American Airlines panel rethinks star treatment
American Airlines flies more passengers out of Los Angeles International Airport than any other carrier and wants to maintain that dominance, especially among L.A.’s high-spending glitterati in the entertainment industry.
To do that, American has created a panel of advisors from the entertainment industry to suggest ways the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline can make celebrities and Hollywood big shots happier in the air.
The panel, created quietly about 18 months ago, is called the American Airlines Council on Entertainment, and it meets every three months. It includes nearly 30 representatives of the entertainment industry, including travel bookers for film and television studios as well as celebrity managers.
The airline declined to name people on the panel.
“It reflects the economical concern of the industry,” American Airlines spokeswoman Polly Tracey said.
Among the changes American already has made at the request of the Hollywood panel are healthier inflight menu choices, including salads, and a 24-hour service desk for high-profile clients plus private reservation numbers that only a limited number of authorized American workers can access to maintain privacy.
The panel also persuaded American to add a new flight from Los Angeles to Toronto in September, in time for the Toronto International Film Festival.
The flight will be an A321T jet with a first-class section of 10 lie-flat seats, with one seat on either side of the aisle. The business class features 20 lie-flat seats with two seats on either side of the aisle. Every seat has a full entertainment system and a power port.
Long Beach studies airport expansion
The city of Long Beach is studying whether to add international flights at its airport, but the idea hasn’t gotten a warm reception from residents.
A $347,000 study commissioned by the city of Long Beach is expected to be completed next month, outlining what it would take to allow international flights in and out of Long Beach Airport. One likely element would be an international customs facility to screen fliers and luggage coming in from abroad.
The idea of adding international flights was proposed by JetBlue Airways, the largest carrier at the airport. JetBlue representatives say they are interested in adding flights to Mexico and other Latin American destinations.
The study results are highly anticipated in Long Beach, where residents near the airport already are raising objections. An opposition group, dubbed HUSH2, has created a Facebook page and is distributing lawn signs that proclaim “no to airport expansion.”
A March meeting on the topic drew about 150 residents, with some worried that the flights might generate extra noise at nearby schools, hurting children’s reading scores, and might introduce drug cartels to the city, according to news reports.
Although growth at Long Beach Airport is limited by a noise ordinance, neighbors have written to city leaders, saying they fear a new terminal would “create the possibility of a lawsuit by other airlines challenging our airport noise ordinance,” according to a form letter sent by opponents.
Air Koryo ranks world’s worst again
For the fourth year in a row, North Korea’s Air Koryo has claimed the dubious honor of being ranked the worst carrier in the world.
But Air Koryo may not be that bad, according to online reviews.
The ranking, based on 13.25 million survey questionnaires compiled by Skytrax, an air-transport research company based in Britain, named Emirates as the world’s best.
The Dubai-based airline, rated four stars on a one- to five-star rating system, wowed passengers with amenities like onboard showers, lounges, gourmet food and 2,500 channels of movies and television.
Air Koryo was the only one-star rated carrier, which Skytrax said “represents a poor quality of product delivered across the assessment sectors, combining with low and/or inconsistent standards of front-line staff service.”
But to be fair to Air Koryo, several of the 46 reviews posted on the Skytrax website described the carrier as adequate, although not spectacular.
Among the features that raised concerns among reviewers was the onboard meal of hamburgers made of a “mystery meat,” safety demonstrations that often were skipped, entertainment that consisted of propaganda films played in a loop and overhead luggage racks with no doors to keep bags from falling down on fliers during turbulence.