Is an older pilot flying your jet? Relax — Air passengers should feel quite safe when the pilot is getting on in years, a new study shows. Older pilots actually show less decline in their aviation skills over time than their younger peers. (Reuters)
Same snowy story: Blizzard hits Midwest, Plains — Heavy, wet snow and blizzard conditions hit the Plains and Midwest on Thursday, shutting down hundreds of miles of interstate. Schools closed in several states, and hundreds of flights were canceled. (AP)
10 French tourists kidnapped in Ethiopia — The tourists were in a convoy of four vehicles in Dalol, 500 miles northeast of Addis Ababa, traveling to salt mines in the Afar region, when they were kidnapped. (AP)
Paper airline tickets on the verge of extinction — Paper airline tickets, once the industry standard, are on the fast track to oblivion. If the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has its way, airlines will issue only electronic tickets by the end of 2007, sending paper tickets the way of other rapidly disappearing industry services such as in-flight meals and free pillows. (Reuters)
Travelers getting fed up with rudeness — “Apology not accepted.” That’s the terse response JetBlue, American Airlines and other carriers are getting from passengers who were forced to spend anywhere from four to fifteen hours trapped inside grounded and diverted airplanes in New York, Austin, and other cities as a result of bad weather around Christmas and Valentine’s Day. (MSNBC.com)
Higher prices, passport rules could ruin Cancun’s party — Now that bikinis and flip-flops have supplanted hardhats along the beaches of Cancun, which was battered by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, the refurbished Mexican resort is ready to reclaim its title as spring break’s “party-hearty central” in the annual migration that peaks this month. (USA Today)
New Orleans files $77 billion claim against Corps — The city of New Orleans filed a $77 billion damage claim against the Army Corps of Engineers Thursday for flooding that inundated the city when levees failed after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. (CNN)
5 French Airbus unions order strike — Airbus unions in France on Friday ordered a one-day strike for next week to protest planned job cuts and plant disposals at the European aircraft maker. (AP)
Carrie Charney, Christopher Elliott, John Frenaye, Charles Leocha, Marge Purnell, Valerie Schneider, Mary Staley, Stephanus Surjaputra, Richard Wong.
