Aviation News

When Louie York flew cross country on Sept. 15, his route from New York was anything but direct. First came a stop in Chicago and then one in Omaha, where he endured a six-hour layover.

Next were Denver, Phoenix and, finally, Los Angeles, 18 hours later. The capper: a seven-hour drive home to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Such is life for travelers like Louie, a French bulldog whose breed has been banned from most commercial airlines — not for the dogs’ bark or bite, but because so many have died in flight.

Many airlines now forbid brachycephalic breeds, also known as short-faced or snub-nosed dogs, from their planes. That has caused great inconvenience for the owners of the affected dogs, which include popular breeds like pugs and bulldogs, but has opened a niche for a few companies that cater specifically to pet travel.

Pet Jets, which began offering charter plane service for pets two years ago, said these breeds made up about a quarter of their passengers. Pet Airways, a two-year-old airline dedicated to transporting pets, has seen a similar trend: of the roughly 4,900 dogs it has flown, about 25 percent were brachycephalic breeds.

On a recent Pet Airways flight from Republic Airport in East Farmingdale, N.Y., 5 of the 15 canine passengers were brachycephalic breeds, including Louie. In the terminal, wealthy and middle-class pet owners crossed paths. The scene at the check-in counter was certainly unusual: a bulldog and pug panted as they waited behind Louie and his owner, Rusty Rueff.

“We always make a joke: He flies private and we fly commercial,” Mr. Rueff’s wife, Patti Rueff, said.

Mr. Rueff handed over Louie’s blue blanket and a plastic bag with his dog food and Pepcid AC. A Pet Airways worker gave Louie his boarding pass: a paper collar, wrapped around the dog’s neck. Louie responded by sending heart-wrenching glances toward his owner, seeming to protest his abandonment. But Mr. Rueff, who was rushing to catch his own flight on American Airlines that night, said the dog’s well-being outweighed any feelings of guilt, even with the $840 price for a one-way cross-country ticket.

“If he throws up or gets sick or goes bonkers, there’s going to be a human being there,” Mr. Rueff said. “That makes it worth it for us; we’re paying for peace of mind.”

Airlines have always had varying restrictions on animal travel. There are a few carriers, like Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Sun Country, that still allow brachycephalic breeds to fly in cargo. And most animals are generally allowed to fly in the passenger cabin if they weigh less than 20 pounds, as some French bulldogs and many pugs do.

But the clear trend among commercial airlines is toward an outright ban on brachycephalic breeds.

American Airlines banned brachycephalic breeds of dogs and cats shortly after four bulldogs died on its planes in a three-month period in 2010. Delta stopped accepting French, English and American bulldogs this year, after three bulldogs died from January to March.

United and Continental Airlines, which had two bulldogs die in their care this spring, banned brachycephalic dog breeds from flying during the summer, lifting the restriction on Sept. 16, when temperatures began to drop.

According to the federal Agriculture Department, 189 animals died on commercial flights from June 2005 to June 2011; of those animals, 98 — more than half — were brachycephalic breeds.

The breeds, which also include Persian and Himalayan cats, have smaller openings to their noses and elongated soft palates on the roofs of their mouths, which make breathing more difficult for them, veterinarians said. Those breathing problems can be magnified in stressful situations like air travel, and further exacerbated in extreme heat.

The airlines’ growing no-fly lists have set off a debate between pet owners and veterinarians about whether these dogs should fly at all.

Some veterinarians who have operated on the dogs to open up their nasal passages said that surgery could help somewhat with breathing and perhaps make flying safer. Other veterinarians refuse to sign medical paperwork allowing the dogs to fly in cargo.

“I’m seeing more people who want to travel with their pets in the last 10 years,” said Amy Attas, a veterinarian who runs a house call service, City Pets. “The first conversation I have with people is, ‘Why are you bringing your dog in the first place?’ Every veterinarian has known: don’t fly a brachycephalic dog, because dogs regulate their body temperatures through their noses.”

Many bulldog owners only drive their dogs. Robert Rodenski, president of the Bulldog Club of America, said the club encouraged owners to rent motor homes and drive to their conferences, even if they were traveling cross country. For the club’s November show in Vienna, Va., Mr. Rodenski said some bulldog owners from California were sharing campers and splitting the driving.

“Our folks have gone more to motor homes,” Mr. Rodenski said, describing how his fellow bulldog owners travel. “They realize that there are problems with shipping any dog on an airline.”

Even university mascots are not immune.

Butler University’s 63-pound mascot, an English bulldog named Butler Blue II, flew twice in 2010. But his owner, Michael Kaltenmark, said that on the first flight, from Indianapolis to a Duke University men’s basketball game in New Jersey, the bulldog traveled in the pressurized cabin of a Southwest Airlines plane chartered by the team. On the second flight, to a Final Four game in Houston, the dog flew in the cabin on a private flight.

“If we had to fly him in the cargo hold, we would have just driven,” Mr. Kaltenmark said.

One of the nation’s best-known bulldog mascots, Uga, from the University of Georgia, seems to be coping with the new restrictions. Uga typically flies on short-haul private flights to football games, and when he flies commercial, he uses Delta, his owner Sonny Seiler said.

Even though Delta has banned most bulldogs, an airline spokesman, Anthony Black, said Uga could fly in the cabin because the airline classified him as a “high-profile animal,” like the Target mascot, Bullseye. (There have been eight English bulldogs deemed worthy of being an Uga; the previous one died after only three months on the throne.)

