The news about the wildfires on the Island of Maui is heartbreaking and frightening.
As of Thursday evening, officials were reporting that the wildfires had killed at least 54 people, with the number expected to rise.
Figuring out how many buildings, trees and other parts of the landscape have been burned is difficiult. But satellite images such as the ‘before’ and ‘after’ image of the historic town of Lahaina shared by Maxar Technologies are offering devastasting images.
Deadly wildfires have engulfed the town of #Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of #Maui where the governor has issued an emergency proclamation. Seen here is the Lahaina Square Shopping Center area. Before image: June 25, 2023, after image: August 9, 2023. pic.twitter.com/NVrso87rMb
The Hawaii Tourism Authority is telling tourists and visitors who are in Maui to leave. Those with trips planned are being asked to cancel or postpone.
“In the days and weeks ahead, our collective resources and attention must be focused on the recovery of residents and communities that were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses, ” the authority said on it website. “Visitors who have travel plans to visit Maui in the coming weeks are encouraged to consider rescheduling their travel plans for a later time.”
Airlines, others helping out
“The images of Lāhainā burning – enveloped in an impenetrable cloud of black smoke – have been difficult to witness. Our hearts are with our community members, employees and all those devastated by the Maui fires,” Hawaiian Airlines said in a statement, “As Hawaiʻi’s hometown carrier, we pledge to support disaster response efforts until the demanding work of recovery is complete.”
The airline is adding flights to support evacuation efforts, capping ticket prices between Kahului, Maui (OGG) and Honolulu at $19 until August 11, and offering a travel waiver for passengers with tickets to or from OGG through the end of the month.
The airline is also carrying essential cargo such as medical supplies to Maui and donating catering items, amenity kits, mattress pads, pillows and other supplies for evacuees arriving at Kahului Airport.
Other airlines are helping out with evaucation flight and travel waivers too.
Alaska Airlines flew a rescue flight to Maui with relief supplies for local residents – everything from water and food to pillow, blankets, baby formula and diapers. The Seattle-based airline is also helping ot evacute travelers to Seattle and is adding additional rescue flights.
Today, we flew a rescue flight to Maui filled with relief supplies for residents impacted by the devastating wildfires. Our aircraft will bring guests back to SEA tomorrow & more flights are planned. Read about how we're caring for Maui & how you can help: https://t.co/zSsKX5EZ42
If you’ve got airline miles to spare, you can also donate those.
Here is a link to the Donate Miles to Charity page for Hawaiian Airlines, which lists the American Red Cross of Hawaii, the Blood Bank of Hawaii, and the Hawaii Humane Society among the beneficiaries.
[Our story on the rise of unruly airlines passengers first appeared on NBC News)
Air travelers picked up some bad habits during the pandemic that they can’t seem to shake.
Unruly passenger incidents rose 47% globally last year from 2021, even as pandemic-related restrictions faded, according to recent data released this month by the International Air Transport Association, an airline trade group.
Reports of bad behavior rose from a rate of 1 incident per 835 flights to 1 per 568 over that period, IATA found.
Conflicts over mask requirements, which drove a surge in unruly conduct during the depths of the coronavirus pandemic, have largely dissipated.
But as air travel continues to rebound — a record 257 million passengers are expected to hit the skies on U.S. airlines this summer — other sources of contention are still triggering disruptions at alarming rates. And some say official data may only capture a fraction of the problem.
“The public does not hear about the 99% of would-be incidents that are resolved by flight attendants without event,” the Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson said in an email. “We deescalate conflict as aviation’s first responders on nearly every flight.”
Industry experts say that they can only speculate about what’s going on.
“I’m not sure if there is an overall increase in a feeling of self-entitlement,” said aviation security expert Jeffrey Price, the owner of the airport management consultancy Leading Edge Strategies, “or if people are, for some reason post-Covid, feeling more empowered to assert what authority or influence they believe they have.”
Looking at more than 20,000 reports submitted by around 40 airlines worldwide, IATA found the most common types of unruly conduct last year were non-compliance with crew instructions, followed by verbal abuse and intoxication.
