A rash of major disruptions to some airlines

Safety checks

Last week Upgrade: Travel Better and Cranky Flier (amongst others) blogged about several airlines' having some or all aircraft of a type being grounded temporarily for various maintenance checks.

Today it is United's turn with their 777s (source Chicago Tribune). Apparently one of the long list of things to check regularly, has not been checked for some time.

So a quick run-down by airline.

• American - MD-80s out for wiring checks, now completed.
• Delta - MD-88s and MD-90s out for wiring checks, now completed.
• Southwest - 737s out for checks of the skin, now completed.
• United - 747s out for maintenance checks, now completed.
• United - 777s out for fire suppression checks, underway.

While I'd be surprised if any of these safety checks finds anything other than minor deficiencies in process and monitoring, they are still enormously disruptive to the airlines affected and of course to travellers. As the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is seemingly conducting audits airline by airline, I'd be interested in knowing when they plan to do the remaining airlines - so I can make sure I'm not flying those airlines at a time when disruption is likely.

British Airways (BA)

The situation seems to be very slowly improving. Cancellations and delays through London Heathrow (LHR) terminal T5 are ongoing (almost 1 week so far) but slowly reducing each day. There has to be a big question mark over whether they are up to shifting most of the remaining flights from T4 to T5, which is scheduled for April 30. Especially as one of the biggest problems has been baggage and T4 flights being longhaul will bring a lot more baggage. If the move is delayed, this will have snowball effects on the great London Heathrow shuffle (see this blog entry by Cranky Flier for a summary).

A threat of a pilots strike (over the set up of BA's new Open Skies subsidiary) was last month held off by referring to court for a ruling. I guess the silver lining of the current mess is that BA is (or should be) much more likely to settle with the pilots to avoid yet another public relations disaster.

I'm glad my transfers through LHR this month are on other airlines, even though I do wish to see the new terminal for myself.

Keep informed

Clearly, the status of all these (and other similar) disruptions can change quite quickly. Be informed. Check the relevant airline and airport websites. Check live flight information (eg flightstats). Know your rights (eg if flying an EU airline or any airline from the EU check out my previous entry on EU passenger rights). Some more tips are in my blog entry from last year on disruptions.

EU air passenger rights

For those affected by disruptions to air travel in the European Union, here some information on your air passenger rights by European Commission Regulation 261/2004.

4 page leaflet summarising.

Link to full legislation wording.

Poor start to Heathrow T5 opening

The opening day at London Heathrow terminal T5 turned out rather worse than British Airways hoped. Check out the live reports throughout the day from Flyer Talkers.

It seems a relatively minor baggage problem snowballed into dozens of flights being cancelled, and suspension of checked baggage for all departures. Further flights on day 2 have already been cancelled. As Cranky Flier suggests, if you have to fly from T5 in the next few days try to do so with carry-on luggage only.

Good luck to all those caught out by the mess.

Heathrow T5 finger-printing plan halted

Finally, many months after BAA (owner of London Heathrow airport) announced that domestic passengers at the brand new T5 terminal would need to be fingerprinted, someone in authority is questioning the plan with concerns over privacy. (Source BBC) While it is disappointing that it has taken the Information Commissioner's Office until now to respond to concerns raised nearly a year ago (the fingerprint requirements were made public by last July), at least they are now appearing to act just in the nick of time. Yes, T5 opens in about 12 hours time.

UK flying tips

The Cranky Flier has beaten me to it again. While I've been hunting for a comprehensive schedule for airlines changing terminals at London Heathrow in the Great LHR Terminal Shuffle, he's posted the LHR changes information that is to hand - here. These are incomplete and, I think, optimistic in some cases. Personally I expect there will be delays to the dates published (indeed many are later than originally announced). But getting hard info is difficult as BAA (the airport operator of Heathrow and several other UK major airports) and airlines alike seem reluctant to publicise dates that may not eventuate. For now I'll assume my upcoming trips will continue to arrive at and depart from the same terminals those airlines currently use. If a reliable schedule becomes available I'll be sure to provide an update. In the meantime the old advice is the best - to check with the airline you are flying a few days before departure to ensure you arrive at the right terminal.

Given the complexity of the move - different dates for different airlines, even different flights within the same airline, I expect there will be some teething issues as travellers and staff alike get used to the changes. So, on my trips through Heathrow I'll be checking out StreamThru, a free sms departure information service for UK airports which a friend has let me know about. Normal charges may apply if you are visiting UK with a mobile on a roaming plan.

When online I can also keep up to date using flightstats.com (quick links and live view of current delays in my earlier blog entry).

As for T5, British Airways new terminal opening in a couple of weeks? Until BA resolves an outstanding issue from last year I don't expect to be flying them unless I can avoid it.

Too many short hops, not enough long trips

The past month or so have been lots of short trips with no long (or longhaul) ones. I'm hanging out for the next big trip, which is still a month away. Never mind that I have some short (and a couple not so short) trips before then.

My big trip is at that annoying time of the year when a lot of airline schedules change. So far only 4 flights are affected. That is good. The bad bit is I've had to drop one destination as it is no longer possible to fit it in, no matter how I tried to reroute. So I've swapped for another destination nearby - a handful less miles, but the bigger blow is I miss meeting a fellow traveller.

To cheer myself up I've tacked on a side trip to an interesting locale - somewhere I didn't think I'd visit for several years at least.

My itinerary is rather crazy and I'm now experiencing pangs of doubt that it will all come together, especially as some places have infrequent flights (as in daily or less often to any other airport, not just a specific route) and others have all their flights at the same time of day so a hold-up will delay me a day. Hopefully it will all work out. I think I need to do more research on back-up plans.

Still it is always exciting travelling somewhere new, and, like most of my big trips, this time I get to several new places. Yay.