Remember that post I did Oct. 16 about the chairman of the Piedmon Triad Airport calling out Delta over its high fares? Well, Delta has finally responded, according to an article in the Nov. 16 issue of The Business Journal. The Reader's Digest condensed version? In a letter to the chairman, Glen Hauestein, Delta's executive vice president and chief of network and revenue management basically said that fares in Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham were lower because they have larger passenger bases. He was polite but basically reiterated what I originally wrote - Delta will continue to charge the higher fares out of PTI as long as passengers continue to pay them. My only question is why did it take a month to reply to PTI's charges? Even a quick perfunctory form letter from a manager in the revenue department would have been better than just dragging this out for a month.
And remember that Nov. 16 post I did about the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority deciding to allow smoking in Central Illinois Regional Airport's Hangar Food & Spirits bar and restauant? Well, not so fast. An article in the Pantagraph has the city's legal staff saying that the restaurant might not be exempt from the smoking ban. In a memo to the mayor and city council, city attorney Todd Greenburg found that "The city of Bloomington cannot permit smoking where state law prohibits it. CIRA cannot permit smoking were state law or city ordinance prohibits smoking."
Since we're going down my posting memory lane, remember the post I did about AirTran holding a contest on its web site to choose its new city? Well, according to a story (subscribers only) written by my colleague Lori Ranson in the Nov. 29 issue of Aviation Daily, Phoenix was the big winner. Service will begin to Atlanta Feb. 15, 2007, with one flight a day. Another flight will be added March 7. AirTran will be competing with Delta, at 78 flights a week, and US Airways, with 69 a week.
Detroit Metropolitan Airport has done something almost unheard of these days -- it actually cut its landing fees as of Oct. 1. In my Aviation Daily story (subscribers only) Nov. 29, the Wayne County Airport Authority -- which runs Detroit Metro -- credited cost-cutting measures that allowed it to pass the savings on to its airlines. All told, airlines stand to receive a $20 million refund when the airport closes its FY 2006 books.
There's been a lot of dissention over the new biometric passports that are coming online. with opponents saying that any hacker can get access to private information embedded in the document. And now it looks like 3 million citizens in the U.K. will have their passports recalled by the Liberal Home Affairs after the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper showed just how easy it was to hack the documents.
India's New Delhi International Airport is the latest to install the security scanning machine that can produce a nude image of the body via computer, according to DNAIndia.com. The x-ray machine is designed to help search for weapons and explosives. The maufacturers of the scanner are trying to build a version that blurs sensitive body parts.
A bronze statue of "The Young Rembrandt" has been unveiled at JFK Airport Terminal 4 to mark the 90th anniversary of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The statue was created by the late Dutch sculptor Wim van Doorn in 1969 as a plaster model and cast in bronze by Schiphol Group. Terminal 4 is operated by JFKIAT LLC, a consortium in which Schiphol USA has a 40% share.