In the last few weeks, a Delta Air Lines flight heading to Detroit from Paris was diverted to Canada for an emergency landing over the behavior of an unruly passenger. And a traveler denied boarding at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was arrested after allegedly having slapped a Spirit Airlines employee.
While extreme incidents like those remain rare, “it is very concerning to see the frequency of reported unruly incidents increasing,” said Jonathan Jasper, IATA’s senior manager for cabin safety. “And the key here is that the numbers are only a part of the story. It’s the behavior behind the numbers that is causing us some concern.”
IATA attributed last year’s jump in noncompliance to infractions ranging from passengers’ smoking cigarettes or vaping on planes to failing to fasten their seat belts, refusing to stow cabin baggage during takeoff and landing, and drinking their own alcohol onboard.
IATA’s study doesn’t break down incident rates by region. In the U.S., Federal Aviation Administration data shows the problem remains elevated despite having eased considerably from pandemic peaks.
In 2019, the FAA logged 1,161 unruly passenger reports and just 1,009 in 2020, when lockdown orders sharply restricted air travel.
But as flight volumes began ticking back up, the reports skyrocketed to a record high of 5,981 in 2021 — around 72% of which had to do with masking rules, the FAA said.
Last year, the agency tallied 2,455 unruly passenger reports in the U.S., still far above pre-pandemic levels but a sharp drop nonetheless. The decline came in a year when a federal judge struck the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mask mandate for public transportation in late April 2022, by which point masking-related unruly conduct had dipped to 63% of FAA reports.
When mask mandates were overturned, however, the agency had already spent well over a year enforcing a “zero-tolerance” policy for unruly behavior.
In January 2021, it rolled out penalties such as hefty fines and the threat of federal criminal prosecution, including potential jail time, for any passenger who “assaults, threatens, intimidates, or interferes with airline crew members.” The FAA said this April that it had referred more than 250 of the most serious cases to the FBI since last 2021.
While instances of noncompliance fell at the start of last year as more airlines and governments around the world dropped their mask mandates, IATA found the rate beginning to rise again as 2022 wore on, ending the year up.
“Flying is an altogether less enjoyable experience,” said Philip Baum, the managing director of the aviation security consultancy Green Light Ltd.
He noted that the industry let go of huge numbers of personnel early in the pandemic and has struggled to recruit and train new ones. Many airline and airport workers may now be less experienced and more stressed, adding strain to interactions with shorter-fused customers.
In addition, Baum said, “The reality is that post-pandemic, those experiencing poor mental health is on the increase, some of whom may find the depersonalized service offered a trigger.”
Nelson also pointed to the pandemic’s long shadow, saying it “exposed deep social division and resentment over rising inequality,” and she criticized public officials’ “mixed messages and contempt for rules that protect our collective safety” as having made matters worse.
“Our cabins are microcosms of humanity, so this anxiety, confusion and division continues to show up in behavior on our planes,” she said.
Aviation most likely isn’t the only industry more customers are lashing out at. In the National Customer Rage Survey, released in March, a record 74% of consumers said they experienced issues in the marketplace in the previous 12 months.
And 43% of respondents said they had raised their voices at customer service, up from 35% in 2015. Labor shortages in recent years were probably a factor in the jump, the researchers said at the time.
Whatever the underlying causes, the problem shows few signs of fading from air travel.
In fact, after a slight dip in February to 122 unruly passenger incidents, the FAA received 169 reports in May — the highest monthly level so far this year.
The agency didn’t respond to requests to comment further on its data.
The Stuck at the Airport team is in Istanbul this week for the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the World Air Transport Summit.
CEO & representatives from more than 300 airlines are here, along with government officials, equipment suppliers, and all manner of other aviation world players. And the agenda includes not only assessing how the industry is doing now, post-COVID-19, but how it’s going to handle itself going forward.
Unruly Passengers – Still A Growing Problem
The annual report on the number of unruly passenger incidents worldwide always gets our attention.
