Courtney Love was arrested at London's Heathrow
Airport earlier this month after accusations of verbally abusing Virgin
crewmembers on a flight from Los Angeles. As she left Heathrow's police
station Love said: “I cussed at a lady - my daughter always said
I had a potty mouth.” She was later released with a caution for “causing
harassment, alarm and distress” after nine hours in custody. Love
said she had complained that staff did not let her friend sit in first
class with her. She later met Richard Branson, Virgin’s owner at
a party, who promptly offered her two first class tickets London –
LA return.
~~~~~~
Passengers on small US commuter planes may be asked
to weigh-in before they are allowed on board after intervention from the
country's Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA's new policy
asks airlines to weigh both passengers and baggage on planes that seat
between 10 and 19 people. The announcement came after 21 people were killed
at Charlotte, North Carolina when an Air Midwest plane crashed on take-off.
AT the moment, US regional carriers do not carry out weight checks on
passengers and cargo but work on estimates.
~~~~~~
Delta Air Lines, the third largest carrier in
the US has just promised the two minute airport check-in. Can this be
possible? They say they aim to significantly reduce check-in wait times
and lines at 81 of the airports in its system through a mixture of more
self service technology and better use of its people on the ground.
Changes will include a combination of airport lobby
redesign, increased self-service technology and new airport customer service
roles for employees. The airline is aiming to add more than 400 self-service
kiosks this year as part of the scheme. Rich Cordell, senior vice president,
Airport Customer Service. “Our goal is to ensure that no e-ticketed,
self-service customer stands in line longer than two minutes for any transaction,
even during peak times.”
~~~~~~
Ah…and Delta Air Lines again …….
passengers with tickets purchased on or after February 1 who are travelling
on Delta, Delta Express, Delta Shuttle, Atlantic Coast Airlines, Atlantic
Southeast Airlines, Chautauqua Airlines, Comair and SkyWest Airlines will
have to pay a USD$25 fee on any bag weighing more than 50 lbs. A new overweight
charge applies to bags weighing up to 70 pounds and rises to USD$80 for
those weighing between 71 and 100 lbs. Delta does not accept bags weighing
more than 100 lbs as checked baggage. But, if you are a member of Delta's
Platinum, Gold or Silver Medallion SkyMiles scheme or a passenger confirmed
in the forward cabin, you will be exempt from these charges. Additionally,
it does not apply to sporting equipment, musical instruments, live animals,
cabin baggage, media equipment or wheelchairs and devices which assist
disabled passengers, which may be covered by other baggage policies.
~~~~~~
America has taken the first steps to put civil aircraft
on stand-by for military duties in the event of war breaking out with
Iraq. Several major US airlines including American Airlines, American
Trans Air, Atlas Air, Continental, Delta, FedEx, Northwest, Southwest
and United are part of the nation's Civil Reserve Fleet which can
be called on to supply both passenger and cargo aircraft to move troops
and equipment to a conflict zone. Under the first phase only 47 aircraft
are to be on stand-by. If the Pentagon activated the second stage of the
plan up to 300 planes could be involved. The last time the plan was put
into action was during the operation that followed Iraq's invasion
of neighbouring Kuwait twelve years ago.
The Globetrotters eNewsletter