For Wealthy, a New Way to Fly on Busines

[Sheik_Yer_Booty]

For Wealthy, a New Way to Fly on Business

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48900-2002Apr1.html


I wonder just how long the airlines will be able to weather the loss of the bread and butter business travelers and last minute corporate travelers who paid the high prices for tickets effectively keeping the coach and nosebleed section affordable to the huddled masses?

On a side note…

Since 9/11 our operation has seen a substantial jump in charter and charter requests. We already do a lot of charter related to the gambling industry flying in high rollers for our casinos, but as of late we have seen more and more, hotel guests and management figures asking us to fly non-casino related trips for them and we have been packing them in as best we can.

Management has not purchased an airline ticket for anyone in 5 months and we have been, seeing more and more mid-level management on our company related trips that before would have been delegated to taking the airlines.

This is not a phenomenon only happening to us, just about everyone I personally know, flying charter or corporate has seen this. Companies basically taking another look at the corporate flight department and owning a private jet in general. I believe the benefits were spelled out for them in clear, unequivocal terms as a result of the national tragedy. Terms that upper management understood, and now realizes that corporate ops not only mean timely service, privacy and luxury, but safety. Something that every pilot had been preaching everytime we were asked to justify our existence to the CFO or the Board come budget time.

I say this because I had experienced in the past, with our customers a “take it for granted” attitude about flying. When we would be unable to meet a schedule due to crew duty restrictions or just not enough planes we would offer to arrange transportation for our pax via ground to the nearest airport and put them on the next available first class to where ever…

Now they tell us they’ll wait for us to rest up or will delay the trip all together. This happened just this past weekend on a quick trip up to SFO; two pax happily told us they would wait 12 hours on us, than fly the airlines. They didn’t elaborate, I didn’t ask, but I knew why.

While this is good for people like me in terms of job security, I really hope the airlines can pull it together and shake this perception people have about security and the airlines. But with each story about how some silver haired grandma was strip-searched and detained by a platoon of National Guard troops over a set of knitting needles, while on the other side of the ‘port some FAA official managed to slip an entire SEAL Team on a 777 in broad daylight complete with fast assault boat and a pair of MH-53J’s all the while security was busy screening bags with an unplugged metal detector, one really wonders…

 

[Sheik_Yer_Booty]

April 2, 2002

Man Flees Tampa Airport Checkpoint
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A terminal at Tampa International Airport was evacuated for about three hours Tuesday when a passenger grabbed his carry-on luggage from a checkpoint and fled after a security official thought he saw a pistol in the bag.

It was one of several security incidents at airports in the region in recent days.

Twenty-four flights were delayed at Tampa and about 1,000 people were evacuated from the satellite terminal during the search for the man, airport officials said. He was not caught.

Elsewhere in Florida, a woman was arrested at Miami International Airport after she crashed her pickup truck through a security gate on Monday, scaled a 10-foot barbed wire fence surrounding a restricted area and boarded a plane that was being cleaned in a hangar.

According to the arrest report, members of the cleaning crew described Tanya Polese as ``hysterical'' and said she believed she was fleeing from people who wanted to kill her.

Polese, 31, was ordered jailed without bail pending a psychological evaluation.

Miami police also arrested a man who they said assaulted flight attendants and screamed obscenities on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles late Monday.

The man, whose identity was not released, appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs, said airline spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan.

Officials in Louisiana said a man carried eight knives and two pairs of scissors past a checkpoint Sunday at the New Orleans airport, then was allowed to board a plane before he was taken into custody. Most of the knives and scissors were found when the man was picked for a random search at the gate, and the others were found after he was taken off the plane, said Acting U.S. Attorney Jim Letten.

``There is no way I can whitewash this. I and other law enforcement officials are profoundly disturbed about this,'' Letten said.

Albert Silvarian, 42, was charged with attempting to board an aircraft with dangerous weapons, which carries up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He did not immediately enter a plea.

The knives and all but one pair of scissors were still in store packaging, officials said. ``This is clearly not an act of terrorism,'' said defense lawyer Ralph Capitelli.