If you read the newspaper, watch tv, or have any other connection with the outside world, you probably know that Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin empire (including Virgin Atlantic Airways), is pretty good at drawing attention to himself (look left). This week, it was plastered all over the news that he is giving $3 billion to invest in alternative fuel (from which he’ll handsomely profit, no doubt), but there’s more to his plan to save the earth (er, save money) than this.

The first day of operation for anything as complex as an airport is bound to have problems. Surprisingly, Bangkok’s new airport - Suvarnabhumi (pronounced, I’m told, su wanna poom) - didn’t have too many big problems.

The biggest problem from the first day of operation was that the baggage system didn’t work right and there were really long delays in getting your bags. Today, however, the Bangkok Post says things are running well. Pretty cool looking place, huh?

The European Union (EU) met yesterday and all member states have agreed to a new security policy for air travel that is expected to begin in early November. The good news it that they were kind enough to put out a press release detailing the rules for us. That bad news is that it looks like they’ve been talking to the TSA too much and this basically mirrors the misguided US policy. Here are the new rules:

• Any individual liquid you bring onboard cannot exceed 100ml (that’s 3.38 oz, slightly larger the 3 oz allowed in the US) but you can buy larger items at duty free beyond security
• All liquids must fit in one ziploc bag no larger than 1 liter (that’s 1.05 quarts, again slightly larger than the 1 quart allowed in the US) and they must be screened separately at security
• Carry on bags will be limited in size to 56 cm x 45 cm x 25 cm (22 in x 17.7 in x 9.8 in) - few exceptions like musical instruments are permitted
• Coats and jackets must be removed and run through the x-ray machine separately at security
• Sadly, laptops will now have to be removed from bags and run separately through security

The first casualty in the battle for Hawai’i (see this post) has arrived. No, it’s not an airline going away (yet), but it does involve nice looking airplanes.

According to an article in ATW, go’s $19 one way fares have made Island Air change their minds about this whole expansion thing. The one Q400 they already received will be returned and the other two will not be taken up.

It sounds to me like they’re just using go’s fares as an excuse. They had originally acquired these larger aircraft to compete head to head with Aloha and Hawaiian on routes like Kahului (Maui) to Honolulu. They had fewer flights than the big guys and they were flying props. Even though I love flying on props in the islands, most people gravitate toward jets.

Either way, it’s the end of their grand experiment. My guess is that they will shrink back to their roots, connecting smaller island airports like Kapalua (Maui) to the bigger cities.

Cathay Pacific has put for a major effort to improve the onboard experience with the introduction of new seats in all three classes of service starting in January of 2007, but it’s the coach seats that really interest me.

This is straight off the Cathay website, and those little numbers correspond to all their selling points. You can get the full list here, but I’m going to focus on the ones that really matter.

First of all, numbers 1 and 3 are closely related. These new seats are what they call “fixed” design. That means that the seat never moves into another person’s “living space.” For example, when you recline the seat, it doesn’t just go back, the seat actually reclines into the shell and the front of the seat slides forward a bit as well. This may reduce legroom a little, but you can fully recline without bothering the person behind you. More importantly, the person in front of you can fully recline without bothering you!

Number 5 is also interesting in that it’s the first economy seat with a three point seat belt. That’s pretty different and might feel constricting, but they say that you can modify it to be only a lap belt during the flight itself.

The last thing that really impresses me is the seat back pocket (#7). You can plainly see that the pocket is no longer in the back of the seat in front of you, it’s underneath your legs. This does several things. If you have a lot of stuff in the pocket, it will not longer stop you from opening the tray table. It also will give you an inch or two of extra legroom. Lastly, if someone sticks their bag under your seat, it won’t poke out the front into the back of your legs.

It’s a pretty sweet design and includes all the other bells and whistles you’d expect like moving headrests and big video screens. It even has a built in coat hook in the seatback. Hopefully others will adopt it as well.

Oh, and the new business class and first class products are nothing to sneeze at either. Click on those links to learn more about them.

Who’s ready to get on the Skybus?

There is a very interesting thread on FlyerTalk about one man’s attempt at ruffling some TSA feathers the other day.

This person, who goes by MKEbound on FlyerTalk, was traveling out of his home airport in Milwaukee and was clearly upset with the latest TSA rules allowing merely a quart-sized ziploc bag with toiletries. In protest, he decided to write “Kip Hawley is an Idiot” on the outside of the bag.

