A few months ago, for the first time in my life, I walked up to a bar and ordered myself a cocktail.

On an airplane, I mean.

You can wax nostalgic about the long-ago days of the Pan Am flying boats, when tuxedoed stewards served caviar on the finest china, and passengers retired to Pullman-style sleeping bunks (only 37 hours from New York to Rio!). But the truth is, up in the forward cabins of the world’s elite airlines, flying has never been more downright luxurious than it is right now. It’s a sleeker, 21st-century style of luxury, but there’s no denying it.

Others agree. Maybe you caught David Owen’s recent New Yorker piece, “Game of Thrones”, about the investments that carriers have been making in their first and business class cabins, and the remarkable transformation of high-end business travel. Earlier this month, Joe Sharkey wrote a similar story for his “On the Road” column in the Times.

“If you fly a lot,” writes Sharkey, “you have heard the nostalgia about a long-gone Golden Age of air travel. During this fabled time, which is said to have occurred as commercial aviation expanded through the 1950s into the jet age of the 1960s, passengers dressed up to fly on airplanes where glamorous stewardesses wearing white gloves served beef bourguignon on fine china. Baloney. The Golden Age of air travel is actually today — if you are among the lucky ones flying in first class or business class on a premium international airline.”

I’ve made this point before, almost to the letter. “If ever there was a golden age of flying,” I wrote last year in a blog post, “I’d say it was right now.” And chapter seven of my book says, “While people will never stop complaining about the discomforts of economy class, it happens that premium class, be it first or business, has never been more extravagant.”

I know this because I’m an airline geek who follows the industry closely, keeping up on the various trends and innovations. Normally this keeping up takes place from afar, quite jealously. I am certainly not well-heeled enough to be hopping around the world in first class on Cathay Pacific or Singapore Airlines, and neither do my employee benefits grant such things. I am fortunate enough, however, to occasionally fly in long-haul business class. Which brings us back to my cocktail…

This was an Emirates flight from Bangkok to Dubai, leg number four of an east-to-west global circumnavigation, and my first-ever ride on the mammoth Airbus A380.

Emirates currently operates about fifty A380s. The upper deck is split between 14 fully-enclosed first class suites and 76 business class cubicles in a four-across, 1-2-1 configuration. My cubicle was a window seat, left side, about midway down the cabin.

It was immediately obvious that this would be the swankiest airplane seat I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience.  About the biggest compliment you can pay an airline is not wanting to get off one of its planes, and that was definitely going to be the case. Settling in, I was angry that flight would be only seven hours long. (I say “settling in,” but like I told you, I’m an airline geek. My adrenaline was rushing and I spent the first fifteen minutes taking pictures. How cool is this? How cool is this?)

The seat is a full-flat sleeper with a console and minibar to one side (see photo above). It’s not a totally enclosed suite like you’d find in first class, but the chair is set deeply within the cubicle. You feel cozy and ensconced, and the side console acts as a privacy barrier, putting a good deal of space between you and the aisle (or, if you’re in the center section, your closest seat-mate). Window seats have thigh-level storage compartments along the side, similar to those in the upper deck of the 747.

All seats have a small minibar, conveniently placed USB and power ports, and a shoe locker. The window shades are electrically controlled. Emirates ICE system (Information, Communications, Entertainment) is accessed via touch-screen or through a remote-control handset. There are more than a thousand movies, television and music options to pick from (including a large number of films from India, China, and elsewhere; this is Emirates after all). The video screen is huge and crystal clear, and the carrier’s noise-reduction headsets are the most comfortable I’ve ever worn. On the information channel passengers can choose between three different external camera views, including one from high atop the A380′s tail. Inflight Wi-Fi and mobile phone calling are available for a fee (the Wi-Fi is reasonably priced; cell calls are expensive). If you’re not an Emirates regular, you might have some trouble deciphering the workings of the various seat and ICE controls. During boarding, one of the cabin attendants sensed, quite correctly, that I had no idea what I was doing and kindly gave me a tutorial.

The cabin lighting is changed depending on the phase of flight. For boarding it’s a soft red.

The purser’s pre-departure announcement reminded passengers that the evening’s inflight staff “speaks seventeen languages.”  No real surprise, Emirates being the most global of global carriers, but I have to ask: does somebody actually count?

Next came a PA from the cockpit.  As with its cabin attendants, Emirates’ pilots are a polyglot of expats.  Our captain was a Brit and the first officer was from Jamaica.

There are separate menus for the meals and wine.  The food is served on Royal Dalton china.  There was only one meal service, however, which I found a little stingy for a relatively long international flight.

Later, a crew member came around offering mattress pads.  I declined because I didn’t see the need; my seat was plenty comfortable for sleeping as it was.  In the 180-degree position, there’s ample tossing and turning room both at the feet and shoulders.

Behind the last row of business is a spacious lounge with a pair of sofa-style bench seats for a dozen or so passengers. The benches have seat belts, so you’re welcome to stay during turbulence. That’s where I had my vodka tonic. There’s a full bar staffed by a flight attendant, and a countertop spread of pastries and hors d’oeuvres.

Now, as maybe you’ve noted from the photos, Emirates’ cabin decor isn’t in line with everybody’s tastes. The details are a touch ostentatious, in a certain Arabian-luxe sort of way. But it’s hard to complain. As you’re sitting there, all that gold trim and gleaming faux-wood only enhances one’s guilty pleasure. As my old friend James Kaplan once put it, it’s Vegas, but Vegas in a good way.

(And as something of an aside, you might notice that Emirates is one of only a few carriers to have developed its own proprietary typeface, which it uses in everything from its advertising to its inflight menu. I don’t know who designed this font, but it’s very attractive and distinctive. In an era when carriers are becoming more and more similar to one another, it’s a small but elegant way for Emirates to set itself apart. More airlines should do this kind of thing.)

I’ve been ridiculing the A380 for years, calling it, among other insults, “a travesty of industrial design” and “the ugliest commercial jetliner ever built.” It remains both of those things, at least on the outside. On the inside, however, I have to admit there’s little to complain about: the plane is spacious and comfortable.

It’s also remarkably quiet – maybe the quietest jet I’ve ever flown on.  Even during takeoff the only sound was a deep, distant rumble and some rattling from the galley.

Down below, meanwhile, was the economy cabin, with as many seats — 427 — as an entire Boeing 747. Because the upper deck has its own boarding door and dedicated jetway, I never saw economy  – or first class for that matter, with its shower and fully enclosed passenger compartments — is cordoned off by curtains and decidedly off limits to the curious. The main benefit of this segregation is a much quicker boarding process, but one drawback, perhaps, is that the experience feels less like flying on an airplane than merely relaxing in some cavernous rectangular function room.  This feeling of disconnectedness is exacerbated by the poor view from the upper deck windows, which are mounted deep within the side panels and angled upward. I much prefer the oversized windows of the 787.

The fifth and final leg of my round-the-world journey was a 13-hour nonstop from Dubai to Boston.  Emirates began its Boston service this spring using a once-daily Boeing 777-200.  The airline has around 150 777s, but relatively few of the smaller -200 variants.  Already the Boston service is popular, especially with passengers connecting to and from India, and I won’t be surprised to see a -300 on the route soon.

Business class on this aircraft isn’t nearly as fancy as on the A380.  It’s a standard, forward-facing recliner with a retractable privacy barrier — comfortable, though a bit of a let-down after being so spoiled on the A380. And seven-abreast (2-3-2) is a rather tight fit on a 777, even with a full-flat sleeper.

By the way, those side-mounted screens you see above, and in the earlier photo of the A380′s console and minibar, are the removable seat control panels, not the ICE video screens, which are much larger and mounted to the seat-back in front of you.

The 777 has textured sidewalls and constellation patterns that illuminate through the ceiling panels. The bulkheads are decorated with fresh flowers (I checked; they were real) and a desert dune motif.

