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Airlines

Alaska Airlines to debut L.A.-Costa Rica flights
Alaska Airlines plans new flights from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to two airports in Costa Rica starting Oct. 31. The airline announced Thursday it would add eight weekly flights on the new routes. Alaska plans to fly to the capital of San Jose (SJO) and to Liberia/Guanacaste (LIR), about 130 miles away.
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Court Injunction Blocks Allegiant Pilot Strike
A US judge has said pilots at Allegiant Air do not have grounds to strike, granting a preliminary injunction making a strike unlawful. The decision prevents a strike that could have disrupted the travel of thousands of passengers, the airline said. The pilots' union said it will appeal the decision because it believes the court injunction is not in accordance with federal law. "With the threat of a strike lifted, Allegiant looks forward to directing its time and energy back to the negotiating table," the company said.
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American, Southwest receive awards for loyalty programs
American Airlines and Southwest Airlines both received Freddie Awards for frequent flier programs last week from InsideFlyer magazine. American was honored for its AAdvantage program. Meanwhile, Southwest received awards for its Rapid Rewards program.
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Delta reports higher traffic for April
Delta Air Lines reported a 1.8% increase in passenger traffic for April on a year-over-year basis. Domestic traffic rose 2.6% for the month, while international traffic edged up 0.6%. In April, Delta transported 14.78 million passengers.
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Qatar Airways' Plans To Boost US Flights
Qatar Airways plans to expand its services to the United States, in a move that likely will trigger a backlash from US airlines that accuse it of competing unfairly through state subsidies. The Gulf carrier announced its first direct flights to Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta from its Doha hub and its second daily flight to New York. The expansion comes as Delta, United and American airlines press for a temporary freeze on new Gulf airline service to the United States.
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Southwest to boost employment by hiring more ramp agents
Southwest Airlines announced plans last week to hire 500 ramp agents. During the first quarter, Southwest added positions for 700 people. "We are looking for hardworking, fun-loving, and caring people who love working with others and giving it their all," said Julie Weber, vice president of people for Southwest.
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United brings 10 777-200s into domestic use
United Airlines is using 10 Boeing widebody 777-200s on domestic flights, offering more space and aisle seats to passengers. United says using the large, twin-engine jets is part of an efficiency drive.
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United in-flight magazine publishes works by literary fiction writers
Last summer at a writers’ workshop in Oregon, the novelists Anthony Doerr, Karen Russell and Elissa Schappell were chatting over cocktails when they realized they had all published work in the same magazine. It wasn’t one of the usual literary outlets, like Tin House, The Paris Review or The New Yorker. It was Rhapsody, an in-flight magazine for United Airlines. It seemed like a weird coincidence. Then again, considering Rhapsody’s growing roster of A-list fiction writers, maybe not. Since its first issue hit plane cabins a year and a half ago, Rhapsody has published original works by literary stars like Joyce Carol Oates, Rick Moody, Amy Bloom, Emma Straub and Doerr, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction two weeks ago.
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Airports

Delta employees hold charity event for cancer research
Delta Air Lines employees pulled their weight last week at the Delta Jet Drag for charity. Teams of 20 employees competed to see how far they could pull a Delta 757-200 aircraft. The event at a Delta facility near the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport raised money for the American Cancer Society.
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Military

F-35 concurrency cost rises slightly, but trend stabilizes
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program’s concurrency cost has ticked up by $40 million since last year’s estimate by the Pentagon to $1.69 billion, according to a report recently sent to US lawmakers. That is how much the US Department of Defense expects it will cost to retrofit hundreds of early production F-35s with fixes to problems discovered during development and testing. According to the March report, obtained by Flightglobal, the 2% increase over last April’s estimate accounts for new flaws discovered in the developmental aircraft, plus increases in the expected cost of fixing other problems that were already known to developers. Of the sum, $1.19 billion is for known issues and $500 million is for forecast issues.
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Corporate

Buffett Says No Anti-Union Agenda At NetJets
Warren Buffett has denied having an anti-union agenda, as the NetJets aviation unit of Berkshire Hathaway tries to end roughly two years of contentious contract talks with its pilots. Buffett spoke at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, as some NetJets pilots picketed outside. The NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots, which represents more than 2,700 of those pilots, is resisting what they call NetJets' efforts to cut its budget, reduce jobs, and obtain concessions on health care, job security and work rules.
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Aviation Quote

You know the part in 'High Flight where it talks about putting out your hand to touch the face of God? Well, when we're at speed and altitude in the SR, we have to slow down and descend in order to do that.

— USAF Lt. Col. Gil Bertelson, SR-71 pilot, in 'SR-71 Blackbird: Stories, Tales and Legends,' 2002.

On This Date

---In 1930... The first solo flight from England to Australia by a woman is made by British Amy Johnson in a De Havilland D.H.60G Moth. She flies from Croydon, England to Darwin, Australia in 19 days.

---In 1958…A Royal Air Force Miles Marathon T.2 (XA253) crashes after landing at Topcliffe RAF Station in the UK after the crew accidentally retracts the landing gear instead of raising the flaps.

