Comparing airlines' Airbus A380s. Seven commercial carriers fly the A380. Here's a look at how each has used the space aboard the superjumbo jet. [LATimes photogallery].
posted by VikingSword on Dec 12, 2011 - 29 comments

Tri-M.G. Intra Asia Airlines (Warning: Sound, Flash, airplanes) has taken regional airline website design to new heights (Warning: Airline banned in the EU for being unsafe). via
posted by swift on Mar 23, 2011 - 25 comments

As your airline takes you from Point A to Point B, do you ever wonder about all the points in between? Enter MondoWindow (in beta today), which mashes up satellite photos, air traffic data, wikipedia, and flickr to show where your plane is, and what's nearby on the earth below, provided your flight has wifi. [more inside]
posted by underthehat on Mar 10, 2011 - 17 comments

"Innocuous onboard flirting is condoned: Emirates' rules require attendants to politely accept a business card or phone number if it's proffered by a passenger." Inside the life of an Emirates Airlines Flight Attendant.
posted by Heliochrome85 on Jul 3, 2009 - 28 comments

Why is your plane late? Airlines can make more money selling 70 airplanes worth of tickets per hour than they could if they limited themselves to the 60 airplanes per hour that the runway can handle. A long but excellent post on what is causing the delays at the airport.
posted by Coop on Jan 30, 2008 - 34 comments

Remember when air travel was viewed as glamorous and exciting? Of course you don't. So check out this collection of vintage flight attendant photos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
posted by brain_drain on Nov 13, 2007 - 37 comments

Tired of waiting an hour for your luggage? Can't fit all your gear into a tiny suitcase? Struggling to find the perfect carry-on? OneBag can help.
posted by brain_drain on Oct 4, 2007 - 34 comments

FlightMemory.com You must remember this: Passengers can wax nostalgic about flights they made and missed. Launched in Germany last year, this free site made its English-language debut last month.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese on May 14, 2007 - 6 comments

Jet Blue Unveils its Image Revival/Damage Control Plan. The low-fare airline rolled out a customer bill of rights Tuesday that promises vouchers to fliers who experience delays in a move it hopes will win back passengers after an operational meltdown damaged its brand and stock price.
posted by wfc123 on Feb 20, 2007 - 43 comments

Southwest's obesity ticket policy nearly strands man with medical condition that causes obesity. SWA's extra fee for fat travelers has been covered before. But what if your obesity is caused by a medical condition? An indigent man dying of late-stage Hepatitis C and suffering from related abdominal bloating is told by an SWA gate agent he can't board a connecting flight to a hospital willing to take his case unless he coughs up money for another ticket -- despite the family getting reassurances before he departed that he wouldn't have to pay due to his medical state. He only boards after an SWA in Dallas for the ticket herself.
posted by dw on Jan 24, 2007 - 55 comments

Get 'em while they're hot. Northwest Air Lines figures it's gotta pay the bills somehow, starts charging $15 for aisle and exit row seats.
posted by anjamu on Apr 14, 2006 - 75 comments

After the first time I flew on an upgraded ticket, I wondered why some airline didn't just make slightly more expensive tickets on a plane filled with fewer, roomier seats for those that crave comfort (basically, all business class). Well, it looks like someone has at Eos Airlines. The seating arrangements look fantastic, going from roomy seat area to flat bed to double table with two seats (for a coworker), with privacy and aisle access for all. Unfortunately "slightly more expensive" is pretty high at $5k for NYC to London, though that's cheaper than major airlines. Business Week has the full story on this new venture.
posted by mathowie on Nov 12, 2005 - 47 comments

JetBlue flight 292 , with 145 people on board, is currently circling LAX, burning fuel while it prepares for an emergency landing with its nose gear twisted 90 degrees.
posted by mr_crash_davis on Sep 21, 2005 - 180 comments

Upstart travel sites challenge the big three Catering to skinflints who can't be bothered to check multiple sites for the best fares, travel aggregator sites like Mobissimo, CheapFlights, Qixo, or Sidestep allow you to search Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity with a single query, as well as bargain airlines like JetBlue and Southwest, which aren't covered by the big three. (note: Sidestep requires a download, and only works on Windows; the others are all just regular websites.) But maybe you'd be best off just heading straight to an obscure Belgian travel site.
posted by yankeefog on Dec 13, 2004 - 13 comments

Want to fly free? Song may accommodate you. All you have to do is be nice.
posted by mr_crash_davis on May 19, 2004 - 5 comments