But Uga’s handler must buy first-class tickets for himself and the dog to fly.

In any case, Mr. Seiler said he had options for Uga, whose role is currently being filled by a stand-in, Russ.

“If they felt uncomfortable, then doesn’t matter,” Mr. Seiler said of Delta’s new policy. “We will fly him in another way. We will fly him in a private plane.”

http://www.nytimes.com

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EMIRATES airline said Friday it will begin flying five times a week between Zimbabwe, Zambia and Dubai next year.

“In February 2012, Emirates will commence services five days a week from Harare and Lusaka to Dubai,” Emirates Group said in a newspaper advert seeking applications for staff to run its new operations.

Flag carrier Air Zimbabwe has downsized its services because of frequent strikes and huge debts as the company tries to maintain an ageing fleet.

Air Zimbabwe pilots went on strike for over five months this year over unpaid salaries and allowances as the airline is saddled with $100 million in debt.

Several international airlines, including EgyptAir, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa and Qantas stopped flights to Zimbabwe because of dwindling passenger numbers as tourists were scared off by political instability and the declining economic situation in the country.

Regional airlines like Air Malawi, Kenyan Airways and South African Airways are still flying to Zimbabwe.

source: http://talkzimbabwe.com

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Flag carrier Philippine Airlines reassured passengers on Sunday evening of the safety of its flights as it belied insinuations that overworked staff and untrained personnel are endangering its operations since it spun off three of its non-core businesses last Oct. 1.

In a note on its Facebook account, PAL dismissed as “black propaganda” allegations that it said came from some former PAL employees. It said it expects more black propaganda to come.

“We assure our passengers that all aircraft utilized in our flights are released only after thorough assessment and safety checks,” PAL president and COO Jaime Bautista said in the Facebook note.

Over the weekend, Gerry Rivera, head of the PAL Employees Association (PALEA), called on the Tourism Congress for an investigation of passenger safety issues at PAL.

“We ask the Tourism Congress to take up the cudgels for the riding public by inquiring about safety and service concerns at PAL given that overworked and untrained replacement workers are now servicing passengers. If the Tourism Congress is anxious about the impact of the labor dispute on the influx of tourists, then it should also be worried about any possible accidents due to unsafe work practices by contractual workers,” he said.

PALEA cited news reports that two Danish tourists backed out of a PAL flight to Cebu over safety concerns. It said the two reportedly questioned PAL’s replacement workers at the check-in counter including a supervisor about safety issues but were left unsatisfied with the answers.

PAL is working to normalize its operations after spinning off three non-core businesses, which its then ground crew union had claimed would render 2,600 workers jobless.

Over the weekend, it claimed it had normalized its international flights.

More “disinformation” expected

Bautista said they expect “disinformation” to escalate especially since some disgruntled employees are getting “desperate by the day.”

“We hope our passengers will carefully discern fact from the fiction being peddled by those out to destroy the flag carrier’s good name and reputation,” he said.

He cited as one example of “black propaganda” the allegations that “overworked” PAL staff and untrained personnel were compromising airline safety.

“Former PAL ground workers are so used to working less than their 7.5-hour daily shift for five days, such that they consider our volunteers’ eight-hour shifts, six days a week as ‘overwork,’” he said.

“Even claims that an airstep bumped and caused damage to one of PAL’s Airbus A340s is a fabrication concocted by (PAL Employees’ Association president Gerry) Rivera and his cohorts. All our aircraft undergo regular checks and no such damage has been found by PAL’s Aircraft Engineering Department and Lufthansa Technik, PAL’s maintenance provider,” he added.

Bautista reiterated that safety is the cornerstone of PAL’s operations, adding the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has a surveillance inspection team especially assigned to PAL.

He said all PAL aircraft are maintained by Lufthansa Technik Philippines and other reputable maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) companies abroad.

All safety regulations are likewise complied with particularly those enforced by CAAP, US Federal Aviation Administration and US Transport Security Administration, as well as regular safety checks under the stringent IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), he said.

PAL is the only IOSA-certified Philippine carrier, he added.

“Apart from strict security checks, PAL flights also undergo a final safety check by our highly-trained and experienced pilots. A PAL plane will not take off until pilots are fully satisfied with the aircraft’s airworthiness and only after they have determined the safe load of passengers and cargo,” he added.

Bautista said PAL’s current corps of admin volunteers, former union members who joined the service providers and new hires all underwent proper training and certification prior to handling official ground duties. — KBK, GMA News

source: http://www.gmanews.tv

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A cockpit fire that forced a Jetstar plane to make an emergency landing in Guam was sparked by a windshield heating system fault.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has completed its investigation into the Jetstar A330 jet flight that left Japan on June 10, 2009 bound for the Gold Coast with 186 adult passengers, four infants and 13 crew aboard.

The ATSB said the crew’s “prompt and focused” extinguishing of the small fire and diversion to Guam was “appropriate” for the circumstances.

The ATSB report released today says the localised cockpit fire resulted from an electrical fault with the right windshield heating system.

Contributing factors were windshields manufactured with terminal block fittings containing polysulfide sealant (PR1829) that have been shown to be “predisposed to premature overheating failure that could lead to the development of a localised fire”.