Gunfire in Philadelphia Airport?!?!

Gunfire rang through the security checkpoint at the Philadelphia International Airport on last weekend.  This isn’t the only scare the airport had suffered this month.  Earlier this month a fraudulent bomb threat was called in on a flight from Dallas to Philly by the jilted lover of a passenger.

On Sunday a TSA Officer was called over to the security scanner as a gun was found in a piece of carry-on luggage.   The TSA Officer ACCIDENTALLY fired the weapon when attempting to remove the bullets from the gun.   Thankfully, no one was in the line of fire.

To make matters worse the gun was in the carry-on luggage of a flight attendant for Republic Airlines.  When questioned, she replied that she merely forgot it was in there. 

I don’t know about you, but I would have been on the floor covered in my morning mocha….

American Airlines Cancels More Flights…..

Still in financial woes, American Airlines is finding creative ways to cut costs.  Most of the cut backs are aimed at the pensions and benefits of the pilots.  As of right now American is not contributing to pension plans.  The airline is considering freezing or terminating it.  American also is planning on implementing longer flight days. 

Because of these actions more pilots have been calling out sick more than usual.  Flight crews have issued more maintenance reports than usual as well.  Both of these instances cause flights to be delayed or cancelled.

DFW Airport (Dallas, Texas) saw 43% of American Airlines flights severely delayed or cancelled last week.  This location is the primary hub for American Airlines and counts for more than 75% of the flights from that airport.  It really leaves travelers in a bind as they really don’t have many other airline options departing that airport. 

Airline CEO Calls Passengers Stupid

You can truly appreciate when a CEO gives some candid (or-not-so-candid) truth.  That is, unless they say how they feel by questioning their customer base level of intelligence as the CEO of Ryanair was so inclined to. 

For those that don’t know, Ryanair is an Irish airline primarily based out of Dublin and London Stansted Airports.  It is known for some of the lowest ticket fares in Europe, but plenty of secondary charges much in the vein of Spirit Airlines domestically.   The argument made is that their airline is the best value for customers that don’t require “extras” like baggage.  Unfortunately for most travelers, they are surprised with the weighty fees that accumulate when checking in and are left feeling like they have had a “fast one” pulled on them. 

This was the case for a British mother who ended up paying about $380 so that her family could get their boarding passes to fly home from Spain.  After Ms. McLeod’s complaint received some worldwide attention on Facebook the CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, had this to say:

“We think Mrs. McLeod should pay 60 Euros for being so stupid.  She wasn’t able to print her boarding card because, as you know, there are no Internet cafes in Alicante, no hotels where they could print them out for you, and you couldn’t get to a fax machine so some friend at home can print them and fax them to you.”

A couple days later, the brazen CEO stated, “I was not calling her stupid, but all those passengers are stupid who think we will change our policies or our fees.”

Lufthansa On Strike!

It seems to be that this week the cabin staff of Germany’s largest airline, Luftansa, went on strike.  This is a strike that looks like it will go on for weeks.  Currently it is projected that the airline is losing three to five million Euro per day on the strike.

It doesn’t look as though Lufthansa is interested in bending.  Unfortunately, the main party losing out are the customers.  They are being stranded and having to look for other airlines as most small – medium haul flights are being cancelled.  A third of the long haul flights were cancelled as well, including major U.S. flights arriving and departing from Los Angeles International, Houston’s George Bush International and Chicago O’Hare.

With the given state if the EU economy, maybe they should just be happy for a stable well paying job?! After all, I do not think they are being paid below the poverty line.