Friday Flyer – June 30, 2023

We’re entering the holiday weekend in the US (and Canada) and the airlines are expecting big numbers.  Unfortunately, the beginning of the week was rough for United, which has continued to cascade throughout the week with lots of cancelations and even more delays.  United’s CEO blamed the troubles on the FAA and Air Traffic Control, though clearly other airlines didn’t suffer the same problems.  Hopefully things are back on track or better today as the weekend gets into full swing.  If you do find yourself in a delay or cancelation situation, here are some tips on what to do.

Links

  • I generally try to avoid stories about plane crashes, but this one had a good ending as the pilots of this Delta Boeing 717 successfully landed the plane with no front landing gear.  It’s impressive to see it happen and great skill to make it happen.  Kudos for ensuring everyone made it out uninjured. (h/t: Rachel)
  • United’s least profitable customer was in the news this week as part of a special with the Washington Post.  Why is this guy the least profitable passenger?  Because in the 90s, he purchased an all-you-can-fly lifetime pass in premium cabins.  Since then, he’s flown 23 million miles on United.  This article was a fun read to see what it’s like to be the most well-traveled man in the world.
  • This airport is likely one of the most unique and would be awesome to fly into.  It’s the Wushan Airport on top of the Taohua Mountain in Chongqing, China.  (h/t: Andrew B.)
  • When the delays start rolling, most passengers look for alternatives.  In the case of an 18-hour delay, this passenger was the only one left on his flight.  So he got to take a flight as the only passenger and he had a great time with a fun crew. (h/t: Brent F.)
  • Throughout airports you may come across old travel-related posters.  I always find this nostalgic look at traveling fun and interesting.  Here you can see many of those for a trip down memory lane.  (h/t: Jim T.)

Interesting Aviation Fact

Speaking of airline nostalgia:  you may not know this, but collecting airline related stuff is quite the hobby for some people.  Last weekend, hundreds of “avgeeks” from around the world descended upon the Hyatt Regency DFW to attend the annual Airliners International airline collectibles show – a three-day event centered around buying, selling, and trading of basically anything you could collect from airlines. There’s a huge population of folks who collect memorabilia ranging from model airplanes to safety cards to amenity kits to inflight magazines to (paper) timetables — something you probably won’t find anymore.   The big show happens annually, and this year was in DFW.  PROS-own Matt Kolodny was there geeking out as you’d expect from an avgeek!  Reach out to him if you want to see some of his pictures from the event, to learn more, or just to talk about airline facts.

Cool Aviation Photo

In honor of US Independence Day coming up, here is Southwest’s Boeing 737-800 decked out in an American flag livery.  As a note, I do realize that Canada Day is tomorrow, but couldn’t find a good airplane picture celebrating Canada, so if you know of one (besides the obvious fact that all Air Canada’s planes are flying the maple leaf), please send it my way.  For that matter, if you know of any planes representing their country in a cool livery, send it along!

The Friday Flyer is a weekly blog post with links to interesting aviation articles from the previous week.  It was started by Michael Brownfield a few years ago as a way to keep interested PROS colleagues updated on the latest happenings in the industry.  It was handed over to me in 2020 to keep it going. If you have any articles to share, feel free to send them along by email at jjander@pros.com.