Passengers Stuck on Runway Have No Recourse

(NEWSER) - If 9 hours on a grounded puddle-jumper with screaming babies and the scent of overly busy toilets wafting through cramped aisles sounds like your idea of a good time, then Continental Airlines had your ticket to paradise. When storms forced a Minneapolis-bound flight to divert to Rochester, Minn., on Friday, a comedy of errors forced the plane to sit on the tarmac overnight, passengers locked in, the Star-Tribune reports. More»

Dunne 175K for locking passengers on delayed flight

(NEWSER) - Three airlines have landed $175,000 in federal fines for stranding 47 passengers in a locked plane on a Minnesota tarmac overnight. The passengers were stuck on a Continental Airlines plane—without a working toilet—after crewmembers were told that passengers couldn't disembark because security staff had left for the night. The fine is the Department of Transportation's first-ever punishment against airlines for leaving passengers stranded on a plane. More»

US forecasts more passengers, less space

(NEWSER) - Expect airfares to stay high for the rest of the decade: Prices won't drop until there's more competition for airlines, which won't happen for a while, an FAA report says. Passengers' miles flown will almost double over the next two decades, from 815 billion last year to 1.57 trillion in 2032—but in the coming years, industry mergers will cut the number of flights running and cities covered, the AP reports. Rising oil prices won't help. More»

GOP, Dems disagree about subsidizing service to rural airports

(NEWSER) - Congress has gone home for the summer without reaching a deal to end a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration . Some 4,000 FAA employees and around 70,000 construction workers have been put out of work by the shutdown, caused by a partisan standoff, the Washington Post reports. Airport safety inspectors have been asked to work without pay; air traffic controllers and plane inspectors are unaffected, as they're paid from different accounts. The Senate has refused to accept a provision in a House bill that reverses a National Mediation Board decision making it easier for airline employees to unionize. More»

Houston experiment likely to spread

(NEWSER) - For Continental passengers flying out of Houston, boarding a plane has become a lot more like getting on the subway. The airport is the first in America to test "self-boarding" gates, in which passengers simply run their boarding passes through a machine before getting on the plane without having to hand it to a staff member, USA Today reports. More»