This Week

Hawaiian Airline is graded best domestic airline for the second year in a row and American eagle the worst in an annual airline overall performance assessment of the airline field. The report was based on elements such as in time arrivals, denied boarding, mishandled suitcases as well as consumer complaints. Exactly the same review also dropped Delta from the twelfth place to fifteenth position primarily due to flight 1201, which went from Atlanta Georgia to Orlando Florida on the sixteenth of January. The journey is supposed to take about 70 minutes, but it was jammed on tarmac for 10 hours straight.

This is three hours longer then it might take to drive in between the 2 places, yet still eight half hours less than the longest nonstop International flights presently on the books. That is going to be Singapore airlines flight 21 for 18 and a Half hour. This International Flights from Newark, New Jersey to Singapore, which is a staggering 9535 miles.

Another thing that causes turbulence for passengers is lost bags, but I doubt it is nowhere near as horrible as the people who had lost the following items. The items are amongst that were permanently separated from their owners, was, a full suit of armor, a rare violin from 1770, a 5.8 carat diamond ring and a painting valued at nearly $20,000.
Compared to those facts, flight delays don't seem that bad. Even compared to US airways flight 807 that went from Charlotte, NC to Hawaii, which was late 100% of the time late last year. Luckily for travelers headed for the islands at the same time, there was an airline that flew on time nearly 9 out of 10 times, with no cancellations. That would be domestic defending champion, Hawaiian Airlines. So our hats go off for Hawaiian for their continuing performance.

This week's bad news is a volcano beneath Iceland's glacier which began erupting and no, this isn't a name invented by someone falling asleep with their head on the keyboard. This turned Northern Europe into a no-fly zone and stranded travelers on six different continents. About 100 planes have flown into volcanic ashes between 1983 and 2000 and it shuts down the plane's engine for a moment. A KLM Boeing 747 flew through some ashes in 1989 and it lost all powers dropping from 25,000 feet to 12,000 feet before the crew was able to take it over again.