Travel Safety Update - North America.
Apr 7, 2008 FAA Associate Administrator for Safety Nicholas Sabatini testified before Congress on maintenance inspection procedures Thursday. DoT Inspector General Calvin Scovel said the FAA relied too heavily on airlines to report problems via a voluntary disclosure program. Southwest Chairman Herbert Kelleher and CEO Gary Kelly...

Aircraft News - North America.
Apr 7, 2008 Air Transport Association President James May testified that the group's members have committed to an additional 30% fuel efficiency improvement by 2025 and that the industry is dedicated to developing an alternative to jet fuel. He said efforts to replace the nation's outdated air...

Airport News November 2005.
TSA plan would allow sharp objects in carry-on bags. Travelers may soon be able to bring sharp objects such as scissors in their carry-on bags under a new plan by the Transportation Security Administration, the Washington Post reported, quoting unnamed sources. The TSA will announce the plan Friday. A...

Terrorized into absurdity: the creation of the transportation security administration.
"Emergencies" often cry out for drastic and expensive changes in public policy that later, on reflection, seem ill-conceived. Government responses to the Great Depression, for example, drastically altered the U.S. system of limited government and took an immense toll on American liberty and private-property rights--a toll that has never...

No guns in cockpits.
Byline: The Register-Guard The federal government's transportation security chief has joined his boss, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, in opposing the idea of allowing commercial airline pilot to have guns in the cockpit. Some pilot groups and members of Congress take the opposite view. Mineta and security...

Airport security: how should screeners be screened?
Erlinda Valencia has done a good job during her fourteen years as a security screener at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). During one particularly active two-week period in 2000, she alerted authorities to the presence of a loaded handgun in one carryon bag and a hand grenade in another....

Travel Safety & Security Update August 2005.
France names blacklisted carriers: France has forbidden six airlines from landing on its soil. The French civil aviation authority said the airlines are unsafe and announced the blacklist after a string of five recent aviation accidents. The airlines are Air Koryo of North Korea, Air St. Thomas of the...

Airport News July 2005.
FAA supports controversial O'Hare expansion plan. The Federal Aviation Administration said it supports Chicago's $15 billion plan to expand O'Hare International Airport. Chicago officials expect the FAA to grant final approval in September and hope the expansion reduces flight delays. However, the plan faces opposition from some communities. It...

Travel Safety & Security Update July 2005.
FAA supports controversial O'Hare expansion plan. The Federal Aviation Administration said it supports Chicago's $15 billion plan to expand O'Hare International Airport. Chicago officials expect the FAA to grant final approval in September and hope the expansion reduces flight delays. However, the plan faces opposition from some communities. It...

Enhancing security and safety in civil aviation.
Byline: SECRETARY LEANDRO R. MENDOZA (Speech delivered during the press conference and presentation of the Civil Aviation Authority Bill to the Air Transporation Office (ATO) officials and employees at ATO, MIAA Road, Pasay City, on March 4, 2008) GOOD Afternoon. It is a...