United has internally released its plans for how it’s going to handle the dismantling of Ted, and as usual, copies are circulating. I know that some planes have already been painted over, but that’s just the beginning. Here’s what we’re going to see. Let’s start with the biggest news.

• United will be creating another subfleet. The Ted A320 aircraft had a closet and galley removed from the front of the plane when they were converted from mainline A320s. Without those monuments, they can now fit more seats on those planes. The Ted planes will have 12 First Class, 42 Economy Plus, and 90 Economy seats. That’s 6 more seats (or one row) in the Economy Plus cabin than the existing A320s. This reconfiguration will start in March and be done by the end of 2009. It appears that these aircraft will continue to show the code “32S” while the mainline A320s show “320.”




• So far, eight of the 56 Ted planes have been painted in United colors with the rest being finished by May.

The only thing that really stands out here as problematic is the introduction of another A320 seat configuration. I have to wonder if this is the full story here. On one hand, United continues to fly two different configurations on each type of 737, and that’s a 10 year old relic of the Shuttle days (that is soon coming to an end when they’re retired). So with that mindset, is it in any way surprising that United would not bother to standardize the A320 fleet?

On the other hand, maybe management is now enlightened. Maybe we can expect to hear an announcement that a galley and closet will be removed from the other A320s in order to standardize the fleet. (You know it’s not going the other way, that’s for sure.)

[Original Photo via Wikimedia]

Popular Science had an odd four-piece photo gallery entitled Why Your Flight Got Cancelled. Maybe it’s just me but this seemed all wrong. Let’s take a look, you hit the comments, and then let me know if I’m missing something here.

1. Repairs – They blame “age-related corrosion” and aircraft flying near or even beyond their “mileage-based maintenance checks” as common reasons for flights being canceled. Seriously? I’m pretty sure age-related corrosion, while a potential problem, is not one of the most common reasons flights are canceled. Also, most maintenance is based on the number of cycles (takeoffs and landings) as opposed to mileage. Still, airlines do not fly them beyond those limits without risking a serious fine.




2. Crew Hours – They say pilots can only work 100 hours a month or 30 hours a week and that may cause cancellations. This can be true, especially with some airlines that have notoriously overscheduled their pilots. (I remember Northwest having this problem last year.) At the end of the month, it is more likely to have cancellations due to a lack of available pilots that have fewer than 100 hours (the FAA maximum). But there is no 30 hour a week limit (assuming this is looking at US regulations). There IS a 30 hour per week limit. Full FAR text can be found here. Pilots can only scheduled for 8 hours during a 20 hour period, but those are just FAA rules. Individual airlines may have more strict work rules.




3. Full or Empty – Fortunately, they admit that airlines don’t just cancel empty flights for the heck of it, but if they have to cancel flights because of weather, they say empty ones will go first. Yes, in an ideal world the airline would cancel the flights that impact the fewest people, but it’s never that simple. They may need to get a certain airplane somewhere even if it’s empty. This could be for maintenance, for a full return flight, or for crew reasons. It’s rarely as simple as “your flight is empty so it’s canceled.”




4. Flight Importance – They say you should fly in the evening because airlines need to get their planes places for the next day. Then they say early morning flights are most likely to be canceled. Huh? Early morning flights are least likely to be delayed or canceled because the airline has been able to reposition its aircraft overnight; that’s where the slack is in the system. Flights in the evening will be more likely to have delays because they’ve had a full day of weather to slow them down. And yes, that can result in more cancellations.

So, am I missing something? Doesn’t this list seem kind of strange?

Edited 10/27 @ 833a to show that there is a 30 hour limit over 7 days.

“Airport Security in America is a Sham . . .”
Effective security may be unpleasant, but it’s worthwhile and important. Is what we have today effective? What else can airlines be doing?

Mayor Villaraigosa’s Misguided Strategy for LA Airports
LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is as it again. He continues to push his regionalization strategy despite its terrible flaws. See why this won’t work.

