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E L L I O T T ' S TRAVEL NOTES
Travel news, opinion and analysis

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November 3, 2004

TSA Screeners Want to Stop Testing
An organization representing airport screeners is alleging that recertification tests discriminate against workers with medical disabilities and should be suspended until necessary modifications are made. The recertification tests discriminate against screeners based on their age, race or disability, according to a complaint filed last week with the Justice Department by the Metropolitan Airport Workers Association, which is based in New York, but represents screeners nationwide. The complaint was filed against the Transportation Security Administration and two contractors. GovExec | Posted 6:35 a.m.
• Earlier: Getting the Dreaded 'SSSSS' (Chronicle)
• Parking in St. Louis Hampered By Safety (PD)

So let me get this straight. The screeners are inadequately trained - and now they want to stop their recertification tests? How is this going to make air travel safer?

Will Bad Morale Do US Airways In?
It is a management truism that low morale among workers inevitably results in low productivity, low quality, erosion of customer loyalty, and ultimately, lower profits. And US Airways employees, who have seen their pay cut by more than 20 percent and their health insurance and pension plans shrink, are certainly an unhappy lot. "People are still giving 110 percent, but they are being totally beaten down,'' said Francis I. Smith, 53, a 24-year employee who handles spare-parts inventories in Pittsburgh. Even if they were slouching on the job, would it matter? The New York Times | Posted 6:45 a.m.

Airlines Face Even More Uncertainty
Something's got to give for U.S. airline companies. A slew of factors have battered the industry. If external shocks such as the 9/11 attacks and the SARS outbreak were not enough, the industry has its own deadly dynamics -- tough price competition from low-cost upstarts and industry overcapacity -- which make it tough for any single airline to raise prices. Add to that sky-high fuel costs, and you have a recipe for disaster. US airlines likely will lose at least $6 billion in 2004, following a total of $23.21 billion in losses over the three previous years, according to the Air Transport Association of America. TheStreet.com | Posted 6:50 a.m.

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Run Like Hell - Here's the scenario: You are alone on a trip. You have just entered your parked rent-a-car. You lock the doors and put the key in the ignition switch. Now you remember that you need something from your suitcase which is locked in the trunk. You disengage the trunk latch using a remote switch in the passenger compartment and get out of the car to retrieve the item. As you turn to reenter the car, a man with a gun appears and insists on taking the car now. > Archived featured story from Travelcomment.com | Posted 7 a.m.

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Pittsburgh Airport: No More Lies - Pittsburgh International Airport officials, worried once again about US Airways, are asking a bankruptcy judge to prevent a repeat of what happened at 11:39 p.m. on March 30, 2003. That night, only 21 minutes before the nation's seventh-largest airline emerged from its first bankruptcy, US Airways rejected its leases with the Allegheny County Airport Authority, the airport's owner and operator. Aviation officials, referring to the move in bankruptcy court documents yesterday as a "stealth attack," claim the 11th-hour decision violated a promise made only weeks earlier, when US Airways pledged to assume its Pittsburgh-area contracts in a March 10, 2003 letter, according to the documents. Tribune-Review | Posted 7 a.m.

Delta to Queen: 'You're Fired' - The US airline attendant suspended over postings on her blog, or online diary, says she has now been fired. She said in a statement that she was initiating legal action against the airline for "wrongful termination". Ellen Simonetti, known as Queen of the Sky, wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of her life in the sky. But she was suspended without pay in September over what her employers, Delta Airlines, said were "inappropriate" images on her site. BBC | Posted 7:05 a.m.

Worker Sucked into Jet Engine - An aircraft engineer suffered a gruesome death when he was sucked into a jet engine. His body was completely shredded and all that was left was his boots strewn under the plane. The man had been examining the engine when the pilot, not realizing he was under the plane, started it up. Within seconds the engineer's entire body was sucked through the huge rotor blades. His screams were drowned out by the roar of the engines. Mirror | Posted 7:10 a.m.

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