United Airlines plans to retire its last 737
United will retire the last of its 737 on Wednesday. It will make its last landing at San Francisco International Airport.
While the retirement of the 737 marks the end of an era at United, it also underscores a fundamental change underway in the industry.
Nearly all the nation’s big airlines are shrinking, first in response to soaring fuel costs in 2008 and today in response to sagging demand for travel amid the global recession. And while some airlines say faint signs of a recovery are beginning to show, most U.S. airlines will continue to shrink into 2010.
Continental joins Star Alliance
On Tuesday, Continental Airlines became the 25th member of the Star Alliance.
Ahead of the formal induction, the carrier entered into bilateral commercial agreements with the other 24 members and signed codesharing deals with four–United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada and bmi–the first three of which are part of the Atlantic Plus Plus antitrust immunized partnership.
Incident highlights outdated air-traffic system
The two Northwest pilots who overflew their destination said that they were too engrossed with their laptops that they missed the radio call from ATC. This highlights the outdated air-traffic control system according to controllers and aviation experts.
In the age of the iPhone, instant messaging and satellite transmissions, pilots and controllers still communicate over clunky radios that are often laden with static and require multiple frequency changes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and experts.
Even though the radio may not be to blame for the Northwest Airlines mishap, the difficulty that controllers and the airline had in reaching the cockpit underscores the weaknesses of the equipment.
(Photo: caribb/Flickr Creative Commons)
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