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United's ousted CEO was in a nose dive even before the corruption probe -- Even before a weekly flight from Newark to South Carolina came under scrutiny from U.S. prosecutors, United was a troubled airline. Before his departure on Tuesday, United Chief Executive Jeff Smisek was struggling with the fallout from a poorly integrated merger, unhappy labor groups, and a series of high-profile technology glitches that grounded flights and outraged travelers. Justin Bachman/Bloomberg Earlier Story: The dinner proposal that led United into corruption probe
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Leadership shake-up reflects United's troubles -- The shotgun marriage between Continental Airlines and United Airlines in 2010 showed much promise, but it quickly resulted in lackluster operational performance, tense labor relations and mounting frustrations for passengers. But while these troubles at United have led some analysts and investors to call for changes at the top, it took a federal corruption investigation for a major reshuffling of the company's senior ranks. Jad Mouawadsept/New York Times
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 Can Munoz improve United's reputation? Travelers, workers and analysts sure hope so -- Oscar Munoz is no Jeff Smisek. And travelers, employees and maybe even some on Wall Street are hoping that's a good thing. Smisek, the lawyer-turned-airline manager who engineered the $3.2 billion merger of United and Continental Airlines in 2010, was ousted as head of the merged airline Tuesday relation to an ongoing federal investigation into the alleged corruption of the former New Jersey head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Munoz, who became a Continental board member 11 years ago and stayed on after the merger formed United Continental Holdings, was named as Smisek's replacement. Dan Reed/Forbes
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British Airways plane catches fire on Las Vegas runway -- An engine on a London-bound British Airways jet caught fire Tuesday while the plane was preparing to take off from Las Vegas, shooting flames from the side of the jet and forcing passengers to escape on emergency slides. Billowing black smoke and orange flames could be seen pouring from under the plane's wings, sending passengers fleeing quickly from the aircraft and across the tarmac before about 50 firefighters doused the aircraft in minutes. Kimberly Pierceall & Ken Ritter/AP Bart Jansen/USA Today Cassandra Taloma & Ricardo Torres/Las Vegas Review-Journal Listen: ATC Audio
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Lufthansa wins court ruling to halt pilot strike in pay dispute -- Deutsche Lufthansa AG won a legal victory in a long-running labor dispute with its pilots, when a German court upheld its effort to halt strikes that led to more than 1,000 flights being canceled this week. An appeals court in Frankfurt issued an injunction that requires the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots' union to halt a strike. The order reverses an initial ruling that the walkout isn't a disproportionate protest. An appeal of the decision isn't allowed, the court said. Richard Weiss/Bloomberg
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United Airlines' computer woes return with website not working -- United Airlines' website stopped working for 2 1/2 hours Tuesday, prompting the carrier to guide passengers to mobile apps and airport kiosks to check in for flights. The problem, the most recent in a string of computer woes to beset the airline, didn't cause any flight delays or cancellations, said spokeswoman Jennifer Dohm. United notified customers of the outage via its Twitter page and on its United.com website. Mary Schlangenstein/Bloomberg Business
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Why some United Airlines customer service reps are not happy about new work-at-home arrangements -- Okay, so maybe working from home isn't the dream deal it might have appeared at first glance for some United customer service agents. As reported yesterday, none of more than 400 United Airlines customer services reps are being laid off as the Chicago-based carrier moves to vacate two customer service facilities in Detroit and Honolulu. But some United customer service reps - who are really math whizzes in disguise it turns out - have noted that if customer service reps work from home, they will get hit with a 20 percent pay cut of around $4 per hour. Lewis Lazare/Chicago Business Journal
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Southwest Airlines sees loads dip a smidgen in August -- After a long string of new records for load factors, Southwest Airlines said Monday that August loads were a little bit lower than a year earlier. Southwest Airlines, pilot negotiators have 'agreement in principle' in contract talks Southwest said it filled 85.4 percent of its seats in August, down 0.1 percentage points from August 2014. Its traffic climbed 7.5 percent last month on a 7.6 percent increase in capacity. Since February, every month had set a record for that month. Terry Maxon/Dallas Morning News
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Football: Southwest Airlines plane will be filled with St. John Bosco players -- If you happen to be headed to Portland, Ore., on Thursday morning and are flying Southwest Airlines out of LAX, you better like St. John Bosco High. The football team will have 65 players and 20 support people flying up for a Friday game against Central Catholic that will be televised at 8 p.m. on ESPNU. "We're representing California," Coach Jason Negro said. St. John Bosco is not using a charter plane. Eric Sondheimer/Los Angeles Times
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Delta Air Lines' August traffic trends up, PRASM woes stay -- Delta Air Lines Inc. witnessed an increase in air traffic in the month of August wherein traffic - measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) - stood at 20.8 billion. This figure reflects a 3.9% increase from 20.03 billion recorded a year ago. On a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) inched up 4.2% to 23.8 billion. Meanwhile, the load factor or percentage of seats filled by passengers decreased to 87.3% in the month being discussed from 87.6% in the year-ago month. Zacks.com
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Delta plans to pamper its employees with private airport spas -- Don't be surprised if your baggage handler or gate agent has that has that fresh-from-a-facial glow or a noticeable spring in their step during your next trip. Delta Air Lines is taking a page out of a Marketing 101 textbook, the one that explains that happy employees mean happy customers. Delta intends to make its staff happy by launching a new employees-only spa concept later this year. The airline already has plans to open three SkySpas in several of its hub airports. Ramsey Qubein/Road Warrior Voices
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Hugh Jackman is the newest celebrity ambassador for Qantas -- Film and stage star Hugh Jackman, familiar to many as the mutant Wolverine in the X-Men films, has been named a global ambassador for Qantas, Australia's flag carrier. "Hugh represents everything that the world loves about Australians and he has used his enormous international success to promote Australia as well as highlight causes that are close to his heart," said Qantas CEO Alan Joyce in a statement. Harriet Baskas/USA Today
