Air traffic

January 07, 2010 -- On December 25, 2009 a Nigerian national, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate an explosive device while onboard flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. The device did not explode, but instead ignited, injuring Mr. Abdulmutallab and two other passengers. The flight crew restrained Mr. Abdulmutallab and the plane safely landed. Mr. Abdulmutallab was taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and later was questioned by the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation (FBI). Mr. Abdulmutallab was not on the U.S. Government's (USG) terrorist watchlist, but was known to the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC).

BACKGROUND    » read more »

Defendant Faces Life in Prison if Convicted

January 6, 2010 -- WASHINGTON—The Justice Department announced that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian national, was charged today in a six-count criminal indictment returned in the Eastern District of Michigan for his alleged role in the attempted Christmas day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Detroit.

Count one of the indictment charges Abdulmutallab with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a penalty of up to life in prison.

Count two of the indictment charges him with attempted murder within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.    » read more »

December 15, 2010 - U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 3.7 percent fewer workers in October 2009 than in October 2008, the 16th consecutive decrease in full-time equivalent employee (FTE) levels for the scheduled passenger carriers from the same month of the previous year, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today (Table 2). FTE calculations count two part-time employees as one full-time employee.

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that the October FTE total of 379,800 for the scheduled passenger carriers was 14,400 below October 2008 and the lowest total for any month since 1993. Historic employment data can be found on the BTS web site.    » read more »

SEATTLE, Dec. 8, 2009 – Boeing [NYSE: BA] is delighted that United Airlines has selected the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for the replacement and expansion of its twin-aisle fleet.

“United’s selection of the Boeing 787 continues the 80-year partnership between our two companies,” said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “The 787 is the first new airplane of the 21st century. Its advanced technology and unprecedented improvements in fuel efficiency will help United achieve its business objectives and enhance its leadership position among the world’s top airlines.”

Boeing looks forward to working with United to finalize the order at which time it will be posted to the Boeing Orders and Deliveries Web site.

Source: Boeing

December 8, 2009 -- Flights operated by the nation’s largest airlines arrived on time at a lower rate this past October than in either October of last year or in September 2009, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), the 19 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 77.3 percent in October, a lower rate than both October 2008’s 86.0 percent and September 2009’s 86.2 percent.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7, 2009 -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has been awarded a contract by the United Kingdom's NATS, formerly National Air Traffic Services, to conduct software modeling and field trials of technology that minimizes the effects of wind turbines on radar signals.

"We are developing this much-needed technology with NATS to eliminate potential radar blackout zones near wind farms and enable the U.K. to continue its progress in developing safe, renewable energy resources," said Andy Zogg, Raytheon Network Centric Systems vice president of Command and Control Systems. "This contract award is a strong endorsement of our leap-ahead technology and will enable our customer to move forward with its greening of energy production."    » read more »

December 4, 2009 -- Western New York Representatives Louise Slaughter (NY-28), Chris Lee (NY-26) and Brian Higgins (NY-27) today sent a letter to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Randy Babbitt urging him to implement much-needed guidelines on pilot fatigue and pilot commuting.

During a recent Senate hearing the FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety Peggy Gilligan announced that the FAA is pushing back its deadline for releasing pilot fatigue guidelines. Gilligan also testified that the FAA will not release any guidelines related to pilot commuting.    » read more »

In letter to Secretary LaHood, Klobuchar calls for quick action to adopt de-icing rule

December 1, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. – Today U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar sent a letter to the Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood urging the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to adopt a de-icing rule that has been pending for the last 12 years. The rule would require certain aircrafts to be retrofitted with adequate ice-detection equipment or impose procedures outlining when pilots must utilize de-icing procedures.

"For 12 winters, this basic safety measure has been stalled,” said Klobuchar. “As another season of snow and ice approaches, we need to make sure planes are prepared to safely fly in wintry conditions.”    » read more »

November 30, 2009 -- British Airways, in an agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Aviation Enforcement Office, will compensate consumers for cancellation penalties and other expenses incurred due to the carrier’s erroneous offer of $40 fares between the United States and India. The lowest U.S.-India fare being offered by British Airways prior to the mistaken ad, not including taxes, was over $750.    » read more »

Department of Transportation Fines Airlines for Minnesota Stranding

November 24, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. – United States Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) today repeated their call for Congress to pass an Airline Passenger Bill of Rights after the Department of Transportation fined Continental Airlines and ExpressJeta combined $100,000 for stranding 47 passengers on Continental Airlines Flight 2816 overnight in Rochester, Minnesota in August.

Additionally, DOT fined Mesaba Airlines $75,000, which provided ground handling for the flight, for its role in the incident.    » read more »

November 23, 2009 -- Concord, NH -- Congressman Paul Hodes is calling on President Obama to ease holiday air travel delays by allowing commercial planes to travel in military airspace. The Federal Aviation Administration has opened up these "holiday express lanes" in recent years, and the move has proved effective in reducing the number of late arrivals.    » read more »

System Traffic Down 4.1 Percent from August 2008

November 13, 2009 - The number of scheduled domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines in August 2009 declined by 4.1 percent from August 2008, dropping by 2.8 million to 65.0 million, the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today reported . August was the 17th consecutive month with a decrease in passengers from the prior year .

BTS, a part of DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration, in a release of preliminary data, reported that U.S. airlines carried 4.1 percent fewer domestic passengers than in August 2008. International passengers on U.S. carriers decreased 4.5 percent .    » read more »

November 9, 2009 -- Flights operated by the nation’s largest airlines arrived on time at a higher rate this past September than in either September of last year or in August 2009, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), the 19 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 86.2 percent in September, higher than both September 2008’s 84.9 percent and August 2009’s 79.7 percent.    » read more »

Washington, D.C. -- Nov 5, 2009 – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, Al Franken, and Byron Dorgan today sponsored legislation to prohibit the use of personal wireless communication devices by the flight crew while operating commercial aircraft.

Klobuchar, an Aviation Subcommittee member, and Franken joined Commerce Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Byron Dorgan to introduce the legislation in response to the recent Northwest Airlines incident in which pilots claimed they were distracted by working on their computers and did not respond to radio calls for 91 minutes. The plane flew 150 miles past its destination of Minneapolis-St. Paul.    » read more »

Oct. 28, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- Data from NASA's National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS) project, a survey administered to pilots in order to track safety-related incidents during air travel, should not be used to measure rates or trends in safety in the National Airspace System, says a new report from the National Research Council. Deficiencies in several aspects of the survey design make the data gathered unreliable.    » read more »