Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Air again topped the airline on-time rankings for November, released on Friday by the DoT. The budget airlines Spirit and Frontier had the worst on-time performance and highest complaint rates. The department said that flights on the 13 largest airlines arrived on time 83.7% of the time, up from 80.6% in November. Passengers on five domestic flights were stuck on the ground for more than three hours, and people sat on a Qatar Airways plane in Detroit for more than six hours, all in possible violation of federal rules. Complaints against US airlines rose 56% from a year earlier.<br/>
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Workers from nine US airports are planning to block bridges, march through terminals and protest at airline headquarters during a day of civil disobedience on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The workers - a mix of cleaners, baggage handlers, fuelers and wheelchair attendants - will risk arrest at airports and other locations to bring attention to their campaign for better wages, the Service Employees International Union said. The actions are the latest in the airport workers' campaign for a $15-per-hour minimum wage, a benefits package and job protections. They're also protesting threats against their efforts to unionise.<br/>
The DoT thinks airline travellers should know all the bag and seat-assignment fees they face before paying for a ticket. But after proposing in May 2014 to require airlines to provide that information, the administration continues to grapple with hundreds of comments on all sides of the issue. The department's plan aims to alert travellers to the precise fees regardless of where they purchase their tickets. Half of all tickets are bought somewhere other than from airlines directly. Shopping at comparison web sites can be complicated, and some airlines change fees based on frequent-flier status or even the credit card used to buy a ticket. But the proposal stopped short of requiring airlines to charge the fee at the moment the ticket is bought, something that consumer advocates had urged as a policy called "transactability." Some travellers have complained about fees that surprise them upon arrival at the airport. If the rule is adopted, airlines would have to disclose fees for first and second checked bags, carry-on bags and for advanced seat assignments that often provide extra legroom before the traveller pays for the ticket.<br/>
Istanbul’s Ataturk airport overtook Frankfurt to enter the European top three for the first time in 2015 as Turkish Airlines continued its rapid expansion and strikes at Lufthansa hurt the German hub. Heathrow, the main base for BA, remains Europe’s busiest airport, even as it struggles to add flights on runways that are effectively full, while Paris Charles de Gaulle, ranked second, suffered two months of falling numbers for the first time in almost two years after November’s terror attacks. Frankfurt’s passenger tally increased 2.5% to 61.04m, short of its 4% target, after walkouts cost Lufthansa 4,700 flights in November, mostly at its main base. Ataturk, which passed Madrid and Amsterdam in 2014, posted an 8.2% jump to 61.32m, cementing its status as a global hub to rival those of Gulf carriers such as Dubai-based Emirates.<br/>
An engineer has invented a plane cabin that can be detached from the rest of the aircraft in the event of a crash — potentially saving thousands of lives.<br/>Tatarenki Vladimir Nikolaevich, who has been working on the design for three years, has created a prototype that consists of a detachable cabin (or capsule container as he calls it) that can be ejected at any point in the flight — from takeoff to landing. According to his design once the capsule pulls away from the plane, parachutes attached to it would open to guide passengers inside to safety. The design of the new cabin also means that it can supposedly land safely on either land or water, thanks to inflatables attached to the bottom of the capsule that inflate as it hits the either the ground or the ocean. For convenience, the luggage is also stored within the detachable cabin so that passengers do not lose their belongings in the case of a crash. Many have pointed out that having a detachable element to the plane could weaken its overall structure, while others have asked what happens to the pilots and the crew in case of an emergency. Some have also questioned whether or not designing a whole new fleet of aircraft is cost effective.<br/>