The horror,the horror. Everybody seems to be an expert on airline travel. Whether it's security issues or the dynamics of flight. There seems to be plenty of places to get it off your chest. With the industry in a nosedive will the survivors have to lift their game. Or just cut more corners to enhance the bottom line. Love those 5 hour on the runway to nowhere tales. Um as long as it's not me.
posted by johnny7 on Apr 20, 2003 - 4 comments

Do you have problems finding the cheapest flight? Well so do computers.
Carl de Marcken, the man who created the engine behind Orbitz and other travel search engines posits that finding the cheapest fare from one point to another is a NP-Hard problem. Even if you fix the specific route between destinations there can be as many as 10³⁶ combinations.
posted by patrickje on Dec 9, 2002 - 18 comments

Student arrested with boxcutter & scissors. But the thing that really boggled my mind was this: "Since February, we've taken more than 25,000 boxcutters from carry-ons and off of passengers. We've taken more than 500 firearms and 215,000 knives," Johnson said." For one thing, I guess I had never realized how much box cutting went on in the US - but the bizarre piece is the guns. A half dozen I can see, but five freakin' hundred? How can that many people - in the post 9/11 world - still be trying to get serious weapony onto airplanes?
posted by MidasMulligan on Sep 30, 2002 - 45 comments

Is anyone going away for labor day weekend? Taking a flight? Check out what your airline may be serving at AirlineMeals.net
posted by KnitWit on Aug 30, 2002 - 8 comments

If you've ever flown commercially in the past 16 years, you had to answer two questions about your luggage before receiving your boarding pass. Starting today, they are no longer required since they "never prevented a bombing or hijacking."
posted by jaden on Aug 29, 2002 - 20 comments

"From a couple of miles up, all trace of humanity has vanished." "Air travel requires an escape from gravity, an escape from distance, and ultimately an escape from our bodies." Courtesy of loudpaper.
posted by protocool on Jun 3, 2002 - 2 comments

érrorplan is a web site apparently set up by unhappy top-tier Aeroplan members documenting Air Canada's poor service and diminishing benefits to their best customers. Air Canada, as you might imagine, is none too happy about it — especially since thousands of érrorplan brochures have been found in their airplanes and airport lounges around the world. (Frequent fliers indeed.) The airline is trying to track them down and stop them — on the grounds that érrorplan is using their intellectual property. Bye bye, air miles.
posted by mcwetboy on Jan 23, 2002 - 2 comments

Air travel used to be prestigious and considered quite safe, but no more. It seems like it's just one thing after another this past year for the industry. How much of a beating can such a cash-flow intensive business take? What's your feeling about flying these days?
posted by holycola on Dec 9, 2001 - 27 comments

looking for discount travel? forget priceline and travelocity, just score a fake passport, gather all the electronics you can muster, pack yourself in a box and ship it all to canada.
posted by athensltd on Oct 25, 2001 - 12 comments

The Concorde Flies Again After an overhaul of the supersonic jet's safety features (after the July 25 crash near Paris), British Airways' Concorde undertook it's first trans-Atlantic flight to New York. British Airways has also set up a Concorde's Return To Service mini-site...
posted by tpl1212 on Oct 22, 2001 - 6 comments

China bans Muslims from flights. Don't like America's solution for airline safety? Try this. I wonder if this policy is temporary, and timed for President Bush's imminent visit to the region, or is this China's long-term solution? How will America respond - condemnation or tacit acceptance? Does it actually make Bush's trip safer?
posted by conquistador on Oct 17, 2001 - 13 comments

Sibir Airlines flight downed en route from Tel Aviv. It is not yet clear whether or not this was a terrorist act. It does seem, however, that there was an explosion on board.
posted by jeffvc on Oct 4, 2001 - 17 comments

the passengers on our planes should have the right to bear arms Is this guy, a former pilot, suggesting that we have a constitutional right to carry weapons aboard planes so we can defend ourselves? Is an uzzi ok or a bayonet?
posted by Postroad on Sep 22, 2001 - 28 comments

Virgin Blue , the newest domestic discount airline in Australia, are offering 1000 air fares for $1 each to celebrate their 1st birthday. The $1 fares could be purchased only after Saturday 4/4 at 12:00am AEST and only from their web site (sorry travel agents). I was hoping to pull off a $10 trip to Melbourne for myself and the rest of my family but unfortunately the site is totally down :(
posted by Jase_B on Aug 3, 2001 - 2 comments

This airline review site that I just discovered may be useful if you plan to go on a long air journey sometime soon and would like to try a new carrier.
posted by jammer on Feb 22, 2001 - 2 comments

Singapore Airlines Flight 006 Survivors Report. A rather gripping account of the crash here last night. Hard to believe that they would have a plane taking off in the middle of a typhoon but hey "we do this all the time; it's fine."
posted by cmacleod on Oct 31, 2000 - 2 comments