Well-known for in-flight entertainment, Australia’s largest airline Qantas plans to expand its operations in New Zealand and offer new business services, as competition for air travel on domestic routes intensifies. It plans to beef up its domestic service by providing free alcohol and food on domestic flights.
Do you think Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has gone too far in security checks at the airports? If yes, then wait I’ve yet another news for you. TSA now plans to expand its use of screening machines that look under passengers’ clothing for hidden weapons.
New York’s Kennedy and Los Angeles International airports and Phoenix Sky Harbor will test backscatter X-ray machines that create anatomical images using low-intensity millimeter waves to scan passengers’ bodies.
Public transit in the coming future could look very different from today’s. Starting in 2008, Advanced Transport Systems will be whisking passengers between Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 and a parking lot a mile away in tiny driver-less vehicles.
If you are traveling to London, here’s some good news. You won’t have to wait in long lines anymore for a cab to take you to your nearest hotel. The London city airport has launched a service called hotel shuttle service, which will take you to your hotel right away!
With more and more airports around world opening shopping malls and restaurants, I wonder what we would call airport in the coming years. Shopping malls? If you haven’t done any traveling lately you might not know that many airports around the world have turned up more like malls.
Russian airlines Aeroflot is probably one of the worst airlines that you can fly. Almost everyone has their own version of Aeroflot horror stories. They span from pilots flying the plane while being seated on beer crates to wheels falling off during landing. Lately though, things are improving a little bit. With the introduction of the Russia’s new Sukhoi superjet to the aging fleet of airplanes, things are about to change.
In a big blow to Zimbabwe, the British Airways (BA) has decided to stop its flights from UK to the southern African nation next month due to increasing losses on the route in the wake of Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis under the leadership of current president Robert Mugabe.
The boarding process and seating strategies of Dallas-based airline, Southwest has long been a hot-button issue. Southwest Airlines plans not to ditch its cattle-call boarding for assigned seating but announced to switch to a more orderly system throughout the country this fall. It is anticipated that already quick boarding will become speedier and frustrating campouts at the gate will be eliminated.
Aviation industry accounts for two percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions and has come under increasing pressure from environmental campaigners. Realizing the environmental impact of flying and their contribution to the greenhouse gas emission, several airlines are taking ardent steps.
While on move, we people often forget to charge our cell phones, laptops and other battery-operated gadgets. The gadget-laden people are the great sufferers. To help these gadget-laden travelers stay in touch, several airports across the country are installing electric charging stations.
To ease the check system, French airline Air France plans to test biometric boarding passes that would allow passengers to be fast-tracked through airport checks using a scan of their fingerprints. The new technology will permit registered travelers to bypass general boarding on shuttle flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol.
Scheduled to start later this year, this new check system will allow passengers to cross the automated gate only after complete verification. The passengers will have to provide their index fingerprint, which will be encoded in a personal smart card. They will have to flash their card in front of a machine at the boarding gate, which will read the information. After complete verification, automated gate will open for the passenger.
The airline also plans to integrate radio microchips into baggage tags at the Paris airport for flights to and from Amsterdam and Tokyo. This will ensure that the bags are monitored throughout the airport. A text-messaging service that will alert customers when their luggage will arrive at baggage claim carousels will also be introduced in nearby future. If the tests are successful, the biometric cards will be offered to between 10 and 15 percent of Air France customers.
Source: USA Today
The ritual of making sacrifices in order to please Gods has been followed since ages unknown. With the world getting technical day by day, we think that we have lost faith in superstitions and so, the same rituals are neither followed nor are they please us. In a bizarre and true accident, the officials of an airline run by the Nepal government sacrificed two goats to appeal to Akash Bhairab, the Hindu God of skies.
Airports across the country will soon get better bag screening equipment to scan carry-on bags at security check-points. In a bid to upgrade security, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to replace the old X-ray machines with new high-powered X-ray machines.
There is an increasing number of websites that can help travelers to find the best of cheap flight deals available. Momondo and Sidestep.com are the sites that recently joined the many websites that offer automatic, constant searches of booking engines.
Air New Zealand’s year-round lead-in fares are now the same as Pacific Blue’s. Yes, you have read it right! To meet competition from newcomer Pacific Blue, Air New Zealand plans to offer never-seen-before deals with $1 domestic fares and turn part of its planes into budget cabins.
