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Just in time for the busiest travel week of the year, we have this news from the General Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm: It's relatively easy to get bomb-making materials through security checkpoints and onto airplanes. A group of undercover GAO workers apparently did so recently, managing to get past baggage screeners at 19 airports, despite new rules intended to prevent precisely this kind of thing. Is this just holiday hype, or are we really vulnerable to another September 11, 2001-style plot? According to the report, investigators found two types of devices terrorists could use to cause an explosion in...

If you think radical Muslims, bureaucrats and cops have made travel miserable for everyone in America, you might have to stay away from Britain. Gordon Brown, the new prime minister in London, revealed his new scheme yesterday for saying hello and goodbye to tourists and other travelers, and it's a scheme that could please only a busybody bureaucrat. The jihadists are working now on cracking the code. "Travelers," reported London's Daily Mail, "face price hikes and confusion after the government unveiled plans to take up to 53 pieces of information from anyone entering or leaving Britain." The relevancy of all...

As my taxi pulled up at Changi airport, I knew this was going to be a special day - the day of the first A380 commercial flight was finally here. The airport had long been adorned with banners and posters declaring Singapore "A380 ready" and anticipating the flight.

“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds...” -High Flight When John Gillespie Magee wrote the above famed lines describing the thrill and freedom of flying in September, 1941, it was still possible to enjoy the experience of powered flight. After all, Pilot Officer Magee had only the Nazi air force trying to ruin the experience for him; he had never encountered the soul-killing experience of traveling on a modern commercial airline. Snip...

It is, say critics, a graphic example of how Britain's busiest airport is bursting at the seams. This incredible picture shows how a British Airways jumbo jet lost part of its wing colliding with another plane as both waited to take off at Heathrow. Panic broke out on board both planes after a Sri Lankan A340 Airbus sliced through the BA plane's wingtip 'like butter'. More than 600 passengers and crew were left stranded after the incident at 10.20pm on Monday night as both flights had to be abandoned. A Danish journalist, Annasofie Flamand, was on board Sri Lankan flight...

What airline do you most often frequent? Why? Do you look for the cheapest fares? Is it the in-flight service which attracts you? What is it about the airline that has you choose it over the others? I do a fair amount of travel, from ATL (Atlanta-Hartsfield) to SE Asia. I have flown on Garuda, Singapore Air, Delta (although not in several years), Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and Northwest. I have become quite dissatisfied by the service, or lack thereof, with Northwest, which is what I have been using for the long Pacific flights from Minneapolis or Detroit to...

NEW YORK -- The Gwinnett County mother kicked off an airplane with her 19-month old son tried to tell her side of the story Friday morning, but her son's crying drowned out part of the interview. Garren Penland, 19-months old, got so unruly during his mom's chat with 'Good Morning America' anchor Diane Sawyer, co-anchor Chris Cuomo had to take the toddler off the set. While Kate Penland explained her child was well-behaved on the Continental Express flight, little Garren kicked, wiggled and squirmed out of his mother's arms. At one point he climbed up on a coffee table and...

A child's tantrum on board a Delta commuter flight forced a pilot to make an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport. Chopper 10 was over the scene. The forced landing was caused by a fight over apple juice. A 4-year-old wanted apple juice and when the stewardess didn't get it quick enough, the child threw a tantrum, NBC 10 reported. The Delta commuter flight landed around 5 p.m. Tuesday. The flight originated in New York and was headed to North Carolina before the incident. Passengers were spending the night in Philadelphia, NBC 10 reported. Authorities said there would be no...

Continental Airlines is apologizing to its customers for sewage spilling down the aisle from a lavatory during trans-Atlantic Flight 71 from Amsterdam bound for Newark, N.J. on June 13. Continental spokesman Dave Messing explained that the plan was to “introduce passengers to the odors of New Jersey prior to their deplaning in Newark.” “We wanted to help passengers feel like they were in Jersey while en route,” said a chagrined Messing. “We thought it would help acclimate them to the state before they arrived. I guess we kind of overdid it.” "It was a horrible experience," said passenger Maya Colon....

