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Record airline profits help pay for posh LAX lounges -- If you want to see where the world's airlines are investing some of their record profits, check out the newly renovated airport lounges across the country, including several posh new facilities at Los Angeles International Airport. The lounge upgrades are part of more than $2 billion in terminal renovations that airlines have proposed or have completed at LAX since 2012. The bad news is that most fliers won't get access to these swanky new digs. Hugo Martin/Los Angeles Times
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Boingo Wireless losses widen as it builds out Wi-Fi network -- If you've ever used a Wi-Fi network at Los Angeles International Airport, several other airports or military bases in California, chances are that you've been on Boingo. Boingo Wireless Inc. was created in 2001 by Sky Dayton, founder of EarthLink Inc. He had the idea of bringing high-speed Internet access to travelers and others as they moved from airports to hotel lobbies and other public places. Ronald D. White/Los Angeles Times
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Airport revenue continues to decline as JetBlue summer flight cuts approach -- The Long Beach Airport is currently on a trajectory that will see it serve the fewest number of passengers in nearly 13 years, and as a result, the release of its March budget performance showed a drop in projected year-end revenue for a second straight month. The airport's March numbers revealed that for the 2015 fiscal year, projected revenue was down another three percentage points from its February numbers, reflecting a projected year-end revenue loss of over $2.6 million. Jason Ruiz/Long Beach Post
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A call to close LaGuardia Airport, but does it make sense? -- New York City's LaGuardia Airport is liked by fliers for its location, but not for much else. Fliers frequently complain about the close-to-Manhattan airport's aging, cramped and dingy terminals. And, of course, there are comments Vice President Joe Biden made in 2014, when he said LaGuardia's condition made italic like it "must be in some third world country." Now there's another voice of dissent for LaGuardia, this time from the editorial page of The New York Times. Ben Mutzabaugh/USA Today
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Food workers nervous about United Airlines catering switch at O'Hare -- United Airlines is changing catering companies at O'Hare International Airport, swapping from longtime vendor Gate Gourmet to LSG Sky Chefs early next year, a move that has some 700 food workers in Chicago nervous about job security and pay. "They're worried," said Joe Shansky, spokesman for Unite Here, the union representing the workers. Gregory Karp/Chicago Tribune
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United Airlines, Houston Airport System to break ground on IAH concourse -- Get ready for more construction at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Chicago-based United Airlines and the Houston Airport System will break ground May 11 on the airline's new Terminal C North concourse at IAH. The $244 million project will create a 265,000-square-foot concourse including 20 new dining and retail options along with 11 boarding gates, which will accommodate a mix of United's narrow-, mid- and wide-body aircraft. Olivia Pulsinelli/Houston Business Journal
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Unauthorized driver on Orlando International Airport tram killed when train makes sudden stop -- A man who was not supposed to be aboard an airport tram during a maintenance run Friday morning was put in control then killed when it made a sudden stop, sending him hurtling through the windshield to the ground 15 feet below, an airport executive said. Authorities did not release the man's name, but Orlando International Airport Executive Director Phil Brown said the victim was a friend of one of the two maintenance-crew workers doing a routine pre-dawn run of the tram. Rene Stutzman & Dan Tracy/Orlando Sentinel
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Service driver killed in crash at Midway Airport -- A Carol Stream man was killed late Friday after he was ejected from a service vehicle he was driving when it crashed at Midway Airport. About 11:20 p.m., the 52-year-old man was driving in the airport in the 5700 block of South Cicero Avenue when his service vehicle struck another service vehicle, said Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Officer Stacey Cooper. Police could not be specific as to what kind of vehicle it was. Deanese Williams-Harris/Chicago Tribune
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Airport security advances clash with privacy issues -- At a mock airport in an underground laboratory here at Northeastern University, students pretending to be passengers head through a security exit in the right direction, while a young man enters going the wrong way. On a nearby computer screen, a newly developed video surveillance software program flags the wayward person and sounds an alarm. In a lab across the street, researchers are developing a new way to detect explosives using radar. Ron Nixon/New York Times
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Uber, Lyft competing with Portland, Ore. airport taxis for fares -- Two weeks after the city of Portland gave Uber and Lyft the green light to operate during a 120-day trial period, the ride-hailing companies are now allowed to pick up fares at the Portland International Airport. The Port of Portland approved the transportation network companies' permits on April 8, airport officials said. But Uber and Lyft had to wait 30 days before they could pick up fares at the airport. In the meantime, drivers for the ride hailing companies could only drop off fares at PDX. Mark Hanrahan/KGW
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British Airways to start flying to Iceland, which is big news for American frequent fliers -- Iceland is a remote island - except for Greenland, the closest other country happens to be the U.K. This has always meant a limited selection for flights to the island nation, especially during the slower winter months. British Airways is changing all of that as the first global carrier to operate direct service three times a week from London Heathrow to Reykjavik beginning October 25. This is potentially huge news for frequent fliers. Nick Vivion/Road Warrior Voices
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Woman claims she and daughter with autism were kicked off United Airlines flight -- An Oregon woman claims United Airlines kicked her family off a Portland-bound flight because of her teenage daughter who has autism. Juliette Beegle, 15, was diagnosed with autism just before she turned three, her mother, Donna Beegle, told ABC News. While her daughter has a high IQ, Beegle said, she has a hard time communicating. On Tuesday, Beegle said she, her husband, Juliette, and Juliette's brother boarded a layover flight in Houston on their way home to Portland. Emily Shapiro/ABC News