 Now, for some nitpicking…

Emirates’ business class amenities kit is the largest I’ve ever seen, though not necessarily the best stocked. Two essentials are conspicuously absent: earplugs and a pen. And somewhat oddly, slipper-socks and eyeshades are supplied separately, in a plastic bag of their own.

And the meal service. Although Emirates’ menu has some great multi-ethnic entree choices, I was disappointed by the presentation. At my own carrier, the business class meal presentations are very choreographed.  The wine, cheese, and dessert courses, for instance, are elegantly served from an aisle cart. At Emirates the whole thing feels random and discombobulated, with flight attendants running to and from the galley with plates and trays.

On the Boston flight, breakfast was served shortly after takeoff.  Choices were an omelet, a mixed grill, paneer bhurji or a cold plate of meats and cheeses. The mixed grill was very good, if skimpy on the portion sizing.

According to the menu there was supposed to be a midflight meal called “Light Bites,” with a choice of a spinach calzone, chili prawns, or methi chicken.  But passing the eight hour mark nothing had been served.  After hungrily waiting around, I walked up to the galley and politely inquired.  “Oh,” said the flight attendant.  “Did you want that?  I can make it for you.”

Apparently you have to ask?

About two hours later it was lunch time.  Steak, prawn biryani, or chicken tikka masala.

While the service felt disjointed, the staff were nonetheless gracious and attentive.  Despite having to ask for that snack, there was never a time when a flight attendant wasn’t nearby.  Walk-throughs were constant.  In this regard there is no comparison with most American carriers, where, once the meal service is over, cabin crew promptly disappear.

By the way, if you exclude the U.S. domestic market, Emirates is now the largest airline in the world measured by RPKs. The carrier takes advantage not only of a strong local population, but ideal geographic positioning — its Dubai hub is a perfectly placed transit point for the millions of people traveling between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The carrier’s slogan is “Hello Tomorrow,” which I find annoying. Clearly its slogan ought to be “The Airline of Planet Earth.” (Note: This is my idea, and if the airline ever adopts this motto, I expect recognition in the form of at least two business class — nay, first class — tickets annually, valid anywhere in the company’s network!)

Though I have to say, I was quite underwhelmed by Dubai airport.  Emirates’ celebrated concourse A, opened in 2013, manages to feel awfully claustrophobic for such a gigantic building. There are too many shops and not enough pedestrian space, with overcrowded corridors and absolutely nowhere to relax, every gate and seating area jam-packed with passengers and their endlessly shrieking children.

Speaking of children, to escape the racket I found myself at an Emirates souvenir shop, where the little kid in me couldn’t resist spending $50 on the latest addition to my toy airplane collection. Thus, my A380 journey was officially commemorated in 1/400-scale die-cast:

Funny. Here’s something I used to do as a kid:

I imagined a city-state. It was a huge new metropolis, purpose-built from scratch — like Brasilia or Abuja, except much bigger. A gleaming new capital of the world.

As a global crossroads, my city-state needed a strategic location, equidistant between the world’s most populous regions. The spot I picked was along the Mediterranean coast of eastern Libya, where an atlas told me (perhaps not entirely accurately) there was ample empty space and access to the sea.

But it wasn’t sea routes that I was interested in. My reason for creating this imaginary place was to create the imaginary airline that would have to come with it. It would be one of the biggest airlines in the world.

Bored at school, or in the evenings at the dining room table after pretending to finish my homework, I would sketch out the route network of this fictitious carrier. I’d mark off my capital city (it never had a name, and neither did its airline) with a red circle, and from there the lines burst outward like a great spiderweb; down into Africa, up into Europe, through the Middle East and into Asia. I got pretty specific: flights to Kinshasa went nonstop, but getting to Jakarta required a layover in Bombay. We served Victoria Falls three times weekly for the benefit of European safarigoers. Other destinations were undecided. Taipei? Should we fly to Taipei, perhaps through Hong Kong, or via our prized route to Guangzhou? I could sit for an hour or more pondering the network choices of an imaginary airline.

(I trace my enthusiasm for geography precisely to these route maps, by the way. Airlines turned me on to geography, travel and culture; not the other way around.)

I went so far as to determine which aircraft types were assigned to various routes, and drew meticulous seat maps (two-class cabins on the shorter routes, three classes for the long-hauls). Each individual plane was christened after a different world city, mountain peak or river, and this name would be lettered along the forward fuselage — in the style of KLM’s planes (“Kilimanjaro” — what a fantastic name for a jetliner). Naturally we had a lot of 747s.

I created blueprints for a spectacular hub airport, including detailed sketches of the terminal and the world’s grandest control tower. There would be two pairs of runways, parallel-staggered so that planes never had to cross the adjacent strip. Advanced 3-D versions of this airport involved a terminal built with Legos and runways laid out with masking tape.

And so on.

In many respects a version of this fantasy actually came to exist. The place where it happened is Dubai, and the airline is Emirates.

I don’t know, maybe I fell into the wrong line of work. Looking back, it’s curious the way seating charts and route maps infatuated me as much or more than cockpits did (a backyard project to construct a replica 727 cockpit using plywood and spare electrical parts never came to fruition). Mine was a peculiar route to pilothood. I have never met a colleague whose formative obsessions were quite like mine. While I was outlining terminals and fantasizing about Taipei, they were probably at air shows watching the Blue Angels, or at the local airstrip watching Piper Cubs practice touch-and-goes — two things that would have bored me to tears. Pilots, as a general rule, are not into airlines. They are into flying.

You could say I’m into both. I love what I do for a living, don’t get me wrong, but I also would enjoy being on the side of the business that builds, plans and strategizes. I want to be the guy who launches the new routes and decides which planes to deploy on them. (Why does no US carrier fly to Poland? Mine would.) I want to be the person who chooses the livery and logo; the person who picks the seat designs and the color schemes in the cabin (green; we don’t see enough green). I’d be good, I think, at branding.

Here’s another fantasy: A seaplane shuttle between Boston, New York, and Washington. Imagine stepping onto a plane on the banks of the Potomac, or at the downtown edge of Boston Harbor, and stepping off again 45 minutes later at a pier on the Hudson River, a block or two from the subway. Imagine being within walking distance of the airport — at both ends of your journey. Easy-on, easy-off. No lines, no congested taxiways.

Of course, this particular daydream is fraught with almost as many complications as building a giant metropolis from scratch on the coast of Libya. You’d need an economical, relatively high-capacity seaplane built to airline specs — one of which does not exist. (Could you put a Q400 on floats, I wonder?) And what of those days when the waterfront was frozen or fogged-in? There are no ILS approaches into the Hudson.

I don’t care, it’s still a neat idea. Maybe Richard Branson or somebody could make it work.

Most of you would amazed by the sheer number of airlines that already do exist in the world. We can haggle over the definition of an airline, but My J.P. Worldwide Airline Fleet Directory is over seven-hundred pages long, with detailed entries for nearly three thousand commercial operators on six continents — from giants like United, Delta, and the aforementioned Emirates, to single-plane bush outfits in Tanzania. I’ll pick the volume up, open to a random page and start scanning. I’m ashamed to admit how much time I can spend with this book.

In a lot of ways it’s the oddball companies that intrigue me: the shady African freight-haulers with their unpainted Antonovs registered in Kazakhstan; the sightseeing outfits in Nepal; the Russian and Turkish charter lines; the old 727, or even a DC-3, tucked away somewhere in Latin America.

“Niche carrier” is a term we don’t hear much anymore. These are small independent airlines in business to serve a very specific market. They are content in their smallness, able to make do without fancy code-shares or partnerships. They’re still out there, even in America.

