This robot is billed as “the only ultraviolet (UV) room disinfection technology proven to deactivate SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19.”
SAT says the LightStrike uses environmentally-friendly pulsed xenon and can disinfect an area in less than 10-15 minutes without warm-up or cool-down time. They plan to use it pretty much everywhere in the airport, including jet bridges, gate areas, ticketing counters, baggage claim, concessions, elevators, and restrooms.
And it looks like the LightStrike robot is here to stay. SAT airport plans to have a contest to give the robot a name.
JetBlue will start offsetting carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) from jet fuel for all of its domestic flights beginning in July 2020.
The airline has been covering carbon offsets for flyers during specific promotions.
But with this new announcement JetBlue says it will become the first major U.S. airline to move towards covering carbon offsets fulltime.
JetBlue
currently works with Carbonfund.org, a U.S. based nonprofit carbon reduction
and climate solutions organization, on offsets. And with this expansion, JetBlue
expects to offset an additional 15-17 billion pounds (7 to 8 million metric
tons) of emissions per year.
That, says JetBlue, is the annual equivalent of removing more than 1.5 million passenger vehicles from the road.
There’s more.
JetBlue also announced plans to start flying with sustainable aviation fuel in mid-2020 on flights from San Francisco International Airport.
BWI shows its support for the Baltimore Ravens playoff run
And check out this great amenity from Dane County Regional Airport (MSN) in Madison, WI.
The airport not only has short story dispensers in the terminal, it has loaner books for kids.
Raise your hand if our children’s books have traveled more than you in 2019 ✋✋😅. If you fly out of MSN with children make sure to grab a children’s book right next to our story machine! Take them on your journey, add your trip to the log, then return them for others to enjoy! pic.twitter.com/nBZmUJniwQ
Where is the food and produce you eat on a plane grown?
Starting in September, the answer for passengers on Singapore Airlines’ passengers leaving Newark for Singapore will be “indoors, nearby.”
Singapore Airlines is working with indoor vertical farming company
AeroFarms, which has reclaimed an abandoned steel mill in an industrial area
near Newark International Airport and transformed it into a 1-acre, indoor
vertical farm.
The farm, which grows produce ‘aeroponically’ without soil,
pesticides or sunlight, can produce the equivalent of 390 acres of locally
grown produce with up to 30 harvests each year and will grow a customized blend
of fresh produce for SIA’s Newark-to-Singapore flights starting in September
2019.
“Imagine boarding a plane and enjoying a salad harvested only a
few hours before takeoff — literally the world’s freshest airline food,” said
Antony McNeil, director of food and beverage for Singapore Airlines. “The
only way to get fresher greens inflight is to pick them from your own garden.”
Singapore Airlines shared examples of farm-to-flight
dished business class and premium economy class passengers might be able to
choose from on Newark to Singapore flights:
Soy Poached Chicken:Pickled Ginger Vinaigrette, Zucchini Ribbons, with Sweet Potato Roesti, Soy Beans and AeroFarms Baby Pac Choi
The Garden Green: Poached Asparagus, Broccolini, Avocado with Shaved Fennel & Flaked Hot Smoked Salmon, with AeroFarms medley of Baby Ruby Streaks,
Watercress and Arugula, with Lemon Vinaigrette
As I reported last year in a
farm-to-flight feature for USA TODAY, Singapore Airlines’ joins several
other airlines in being super creative and eco about the food served on its flights.
Korean Air has its own company farm.
Jedong Ranch sits on 3,700 acres of South Korea’s lush Jeju
Island and has been operating since 1972, when it was purchased by the former
chairman of the airline’s parent company, the Hanjin Group.
Back then, South Korea had a beef shortage, so breeding livestock
was the first order of business. Early on, the herd was made up exclusively of
imported Angus cattle. Today the ranch is home to more than 2,200 head of prized,
grass-fed Korean native cattle known as Hanwoo.
The organic, antibiotic-free meat from these animals, and
from the farm’s flock of approximately 6000 free-range chickens, is sent to Korean
Air’s flight catering kitchens in Seoul for use in meals served to first and
business-class passengers. Some of the meat and eggs from the farm are also available,
at premium prices, for purchase locally.
In addition to raising cows and chickens, the ranch’s hydroponic
greenhouse also produces more than 210 tons of fruit and vegetables, including
red peppers, cherry tomatoes and blueberries for first
and business class in-flight meals.
JetBlue’s garden at
JFK
In 2015 JetBlue created a 24,000 square-foot milk-crate garden
outside Terminal 5 at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport. Designed
to both create a welcoming green space and promote local agriculture, the
garden generates more than 2,000 pounds of blue potatoes, kale, carrots, leeks,
arugula, garlic, mint, basic and other herbs for local food banks.
Japan Air Lines agritourism
attraction
In 2010, Japan Air
Lines is scheduled to open an agritourism attraction on land near Tokyo’s Narita
International Airport. The ‘JAL Agriport’ will
offer visitors a chance to pick strawberries, harvest sweet potatoes, picnic,
or purchase fresh produce grown in the region. JAL says it also plans to use
some agriport produce in lounge menus and in-flight meals.
And Emirates
announced last year that it was joining with Crop One to build the world’s
largest vertical farming facility near the airport in Dubai to help create a supply chain of “high quality and locally-sourced
fresh vegetables, while significantly reducing our environmental footprint,”the airline said in a statement.
Have you seen Lin Manuel Miranda’s hit play Hamilton yet?
Me either.
But here’s a cool contest that not only includes tickets to the play – with Lin-Manuel Miranda back in the role of Hamilton – plus plane tickets from New York to Puerto Rico, where the play is being performed.
Winners get two roundtrip flights from New York City’s JFK International Airport to San Juan, Puerto Rico; two premium tickets to Hamilton; and a one-night hotel stay in San Juan.
This is a ‘last-minute’ type of contest. So read the rules carefully.
A winner will be chosen each day at 9 a.m. If you win you’ll have just an hour to respond to a phone call and email prize notification. And you’ll need to be ready to take the trip to San Juan the next day.
If you don’t live in New York, you’ll need to get yourself there in time to fly out of JFK on a 5:40 a.m. flight on the day of the performance. And if you do live in or near New York, you still have to get yourself to and from the airport in time for that early flight.
Thinking about what to get your family for as a gift this holiday? JetBlue has an idea.
Five winners in JetBlue’s Go Get Gifted contest will get flown home on Christmas Eve (12/24) and then gift wrapped from head to toe for home delivery.
Sound like fun?
The contest is open through December 12. To enter, go to Go Get Gifted, where you’ll be asked to put in your “shipping” information, including your name, email, departure city and destination city.
You’ll also be asked to choose how you’d like to be gift wrapped, including the wrapper paper print and bow style.
Then you’ll need to come up with a good reason (in 280 characters) why you should be wrapped and delivered.