(Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Transportation)

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 – The nation’s largest airlines had a higher rate of on-time flights this past January than in either January of last year or in December 2008, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). 

According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), the 19 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 77.0 percent in January, an improvement over both January 2008’s 72.4 percent and December 2008’s 65.3 percent. 

 The monthly report also includes data on lengthy tarmac delays, flight cancellations and the causes of flight delays by the reporting carriers, as well as information on reports of mishandled baggage filed with the carriers and consumer service, disability and discrimination complaints received by DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division.  This report also includes reports of incidents involving pets traveling by air, as required to be filed by U.S. carriers.

(Source: Transportation for America)

Do you know how transportation policy affects housing? Oil? Climate? Economic opportunity?

Here is your chance to find out.

Transportation is the second biggest federal discretionary spending category — second only to defense spending. Where and how we choose to invest in transportation will have deep impacts on our housing and job markets, public health, energy needs, climate, economic competitiveness, and nearly every other pressing issue facing our country today.

The first four sessions are open now, so visit the webinars page to see the list of sessions and sign up for one today. Open sessions include:

Transportation and Economic Opportunity

Speakers will explore how the transportation sector drives the economy and creates opportunities for American workers. Topics will include the transportation sector’s ability to create jobs and sustain global growth, and the use of transportation as a driver of neighborhood revitalization.

March 19th at 1 PM EST / REGISTER NOW

Transportation and Social Equity

Social equity activists, labor groups, and community development professionals will examine how transportation access and mobility affects basic needs such as healthcare, education, and economic opportunity for millions of Americans.

March 24th at 4 PM EST/ REGISTER NOW

Transportation, Climate Change, and Energy Security

Within the United States, transportation is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Webinar attendees can learn how various modes of transportation impact the environment and energy security, and how our land-use patterns affect vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and air quality.

April 2 at 2 PM / REGISTER NOW

Transportation, Housing, and Development

Real estate development professionals and affordable housing advocates will explore the linkages between transportation and housing development, the shift in housing and real estate preferences and value, and the creation of affordable mixed-use development near jobs and transit.

April 16 at 4 PM EST / REGISTER NOW

Transportation and Public Health and Safety

Transportation influences the health and safety of communities by affecting physical activity levels, traffic speeds, and air pollution. This session will investigate the needs of paratransit and transit-dependent populations, the success of Complete Streets and non-motorized transportation programs, and the connections between transportation and active living.

Transportation in Rural Areas and Small Towns

Click here to read more

(Source: McKinsey Quarterly)

Idris Jala led the state-controlled carrier from the brink of bankruptcy to record-breaking profits. Now he wants it to become what he calls a “five-star value carrier.”

(Source: Wired Magazine, Transportation for America, Streetsblog)

From Wired Magazine via Aaron of Streetsblog comes this amazing map and video that shows a day of air travel over North America. Using data from the Federal Aviation Administration and a service called FlightView that tracks airline travel each day, artist Aaron Koblin created this Google map that shows 24 hours of airline travel on August 12, 2008.

There’s also a breathtaking movie version of this same map, that shows the flights in real time through the course of the day.

The sheer number of airplanes traveling over the United States is simply mind boggling. On this day chronicled in the map, the FAA tracked 205,000 flights in U.S. airspace. Anyone who has ever traveled by plane knows that we have plenty of air above our country, but the problem is the fact that too many of them need to be in specific pieces of air at the same time. Or traveling through the same crowded airports.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Business First)

The U.S. Department of Transportation budget, within the framework of the federal government’s Fiscal 2010 budget outlined Thursday by President Obama, calls for the federal government to provide $800 million for the implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System.

The system, which has been beta tested by Louisville-based UPS Airlines since 1996, is an effort to improve the nation’s air traffic control system by using a satellite based surveillance system rather than the current radar surveillance system.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in November approved the deployment of the system, also known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B.

UPS Airlines, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS), tested ADS-B on 107 Boeing B-757 and 767 aircraft, Business First reported in August 2006.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source:  CondeNast Portfolio.com)

Turbo-prop planes and regional jets are a crucial part of the airlines’ route strategies and are often the only way a business traveler can easily get to a destination, but road warriors hate flying them.

“I HATE THOSE TINY OLD RJS,” one otherwise rational business traveler I know shouted in his email. “NOBODY SHOULD FLY THEM. THEY’RE NOT SAFE.”

No matter that the aircraft involved in Flight 3407’s fiery end six miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport was not an “RJ,” industry shorthand for regional jet. (It was a Q400, a twin-engine turboprop plane manufactured by Bombardier of Canada.) No matter that the 74-seat Q400 isn’t particularly tiny. (At 107 feet long with a 93-foot wingspan, it is about the size of several early versions of Boeing’s workhorse B737 jet and 20 feet longer than Bombardier’s 50-seat regional jet.) And no matter that the Q400 isn’t old. (The Q400 series didn’t enter service until 2000 and the plane that crashed in Buffalo was less than a year old.)

Safe? That is most definitely in the eye of the beholder—and most business travelers eye commuter airlines with extreme trepidation. They don’t like flying them. They don’t like that the commuter lines wrap themselves in the colors and livery of the major airlines. And they are convinced, rightly or wrongly, that commuter carriers simply aren’t as safe as the major airlines they mimic.

Clich here to read the entire article.

(Source: Sky News)

The pilots of a Turkish Airlines plane which crashed while trying to land at Amsterdam’s main airport were among nine people killed in the tragedy.

Plane crashed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport

The aircraft, carrying 127 passengers and seven crew, broke into three pieces when it hit the ground next to the runway at Schiphol Airport.

Three crew who were in the cockpit were among those who lost their lives and more than 80 other people were injured, authorities said.

Earlier, Turkey’s Transport Minister Binali Yildirim and Turkish Airlines chief executive Temel Kotil were reported to have said no-one died.

The Boeing 737-800 was on a flight from Istanbul to Amsterdam when it came down in a field outside the airport perimeter.

Six people were critically injured and 25 others seriously injured.

Female passenger walks away after crash

TV images showed the aircraft on the ground, with the tail section of the fuselage broken off, and a wide crack in the fuselage just behind the cockpit.

(Source: WashingtonPost.com)

The prospects for building a new fleet of high-tech presidential helicopters darkened yesterday, after the new commander in chief called the costly Bush administration effort an example of military procurement “gone amok” and said he thinks the existing White House helicopter fleet “seems perfectly adequate.”

(Source: Reuters – UK)

US Airways Group (LCC.N) on Monday said it would stop charging for nonalcoholic drinks in its coach cabin, a practice that drew the ire of customers and put the airline at a competitive disadvantage.

US Airways’ retreat from the fee also may show that there is a limit to how far cash-strapped carriers can push travelers who have suffered fee after fee for items and services that once were complimentary.

Starting March 1, US Airways will no longer charge for in-flight soda, juice, tea, water and coffee. But the airline said it remains committed to its so-called “a la carte” model, which is now common throughout the industry.

“US Airways was the only large network carrier to charge for drinks, and that put us at a disadvantage,” Chief Executive Doug Parker said in a statement.

Source: Gizmodo.com

Remember when those two satellites collidedthe other day? Seems that they’ll be thespace junk gift that keeps on giving, as their 800-km debris orbiting field could hamper allfuture space launches.

“Future launches will have to be adjusted with regard to the fact that the debris [from the collision] has spread over an 800-km area and will gather at a common orbit in 5-6 years,” said Alexander Stepanov, director of the Pulkovo Observatory in St. Petersburg.

Click here to read the entire article.