Airlines Fined for Stranding Flyers on Tarmac

(NEWSER) - The passengers who spent 5.5 hours trapped inside a plane in Rochester, Minn., last weekend didn’t revolt. But if they had, they could have wound up in trouble with the law, USA Today reports. Federal aviation laws give airlines sole authority over whether passengers stay on a plane or get off—anyone attempting to disembark on their own could be slapped with a $25,000 fine. More»

(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»

Hotel vouchers have been lost in transit

(NEWSER) - Stranded passengers are finding ways to settle in for the night at airport terminals as hotel vouchers become a thing of the past in the cash-strapped airline business, the New York Times reports. Frequent fliers advise terminal sleepers to bring something soft to sleep on and to stock up on food and drink before airport stores close—or spend their own cash on a hotel. More»

...Delta. Overall, complaints about US airlines rocketed 28% last year

(NEWSER) - If you think flying has gotten worse lately, you're not alone. Airline complaints soared an astounding 28% last year. Oddly, though, actual data reveals that planes improved their performance in a number of areas, with fewer lost bags and bumped passengers, and more on-time arrivals. A co-author of the Transportation Department report speculates that the complaints are due to an increasing number of travelers and fewer flights and seats. Flights tend now to be packed, making it tougher to rebook. "Even though airlines are vocal about saying they want to please the customer, when it comes right down to it, they're going to make money first," she tells AP . More»

Passenger jets flying at record 82% capacity this year

(NEWSER) - When a blizzard the size of this week's arrives on the scene, air travel is going to suffer . But Nate Silver points out something else that's contributing to the slow recovery: airlines are flying with more passengers these days. Through September, "load factors on domestic flights—essentially the percentage of available seats that they filled—ran at 82%, the highest figure since the Department of Transportation began tracking the statistic," writes Silver at his FiveThirtyEight blog . That's up from 70% a decade ago. More»