Who is Kip Hawley? Well, he’s the man on the left who runs the show at the TSA these days. Why is he an idiot? Well, I’m guessing the attack wasn’t meant to be a personal assault on this man’s IQ but more of a show of displeasure with the new liquid rules that he’s put in to place.

You can probably guess what happened. The TSA screeners didn’t think it was very funny at all. After the bag went through screening, MKEbound says this occurred:

[The TSA agent] grabbed the baggie as it came out of the X-ray and asked if it was mine.
After responding yes, he pointed at my comment and demanded to know “What is
this supposed to mean?” “It could me a lot of things, it happens to be an
opinion on mine.” “You can’t write things like this” he said, “You mean my First
Amendment right to freedom of speech doesn’t apply here?” “Out there (pointing
pass the id checkers) not while in here (pointing down) was his response.”

It’s fairly obvious that MKEbound was looking for a fight. You don’t just write that on a bag for fun - you write it to get a reaction. And, well, he definitely got a reaction. The initial response may have started out as the right one in theory, but the agent clearly went too far.

The TSA is supposed to be there as a last line of defense in order to keep threats off airplanes. Now, an insult thrown at the head of the TSA may not seem like an obvious threat to an aircraft, but it’s certainly a behavioral flag that would make me curious to follow up were I manning the checkpoint. I would probably send him through secondary screening and make sure that there were no real threats to be found. Then I’d let him go.

The TSA agent’s biggest mistake was in saying that the first amendment doesn’t apply. It clearly does, and MKEbound should have the absolute right to scribble that message on the bag if he wants to. As long as he’s prepared for further scrutiny, I have no problem with it at all. If he’s confrontational about it, he should be ready to spend even more time with the agents, because that’s their job.

I happen to agree that the new rules don’t make sense, and I admire those who are willing to challenge the system if they disagree. I do wonder, though, what MKEbound’s post would have looked like if he had merely been sent to secondary screening and then sent on his way. Would he still have objected to the treatment?

It’s most concerning to me to see the way the first amendment was disregarded by the TSA agent in a situation that did not involve any direct threat. Hopefully this incident will get enough press to encourage the TSA to train their agents better on constitutional rights.

When America West first started putting ads on their tray tables a few years ago, I was skeptical. I didn’t like the idea of being forced to stare at ads for the entire flight. But in the end, America West put the ads on the inside of the tray tables, so it wasn’t too intrusive. (Well, except for the flight I took where there was a male model for Dillard’s staring at me the whole time I had a drink on the table - not cool.)

This isn’t Ryanair, but it’s a mockup from the company called Inviseo Marketing which apparently already works with Germanwings, LTU, and Aegean Airlines - all European carriers. Ryanair says this will be on all seatbacks within two years.

It’s not all bad. They’re pretty nice tray tables. You can see to the right of the ad, there is a little drop down cup holder so you don’t need to pull the whole tray down just for a drink. But, I’m sure that’s there to make sure you stare at the ad for even longer. Good times.

I guess Delta figures that they’ve already done enough expansion at JFK for now so they’re refocusing out West. We saw the first round of that with the establishment of the mini-hub at LAX, and now it’s growing even more.

• LAX - Jacksonville (Florida) once daily starting Dec 15
• LAX - New Orleans once daily starting Dec 15
• LAX - Reno twice daily starting Mar 8 on a regional jet

Interesting choice of routes. The New Orleans one makes sense to me - capacity has been down on that route and they might make it work. The others are, well, interesting. Reno clearly looks to be feeding the Mexican flights from before and Jacksonville, um, well, it’s an evening flight to LA with a redeye return, so maybe it’s better than having the plane just sit in Jacksonville all night.

For those Delta fans in Salt Lake, don’t worry, you’re not being neglected. You get new flights too

• SLC - Winnipeg (Canada) twice daily starting Jan 8 on a regional jet
• SLC - Guadalajara (Mexico) three times weekly starting Dec 2

Oh, and don’t worry, it’s not just Delta announing new routes. Try these on for size:

• JetBlue flies Boston - San Juan once daily starting Dec 13
• Emirates begins daily New York/JFK - Hamburg (Germany) on Oct 29 using 777s. Beware, Emirates 777s in coach have 10 across seating while every US carrier only has 9 across

For once, I feel sorry for an Alitalia employee.