---In 1961... Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., U.S. Navy, becomes the second man to explore space when he rides his Mercury Freedom 7 capsule, launched by a Redstone missile, to 115 miles above the Earth. It is three weeks since Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight.

---In 1965…Iberia Flight 401 crashes on its second approach to runway 30 at Tenerife, Spain. The Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation (EC-AIN), attempting landing in weather below minimums, strikes construction equipment while initiating its second go-around. Of the 49 onboard, 30 perish.

---In 1967…First delivery of the McDonnell Douglas DC-8-62 to SAS.

---In 1968... The first non-stop Atlantic crossing by an executive jet aircraft is made as a Grumman Gulfstream II lands in London, England after completing a 3,500-mile (5,633 km) flight from Teterboro, New Jersey.

---In 1972…Eastern Airlines Flight 175 is hijacked by a man named Richard Hahneman after departing Allentown, PA, demanding $303,000 and 6 parachutes. After receiving the ransom after landing in Washington-Dulles, Hahneman insists on flying to New Orleans for fuel before heading to Honduras, where he would successfully parachute out. He is caught by Honduran soldiers a few days later.

---In 1972…Western Airlines Flight 407 is hijacked by a 21-year-old Michael Lynn Hansen, who had sneaked on a .38 caliber pistol in a hallowed book, just after departure from Salt Lake City, Utah. Demanding to go to North Vietnam, the Boeing 737-200 first stops at its scheduled destination of Los Angeles for fuel. Hansen then changes his mind and says he’d rather go to Cuba, and a stop is made in Tampa for more gas before successfully continuing on to Havana. He would be extradited back to the United States in 1975.

---In 1972…Alitalia Flight 112, a flight from Rome to Palermo, Italy, crashes into Mount Longa while approaching at night. The Douglas DC-8-43 (I-DIWB “Antonio Pigafetta”) had strayed from the published approach pattern, killing all 115 onboard.

---In 1978…National Airlines Flight 32, a Boeing 727, landed 2750 feet short of the runway at Pensacola Regional Airport into Escambia Bay, killing 8 people.

---In 1983…Eastern Airlines Flight 855, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar (N334EA), avoids disaster after experiencing trouble on all three of its engines on a flight from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas. In a move that would later be pivotal to their survival, the crew shuts down the #2 engine after it receives a low oil pressure warning light while descending through 15,000ft. The crew decides to return to their Miami base on the remaining two engines, which should not be a problem until the same light illuminates for engines #1 and #3, both of which soon flame out five minutes apart. Since the #2 tail engine is the only one intentionally shut down as a precaution, it still has enough oil to restart as the aircraft glides toward the ocean through 4,000ft, preparing the ditch. Miraculously, the Tristar is able to make a one-engine landing at Miami, saving the lives of all 172 people aboard. The cause is attributed to mechanics who failed to install all the O-ring seals on the master chip detector assemblies, leading to the loss of lubrication on the engines.

---In 1990…A Douglas DC-6 (N84BL) operated by Aerial Transit Company crashes after takeoff from Guatemala City, Guatemala, killing all 3 on the aircraft and an additional 24 on the ground. The cargo flight, destined for Miami, develops engine trouble and strikes the ground while trying to make its way back to the airport.

---In 1993…Jet Airways commences flight operations.

---In 1994… Clementine, USA Lunar Orbiter (launched January 25, 1994)left Lunar orbit. The official name for Clementine is 'Deep Space Probe Science Experiment' (DSPSE). It was a Department of Defense program used to test new space technology. Clementine was a new design using lightweight structure and propellant systems. It spent 70 days (between February 6 and May 5, 1994) in lunar orbit. Its four cameras mapped the surface of the Moon at 125-250 meters/pixel resolution. Clementine also used a laser to gather altimeter data which will make it possible to generate the first lunar topographic map.

---In 1998…A Peruvian Air Force Boeing 737-200 (FAP-351) operating on lease to Occidental Petroleum crashes in a thunderstorm while on a non-directional beacon (NDB) approach, killing 75 of the 88 aboard.

---In 2004… Air France and Netherlands-based KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) merge, the two airlines are now known as Air France-KLM.

---In 2006…Siberia Airlines renames itself to S7 Airlines and repaints its to a bright green, which is partly so the aircraft can be spotted among the tundra of Russia in the event of a crash.

---In 2007…Eos Airlines begins flights from London Stansted to Newark Liberty International Airport with their 48-seat, all-business class Boeing 757-200 aircraft.

---In 2007…Kenya Airways Flight 507, a Boeing 737-800 (5Y-KYA) scheduled to fly to Nairobi, Kenya, crashes just after takeoff from Douala, Cameroon. All 114 occupants are killed after the pilot departs without clearance and then does not realize the aircraft is banking hard to the right in time for correction due to improper auto-pilot inputs. The aircraft strikes a forested swamp a few miles to the south of the airport, where a reporter would find one year later that aircraft wreckage and human remains are still present.

---In 2008… Brazilian-born David Neeleman, founder and former-CEO of JetBlue, starts Azul Lineas Aereas Brasileiras.

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