Airline Passengers

Airline passengers will get their first chance to fly out of Los Angeles on Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner in January, when United Airlines begins daily nonstop flights to Narita, Japan. United, the first U.S. carrier to operate the twin-aisle aircraft, announced Thursday its first routes for the massive plane. Its flights using the 787 from Los Angeles International Airport will begin Jan. 3 with daily, nonstop trips to Narita and to Shanghai starting March 30, United said. Although the aircraft can hold up to 290 passengers, the configuration United will use for these flights will carry a maximum of 219. "The 787 is the right aircraft for these routes because of its many passenger-friendly amenities and superior operating economics," said Greg Hart, United's senior vice president of network.

Grouse all you want about airline baggage fees, but the numbers don't lie: You are slowly learning to accept them as a painful but necessary part of the flying experience. In fact, the overall satisfaction with air travel has increased to the highest level since 2006, according to the J.D. Power & Associates airline satisfaction study for 2013. On a 1,000-point scale, satisfaction with airlines reached 695 points, up 14 points from 2012, according to the survey of more than 11,800 airline passengers.

Airline fees are among the most annoying aspect of commercial flying, but the biggest gripes among passengers are uncomfortable seats and tight legroom. That was one of the key findings of the latest survey of more than 2,000 people in the U.S. by the travel review site TripAdvisor.com. After uncomfortable seats and hefty passenger fees, the travelers who were surveyed said unpredictable flight delays, long security lines and obnoxious passengers were the biggest annoyances. The most irritating fees, according to the survey, are charges to check bags, carry bags into the cabin, upgrade to a better seat, print a boarding pass and buy in-flight extras.

The Transportation Security Administration will soon let airline passengers carry small folding knives on planes for the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But a group of flight attendants is doing everything it can to halt the shift in policy. It has even employed the families of flight attendants who died in the terrorist attacks to put pressure on the TSA. Still, TSA is set April 25 to allow passengers to bring onboard small folding knives, with blades 2.36 inches or shorter and less than 1/2 an inch wide, as well as pool cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks, golf clubs and novelty-size bats.

The latest federal statistics that measure the performance of the nation's airlines offered some good news for passengers and some bad. First the good news: In 2011, the airlines set new records for the lowest rate of lost or mishandled baggage and the lowest rate of passengers bumped from overbooked flights. In 2011, the department received 3.39 reports of mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, the lowest rate since the Transportation Department began keeping track of lost bag reports in 1988.

A three-hour time limit on tarmac waits for airline passengers will soon become law, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said today at an unofficial hearing on airline passengers' rights. The Capitol Hill event drew both supporters and critics of the legislation, which would force airlines to create plans to deplane passengers after three hours and would require the carriers to provide basic services such as food and water while travelers are waiting on planes. "We're on the one-yard line today," Boxer said, telling the packed room that the long process of making the measures into law is almost over.

Responding to horror stories of stranded passengers, federal regulators say they will begin levying hefty fines on airlines that leave travelers grounded in planes on the tarmac without food, water or the option to disembark. The new regulations, announced Monday by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, require airlines to provide access to bathrooms as well as food and water on domestic flights within two hours of a delay. After three hours, passengers must be offered a chance to disembark.

The Times' Dec. 22 editorial on the federal government's rule requiring airliners that sit on the tarmac for more than three hours to disembark passengers was surprisingly astute -- surprising because the sensible observations and conclusions that The Times expressed have been so rarely understood or articulated in this emotion-charged debate. Ever since a very few but very public events -- in December 2006, February 2007 and then one flight this past summer in Rochester, Minn. -- many have made "fixing" this problem a cause celebre.

Continental Airlines passengers who travel through Newark International Airport will be offered free stationery and postage to write troops in the Middle East. "We're hoping a lot of people will take time between their coffee and boarding to jot a little note," Continental spokeswoman Andrea Pass said. The airline says 35,000 passengers travel through the Newark airport each day on its planes.

Passengers on commercial airlines can now check in a can of Mace or pepper spray with their luggage, but they face penalties if they carry the self-defense spray on board with them, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday. The agency adjusted its regulations in response to numerous requests from flight crew members and passengers who said they want a means of self-protection once they arrive at their destinations.