Here on the East Coast, for instance, we’ve got the feisty and resilient Cape Air, whose twin-engined, nine-passenger Cessna 402s have a been a fixture at Boston-Logan for many years, carrying commuters and vacationers out to Cape Cod and the Islands, up into northern New England and westward into New York State. The airline runs separate, satellite operations out of St. Louis, San Juan, and Guam. And although Cape Air code-shares with JetBlue, it wears its own livery, retaining a distinct identity and company culture.

Cape Air is maybe the closest thing to what we used to call a “commuter airline.” Today we hear of “regional airlines,” but this is a relatively new term, and really a new business model. The commuters, as we knew them, carried people from small, outlying cities into the majors’ hubs. (Here in the Northeast we had Bar Harbor Airlines, Air New England, Pilgrim and PBA.) Commuters fed the major carrier networks, they did not fly on behalf of them. The commuters went where the majors couldn’t. You rode a commuter plane from Pasco to Seattle, or from Rutland to Boston. You didn’t ride one from New York to Houston, the way you can nowadays.

Not long ago I came across an old aerial photograph of LaGuardia airport. It was taken from a few thousand feet, looking straight down at the terminal complex. Judging from the aircraft types, I dated the picture somewhere in the mid to late 1980s. What most struck me was an almost complete absence of regional planes. There were three or four commuter turboprops, but everything else was major-league metal: 737s, 727s, even some widebodies: 767s, DC-10s and L-1011s. That same view today would be dominated by 50, 70, and 90-seat RJs, with mainline aircraft a minority.

Over the past two decades the regional sector has come to account for a full fifty percent — one half — of all commercial departures in America. That’s simply astonishing. How did this happen?

One way it happened is that the majors learned that it was cheaper to farm out a lot their flying to regional affiliates than to do it themselves. Regional airline employees earn a comparative pittance, while technological advances in small jet design made even longer journeys viable on a cost-per-seat basis. One can hardly blame them. And with the right coat of paint on the fuselage, who would know the difference? Nowadays the vast majority of passengers can’t even tell you which airline — whose plane, whose pilots, whose mechanics or whose flight attendants — is actually operating the Canadair or Embraer jet they’re sitting on.

It’s good and bad for the passenger, I guess. There are RJs going everywhere, all the time. They’re fast and safe and relatively comfortable (certainly compared to the commuter planes of old). On the downside, they’re an inefficient use of air and ground space, and a prime contributor to congestion and delays.

Getting back to that desktop airline of my youth, with my route maps and Legos. How old was I, you’re wondering? I’m not saying, except that I was probably older than I should have been.

I still dabble in imaginary airlines from time to time, if I’ve got nothing to do or if somebody sticks a blank sheet of paper in front of me. I sketch routes, logos, liveries and the occasional seating diagram. For example, the South American nation of Guyana no longer has its own national airline. So, bored one night at my desk, I invented one. Its logo and livery were an adaptation of the “Golden Arrow” of the Guyanese flag. Yellow and green. Miami, Port of Spain, New York and Toronto (a lot of expat Guyanese in YYZ) were on the route map. Cessna Caravans had the in-country routes, and a Dash-8 few daily up to Caracas and over to Paramaribo. Could an old 767-200 make money on a route between Georgetown and London, maybe with a stopover in Trinidad? I’m not sure. But it’s fun to think about.

SEE ALSO: The First-Class Seats On Qatar Airways' New A380 Jet Look Amazing

SEE ALSO: Emirates Cancels Order For 70 Airbus A350 Planes

Join the conversation about this story »

On the heels of the worst outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in nearly 40 years, fears of the potential spread of the deadly virus through air travel have led to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue guidelines on how to deal with Ebola in the air. 

The Ebola Virus and its corresponding disease are spread through direct contact with the blood or contaminated bodily fluids of someone who is very sick. Direct contact may include emission of droplets into the air by vomiting or sneezing.

As a result, the cramped confined spaces of an airliner's cabin can become a breeding ground for the virus.

Symptoms of Ebola

The CDC advises that airlines prohibit those who have possibly been exposed to Ebola Virus Disease to be kept from boarding and monitored for the virus' 21-day incubation period. However, if you believe you or someone on the plane has been exposed to Ebola, here's how the CDC describes the symptoms:

The incubation period, from exposure to when signs or symptoms appear, for Ebola ranges from 2 to 21 days (most commonly 8-10 days). Early symptoms include sudden fever, chills, and muscle aches. Around the fifth day, a skin rash can occur. Nausea, vomiting, chest pain, sore throat, abdominal pain, and diarrhea may follow.

More advanced and severe symptoms of Ebola may include jaundice (yellow skin), severe weight loss, mental confusion, bleeding inside and outside the body, shock, and multi-organ failure.

Sick on a Plane

If you or another passenger falls ill during a flight, inform the cabin crew. The CDC recommends a set of procedures for them to follow:

• Separating the sick passenger from the rest of the occupants as much as possible.
• Providing the sick passenger with a surgical mask, if possible, to reduce the emission of bodily fluids into the air.
• Wear impermeable disposable gloves when potentially coming in contact with blood or other bodily fluids.
• Properly dispose of any tissues or medical instruments used to the treat the passenger, using a designated plastic bag. 

In addition to the traditional first aid kit commonly found on a plane, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of the United Nations recommends that airlines travels to parts of the world affected by Ebola to carry an additional Universal Precaution Kit. It includes germicide disinfectant, sterile liquid absorbing granules, eye/face masks, gloves, skin wipes, and a protective apron. 

SEE ALSO: WHITE HOUSE: US Airports Are Ready To Quarantine Ebola Victims

Join the conversation about this story »

First-class passengers on some American Airlines flights are having their gourmet cuisine taken away. The airline announced this week that it will cease first-class meal service on most flights lasting less than 2 hours, 45 minutes. 

The policy change is set to take effect on Sept. 1 and will affect flights within the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean.

Instead of savoring fine dining, first-class passengers will enjoy...snacks. What kind of snacks? American Airlines responded to Business Insider's inquiries with the following information:

• Flights 1 to 2 hours (less than approximately 699 miles) that previously received mixed nuts, will now receive a basket of savory and sweet snacks for customers to choose. 
• Flights about 2 hours - 2 hours and 45 minutes (approximately 700-999 miles) that previously received traditional meal service will now receive a Lite Bites basket, offering a variety of options including: fresh fruit, breakfast cakes, tea sandwiches and sweet or savory snacks.

In case the substitution of assorted snacks for nuts doesn't sound like such a step down for first class, bear in mind that the nuts were warmed prior to serving.

American Airlines didn't make this decision without conducting some research.

"We looked at what the customers wanted, and a good number of customers didn't want a full-meal on a flight of less than two hours,"airline spokesperson Casey Norton told Bloomberg. 

American Airlines previously served full meals to first class passengers on flights lasting longer than two hours. But the carrier has adjusted their policy to match that of their merger partner, U.S. Airways.

According to Bloomberg, U.S. Airways reduced the flight limit for first class meals from to 2 hours, 45 minutes from 3 hours, 30 minutes this April.

Some first-class customers may complain about this reduction in premium service. Although a two-hour flight isn't very long, the amount of time spent boarding the plane and leaving the airport means that passengers could be doing without a meal for much longer than the flying time, even though they're paying a lot to ride in the front of bus.

For example, one flight likely to be affected is the 2 hour, 10 minute trip from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Atlanta: the first-class fare is more than $640 one-way.

Travelers flying American out of Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, New York JFK, and Miami will catch a break: first class meal service will remain on selected short distance routes.  

SEE ALSO: Airbus Patents 'Bicycle Seats' That Look Terrifying For Airline Passengers

Join the conversation about this story »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A ticketless traveler managed to sneak aboard a commercial flight undetected at the San Jose International Airport and fly to Los Angeles in at least the second major security breach involving a stowaway there this year, authorities said on Wednesday.

The ticketless passenger, 62-year-old Marilyn Jean Hartman, was arrested on Monday after arriving in Los Angeles on a Southwest Airlines flight when a headcount turned up an extra passenger before the plane continued on to Phoenix, said San Jose airport spokeswoman Cheryl Marcell.

