Flight Blog
News and Tips about Air Travel, Business / Industry, Flying, Airplanes, and other fun

BREAKING NEWS: Flying car company Terrafugia gets key FAA clearance for its ‘roadable aircraft’ and looks to deliver first one next year

From the article:

With that FAA clearance under the its belt, the company said it is on track to deliver the first Transitions to customers late next year.

The Transition, which is designed with foldable wings, successfully completed its first flight on March 5, 2009, after six months of road testing.

Check out Air Fare WatchDog’s chart comparing the air fare alerts here.

The Denver Post reports in their article, Lean times for airlines means bumped fliers have a harder time finding flights:

“Planes are running so full that they don’t have any spots,” Tulsa, Okla., resident Anne Green said last week as she waited between flights. “It’s like a domino effect where you can’t get another flight when something goes wrong.”
…
U.S. airlines cut capacity nearly 9 percent last year, taking planes out of service or using smaller planes on some routes in a scramble to better match the number of seats to customers. That was on top of a 6.7 percent capacity cut in 2008.

The world of cheap-flight search may be changing now that Google’s jumping into the game: GigaOM reports on Google’s acquisition of ITA Software Inc. here, and Google writes about it on its own blog:

Today, almost half of all airline tickets are sold online. But for many people, finding the right flight at the best price is a frustrating experience; pricing and availability change constantly, and even a simple two city itinerary involves literally thousands of different options. We’d like to make that search much easier, which is why I’m pleased to announce that today we have signed an agreement to acquire ITA, a Boston-based software company specializing in organizing airline data, including flight times, availability and prices.

I’m no Apple fanboy, and I’m no Australian either, which means I won’t be able to take advantage of Jetstar’s iPad rental service when it starts next month or whenever.

See all the Flight Club cheap flights posts from our archives here: Cheap Flights.

Over in Australia, Jetstar Airlines is being investigated because of claims that a pilot was text-messaging while landing a plane, and because they were distracted they were forced to abort a landing attempt at an airport in Singapore.

Read the article, Pilot ‘texting during landing’, here.

The New York Times says much of airline passenger frustration is related to outdated technology used by airlines:

Airlines have made great technological leaps in recent years, allowing passengers to check in from home or download boarding passes on their smartphones. But if you’ve ever been stranded at an airport during a raging thunderstorm, chances are you will end up standing in a long line watching a gate agent typing furiously on an outdated computer.

Here are some interesting notes from the article:

• The airline industry replaced its traditional magnetic-strip tickets with electronic tickets, saving $3 billion a year since 2008.
• Airlines usually spend 2.5 to 3.5% of their budget on IT — last year, when the economy tanked, they spent 1.7%.

Read the full article, Airlines Work to Catch Up to the Digital Age, here.

Lifehacker wrote a post breaking down how they go about finding cheap flights online in 2010. There are some new bits of info, like how to use twitter to your advantage, and tracking refunds after your ticket’s been bought.

Read the full post, The Frequent Flier’s Guide to Finding Cheap Airfare, here.

Ever thought about taking your sex toys with you on an airplane? The San Francisco Chronicle put together this excellent guide about handling sex toys and air travel and luggage. Here’s a sample:

If you’re one of the 500,000 (half a million!) people traveling to San Francisco for this year’s Pride Parade, before you pack your one suitcase of sweaters and hot pants (you’ll need both) and your five suitcases of sex toys, think about the TSA for a minute. (Ugh, not like that.) Sure, uniforms are hot, and some of you may have those nonconsensual cavity-search fantasies rarin’ to go, but save your fetishes for Pink Saturday and pack your sex toys with care. Otherwise, be prepared to have your expensive toy collection ripped apart by security dogs and your favorite dick detonated by the feds. Imagine arriving and having to explain, “Honey, they blew up the Ballsy Jeff Stryker 10-inch.”

Read the article, The TSA Hates Your Vibrator / How to safely fly with your sex toys, here.