A raft of airline policy changes prompted by the high-profile case of a man who was injured while being dragged off a plane in Chicago earlier this year have had a dramatic result: airlines reported the lowest level of involuntary passenger bumpings in history. Ticketed passengers who were refused a seat on flights fell to 44 per million passengers from April through June, the DoT said Tuesday. That was the lowest quarterly rate since the agency began collecting the data in 1995. The rate was 29% lower than the same period a year earlier, when 62 customers per million were bumped, according to department. Airline executives were hauled before Congress, and carriers raced to change their policies, after a man was injured on April 9 while being hauled from a United plane in Chicago. <br/>
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The smell of jet fuel is fairly common in the passenger cabin when your plane is preparing to taxi. Far less so is the aroma of dirty socks, rancid cheese, or a wet dog—the typical unpleasant notice that engine oil vapors have seeped in, too. These smells are usually found in jet engine “bleed air,” which is outside air that’s been shunted from the engines into an air conditioning system and then to the cabin. In various systems—cabin pressurization, water-tank storage pressure, even heating to dissipate wing ice—this air is highly useful to the plane’s operation. Yet, when engine seals deteriorate, the bleed air can mix with fumes from high-temperature synthetic engine oil. At high-enough concentrations, flight crews and passengers can grow ill, forcing pilots to divert to the closest airport. The latest publicly known incident was Aug. 2, when a Florida-bound JetBlue Airways Corp. flight diverted to Oklahoma City, where several people were treated for breathing difficulties. In October 2016, a British Airways Airbus A380 bound for London from California diverted to Vancouver after all 25 crew members became ill. Cabin fumes were suspected in that case. Given the potential for catastrophe, these “toxic fume events” have spurred airline labor organizations to lobby for passage of a US Senate measure called the Cabin Air Safety Act. The legislation would require the FAA to devise a standard form for incident reports from pilots, flight attendants, and maintenance technicians. The agency would then publish a quarterly tally, require annual training so flight crews could identify fume events, and make airlines install carbon monoxide sensors fleetwide.<br/>
Some may not be surprised to see a strict dress code on Saudi Arabian planes, since the country follows a conservative version of Sunni Islam, but others on social media think it has gone too far. Known as one of the wealthiest nations in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia also has a reputation of restricting women's rights, in line with its interpretation of Sunni Islam, Wahhabism. Details of the dress code featured on Saudia Airlines website show that the airline requires guests to dress in a way that does not 'cause offense or discomfort to other passengers'. When the Saudi Makkah newspaper asked the former head of tourism and health, Ali Al Ghamdi, about the rules forbidding women from exposing limbs or wearing tight or transparent clothes he said they did not just apply to the one airline, but that many airlines around the world had a dress code at varying degrees. There was mixed reaction on social media, as people used the hashtag #SaudiaAirlines. One female Twitter user asked how the country can encourage overseas tourists whilst at the same time control the way their passengers dress. Another wondered whether the code applies to cabin crew as well: "Are the hostesses wearing abayas?"<br/>
US aircraft lessor Air Lease and Boeing have agreed terms for a firm order for 14 aircraft including 12 737 MAXs previously announced at the Paris Air Show. The 737 order, for five MAX 7s and seven MAX 8s, brings Air Lease's total 737 MAX orders to 130. Air Lease also added to previous orders for 787 Dreamliners with an additional two 787-9s. The combined order for the 14 aircraft is worth US$1.79b at Boeing list prices. “These additional orders reflect ALC's highly successful placements to date of our MAX and 787 order book and the need to fulfil the incremental demand we are experiencing for these aircraft across both existing and new customers,” CE John Plueger said. Air Lease owns or manages over 280 aircraft and leases them to almost 90 airlines worldwide.<br/>
Boeing and NASA have found an inexpensive way to cut airline fuel bills by borrowing a trick from the world’s greatest long-distance aviators: migratory birds. By lining up cruising aircraft in a V-shaped formation favored by Canada geese, carriers would be able to produce a leap in efficiency without investing in structural makeovers or futuristic technology. The idea is to link the flying convoys safely using navigation and collision-avoidance tools that already are widely installed in cockpits. “Think of a car drafting a truck, or one bike rider drafting another,” said Mike Sinnett, Boeing’s vice president for product development. “It essentially allows you, if you are flying in the right spot, to reduce your fuel burn. But you’ve got to be there for a long time.” Wake surfing, as the avian technique is known, involves harvesting energy from a lead plane -- a potential way to cut fuel bills, which typically rank as the biggest or second-biggest expense for airlines. A researcher at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration points to studies showing fuel savings of 10 to 15%, on a par with pricier options such as upgrading engines or installing winglets. The concept is one of dozens under study at Boeing. <br/>