Hartman, who had been nabbed earlier this year in an unsuccessful stowaway attempt at the San Francisco International Airport, was arrested after she couldn’t produce a boarding pass, officials said.

Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to telephone and email requests for comment from Reuters.

She was the second stowaway at the San Jose airport in the last four months, after a 15-year-old Somali immigrant boy scaled a security fence, climbed into a plane wheel well and managed to survive a flight to Hawaii.

Officials said Hartman managed to slip past a document check by Transportation Security Administration agents by posing as a member of a family group, though she and her baggage were screened by agents, and to board the plane and fly without a ticket.

But the two stowaway incidents were very different in nature, Marcell said.

“Our airport was absolutely not a factor in this situation, though we are cooperating with an investigation by TSA and Southwest officials,” she said, adding that Hartman was “never a security risk.”

The TSA is instituting changes in the layout of the document checking area to avoid such problems in the future, said agency spokesman Ross Feinstein. Southwest has also launched a probe.

Hartman was sentenced to probation and referred to a mental health residence in May following her arrest at the San Francisco airport for boarding a flight to Hawaii without a ticket and for trespassing at the airport.

Hartman told officials at the time that she was ill and wanted to get someplace warm. By midday Wednesday she was still in a Los Angeles jail in lieu of $500 bail on minor trespassing charges, a police spokeswoman said.

(Reporting by Mary Papenfuss; Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Beech)

SEE ALSO: Here's Your Ebola Survival Guide For Airplanes, From The CDC

Join the conversation about this story »

The flight I fear the most is United Airlines from Hong Kong to the U.S. in economy. Bear with me.

Hong Kong isn’t an ally in the War on Water. There’s no liquids check as you go through security.

So for flights from Hong Kong to the U.S. and to Australia, a secondary screening is done before you board the plane.

That means any water you may have purchased at the airport to bring on board will be confiscated (if they find it).

Often I’ve departed from a cordoned-off gate, where you’re searched as you enter the gate area. Probably the gate I’ve departed Hong Kong for the US from the most is gate 1 which is done this way.

From most gates, the searches are done on the jetway.

 If you’re flying United from Hong Kong — to San Francisco, Chicago, or Newark — you cannot bring your own water onboard.

For as much as 15 hours you’re forced to rely on United flight attendants to keep you hydrated.

I’ve flown in and out of Hong Kong on airlines like Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, ANA, Asiana, Thai Airways, Dragonair, and United.

I’d probably rather fly Hong Kong – Seoul and then back to the U.S. than fly directly back on a U.S. airline, purely for water reasons.

Of course all things equal I’d fly Cathay Pacific. Up front. …

In fact, since Hong Kong – New York JFK on Cathay Pacific is my favorite flight in the world, the two greatest extremes both depart the same airport.

SEE ALSO: Business Class On An Emirates A380 Is Jaw-Dropping

Join the conversation about this story »

In light of the escalating conflict in Iraq and the U.S.'s airstrikes against ISIS targets in the country, the FAA has ordered U.S.-based air carriers to avoid the country's airspace altogether.

Though not as congested as the skies over Ukraine, Iraqi airspace is important for many of the Gulf region and the greater Middle East's major carriers. 

The U.S.'s bombing of ISIS targets outside of the Kurdish capital of Erbil comes in addition to earlier reported bombings by Russian-built Sukhoi Su-25"Frogfoot" jets in northeastern Iraqi.

With an increased risk for surface-to-air missile strikes, many carriers like KLM, Lufthansa, Emirates, Air France, Delta, and Virgin Atlantic have rerouted their aircraft around the war-torn region.

The traditional route through Iraq takes airliners down a corridor that runs along the eastern border of the country. Now, most airlines have chosen to take a northern route through southern Iran — instead of the southern course across Syria, which is embroiled in its own civil conflict. 

There are a few major exceptions to this. Iraqi Airways is of course utilizing the country's airspace — but so is Etihad, the mega-carrier from the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi. Garuda Indonesia, and even British Airways flew through Iraq on August 8th. 

Interestingly, even though Emirates announced it would reroute its flights, Emirates flight 952 took off from the city of Erbil, where some of the heaviest fight have occurred, on evening of August 8th.

SEE ALSO: US CONDUCTS AIR STRIKE IN IRAQ

Join the conversation about this story »

If you had to pay $600 for a flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, you might be disappointed. But what if you knew the person sitting next to you had paid $1,600?

According to Hopper, a site that analyzes airfare data, plane ticket prices can differ by more than $1,000 in the same cabin.

Hopper conducted a study that looks at the range of prices people pay for airfare by analyzing flight search results between major U.S. cities.

They found that economy seats on a flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas can cost anywhere from $200 to a whopping $1,600. The study shows that while airfares can vary tremendously on most airlines, Spirit Airlines and Virgin have the most consistent ticket prices for this flight route. 

Hopper also looked at other routes and concluded that flights between Chicago O'Hare and John F. Kennedy airports have the most equal ticket pricing.

In order to avoid paying way too much for your airline ticket, Hopper suggests buying your ticket at least 30 days in advance.

SEE ALSO: The World's Best Airlines

DON'T FORGET: Business Insider is on Instagram!

Join the conversation about this story »

BERLIN (Reuters) - Beset by low air fares and relentless competition, airlines around the world are waking up to the value of their frequent flyer programs and realizing they can boost profits as well as brand profile.

A multitude of global carriers - preserved by complex cross-border ownership rules that curb dealmaking - means that simply selling tickets is no longer lucrative. Industry body IATA predicts a 3.5 percent drop in fares this year and for airlines' net profit margins to reach just 2.4 percent.

As airlines dig around for new ways to make money, many of them are finding it buried deep in their marketing departments.

Dating back to American Airlines' launch of AAdvantage in 1981, FFPs were originally used to encourage a customer to spend their money with just one carrier by offering free flights as rewards once enough miles had been collected.

Nowadays, however, the programs, with their rich customer data, have become a currency of their own as airlines realize their value to companies such as credit card providers, hire car companies and hotels. An example: Delta commanded $675 million from American Express for its Skymiles in 2011-2013, according to Euromonitor analyst Nadejda Popova.

Those are not the only kind of deals to which airlines have turned, increasingly inventive as profits nosedive. In 2012 Germany's ailing Air Berlin sold a 70 percent stake in its Topbonus program to Etihad for 185 million euros ($247.72 million), more than the market value of the German company as a whole at the time. In 2013 an IPO of Smiles helped Brazil's Gol bring down net debt.

Now industry watchers expect more such deals, spin-offs and stock market listings as airlines try to unlock more value from these businesses - and in turn drive more new revenues.

Brazil's Valor Economico newspaper reported recently that the country's third-largest airline Azul Linhas Aereas could follow in the steps of rivals TAM and GOL by floating its TudoAzul frequent flyer program as a way of raising funds in the capital market, citing the program's director.

"The visibility you get from establishing it as a separate unit and the additional focus that it then has in terms of becoming profitable in its own right pushes it to generate revenue from sources other than the core FFP," Jonathan Wober, chief financial analyst at CAPA - Centre for Aviation, an independent aviation market analysis group.

VALUATION

Given that airlines often don't report separate figures, it's hard to say precisely what FFPs are worth. But the figures that are available show how richly valued they are.

When Air Canada spun off 12.5 percent of its frequent flyer program in 2005 it was valued at C$2 billion ($1.82 billion), or around 20 times its then annual profit of C$99 million. More recently, analysts have put a value of up to $2.5 billion on the loyalty division of Quantas - almost 10 times the unit's annual profit - as Qantas prepares to float or sell part of it under a restructuring.

There are benefits for those airlines that do make money too. Deutsche Lufthansa's new chief executive Carsten Spohr said last month that giving its frequent flyer program Miles & More an independent profile would lift the entire group's profitability and provide money needed for new planes.