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Doctor pleads not guilty to charges of sexual contact with unaccompanied girl on flight -- A Pakistani physician pleaded not guilty Tuesday to allegations that he inappropriately touched a girl seated next to him on an American Airlines flight from New York City to Chicago. Muhammad Asif Chaudhry is accused of moving from his assigned seat to a seat next to the Iowa girl, who was traveling alone in July as part of the airline's unaccompanied-minor program. The girl sent frantic text messages from the plane to her mother, explaining that a man had touched her genitals and that she could not escape because the seat belt light was on, according to the federal complaint. Michael Tarm/AP
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Airline operation manager working on 9/11 facing federal charges in sex sting -- A former airline executive who handled emergency calls during the 9/11 attacks is facing new charges in a sex sting case. He was busted in a local undercover sting but he could face more severe penalties now that the feds are involved. On Friday, Ray Howland, an American Airlines executive, was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, and charged in federal court with attempted coercion of a child for sex. CBS Pittsburgh
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Passenger numbers at Burbank Bob Hope Airport increase through first half of 2015 for first time in eight years -- For the first time since 2007, Burbank Bob Hope Airport's passenger numbers have increased through the first half of the year, with the Airport serving 1,930,712 passengers from January through June 2015, a 2.2 percent increase over the 1,889,436 passengers served over the same period last year. Month over month, the July 2015 passenger count of 334,738 also represents a 3.8 percent increase over the 322,512 passengers served in July 2014. Burbank Bob Hope Press Release Chad Garland/Burbank Leader
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American Airlines steps up jet game from Fresno to LAX -- American Airlines is stepping up its game on its regional flights between Fresno and Los Angeles, introducing a new generation of larger, quieter regional jets on Wednesday. Compass Airlines, a contract carrier based out of Minneapolis, will begin operating a new Embraer E175 regional jet on one of American's four daily flights between Fresno Yosemite International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport. Tim Sheehan/Fresno Bee
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Clune Construction completes Virgin Atlantic Airways clubhouse -- Clune Construction said that the firm has completed its construction of the Virgin Atlantic Airways Clubhouse located in Terminal 2 of Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. The 4,000-square-foot lounge offers Virgin Atlantic�s Upper Class customers a new space to relax and rejuvenate before their flight from Los Angeles. Clune Construction Company is a national, full-service general contractor with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, South Florida and Washington, DC. Gulli Arnason/Financial News UK
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Trigaux: Tampa International Airport's pricey overhaul is about keeping up with peers -- With so much local attention focused on the massive near-$1 billion expansion and redevelopment of Tampa International Airport, remember this: If you stand still in this competitive industry, you fall behind. In one recent ranking of the top U.S. airports, not one Florida facility made the list. Aggressive airport investments are under way across the country. Robert Trigaux/Tampa Bay Times
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| Transportation Network Companies |
Uber and Lyft must improve access for disabled riders, advocates say -- Andy Arias' experience, and others like it, have raised concerns that app-based ride service Uber and its main rival, Lyft, aren't doing enough to meet the needs of passengers in wheelchairs. As the start-ups negotiate for permits to pick up passengers at Los Angeles International Airport, advocates are pressing regulators to require better access for disabled travelers, saying they should be as confident that they can catch a ride with Uber and Lyft as with a taxi. Laura J. Nelson/Los Angeles Times
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The dirtiest places on an airplane, ranked -- Traveling can be kind of a nightmare for germ-a-phobes. Whether you go by plane, train or automobile, you're sure to meet with dirty rest stop bathrooms, crowded trains and buses, or people coughing next to you on the airplane. If that kind of stuff bothers you, this article will not make you feel better. Travelmath.com, a site that helps people calculate the driving and flying time between cities, ranked some of the dirtiest places in airports and airplanes, based on 26 samples gathered by a microbiologist sent to examine five airports and four flights. Ana Swanson/Washington Post
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Austin Beutner is out as L.A. Times publisher -- Tribune Publishing Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times, has fired Austin Beutner, the civic leader and former Wall Street investment banker who became publisher and chief executive of the newspaper last year. Tribune CEO Jack Griffin met with Beutner in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning to give him the news. A Tribune spokesman declined to comment on the firing. Timothy E. Ryan, publisher since 2007 of the Baltimore Sun, a Tribune newspaper, will replace Beutner. Marc Duvoisin & Christopher Goffard/Los Angeles Times
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L.A. Times shakeup: Tribune politics, not California politics, behind publisher's ouster -- Austin Beutner, who until Tuesday served as the publisher of The Los Angeles Times, learned that he had been fired while listening to the radio on the drive to work. Jack Griffin, the CEO of Tribune Publishing, the Times' parent company, hadn't told Beutner the news at that point, several sources with knowledge of Tuesday's events said. Though the news had been out since 3:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Instead, Beutner, who for 13 months had been making the daily commute to downtown from his home in Pacific Palisades, found out from KNX 1070 NewsRadio. Dylan Byers/Politico Washington Post: Did fired L.A. Times publisher Austin Beutner just get freed up to run for office?
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City Council votes to ban smokeless tobacco at all sports venues in L.A. -- Los Angeles City Council members took a strong first step Tuesday toward striking smokeless tobacco out of all sports venues in the city. A motion to ban the use of chewing tobacco and snuff, introduced in June by Councilman Jose Huizar, passed 14-0. It called for the city attorney to draft an ordinance to cover all venues within the city where any organized sport, amateur or professional, is played, including Dodger Stadium. Brittny Mejia/Los Angeles Times
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