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Saudi airline cancels contract after plane taken to Israel -- Saudi Arabian Airlines canceled a contract with a Portuguese company for taking an off-duty airliner with Saudi Arabian Airlines branding for maintenance at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel, a Saudi newspaper reported Sunday. Last week, footage surfaced on social networking sites of the aircraft on the tarmac in Israel. The plane was taken to Israel on Wednesday for routine maintenance by Hi Fly, a Lisbon-based airplane leasing company. Times of Israel
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Emirates to take 28 aircraft in 2015-16 -- For Emirates Chairman and CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum one thing is clear: "What we see in the U.S. will not stop us." Referring to the lobbying campaign launched by Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines against alleged state aid, he says: "The noise comes from airlines that never believed Gulf carriers could be the size they are today and overtake them." Confronted with allegations of having received billions of dollars in subsidies, Sheikh Ahmed once again asserts that "we are very transparent in every detail." Jens Flottau/Aviation Week
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Malaysia Airlines is in more trouble than previously thought -- The new CEO of Malaysia Airlines said its financial situation is more challenging than anticipated and it will shrink in size as it tries to overcome a tarnished image with the travel industry and the public. Malaysia Airlines was battered last year by double jet disasters. Its government owner has brought in a new CEO, former Aer Lingus chief Christoph Mueller, to oversee a turnaround that includes cutting its staff by 6,000. AP
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| Airline outsources jobs to partner with Idaho tax incentive -- United Airlines is outsourcing about 50 Boise operations and customer-service jobs to SkyWest Airlines at significantly lower wages. The move comes six months after SkyWest became the first business to win a new Idaho tax incentive worth $1.3 million, promising to bring 50 new high-paying jobs to Boise. SkyWest spokeswoman Marissa Snow said the company was unaware of United's future plans when it applied for the tax incentive, according to The Idaho Statesman newspaper. AP |
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Doing the math on California's bullet train fares -- Riding California's bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco would cost "about $50 a person," supporters wrote in ballot arguments seven years ago when voters approved billions in funding for the project. In the years since, the state high-speed rail agency has projected the fare would be $83, $105 and, most recently, $86. The current estimate would be one of the world's cheapest high-speed rail trips on a per-mile basis, assuming that it reflects a typical fare between downtown stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco, a Times analysis found. Ralph Vartabedian & Dan Weikel/Los Angeles Times
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Light rail from Los Angeles to the Inland Empire on track -- After two-thirds of a century, light-rail transit could be making a comeback in the Inland Empire, if funding is secured from Los Angeles County. But if everything goes well for supporters and the agency planning the project, it could be another eight years before Inland Empire residents could take a light-rail system to Los Angeles or Pasadena from cities like Montclair or Claremont. Neil Nisperos/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
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Workers demand $15 minimum wage at L.A. County forums targeted to business owners -- Forums aimed at seeking input from business owners about a potential increase to the county's minimum wage have been usurped by low-income workers who demanded to be paid $15 per hour and accused their employers of withholding their wages. Brian J. Stiger, director of the county's Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, which has been leading the forums, said he has not heard from many business owners. Sarah Favot/Pasadena Star-News
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L.A. councilman floating compromise plan on minimum wage hikes -- A Los Angeles City Council member is floating a compromise plan on boosting the minimum wage, one that would increase hourly pay to $15.25 more gradually than other proposals being studied at City Hall. Local lawmakers are expected to vote in coming weeks on a plan from Mayor Eric Garcetti to increase the minimum wage to $13.25 by 2017, up from the current state requirement of $9 per hour. Emily Alpert Reyes & David Zahniser/Los Angeles Times
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David Ryu's L.A. City Council campaign energizes Korean American voters --Just a few years after Los Angeles underwent a bitter battle over political representation of Asian Americans, voters will decide this month whether to elect the city's first-ever Korean American City Council member. The rise of candidate David Ryu in a district abutting Koreatown has energized many of the same activists who complained Asian Americans were treated unfairly when L.A. redrew council district lines. Emily Alpert Reyes & Victoria Kim/Los Angeles Times
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Wave of electrical shocks brings DWP worker safety into question -- More workers suffered electric shocks or burns at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in 2014 than in any of the previous 10 years, and the public agency this year has already reached that decade's average by May. The DWP has cut its overall injury rate in half, though it's still twice the national average. A recent spike in serious injuries has caused state regulators to issue more violations and steeper fines. Mike Reicher/Los Angeles Daily News
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L.A. becomes first U.S. city to enact quake safety standards for new cellphone towers -- In 2008, a 7.9 earthquake left a path of destruction in the Chinese province of Sichuan, leveling whole communities and leaving as many as 88,000 dead. The chaos and confusion was made worse because the temblor disabled more than 2,000 cellphone towers, leaving huge communication gaps that lasted weeks. Rosanna Xia & Rong Gong Lin II/Los Angeles Times
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Port of L.A. police chief pleads not guilty in corruption case -- The Port of Los Angeles' chief of police pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges of corruption and tax evasion. Ronald Jerome Boyd is accused of wire fraud, making false statements to the FBI and tax evasion. Boyd, 57, was indicted last month on 16 federal counts; after Friday's plea he was released on an unsecured bond. Boyd was placed on leave April 30 from the post he has held for more than a decade. Julie Cart/Los Angeles Times
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A homeless man was dead: Where were Chief Beck and Mayor Garcetti? -- I wouldn't have wanted to be LAPD Deputy Chief Bea Girmala on Thursday night in Venice, where an angry crowd packed Westminster Elementary School to blast police over the fatal shooting of an unarmed homeless man. "Murder," protesters shouted when Girmala tried to speak. "I am not going to say that," Girmala replied. "The investigation is still ongoing." Steve Lopez/Los Angeles Times
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