Analysts at KPMG say it's worth an airline putting a program into a separate unit first before attempting a stock market flotation.

"For IPOs there are a lot of requirements when it comes to transparency. I would recommend letting the program report results for one or two years first so the market has access to numbers," Magnus Schenk, a transactions director at KPMG in Frankfurt, told Reuters.

RICH DATA

It's no surprise that investors are interested in FFPs for their data. What makes FFPs particularly sexy is the detail in that data: Not just a rich seam of customers, but a rich seam of rich customers.

"It's extremely powerful data, especially as it tends to be slanted towards the premium segment," said Marc Allsop, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Business Development at Aimia, which has stakes in a number of FFPs and runs other loyalty schemes including the Nectar supermarket plan in the UK and Italy.

Allsop told Reuters that in the UK, 41 percent of those who are a member of an airline loyalty scheme have an annual income of above 90,000 pounds ($151,164).

Still, he added, airlines face a tougher task than retailers when it comes to leveraging their data, because people fly far less often than they shop.

A way around this would be to keep tracking their customers once they leave the airport.

"Airlines sell tickets, tell people when they can check in, lead them on board and to their destination city. Then the next time passengers hear from them is when it's time to check in again," Stefan Auerbach, head of airline solutions at Lufthansa Systems, told an aviation conference in Frankfurt.

Instead, they could be using smartphone technology to track their customers as they travel onwards, gathering more information on their spending to tailor offers to their preferences, and increase the possibility that customers take them up, thus bringing in more revenue.

COSTING NEW FLYERS

Aimia's research showed that while 73 percent of consumers were part of supermarket loyalty schemes, just 12 percent were members of airline schemes.

Carriers such as Lufthansa and Emirates hope to attract more flyers, and make infrequent customers more regular, by offering the option to buy miles - to reach reward thresholds - or by offering smaller items like songs via iTunes to persuade them to cash in their points.

More customers, more profits? Maybe. Amid the scramble to boost their FFPs, airlines also have to remember to manage the trillions of unused award miles out there to make sure they don't suddenly get swamped with requests that could burden their yields, or how much profit they get per seat.

For despite airlines offering customers the chance to buy anything from language classes to cases of wine with their points, most people still just want to use their points for a free flight or an upgrade.

"I would rather spend 160,000 miles for a Lufthansa business class ticket than to take the same miles for five nights at a middle range hotel somewhere," said Dennis Glosik, an airline blogger and frequent flyer with Lufthansa.

($1 = 0.7468 Euro)

($1 = 1.0964 Canadian dollar)

($1 = 0.5954 British pound)

(Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen; Editing by Sophie Walker)

SEE ALSO: A Frequent Flier Shares Smart Tips For Acing The Airport

SEE ALSO: POINTS GURU: Here's How Frequent Fliers Are Screwing Up Their Miles

Join the conversation about this story »

Over the weekend, a Thomson Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner suffered a failure in one of its massive GE turbofan engines over the Atlantic. 

The airliner, traveling from the Dominican Republic to Manchester, England was an hour and a half into the nine-hour flight. The jet, full of vacationers returning to the UK, safely diverted on its remaining engine to a remote airport in the Azores Islands. 

Instances of an airliner losing an engines are obviously not unheard of. It can and does happen. The majority of the time, the pilot diverts and no one is injured.

However, there have been occasions where pilots chose to fly on to their destination instead of turning around.

In 2005, British Airways flight 268, routed to London, lost one of its four engines while taking off from Los Angeles International Airport. Instead of returning to LAX, the pilot and his Boeing 747-400 continued on towards Heathrow Airport. But due to unfavorable winds and operating conditions that caused the plane to burn too much fuel, the jumbo jet didn't have to gas to reach London and made an emergency landing in Manchester.

Long distance and transoceanic flights have traditionally been flown by three or four engine wide body airliners. This is because when it comes to the engine count on an airliner, aviation thinking dictates that there is safety in numbers. 

But as modern turbofan engines have become more reliable, engines failures have become far less common. As a result, most airlines have turned to twin-engined mini-jumbos that are more fuel efficient. 

These days, the three-engined airliner has gone the way of the dinosaur and the four-engined jumbo jets that once dominated the skies are well on their way towards extinction.  

However, engine failures do still happen from time-to-time. As terrifying as they may be on for many of the passengers onboard, losing one engine on a twin-engined airliner like the Thomson Airways 787 isn't as serious as one might think.

When an aircraft is flying without one of its engines, it tends to fly at a lower altitude and work the remaining engine(s) harder. This makes the plane less fuel efficient and reduces range. However, the vast majority of twin-engined long-haul airliners can perform this maneuver with no significant reduction in capabilities. 

Before a twin-engined airliner is allowed fly long distance routes over large bodies of water or through uninhabited regions like the Arctic, it must be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for ETOPS or Extended range Twin Operations. 

When an aircraft is certified, part of the assessment is based on the planes performance when flying on a single engine.

For example, the Boeing Dreamliner — like the one flown by Thomson Airways — is certified for ETOPS-330. This means that the aircraft can fly routes that take it as far as 330 minutes (five and a half hours) of single engine flying time from the nearest viable airport.

Other twin-engined airliners, such as the Boeing 777, are also certified for ETOPS 330. Airbus' popular A330 has been certified for 180 minutes of ETOPS flying, while the company's upcoming A350 is currently seeking 420 minutes of ETOPS certification. 

SEE ALSO: Airbus Is Losing Out On A Major Opportunity In Japan

Join the conversation about this story »

Over 3 billion people flew around the world in 2013.

And the airlines that carried them mishandled 21.8 million bags, according to aviation communications and technology company SITA. 

U.S.-based airlines try to reunite missing bags with their owners for 90 days. But if they can't, the luggage and all its contents are sent to the sprawling Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama, NPR reports.

Only 0.5% of all bags on U.S. airlines are not reunited with their owners at airport baggage claims, according to the Unclaimed Baggage Center website. And less than 2.5% of those initially mishandled bags remain unclaimed after three months of searching for their owners.

The Unclaimed Baggage Center buys this unclaimed luggage, then sorts and prices it for sale at bargain prices in the organization's 40,000 square-foot store.

The location operates like a massive department store-slash-tourist destination, where a million visitors each year drop by to browse and purchase other people's orphaned stuff.

The store contains separate sections for electronics, formalwear, and jewelry — including wedding rings and Rolex watches worth $60,000. Other potentially desirable items include golf clubs and ski equipment. And then there are those things that only vacation travelers would pack, such as straw hats.

"The Unclaimed Baggage Center is like the best yard sale you've ever been to — on steroids," NPR reporter Emily Ochsenschlager declared.

Not every lost item is sold in the store. Some valuables end up in the center's small museum, while other things are donated or discarded.

Some of the strangest and most valuable things that have ended up at the facility since it opened in the 1970s include a live rattlesnake, a full suit of replica medieval armor, a 40.95 carat natural emerald, an Air Force missile guidance system, a shrunken head, and a 4,000-year-old Egyptian burial mask.

SEE ALSO: 6 Ways To Keep Airlines From Losing Your Luggage

Join the conversation about this story »

After a pilot was recently forced to land a plane one-handed, due to his prosthetic limb falling off, we look at other miraculous airline escapes.

The Jakarta incident
June 24, 1982

This British Airways flight from Heathrow to Auckland was passing over Jakarta when it ran into volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines. Naturally, there was concern in the cockpit, with the flight engineer exclaiming: “I don't believe it – all four engines have failed!"

The captain, Roger Greaves, tried to reassure passengers with the following statement: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."

Passengers reportedly scribbled notes to loved ones, while Greaves calculated how far the plane might be able to glide before reaching sea level (91 miles he deduced). Luckily, at around 13,500 feet, the engines restarted successfully.