Monica Emmerson and her 19-month old son missed their flight to Nevada when they were hassled by Transportation Security Administration officials at Reagan National Airport on June 11th. The incident was initiated because there was water in her son's “sippy” cup. The sippy cup, the only vessel the woman’s son would drink from, was seized by TSA because it may have contained more than three ounces of liquid. A TSA security guard instructed Emmerson to drink the liquid in order to “prove she wasn’t trying to pull something.” Nervous and agitated, she spilled the water. The spill sent the TSA...

This is a nice collection of articles containing tips for air travel.

The perfect storm BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published July 9, 2000.) If you're one of the millions of people planning to travel by air this summer, here's some important information from the Association of Commercial Airlines: (Silence.) UH-oh! Apparently the airlines are unable to give us any information at this time! Probably they are experiencing thunderstorms. No institution experiences as many thunderstorms as an airline. Huge, violent clouds surround airline employees at all times. They cannot hold company picnics, because the death toll from lightning strikes would be in the hundreds. If we want...

My uncle was to travel on a mission trip to Honduras yesterday. When the arrived in Miami, they were told the flight was cancelled, and to go home, no other info. Not the flight is cancelled, the next one will be in the next few hours or days, just go home Does anyone know of anything going on in that part of the world, or any travel alerts?

Baggage handler locked in hold on US-bound flight Ronan McGreevy A baggage handler at Dublin airport was locked into the cargo hold of a transatlantic aircraft as it taxied down the runway. The 55-year-old man, who had worked with Aer Lingus for 16 years and had been promoted to shift leader, got stuck in the hold when he went to retrieve a bag that should have been on a flight to Los Angeles rather than New York. A report into the incident, in late 2005, said it was "fortunate" that the man had a mobile phone, which he used to...

This report was posted in mid-February, and has received no media coverage whatsoever. Jacobsen confirmed that the incident did occur, with an American Airlines spokesperson. This is not meant to scare, but it probably will. Consider yourself informed and warned that the threat is real. This crew reported that they were not prepared that something of this nature could be happening to them. Flt 62, Paris to MIA [Miami], a few weeks ago. 2 maybe 4 mid-eastern types causing minor disturbance from the get-go. Nothing that the FAs [flight attendants] couldn’t deal with, but, in hindsight, they seemed to be...

Freepers: My wife and I were having a lively debate over the latest JetBlue debacle, where a plane sat for many hours on the tarmac. What is the procedure for getting a plane off the tarmac and back into a gate? Who has control? Is it the airline, or the tower, or some combo of each? If the airline wanted it back in, why would the tower not permit it? If the tower wanted it back in, could the airline override it? My hunch is that any kind of "passengers' bill of rights" or any legislation will NOT solve these...

GENEVA (Reuters) -- The number of air travelers is expected to double by 2025, rising to more than 9 billion a year, a body representing the world's airports said Tuesday. The Airports Council International (ACI) predicted air freight would triple over the same period. In its Global Traffic Forecast 2006-2025, ACI said passengers passing through the 1,650 domestic and international airports its 567 members operate would grow an average 4 percent annually over the period. There are currently about 4.2 billion air travelers a year. Environmentalists say aviation is a growing source of carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming....

YouTube posting: Actual backscatter video footage from TSA. Images are exactly what Transportation Security Officers see. Interesting technology. Hasn't Europe been using this technology for years now?

Kingfisher Plans First U.S. Service To SFO, New York By Steven Lott/Aviation Daily 11/22/2006 09:25:15 AM Kingfisher Airlines by year end expects to apply to the U.S. Transportation Dept. for permission to launch service to San Francisco and New York, starting in early 2008, The DAILY has learned. The Indian carrier launched in May 2005 and has been quickly ramping up domestic flights but Chairman and CEO Vijay Mallya is still eager to start long-haul service to the U.S. The carrier previously hoped to start the service in 2007, but because of aircraft delivery schedules and the timing of government...

Omar Shahin is one of the imams removed from a flight in Minneapolis. He was involved with Kind Hearts, which has been closed down for its connections to Hamas. He also acknowledged a connection to Osama bin Laden in the 1990s in a September 28, 2001 story in the Arizona Republic (thanks to Austin): "Arizona Was Home to bin Laden 'Sleeper Cell,'" by Dennis Wagner and Tom Zoellner. From that story: Arizona appears to have been the home of a "sleeper cell" of Osama bin Laden's worldwide terrorist organization, with a select group of operatives living quietly in bland apartment...