The Business of Aviation

A recent editorial from Mercury News reported that despite astounding improvements in recent times that the San Jose Airport was still struggling to meet their financial needs in order to stay fully operational.

During tough financial times, businesses need a steady customer flow in order to keep the proverbial doors open.  The San Jose Airport does [...]

New Upgrades make Airports more User Friendly

The downtown airport in Kansas City Missouri has had a major twenty million dollar upgrade project which includes self service gas pumps that pilots can pull right up to for re-fueling.  The gas will be competitively priced compared to other local sources, but pilots will be able to fill up on their own and pay [...]

Government Grants help with Runway Upgrades

The Keokuk Municipal Airport in Iowa has received about $300 thousand dollars in government funds to go toward much needed repairs for the ailing runway.  This is just one example of many in recent times of airports attempting to make the necessary adjustments and repairs in order to be able to provide the service that [...]

Major Improvement in Helicopter Movement

Helicopters are an incredibly versatile tool in the aviation industry; they are widely used by emergency medical personnel to transport critical patients for care, they are used by police to track criminals who are on the run in vehicles or on foot, and they are used by radio and television news crews to provide up [...]

Conservation Helps more than the Environment

Enterprise, the rental car and airport shuttle powerhouse, recently made the announcement for plans to convert its entire fleet of buses to 20% biodiesel over the course of the next five years. They are putting the plan into action immediately with a conversion of every bus across nine of the fifty North American markets [...]

Controllable vs. Uncontrollable Difficulties

There are plenty of issues we face everyday in the airline industry, this weekend gave of a perfect example of constraints put on our jobs that are completely out of our control. The East Coast (particularly the Mid-Atlantic region) was pounded with an outrageous storm that dropped anywhere from six up to more than [...]

‘Fly Girls’ Gives Reality Treatment to Aviation Industry

Television reality shows have chronicled the lives of 20-somethings trying to carve a dream out of the big city. They’ve provided a window into the daily, if sometimes bizare lives of everyone from mega-stars like Ozzy Osbourne to star wanna-bes like Kim Kardashian. Reality shows have made stars of tough bounty hunters, custom bike builders, [...]

Cargo Screening Expected to Be Logistics Nightmare

If you feel a logistical nightmare coming on, you’ve probably read about the new federal aviation cargo screening rules scheduled to go into effect in August 3, 2010. In just 8 short months all freight shipped aboard commercial airlines will have to be screened for bombs just like suitcases are screened now. Federal and aviation [...]

Is FAA Computer Failure Sign of Imminent Danger?

Last week’s frightening failure to the FAA’s National Airspace Data Interchange Network pointed highlighted just one more glaring problem faced by the beleaguered airline industry. Cascading flight delays annoyed and already irritated public fed up with perpetual delays, equipment failures, burgeoning ticket surcharges and the newest brouhaha over expiring frequent flyer miles. Man, airlines just [...]

Didn’t They Set the Alarm Clock?

It may be the joke du jour of late night comics, but the fact that Northwest Airlines pilots overshot the Minneapolis runway by 150 miles is no laughing matter. Despite the pilots’ claims that they were immersed in a laptop training session, many suspect that they simply nodded off. The off-course meander and lack of [...]