And this year’s report is both surprising and alarming.
We thought that the incidences of unruly passengers would have dropped when the airline mask mandates did.
But according to IATA data, the number of reported unruly passenger incidents worldwide actually increased in 2022 compared to 2021.
The latest figures show that there was one unruly incident reported for every 568 flights in 2022.
That’s up from one per 835 flights in 2021.
The most common categories of incidents in 2022 were non-compliance, verbal abuse, and intoxication.
In 2022, non-compliance incidents were up about 37% over 2021.
What’s considered non-compliance? Infractions such as smoking, refusing to fasten a seatbelt, failing to store baggage when told to, or consuming your own alcohol on board an airplane.
Physical abuse incidents are also on the rise. While IATA says physical abuse incidents are rare, they’re nevertheless up 61% over 2021, occurring once every 17,200 flights.
What is the airline industry doing about unruly passengers?
Mandatory pre-flight refresh classes in onboard etiquette aren’t on the table quite yet. (Although we like that idea.) But the airline industry has some strategies it is working on to address the unruly passenger issue.
Those strategies include:
*Getting more countries to ratify the Montreal Protocol 2014, which gives governments the necessary legal authority to prosecute unruly passengers no matter their state of origin;
*Training more crew members on how to de-escalate incidents on the planes;
*And asking airports, airport bars and restaurants, and duty-free shops to help spread the word on the consequences of unruly behavior on airplanes.
The frequency of unruly passenger incidents has gone ⬆️ significantly in 2022 vs 2021 despite the relaxation of measures such as the removal of 😷 on most ✈️.
It’s officially “United Airlines Day” in Denver today in honor of the carrier’s announcement of a big expansion in flights, routes, and lounges at Denver International Airport (DEN).
The Chicago-based airline is adding 35 flights, six new routes, a dozen new gates, and – get this – three clubs, including one that will be the carrier’s largest.
Starting this summer, United says it will also be doubling the total number of early morning departures and late evening arrivals in and out of Denver.
The airline is adding new non-stops to six destinations including four not served by any other Denver airline: Dayton, OH; Greensboro, NC; Lexington, KY and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
United says it will fly new 737 MAX aircraft non-stop to San Juan, Puerto Rico, beginning October 29, and Montego Bay, Jamaica, beginning November 4.
In addition to the new routes, United plans to use its new MAX aircraft to increase service to popular destinations like Miami, Austin, Boston, and Atlanta. And the airline plans to will use Embraer 175 aircraft to connect Denver with Asheville, NC; Dayton, OH; Greensboro, NC and Lexington, KY, starting on September 29.
Infrastructure-wise, United will have 12 new gates opening in the A and B concourses by the middle of 2024, making an overall total of 90 gates for United at DEN.
And, just in time for summer travel, United will open a new club on the A Concourse and reopen its first of two revamped clubs on the B Concourse. That B Concourse club will be the largest United club in the world.
Stuck at the Airport joined Condor Airlines on a flight from Seattle Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to Frankfurt Airport (FRA) to celebrate the fact that the airline’s new Airbus A330neo aircraft – sporting the airline’s new striped livery – is operating on this route.
The German leisure carrier will soon have a fleet of all-new efficient, environmentally friendly Airbus A330-900neos serving all its long-haul North American destinations. And the inside of the planes, especially the business class cabin, is getting well-deserved raves.
We loved our business class seat, of course, but also the fact that the striped theme shows up in many places – but not too many places – inside the plane, from the slippers, the eye mask & the blankets in business class to the lavatories, air sickness bags, and even a special beer.
Seeking stripes? Condor’s new Airbus A330neos they’re currently being phased in on flights to/from Seattle (SEA), San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK), Las Vegas (LAS) and Toronto (YYZ).
Next summer, you’ll see Condor’s striped livery showing up also in Phoenix, Portland, Baltimore (BWI), Boston, Minneapolis, Anchorage (ANC), Fairbanks (FAI), Vancouver (YVR), and Edmonton (YEG).