Oil Prices Go Down but Fees Do Not
Oil is coming down, but fares and fees are staying put or even rising. What started out as a response to high fuel is here to stay at least for some airlines.

Another Good Reason Why Republic is Flying for Mokulele
Mokulele is Flying Again
Mokulele had to shut down this week when the FAA found it hadn’t completed some training. They’re back up and running now, but it’s probably a good thing that Republic will be flying for these guys.

AirTran Now Selling Upgrades On the Aircraft
AirTran will let you upgrade yourself once you’re actually onboard the aircraft. This makes a lot of sense. Have you ever seen the legroom on an AirTran 717 in coach?

Details on United’s Fuel Hedges
United gave us details of its future fuel hedges, and it doesn’t look pretty. That is, of course, the risk you take when you play in a volatile market.

Looks like those wacky folks over at the Department of Homeland Security are at it again. In the name of improving your safety and security, Secure Flight is (supposedly) ready for implementation in early 2009. (Click for a little history on the program.) What does that mean? Well, they’re now planning on requiring birth dates and gender from all passengers touching US airspace. Oh, and the TSA will be doing the watch list matching instead of the airlines themselves. How is this going to make your life better? For most of you, it won’t, but it’ll sure cost you a lot as a taxpayer and traveler.

I think the best way to sum up the change is this. DHS isn’t planning on actually cleaning up the list, so instead they’ll just make people give more information so they stop mismatching so often. Now they can look at the guy who was born in 1988 and realize that it’s not the same as the “terrorist threat” who was born in 1978. Oh yeah, and all those ambiguously-named people like Pat and Terry can now rest easy that if someone of the opposite sex might be a terrorist, they won’t be falsely flagged.

In fact, they effectively say this in the sleep-inducing 195 page final ruling (PDF):

Most of the rule’s benefits occur post-implementation. Secure Flight standardizes the watch list matching process across domestic and foreign commercial airlines. Resulting benefits will include more accurate, timely, and comprehensive screening, and a reduction in false positives. This occurs because Secure Flight has access to more initial data with which to distinguish passengers from records in the watch lists than is currently available to airlines.

But will this slow down the process? Yes, but not much. It will take a little more time to collect this extra information, but it will be done at the time of purchase, not at the airport. So, if you go to buy a ticket at the airport right before your flight, I can imagine it being slower because you’ll need to be cross-referenced with watch lists, but other than that, it shouldn’t make much of a change at the airport itself.

Of course, this won’t be cheap. The estimates are that it will cost airlines $630 million over 10 years. The bulk of that is for reprogramming systems to be able to take this additional information, and the rest is in time lost due to the extra 20 to 25 seconds (that’s what the TSA says) that it will take for people to give their information when they make a reservation. But those are just airline costs. The Feds (read: US taxpayers) will be on the hook for about $1.5 billion in costs.

So, the ultimate result is that yes, there will be fewer people mismatched to the watch lists, but it’s going to cost us billions of dollars and it won’t impact most of us, especially if the watch lists are in fact only 18,000 people strong, as the government is now claiming. That seems like an awfully large sum of money to spend to avoid duplicates on such a small list. Anyone else believe that report that the list is that small? Me neither.

Let’s assume the list is actually much bigger. Is it worth it to spend billions of dollars to avoid mismatching? Not for me, because I’ve never been on the list. But for those who have, you’ll probably be pretty happy.

JetBlue travelers rejoice! The airline’s brand spanking new Terminal 5 opened yesterday. This means the cramped and awkward Terminal 6 is finally, mercifully empty.

If you’d like to learn more about the terminal, you can see my earlier post or you can check out JetBlue’s blog on the opening. You can also head over to JetBlue’s EXTREMELY detailed Flickr photostream. (I’m pretty sure I don’t need to see a sandwich that close-up.)

I snagged the following picture off their site. Looks like a beautiful day at JFK.