This week seem to have been very U.S. centric with most big headline news coming from the States. So we decided to make a feature out of it and call it the American Airport News Week.
Last week we reported computer problems in Australia, this week it was – wait for it – America’s turn (yes, we know, you guessed it). On Thursday Fox News reported that thousands of United Airlines passengers around the globe are stranded at airports and on planes after another computer outage at the world’s largest carrier. Apparently this was at least the third major computer outage for the Chicago-based airline since June.
Thanksgiving is coming next week (22nd November) and with that global online travel company Orbitz reported in a press release that Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and Los Angeles International (LAX) will see the biggest crowds of any U.S. airports over the Thanksgiving holiday, according to their data. Orbitz also analyzed booking data to identify exactly when travelers will be flying over the holiday. As expected, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving will be the peak departure day and will see more than twice as many flyers as on Thanksgiving Day itself. On the return side, it will be 16 percent busier to fly back on Sunday (November 25th) versus heading home on Monday (November 26th).
Remember the movie blockbuster “GoodFellas“? That film was inspired by a 1970 Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Well, some guy seemed to have liked that film a lot as this week he pulled off another heist in the same cargo building stealing $1.9 million in iPad minis. The New York Post wrote yesterday that Federal agents were able to arrest airport worker Renel Rene Richardson because he allegedly made suspicious inquiries to co-workers about the gadget shipment and where forklifts might be found.
And finally we have the Chicago’s Sun-Times that reported a woman driving with her infant son in her car crashing through a gate at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) and driving on the runway in the latest in a series of similar mishaps across the country that have raised questions whether the nation’s airports are truly secure.
That’s all from us for this week. Happy Thanksgiving!
[Photo showing the E Team Skydivers of Mason, Ohio is from Flickr – Some rights reserved by Timothy Wildey]