British Airways Flight 5390
June 10, 1990

In this remarkable incident, on board a BA flight to Malaga with 81 passengers, a badly-fitted windscreen panel failed, sucking the captain, Tim Lancaster, halfway out of the cockpit. His head and torso was outdoors – at 17,300 feet and being battered by 300mph winds – while his legs remained inside, with flight attendants gripping him tightly. Co-pilot Alastair Atchison made an emergency descent, but – due to the sound of rushing air – could not hear air traffic control. He eventually landed safely in Southampton, where Lancaster was treated for frostbite, shock and a broken arm.

The miracle on the Hudson
January 15, 2009

Perhaps the best known incident of recent times, involving the most brilliantly monikered pilot. Chesley Sullenberger III, at the helm of US Airways Flight 1549, managed to land safely on the Hudson River after a flock of Canada geese disabled the aircraft. All 155 passengers survived; Sullenberger’s reward was a book deal with HarperCollins, and early retirement.

The Windsor incident
June 12, 1972

American Airlines Flight 96 from LA to New York ran into trouble soon after a stopover in Detroit, when the rear cargo door suddenly broke off. The subsequent explosive decompression saw part of the floor at the rear of the cabin give way, severing a control cable and disabling one of the engines. Captain Bryce McCormick, who initially believed the plane had suffered a mid-air collision, declared an emergency, while flight attendants took oxygen to passengers (masks did not deploy because the plane was below the 14,000ft limit). The plane returned to Detroit, and – despite being forced to land dangerously fast – McCormick touched down safely.

The Gimli Glider
July 23, 1983

While cruising at 41,000 feet, halfway through a flight from Montreal to Edmonton, Air Canada Flight 143 ran out of juice – due to, shockingly, a refuelling miscalculation caused by a recent switch to the metric system. The problem had not been spotted earlier because of an electronic fault on the aircraft’s instrument panel, and the plane lost all power. Luckily, Captain Bob Pearson was an experienced glider pilot, guiding the 767 to RCAF Station Gimli. The landing was hard and fast – Pearson had to brake so hard he blew two tires, while the aircraft’s nose fell off, starting a small fire – but all 61 on board survived unharmed.

Aloha Flight 243
April 28, 1988

In 1988, a 737, flown by Aloha Airlines with 90 people on board was en route to Honolulu, cruising at an altitude of 24,000 feet, when a small section of the roof ruptured. The resulting explosive decompression tore off a larger section of the roof, and a 57-year-old flight attendant called Clarabelle Lansing was swept from her seat and out of the hole in the aircraft. Fortunately, all other passengers were belted up, and the pilot – Robert Schornstheimer – managed to land 13 minutes later, avoiding further loss of life.

BA Flight 38
January 17, 2008

Another recent case, BA Flight 38 was just two miles from Heathrow when its engines suddenly failed to respond to the crew’s demand for extra thrust. A build of ice crystals in its fuel lines had caused a restriction in the flow of fuel. The plane landed around 270 metres short of the runway, just beyond the A30. The plane was a write-off, but just one passenger suffered a serious injury. The pilot’s name? Ironically, John Coward.

Saving a superjumbo
November 4, 2010

The captain of this Qantas flight – Richard Champion de Crespigny – was also given a Polaris Award. Engine number 2 exploded over Indonesia, damaging a wing and causing a fuel tank fire, forcing the plane, an A380 with 469 people on board, to make an emergency landing in Singapore. It blew four tyres when it landed, but no one was hurt.

Cathay Pacific Flight 780
April 13, 2010

In a similar incident to BA Flight 38, this Cathay Pacific service from Surabaya Juanda International Airport in Indonesia suddenly lost the ability to change thrust as it neared Hong Kong, landing at almost twice the recommended speed. Pilots Malcolm Waters and David Hayhoe were given the Polaris Award – from the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations – for their heroism.

SEE ALSO: Pilot Lands Plane One-Handed After Prosthetic Arm Falls Off

Join the conversation about this story »

A new Channel 4 series follows rookie British pilots as they gain experience flying perilous routes between the islands of Indonesia. Are the risks worth it, asks Theo Merz

A recently-qualified pilot flies a single-engine turboprop plane above the mountains of Indonesia.

Below him he can see a propeller plane of the same model, which crashed into one of the tree-covered slopes years ago but has never been cleared away. It is a reminder of the many risks that being a pilot in this part of the world involves.

Others include landing in areas in which local communities are armed and in conflict with the government, and flying over parts of the world in which cannibalism is, allegedly, still practiced.

The dangers, however, do not deter young, Western pilots, who need to clock up their flying hours, from applying to work in Indonesia, before they can be employed by commercial or passenger airlines in their own countries.

Susi Air, an airline flying out of West Java to some of Indonesia’s most remote islands, receives hundreds of emails a week from would-be pilots hoping to work with them.

And the number will no doubt increase, despite the title of a new Channel 4 documentary series charting the progress of the airline’s British employees – Worst Place to be a Pilot .

Captain Guy Richardson, originally from Surrey, is one of the pilots to feature in the programme, the first episode of which airs tonight. The 37-year-old worked a variety of jobs in the UK before undertaking his flight training in South Africa seven years ago. He graduated in the middle of a global recession and found it impossible to get work elsewhere, so applied to Susi through a friend.

“I was up for an adventure,” says Richardson during one of his twice-yearly trips back to the UK. “I think you have to be less aware of danger than most people to do it. Generally, it’s the same as what they say about commercial flying everywhere, though – 95 per cent boredom and five per cent pure terror.”

While he emphasises that Susi is less dangerous than many other carriers in Indonesia, which are under greater commercial pressures to reach remote and often dangerous areas, the airline still has a less-than-perfect safety record: US Embassy staff were banned from flying on Susi Air following a series of fatal plane crashes in 2011-12.

One of the main problems, Richardson says, is communication with air traffic control. “Sometimes I have to do the exact opposite of what air traffic control are telling me, which in Europe would never, ever happen.” Once he was preparing to take off from a remote landing strip when he saw another plane beginning its descent towards him; the aircraft had not told traffic control where they were landing, or if they had, the message had been confused.

In an incident in the first episode of the series, Richardson spots a dog on the runway before he is about to take off. He repeatedly calls to the ground staff to remove it but they do not understand the instruction – so he takes off anyway and hopes that the dog will stay out of his path.

“Another thing is the weather,” he says. “When you’re in a jumbo jet you’re flying above it, but here – in these smaller planes, if you’re close to the mountains – you’re totally in it. That can be pretty scary when you get caught up in a storm.”

Despite the dangers, Richardson has no regrets about taking on the job in Indonesia, though he is starting to think it might be time to come home. “There’s so much coastline in the country, so I’ll do a lot of surfing in my spare time. I stay with other Susi pilots and it can get a bit strained living and working together, but we get along; we play tennis and football.

“I’ve got used to the hazards of flying here now, but I should probably get back to Europe and start a family of my own. There are lots of things I love out in Asia but a family's not going to happen if I stay there.”

Worst Place to be a Pilot, 9pm, Tuesday 19th August, Channel 4

SEE ALSO: We're Running Out Of Pilots

Join the conversation about this story »

BEIJING (Reuters) - A China Eastern Airlines Corp passenger plane that had started its night-time descent into a Wuhan airport was forced to abort its landing after air traffic controllers had dozed off, an investigation report found.

The incident, which took place on July 8, is the third mishap in two months involving the Chinese carrier.

A transcript of the flight recording released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on Tuesday shows that the China Eastern flight crew made repeated attempts to contact the duty flight controllers at Wuhan Tianhe Airport - twice in English and once in Chinese. Those calls went unanswered.

The airplane was forced to return to 900 meters and circle the airport for about 10 minutes before landing, the report said. The incident occurred at between 2 to 3 a.m.

