We’ve got a lot going on today, so without further adieu ado, let’s get started.

• Southwest and the FAA Fighting – If you haven’t heard, there’s been a steel cage match in Washington lately. In one corner, we have Rep Oberstar breathing fire and brimstone. In another corner, we have the FAA trying to pick up the pieces, and in a third corner we have Southwest claiming ignorance. In the fourth corner? Um, uh, Congressional pages? I don’t know. Let’s just say it’s a triangular cage.
  
  The hearings have been interesting, and if you’d like a play-by-play, I’d recommend reading Evan Sparks’s Aviation Policy Blog. In short, the FAA came out looking absolutely terrible for really not adequately overseeing Southwest’s maintenance operation. The FAA effectively allowed Southwest to violate the rules despite the attempts of some lower level FAA people to do things properly. What a mess. Neither the FAA nor Southwest looked good here, though the FAA definitely took the brunt of it.
  
  In a post yesterday, Evan Sparks argues that independent oversight might be necessary for now. I tend to think I agree.




• American Grounded Again – Remember how I said the FAA looked terrible? Well they’re trying to make up for it by flexing their muscles ineffectively. Once again, we have grounded airplanes that may not really need to be grounded, and this time it’s unbelievably the same American MD-80s that were grounded before. Apparently, AA didn’t do it right, and now cancellations are rising. If you’re flying AA today, start crying now.




• 787 Delayed Again – Bet you can’t wait to get onboard one of those fancy new 787s, huh? Chill. It’s not going to happen any time soon. Boeing, doing its best Airbus impression, delayed the plane again this morning. Now the first flight won’t even be until the fourth quarter of this year. And you wonder why they didn’t start crowing when Airbus faced A380 delays? Now you know. Bleh. Check out FlightBlogger for ongoing coverage.




• Oasis Hong Kong Is Dead – I know, I know. You guys love Asian news, and I rarely talk about it. Well, here’s a little bit of bad news for those who had tickets on Oasis Hong Kong. The airline is toast. Man, you wanna talk about going down in a blaze of glory? According to JetPhotos.net Daily Aviation News, the airline has been burning through $128,000 per FLIGHT! Now that’s impressive.
  
  Flights were between Hong Kong and both London/Gatwick and Vancouver. I say “were” because all flights are done. IIRC, these guys were owned by some crazy rich couple that is now likely a lot less rich. At least they got out now. If you had tickets, Cathay is helping.



There’s your fun-filled update for today. You might want to start the day with a little scotch to numb the pain.

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