing in Shanghai: Taiwan
There’s a new twist in the Air New Zealand 787 diversion story…it appears China denied the aircraft landing rights over a reference to Taiwan on the flight paperwork. In case you missed my story yesterday, an Air New Zealand...
Air New Zealand 787 Denied Landing In Shanghai…Five Hours Into Flight!
Chinese authorities forced an Air New Zealand flight to turn back to Auckland five hours into the flight, citing a permitting issue. But don’t blame China for this one. Air New Zealand Flight 289 was halfway to Shanghai on...
Woman Gets Six Months In Prison For Slapping Immigration Official
A British woman faces six months in jail for slapping an immigration official in Bali. Auj-e Taqaddas overstayed her visa in Indonesia by 160 days. Upon trying to fly out of Bali, a passport control official noted her illegal...
Drunken WestJet Passenger Fined $21,000+ For Diversion
Another datapoint to be sober-minded when you travel: one man must now pay $21,260.68. To start… David Young, who has battled alcohol problems for years, consumed six alcoholic drinks prior to boarding his WestJet flight from Calgary to London...
United’s Loss Is Emirates’ Gain
Emirates is considering restarting a Fifth Freedom route between Hamburg, Germany and New York JFK. It’s a bold move in the “America First” era, but hardly a route so odd that it merits scorn. Without formal announcement, United suspended...
Hong Kong Airlines Threatens To Sue You For Spreading False “Rumors”
Be careful what you say about Hong Kong Airlines. The carrier has warned that it will sue those who spread false information about its financial health. You might ask how Hong Kong Airlines is doing? Is the carrier making...
