Well, well, finger-point, finger-point… yes, okay we admit it, we’re about 24 hours late with our weekly news round-up. But hey, better late than never or isn’t that what they say? Whatever; let’s not get into excuses but rather focus on the task at hand.
Well, what can I say? For the first time in the history of the weekly LateDeparture airport news round-ups, I decide to take a leave of absence for a couple days. Plus – and this really was the big mistake – I decide to pre-write the news without a disclaimer of when it was written. Naively I thought, what can possibly shake up the airport world in the 3 days I’m away? Oh dearie-me, how wrong was I? One day into my leave (note, I didn’t even have any means of communication at all), the Australian carrier Qantas decides to ground its entire fleet worldwide. Thousands of passengers got stranded across the globe while Irish-born Alan Joyce – the airline’s CEO – bet on a solution to its ongoing, costly disputes with the unions. He got his way, even though they say it’s not yet entirely over, but further threats of future strikes from the unions are out of the way for the moment.
As another week comes to an end another weekly round-up of airport aviation news is due from us! There’s a bit of interesting follow up to do from last week’s news, news from a often forgotten continent and finally a three-letter-acronym that oftentimes makes news – this time it’s, well, juicy…
It’s been a turbulent week with plenty of airport related news. Earlier in the week we reported about the future of airport security, a topic that keeps being on top of travellers and airport managers minds alike, especially now with the approaching anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Then towards the end of the week the news headlines were dominated by hurricane Irene with severe implications for air travel.
This week we received airport news from around the world. Well, surely you would expect that but it isn’t always the case as the US is by far the most dominant source of (juicy) airport news. Actually, let’s start with the US and then make our way eastwards: The Wall Street Journal this week published a report compiled by the Transportation Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics about the timeliness of US airports. Of the 100 most-delayed flights over the past year, 40 come and go from Newark Liberty International Airport (IATA: EWR) making it the worst airport for punctuality.
Yes, we admit it, we’re one day late with our weekly airport round-up. So without further ado, let’s get right into it: This week, dozens of airport construction projects across the USA have been put on hold as the government failed to pass legislation to keep the Federal Aviation Administration running, wrote Passenger Terminal Today. According to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the FAA’s operating authority expired, forcing a partial shutdown of the agency. This has meant dozens of stop-work orders were issued last weekend on projects throughout the country.