International air passenger adaptation levy – another effort to milk the airlines

Yet another example of how the airline industry is being milked on grounds of CO2 emissions: “international air passenger adaptation levy”, or global aviation tax.

Supposedly this is being used to fund the poorer nations’ struggle against climate change but how do we know where the money would really be used? If the Maldives is the country behind this initiative, let’s stop flying into Maldives completely. Cuts the CO2 emissions and saves the islands from being drowned – maybe. This is what I call a targeted measure against climate change

See the Financial Times story on the tax, quoated here partially:

US airlines, meanwhile, have been lobbying Todd Stern, US special envoy for climate change, urging him to dismiss what the Air Transport Association of America calls “an exorbitant tax to fund climate change adaptation measures in developing countries”.

This is a reference to the “international air passenger adaptation levy” proposed on behalf of several countries by the Maldives, where leaders fear their Indian Ocean islands will be submerged by rising sea levels unless radical adaptation steps are taken.

Backed by other developing nations, the levy is projected to raise initially up to $10bn annually to help poorer countries cope with climate change.

Passengers jumping out of a plane

These things seem to happen occasionally. Just shows how jumpy (literally) passengers are in these days. This usually happens with lighter prop aircraft, haven’t seen happen for a long while in mid-sized jets, though.

Nine Batavia Air passengers injured in incident at Bali airport

Nine passengers were injured at Bali Denpasar airport when they jumped out of a Batavia Air aircraft after they saw smoke spewing from the engine.The incident happened at 11:45 on 3 December when the Boeing 737-400, registration PK-YVR, was about to move off, says a Batavia Air spokesman.

 ”The captain tried to start the first engine but it failed to start, so he tried the second engine. The second engine started up, and he tried to start the first engine again. There was smoke when it started, but that is normal,” says the spokesman.

“There was no fire and the aircraft was not moving. The smoke was exhaust smoke, like exhaust smoke from cars,” he says, adding that there was nothing wrong with the aircraft and it has since returned to service.

Passengers panicked and opened the aircraft doors on their own, says the spokesman.

“There was no order to evacuate from the captain, but they wanted to get out of the plane,” he adds.

Nine passengers were injured when they jumped out of the aircraft while the slide was not fully inflated, says the spokesman. Out of the nine, only one passenger is still in hospital, he adds.

The 148-seat aircraft had earlier been flying from Surabaya to Kupang. But was forced to stop in Bali because a Merpati Nusanata Fokker 100 was stuck on Kupang’s runway, forcing that airport to close.

(Source: Air Transport Intelligence news) 

FAA Rejects Boeing 777 Safety Warnings

Did you see this article in WSJ today? Doesn’t it sound like FAA probably had some  pressure from Boeing and the airlines before making this decision?

As most of of the transatlantic or transpacific flights fly extended periods in high altitude and in freezing temperatures, it is likely that engine shutdown will occur several times in the future. Normally twin engine long-haul flights are quite safe but if there is a known problem and FAA does not act…

It would have been better to order the modifications right away.

Rejecting safety warnings from crash investigators and pilots, federal aviation regulators have decided to allow more than 130 Boeing Co. 777 jetliners to continue flying long-distance international trips through early 2011 with suspect parts that have caused engines in extremely rare instances to ice up and basically shut down in midair.

 

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Associated PressWorkers examine the wrecked engine of the British Airways Boeing 777 aircraft that crash-landed at London’s Heathrow Airport on Jan. 20, 2008.

 

 

The Federal Aviation Administration’s move, announced last week, caps months of debate in the international aviation community about the potential hazards of ice plugging up certain internal piping parts and restricting fuel flow to engines built by Rolls-Royce PLC, particularly during extended, high-altitude flights crossing polar regions. Citing the possibility of engine shutdowns or emergency descents, critics wanted at least some of the suspect parts replaced by the end of this year, and in any event no later than mid-2010.

 

 

 

Mesaba staff leave Continental pax stranded in the aircraft

This caught my eye today:  Mesaba Airlines staff refused to let Continental’s stranded passengers in termional building in the middle of the night.

Quote from WSJ.com story based on AP wire:

The DOT said it has levied a precedent-setting $175,000 in fines against three airlines in connection with the overnight stranding of passengers in a plane at Rochester, Minn., on Aug. 8.

Continental Express Flight 2816 was en route from Houston to Minneapolis carrying 47 passengers when thunderstorms forced it to divert to Rochester, where it landed about 12:30 a.m. The airport was closed. Mesaba Airlines employees—the only airline employees at the airport at the time—refused to open the terminal for the Continental Express passengers.

The passengers waited nearly six hours inside the cramped airliner amid wailing babies and a smelly toilet even though they were only 50 yards from a terminal. The flight’s captain repeatedly pleaded to let the passengers deplane and enter the terminal. In the morning, they were allowed to disembark and spent about 2½ hours in the terminal before reboarding the same plane to complete the trip to Minneapolis.

Continental Airlines Inc. and its regional airline partner ExpressJet Holdings Inc., which operated the flight, were each fined $50,000. The DOT imposed the largest penalty—$75,000— on Mesaba Airlines, a regional unit of Delta Air Lines Inc.

John Spanjers, president of Mesaba, said the airline “continues to feel it operated in good faith.” He said the airline is re-evaluating policies and procedures for courtesy handling of other airlines’ flights.

It is very rarely one sees so blatant and incompetent behavior by airport staff.  Kudos for DOT for acting sternly in this matter. Hopefully other airlines learn from this and re-educate their ground staff on common courtesies.

For ages the airlines’ ground staff have acted for common good of passengers and let rivalries to sales & marketing departments. If this is a trend it is very alarming.