China Eastern has suffered other mishaps in recent weeks. On July 17, a China Eastern airplane landed off the runway in the southwest city of Nanning.

Three days later, another China Eastern plane veered off the runway shortly after it touched down at Changzhi airport in Shanxi province amid heavy rain, causing a temporary closure of the airport. No casualties were involved in either incidents.

China Eastern and CAAC were unavailable for comment.

Chinese airlines have boasted an improved safety record in recent years, following a crash in 2004 that killed 53 people.

(Reporting by Fang Yan and Matthew Miller in BEIJING)

SEE ALSO: Here's Why You Shouldn't Panic When A Pilot's Arm Comes Off In Flight

SEE ALSO: Here's Why You Shouldn't Panic When An Airliner Loses An Engine In Flight

Join the conversation about this story »

Skymark, Japan's third largest airline, saw its stock skyrocket to a six-year high this week on the Nikkei Index amid rumors of a potential takeover by Malaysian low-cost giant AirAsia.

Closing at 230 Yen a share on Tuesday, Skymark's shares have spiked 28% this week, Bloomberg reported. 

That's welcome news to an airline that has struggled to find its long-term financial footing of late. In fact, Airbus Industries cancelled Skymark's order for six A380 superjumbos last month due to concerns over the airline's ability to pay for the aircraft. 

The takeover rumors emerged after AirAsia announced its partnership with Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc. to setup a new airline in the country. 

The stock remained popular even after AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes issued this denial on Twitter:

Never seen such rubbish. AirAsia has no interest in Skymark in Japan. There have been no discussions with Skymark. We focused on new airline

— Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) August 19, 2014 

What makes an airline that's lost $57 million in the last quarter so valuable to potential investors? 

According to the Nikkei, Skymark's value arises from its access to lucrative routes that fly in and out of Tokyo's Haneda Airport. 

“To get slots, [AirAsia] would have to wait in line for allocations or acquire a stake in an existing airline,” Timothy Ross, a Singapore-based analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG, told Businessweek. 

With flights out of the Japanese capital being the most profitable in the country, Skymark's 36 slots are incredibly important assets to any airline looking to expand operations in the Japan. The Nikkei reports that a single slot at Haneda can generate as much as $19.3 million a year in revenue for an airline. 

However, even if AirAsia doesn't complete the rumored takeover, local Japanese investors may be willing to pay big bucks for Skymark. 

The isn't the first time an airline has been acquired for access to airport slots. In 2012, Delta Airlines spent $360 million to purchase 49% of Richard Branson's money-losing Virgin Atlantic Airways. The acquisition gave Delta access to Virgin's precious landing slots at London's Heathrow Airport.  

SEE ALSO: Here's Why You Shouldn't Panic When An Airliner Loses An Engine In Flight

Join the conversation about this story »

CAIRO/TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia and Egypt's Cairo airport canceled most flights to and from Libya on Thursday, officials said, days after the Libyan government said unidentified war planes had attacked positions of armed groups in Tripoli.

A spokesman for Tunisian Aviation Authority gave no explanation for the measures but Libyan news agency LANA and Egyptian officials said Cairo airport authorities had canceled flights for security reasons.

Flights from Tunis to the eastern Libyan town of Labraq, as well as from the Egyptian Mediterranean port city of Alexandria to Libya were still operating, a Libyan aviation official said. A Tunisian transport official said flights to the eastern town of Tobruk were also still running.

Flights from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya had been operating on an almost daily basis until now.

Libyan renegade General Khalifa Haftar claimed Monday's attack in Tripoli on Islamist-leaning armed factions which have been trying to expel their rivals from the capital in the worst fighting since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

But some analysts have questioned how outdated jets from the Libyan airforce - which were severely damaged during the 2011 uprising against Gaddafi - managed to stage a night attack flying 1,000 km from the east.

Haftar has used aircraft in Benghazi to attack Islamist brigades but with mixed success. Once a plane hit a university site instead of a militia camp, residents said.

Libyan television news channels speculated that neighboring countries or other parties may be behind the overnight air strikes. The United States, NATO and Egyptian officials have denied any involvement.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara, Ulf Laessing, Feras Bosalum and Ayman al-Warfalli; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

SEE ALSO: Ebola Fear Leads South Africa To Ban Travelers From Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone

Join the conversation about this story »

SEATTLE (Reuters) - U.S. airlines more than doubled their net profit margin in the first half of the year as revenue rose nearly three times faster than costs, trade group Airlines for America said on Thursday.

The results suggest that the U.S. airline sector continued to improve its financial performance despite severe winter storms in the first quarter and increasing taxes as a percentage of ticket prices, the group, known as A4A, said.

"The airlines have coped very well," said John Heimlich, A4A chief economist.

The improvement also suggests airlines will continue to have money to buy new aircraft, improve air terminals, increase wages, pay dividends and buy back shares. The airlines invested $7 billion in the first half on those and other items, Heimlich said, noting U.S. airlines are on track to take delivery of 314 new aircraft this year.

The nine U.S. airlines tracked in the organization's survey reported profit margins rose to 5 percent in the first half from 2.1 percent in the year-earlier period, A4A said. Net profit at the airlines rose to $3.8 billion, up from $1.6 billion in the prior-year period.

The nine airlines are Alaska Air Group Inc <alk.n>, Allegiant Travel Co <algt.o>, American Airlines Group Inc <aal.o>, Delta Air Lines Inc <dal.n>, Hawaiian Holdings Inc <ha.o>, JetBlue Airways Corp <jblu.o>, Southwest Airlines Co <luv.n>, Spirit Airlines Inc <save.o> and United Continental Holdings Inc <ual.n>.

The group's data showed air fares continued to rebound from a low during the financial crisis of just over $300 for a typical domestic round-trip flight. In the latest period, comparable tickets averaged just over $350. Ancillary fees for better seats, checked baggage and early boarding, however, continued to boost the average cost of a round trip to nearly $400, but the rate of increase in fares and fees slowed.

A4A noted that since 2000, U.S. air fares have fallen 8 percent, while taxes included in ticket prices have risen 49 percent.

The group said it expects about 14 million air passengers to fly during the Labor Day holiday period, a rise of 2 percent from last year. The busiest travel day is expected to be Friday, Aug. 29.

(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Tom Brown)

Join the conversation about this story »

If you’ve got to book a domestic award ticket within the continental U.S., British Airways is probably the best program to use. It’s downright fascinating that, in this case, you’d probably want to use an airline that isn’t even based here.

That’s really because, unlike the big American airlines, British Airways uses a distance-based redemption chart instead of using a flat rate chart like American Airlines and United do. Because British’s Executive Club doesn’t adhere to this, most people will need significantly less mileage just to fly around the country. Isn’t it nice that you can book American and Alaska Airlines flights through British as well? Someone pass the crumpets.

In comparison, most American frequent flyer programs require a flat 25,000 miles to redeem a ticket within the country¹ regardless of distance. I know what you’re thinking here — if British is distance-based, doesn’t that mean it can also cost more for a ticket? Fortunately, this situation doesn’t really apply to flights within the continental United States. Even at its longest distance (ex. JFK-SFO), British Airways only requires 25,000 miles roundtrip; so in short, you wouldn’t spend more mileage than you would otherwise redeeming through another frequent flyer program.

I’m gonna admit, it took me a while to catch on because I’m mostly a United flyer and I generally lean toward international. But since I’ve left MileagePlus, I’ve begun exploring different frequent flyer programs. It wasn’t until Sameer Agarwal who runs Fly from Scratch sat down and explained Avios points—essentially mileage points—to me that I really bothered to do more research. It’s not even that hard to earn Avios points.