When teensy-weensy Samoa Airlines debuted its pay-by-the-kilo policy in January, I doubt it expected to set off an international controversy about fat discrimination. But that's what happened when news seeped out this week after the airline's chief executive, Chris Langton, told ABC News radio in Australia that the system is not only fair but destined to catch on. “Doesn't matter whether you're carrying freight or people,” explained Langton. "We've amalgamated the two and worked out a figure per kilo.” Samoa Air, he added, has always weighed the human and non-human cargo it carries.

If you find an empty seat next to you on your next flight, consider yourself very lucky. The nation's airlines set a new record last year for the percentage of seats filled on commercial flights, with an overall average rate of 82.8%, up from 82% in 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The rate for filled seats--known as the passenger load factor--has been on the rise for several years as airlines cut seat capacity while demand has risen steadily. PHOTOS: TSA finds weapons in the strangest places For the year, U.S. airlines carried 0.8% more total passengers--736.6 million--than during 2011, according to the federal agency.

A trade group for the world's airlines is pushing to modernize a decades-old booking system to help speed along the latest airline trend: the sale of customized fare packages. Behind the effort is the International Air Transport Assn., the trade group for about 240 of the world's largest airlines. The group filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation last week to upgrade the computer system used by travel agents and online travel sites such as Orbitz and Travelocity.

Another airline executive is speaking out on a plan by federal regulators to allow passengers to bring small knives into the cabin of commercial planes. Doug Parker, chief executive at US Airways, wrote to the head of the Transportation Security Administration on Monday, asking that the agency reconsider the proposed policy change. The TSA announced last week plans to let passengers carry small folding knives -- with blades no more than 2.36 inches long and 1/2 inch wide -- into the cabin of a commercial plane, starting April 25. It is the biggest relaxation of the list of prohibited items since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Airline fees are among the most annoying aspect of commercial flying, but the biggest gripes among passengers are uncomfortable seats and tight legroom. That was one of the key findings of the latest survey of more than 2,000 people in the U.S. by the travel review site TripAdvisor.com. After uncomfortable seats and hefty passenger fees, the travelers who were surveyed said unpredictable flight delays, long security lines and obnoxious passengers were the biggest annoyances. The most irritating fees, according to the survey, are charges to check bags, carry bags into the cabin, upgrade to a better seat, print a boarding pass and buy in-flight extras.

In anticipation of a strong winter storm heading toward the Northeast, airlines have canceled more than 2,000 flights for Friday, mostly from New York, Boston and Chicago airports. The 2,004 cancellations for Friday are in addition to 475 flights canceled for Thursday and 454 canceled for Saturday, according to the flight-monitoring site FlightAware . The National Weather Service has issued storm warnings and predicted blizzard conditions when two weather systems meet over the next 24 hours to "produce a major and potentially historic winter storm for the Northeastern U.S. " Because the storm is to cut through in the nation's busiest air space, airline passengers across the country will also feel some of the pain.

A passenger on a weekend flight to Atlanta has been ordered held in custody on charges of assaulting four people. Hung Cong Duong, 30, of Vietnam was held after his arraignment Monday afternoon in Las Vegas. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 6. FBI spokesman Kevin Caudle said Duong was on a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta early Saturday when he became upset that a flight attendant would not serve him before other passengers.

Citing record delays and a sharp increase in complaints, leading Senate advocates for better airline service are unimpressed with industry efforts to voluntarily resolve consumer problems and plan to introduce legislation today to ensure passenger rights. "The airlines have had their chance," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in an interview about a yearlong industry initiative to boost service in key areas, including providing information on fares, scheduling and delays.

If you cringe at the thought of flying on a commercial flight, you are not alone. You probably have lots of complaints about the long lines, intrusive security searches and fees for food, drinks and even pillows. But airline workers also have gripes, mostly about their tough working conditions and how they are treated by frustrated passengers. In a recent survey of 700 airline workers in 85 countries, fliers who snapped their fingers to get the attention of flight attendants were ranked as the biggest annoyance.

After a 16-year career in the airline industry, Claudia Helena Oxee doesn't mince words about what's wrong with airline passengers today. "Let's face it, passengers dress the way they want and do what they want," said Oxee, who worked on the station crew at John F. Kennedy International Airport for TWA, Pan Am and LTU International Airways. "The level of passengers has been degrading. " Now retired and promoting a book about her experiences, she said she would "crack the whip" on unruly passengers if she were still working at an airport.