Air Travel News 8.09.11

Air, Air Travel News, Finances & Savings, New Zealand — By Nancy Y on August 9, 2011 at 6:00 am

by Nancy Yeomans

LG Air Travel News Editor

Look up in the sky! It’s a bird….it’s a plane! No….it’s your weekly air travel news! Here’s what’s happening in the world of aviation, from the ground up.

Back To Work

The FAA shutdown has come to an end, anti-climactically. As most members of Congress took to their August holiday, only two senators remained to vote to put 74,000 workers back to their jobs after a two-week furlough. The vote took approximately two seconds, so it leads one to wonder why all the brouhaha happened in the first place. Source: SeattlePI

No Tax Refund

Although the FAA is no longer in jeopardy, those who were hoping for a refund on taxes paid during the two-week period when they were shutdown are out of luck. In a somewhat sketchy move, the IRS has waved its magic wand and decided that, while it may not have been on the up-and-up, the airlines who raised their fares to compensate for the taxes they wouldn’t have to pay will be allowed to keep the profits – to the tune of $300 million. Source: Portfolio

What Are They Trying To Sell?

So there’s this disturbing, mangy puppet with fangs – Rico. He’s the star of a series of ads for Air New Zealand and is full of double entendres. Horrors – he doesn’t even speak with a Kiwi accent! The latest ad, if you can call it that, features Lindsay Lohan in his interview seat. Guess she’s desperate for work these days. If possible, LiLo is even more disconnected than the puppet and it’s all quite unsettling. Source: Jaunted

The Buck Doesn’t Stop Here

Pound, rather. Our favorite airline villian, Ryanair, is in the news again for yet another inhumane customer dis-service story. On a recent flight from London to Stockholm a passenger suffered cardiac arrest en-route. Allegedly, the cabin crew insisted on treating the incident as nothing more than low blood sugar and supplied a sandwich and a soda to the suffering man. Not gratis, mind you, as the flight attendants checked back twice to collect their payment. That’s more attention than is usually offered to their passengers, to be sure. Source: MailOnline