A Southwest Airlines plane nearly crashed into the Pacific Ocean this April, the company revealed internally. Boeing is having trouble finding a new CEO while its outgoing one got grilled in the Senate amid the fallout from a door plug blowout in January. And a competitor slowly emerges to the Boeing-Airbus planemaking duopoly. Plus: Find out which states have the naughtiest airline passengers.
Take a moment to catch up on the world of aviation.
For the fifth year in a row, the first quarter has been an unprofitable one for the airline industry.
Boeing’s search for a new CEO does not appear to be going well. Several people once thought to be ideal candidates are spurning offers to run the plane manufacturer, the Wall Street Journal reports. That list reportedly includes Larry Culp, CEO of GE Aerospace; Stephanie Pope, COO of Boeing; and Pat Shanahan, CEO of fuselage supplier Spirit AeroSystems.
Most people go to the airport and behave decently toward their fellow passengers. Some people don’t, engaging instead in “naughty” behaviors. The website Solitaire Bliss asked survey respondents if they had encountered people who were doing stuff like leaving trash in the seatback pocket, passing gas, and asking to cut the line at airport security, and ranked them by how often they said “yes.”
Outgoing Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun defended the company’s safety culture on Capitol Hill on Tuesday amid a flurry of regulatory scrutiny surrounding the aircraft manufacturer.
A possible competitor to Boeing and Airbus continues to bide its time.
People flying the cheapest fares JetBlue Airways has to offer will soon be able to bring a free carry-on bag with them when they fly. Previously, flyers in “Blue Basic” class had to pay to extra for the privilege. The new policy will take effect starting September 6, regardless of when a flight was purchased.
On-call flying taxis just took a step closer to reality. Joby, a manufacturer of electric vertical takeoff-and-landing aircraft (eVTOLs), just announced that the Federal Aviation Administration has given it the green light to develop software that could lead to a consumer-facing app.
The head of American Airlines has apologized for a January racial incident aboard one of his company’s planes. In a memo, CEO Robert Isom addressed the “body odor” incident that raised the ire of the NAACP.