They can be earned traditionally by flying American Airlines and crediting the flights to British Airways. But if you’re the type that spends your way toward free flights, Chase also allows credit card users transfer points to the Executive Club through Chase Ultimate Rewards at a 1:1 transfer rate. They show up pretty much instantaneously, which is great for nabbing the flight while it’s still available. The British Airways Visa Signature credit card also offers a 50,000 point sign-up bonus, though, from time to time, it’s been known to go absolutely nuts insane and offer a 100,000 point sign-up bonus. That would have been enough for me to book 6.5 round-trip tickets in the example below.

People often cite the annoyingly high taxes as the one really shitty thing about the British program but it’s generally not an issue if you book a domestic flight. They more or less tend to be the same if you booked a typical award flight on any other airline. Sameer explains in this post:

Unlike United or American or US Air, there is no last-minute or close-in booking fee. The taxes, etc. on an award ticket is the same, irrespective of how far out or how close in you book your ticket. There is no award redemption fee… And in case you have booked a domestic U.S. award, in which case your taxes [are just] $2.50, then that is all you need to pay as cancellation. That’s it. $2.50!!

The mileage requirement for each flight is different depending on distance. For one-ways, just halve the number of Avios points required in the chart below.

To illustrate a recent booking I just made, I was trying to find four reward flights from Los Angeles to Portland for a family wedding next month. The cheapest round-trip tickets I saw cost $260.20 apiece, making the total $1040.80 for four people. Exorbitant for one weekend. It was clearly not an option. So I thought about all the miles I’ve been hoarding.

On United, it would have easily cost me 100,000 miles plus taxes to send the four kids to Portland. I quickly did some research and realized that I could send them through Alaska Airlines through British’s Avios frequent flyer program for almost half that, at 60,000 miles and $44.80 in taxes. (I could have also done it through American Airlines if there had been award availability.)

The research is probably the hardest part but it’s possible to do a little bit of the legwork online. The best tools to check available flights is the American Airlines’ website or the British Airways’ search engine. In this particular case, I found Alaska Airlines availability by looking at the American site first and then later verbally confirmed with British on the phone. It wasn’t until then that I transferred the points from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account to my Executive Club account. I finished the booking process over the phone. (It’s impossible to book Alaska flights online; the phone number is actually 800-452-1201 for those wondering.)

If you’re going international, United’s MileagePlus program can still reign supreme for its flexibility, creative routing and free stopovers. But bottom line? If it’s a domestic flight, try using British Airways’ Executive Club program. Now to transform those Avios points into a Williams-Sonoma cookware set for the lucky couple.

1. Hawaii and Alaska are often the exceptions to the rule but I’m talking within the major 48 here. ↩

SEE ALSO: How To Get Cheaper Plane Tickets By Using A Fake Location

Join the conversation about this story »

SEE ALSO: 11-Year-Old Boy Exposes UK Airport Security Gap

Join the conversation about this story »

The airline business is cutthroat in virtually every market in the world, but it is especially difficult for start-up airlines in India. Fuel prices and fickle passengers aside, start-up airlines in the country must contend with a truly suffocating piece of government regulation that hinders their growth.

Although Indian tech start-ups seem to be doing well, start-ups in most other sectors generally face an uphill battle against protectionist policies and a highly corrupt government. 

As flying goes, India's domestic routes are crowded with too many airlines competing for too few routes that can sustain a profit. As a result, no Indian airline actually makes substantial profit from domestic flying. 

However, in order for an Indian airline to be able to fly lucrative international routes, they must adhere to the 5/20 rule which require them to have been in business for at least five years and have a fleet of at least 20 aircraft. 

As a result, opponents of the rule argue that it has shielded the country's two international carriers, state-owned Air India and Jet Airways from start-up competition. Recently, Amber Dubey, head of aerospace at KPMG in India, told the Business Standard that the rule was anachronistic, anticompetitive and discriminatory. 

In a recent report, the CAPA Center for Aviation called the 5/20 rule "one of the most damaging and discriminatory regulations in India."

Since the rule doesn't apply to foreign carriers, international airlines have benefited greatly from the lack of internal competition. Airlines like Lufthansa, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic have solidified their hold on highly profitable flights connecting Europe and North America with the Indian subcontinent. 

The 5/20 rule doesn't just hold down plucky entrepreneurs, it's also stands in the way of investment from major corporations that seek to improve both the product and infrastructure of India's aviation sector. In the same report, CAPA cited the rule as a contributing cause for the 2012 liquidation of UB Group's highly rated Kingfisher Airlines. 

More recently, the 5/20 rule threatens the survival of Vistara, the country's latest airline - a joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines. Set to launch this October, the new carrier run by the country's most prominent corporation and the world's best airline, will be beset with the same challenges that held back previous entrants like Kingfisher.

Fortunately for Vistara, there has been a recent push within the government for the rule's abolition. However, no substantial plans for the rule's review has occurred.  But if India wants to see its airline industry follow the example of the developing world, it may want to study the success of JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin America — and give the country's startups more room to maneuver.

SEE ALSO: Here's Why Investors Find This Japanese Airline So Irresistible

Join the conversation about this story »

African countries tightened travel curbs on Thursday in an effort to contain the Ebola outbreak, ignoring World Health Organization warnings that such measures could heighten shortages of food and basic supplies in affected areas.

In the West Point slum in Liberia's capital Monrovia, the scene of violent clashes with the army on Wednesday after the area was quarantined to curb the spread of Ebola, hundreds of people jostled their way towards trucks loaded with water and rice.

Police used canes to beat back some locals while aid workers helped others dip their fingers in ink to record their ration.

"I ain't eat since yesterday. I have four young children and none of us eat. I feel bad," said Hawa Saah, a pregnant 23-year-old resident of West Point, speaking in the pidgin English common to this part of West Africa.

The World Food Programme says deliveries of basic supplies to more than 1 million people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are intended to avoid a food crisis in those West African countries, where more than 1,300 people have died from Ebola in the worst outbreak of the disease in history.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations' health agency, has repeatedly said that it does not recommend travel or trade restrictions for Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria — the countries affected by the epidemic that began in March. Those countries are starting to suffer shortages of fuel, food and basic supplies due to these measures, it warned this week.

Still, Chad's Prime Minister Kalzeubet Payimi Deubet said on Thursday his country would close its border with Nigeria to prevent Ebola entering the country.

"This decision will have an economic impact on the region but it is imperative for public health needs," he said.

Nigeria has reported 15 cases — the lowest number in the four affected countries - and the WHO has expressed "cautious optimism" that the spread can be stopped.

South Africa said on Thursday it was banning all travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from entering its territory, barring its own citizens.

Guinea appeals to airlines

The precautions follow measures from commercial airlines such as Kenya Airways and Gambia Bird which have suspended flights to affected countries, despite new testing procedures at airports. The United States and several European countries have also advised against non-essential travel to the region.

Guinea's President Alpha Conde met with airlines on Wednesday in an attempt to persuade them to resume normal service to the country. "No Guinean has left the country to export Ebola elsewhere. Even the WHO has recognized that Guinea's measures are sufficient," he said.

The WHO said on Thursday it would convene talks early next month on potential treatments and vaccines to contain the outbreak.

Ebola has struck hardest in countries with health care systems ill-equipped to cope with an epidemic.

A ministry of health report in Liberia, the country where infection is rising fastest, showed 60 new suspected, probable and confirmed cases for just one day on Aug. 19. Two of them were health workers.

In an indication of the strain on local populations, security forces in Monrovia fired live rounds and tear gas on Wednesday as crowds sought to break quarantine restrictions.

A 15-year-old-boy receiving treatment for gun shot wounds later died, the medical director of the hospital treating him said on Thursday.

The WHO said on Thursday that an hemorrhagic illness has killed at least 70 people in Democratic Republic of Congo but denied that the illness was Ebola.

Ireland's health service said it was testing the body of a person, who had died after recently returning from Africa, for the Ebola virus.

SEE ALSO: Scientists Who Discovered Ebola Almost Caused A Disaster: 'It Makes Me Wince Just To Think Of It'

Join the conversation about this story »