Planes flew without mandatory inspections; carrier says flaws fixed

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it would fine Southwest Airlines Co. $10.2 million for safety violations that included knowingly flying more than three dozen jets without mandatory inspections for structural damage.

The fine would be the largest ever levied against an airline, the FAA said.

When Southwest belatedly conducted the inspections, it found cracks in the bodies of six Boeing 737-300s, with the largest measuring 4 inches. Serious fractures can depressurize an aircraft and in 1988 caused an Aloha Airlines jet to rip apart, killing a flight attendant. Read more…

Though international air travel may be increasingly pricey, many Penn students are choosing to fly anyway.

According to an analysis of airfare ticket sales conducted by Sabre Airline Solutions - an airline consulting and software distribution firm - the average price of airline tickets purchased for transatlantic flights this spring has increased from last year.

Travelers who purchased tickets through Jan. 31 for flights during the upcoming months of April and May paid an average of 6.9 percent more this year than those who purchased tickets for the same period in 2007, according to the Sabre analysis. Read more…

A climate change organization which researches wind and hurricane intensification due to global warming has criticized authorities for not doing enough to protect airline passengers and their crews.

They warn that unless aircraft control systems are not redesigned to handle the stronger winds now more common, accidents in the critical final approach stage of landing will increase.

‘The maximum crosswind limits have only increased on Boeing aircraft by 7 knots since the beginning of the jet age,’ says Donald Burfitt-Dons, Chairman of the Global Warming Alliance and a former airline pilot. ‘The control systems are designed to cope with a 30 to 35 knot crosswind on landing. That is no longer sufficient’. Read more…

System needed to support 12 million passengers a year

Plans to serve more than 12-million passengers traveling through Southwest Florida International Airport by 2018 also include handling more baggage than ever before.

In the complex world of airline baggage handling, experience with post 9/11 rules, regulations and complex equipment ranked high with the airport’s Special Management Committee’s decision to recommend one management company.

Of the three well-represented companies that presented their capabilities and experience to the committee, Parsons Corporation was chosen above PB Americas and URS. Read more…

InsideTrip made its debut into the airline ticket search scene this weekend, joining the likes of Kayak and Mobissimo among several others.

As with these startups and more established players such as Orbitz and Expedia, InsideTrip wants to help you find and purchase the tickets for your next trip. However, instead of focusing entirely on surfacing the cheapest flights, the service intends to help you identify those flights with the highest levels of quality.

Quality is measured by factors spanning 3 categories (speed, comfort, and ease) and addressing 12 so-called “pain points” (such as number of stops, security wait time, legroom, aircraft type, connection time, and gate location). Read more…