Posted on 03/01/2002 7:14:54 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:01 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Thousands of passengers were cleared out of O'Hare and Los Angeles International Airports Thursday when authorities found that walk-through metal detectors were unplugged--bringing to five the number of such incidents at U.S. airports in the last week.
Two hours before the incident at O'Hare's American Airlines terminal, three passengers were detained for possession of knives and box-cutters at the same checkpoint, police said.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Ahaaagggggggggg.
Ya know, back in the early 20th century, we developed this neat concept where devices that aren't supposed to be turned off are permanently wired to the power source!
Duh!
I say it's just continuing ineptness.
Worse, Loyal Order of Stupid.
Flying is a downer [Full Text]
The plane truth, declares Key Largo travel writer Christopher Elliott, is that traveling by air is no fun anymore -- except on the one airline that made money last year.
When it comes to air travel, the thrill is gone. Flying just isn't fun anymore. But that's more than a morale problem for the nation's airlines -- it's a money problem. The dreadful, humorless state of the aviation industry is keeping them from a recovery.
The formerly polite passengers have been replaced by travelers like Pablo Moreira Mosca, a 29-year-old bank employee from Uruguay who is accused of kicking in a cockpit door on a United Airlines flight from Miami to Buenos Aires earlier this month because he "wanted to destroy everything."
The once-civil security guards have lost both their manners and sensibility. How else can you explain the airport employee who ordered Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) to drop his pants after the congressman's artificial hip set off a metal detector at Washington's Reagan National Airport recently?
The flight attendants who once made air travel a pleasure for everyone now refer to passengers as "the enemy" and indiscriminately expel travelers from flights for second-guessing their absolute authority to rule the cabin. Innocent passengers such as Akiko Mitsui, Pamela Batch Garza and John Kish -- all kicked off their flights for "crimes" that ranged from asking for a flight attendant's name to bringing too much luggage on board -- now think twice before buying an airline ticket.
The slide began years ago, when the federal government deregulated the airline industry, but after Sept. 11 things took a turn for the worse. Air travel became a nightmare that people went out of their way to avoid. According to a survey released recently by Protocol Communications, business travelers are using e-mail, conference calls and other Internet resources as air-travel substitutes, while many leisure travelers said they also were having second thoughts about getting on a plane. Of course, quite a few of the travelers surveyed are worried about safety -- and rightly so -- but it's also obvious that they want to avoid the overall air-travel experience.
The results are clear. Last year the major airlines lost an astounding amount of money. Leading the pack was United Airlines, with $2.1 billion in losses, and US Airways, which ended the year $1.9 billion in the red. In fact, not a single major carrier -- not Continental Airlines, not Alaska Airlines -- made a dime last year.
Except one.
It's the kind of airline where flight attendants add comments such as this to the safety instructions: "In event of a water landing, please remember paddle, kick, kick, paddle, kick, all the way back to shore." Or where the pilots make announcements such as: "Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but they'll try to have them fixed before we arrive." Its current chairman, in fact, was once called "the high priest of ha-ha."
I'm talking about Southwest Airlines, which made $511 million profit last year, despite the bad economy and despite Sept. 11. Granted, it's a well-run airline with many reasons for its 29 consecutive years of profitability. But one of those reasons, without a doubt, is that it's fun. Complaints about abusive flight attendants are rare. In more than a decade of covering the airline, the only grievance I've gotten about a Southwest crew member involved a flight attendant who laughed at a passenger instead of with her.
The airline does get its share of unruly passengers. In August 2000, a traveler died on a Southwest flight after he became combative and was subdued by as many as eight of the plane's 120 passengers. Authorities said they believed the man, Jonathan Burton, died of a heart attack.
But Southwest hasn't lost its sense of humor. Its crew members aren't angry and vindictive. They're self-deprecating, funny and often charming. They try to make the flying experience enjoyable, despite the small seats and peanuts served for snacks. Could it be that easy?
I think the answer is a lot more obvious. Just make air travel fun again. [End]
Christoper Elliott is a Key Largo travel writer.
On a trip though Logan last week I had to admit that the lines moved smoothly......however the bathrooms were a mess.
Did the janitoral staff become federalized as security screeners?
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