McCarran to UK: Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas
Sunday night was when the inaugural non-stop flight from London Heathrow to Las Vegas McCarran International.
An important part of this new route is the money it will hopefully bring to Las Vegas; each British Airways flight brings with it hundreds of people ready to enjoy Las Vegas and ready to spend what adds up to be millions of dollars in a year’s time.
Beginning in May, you’ll also be able to fly non-stop from Las Vegas to Paris. The XL Airways flights will be available twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays.
Rethinking flight safety with air bags in planes
Back in July the New York Times reported that some seats will be equipped with air bags.
Safety experts are finding out that, even in major mishaps, passengers can walk away if they were properly protected. AmSafe is the maker of most of the seatbelts on airplanes and will be equipping those seatbetls with air bags.
At AmSafe’s factory in Phoenix, workers assemble the air bags. They load a deflated air bag into a narrow pouch on top of the belt, and attach it to a trigger mechanism and a helium-filled inflation device hidden under the seat.
“The air bag seat belt looks pretty much like a standard seat belt,” says Tom Barth, research director for AmSafe. The air bag is sewn onto the webbing and has a decorative cover. “People don’t really notice that it’s there,” Barth says.
Downturn opens doors for low-cost airlines
Despite Ryanair toying with the idea of starting service from London to New York for as little as $10 each way, no low-cost airline has taken the plunge. However, with the problems the economy is having on the low-cost carriers, jet leasing rates at an all time low, and pilots and flight attendants looking for work, the time may be now.
Two European low-cost carriers are planning to do just that.
Feel Air, a Norwegian start-up that plans to begin low-cost services from Oslo and Stockholm to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and Bangkok International Airport next spring, is one of the companies convinced that the economic crisis will play in its favor.
Iceland Express, an established low-cost operator that already flies between Reykjavik and more than a dozen cities in continental Europe, has said it will start a trans-Atlantic service to Newark Liberty International Airport in June.
(Photo: Drewski2112/Flickr Creative Commons)
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