• What's elliott?
• About elliott
• Contact us

t o p i c s

• Business
• Commentary
• Destinations
• Help
• Leisure
• Technology
• Vault

Copyright Elliott Publishing. All rights reserved. For more information, call (305) 453-4781 or send e-mail to us.

E L L I O T T' S TRAVEL NOTES
Travel news, opinion and analysis

January 26, 2004

Passenger Screening Gets Tougher
Airlines soon will be required to send the names and travel plans of all their customers to the federal government as part of a massive computerized screening program designed to identify potential terrorists before they board an airplane. The program, to be run by an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, is on track to begin this summer, despite concerns that it could infringe on passengers' privacy. Last week, Northwest came under fire after acknowledging that it had voluntarily turned over passenger travel data to NASA two years ago. Star Tribune | Posted 6: 15 a.m.
-- AP: Woman passes security with stun gun, knife
-- Post: Airlines hustle to protect selves on data sharing
-- Times: Cendant wants to collect customer data

• CAPPS II may need some tweaking, as I pointed out in a recent editorial. Send us your comments.

Baggage Locks a Work in Progress
While we were checking in for a United Airlines flight to Paris last month, my wife asked two federal baggage screeners posted by the United counter if she could lock the bag she was about to check with a new lock approved by the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA screeners didn't look closely at the lock and said she couldn't use it. The United agent checking us in was familiar with the new program, introduced in November, and said she was surprised the screeners didn't allow my wife to use the lock. Chicago Tribune | Posted 6:20 a.m.

Airline Traffic Up, Sort Of
Things are looking up (slightly) for the beleaguered airlines. The U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics that U.S. airlines carried 1.1 percent more domestic passengers in September 2003 than in September 2002. But the U.S. airlines carried 0.4 percent less domestic passengers during the first nine months of 2003 than in the comparable period in 2002 based on a year-to-year comparison of the airlines that reported traffic data in both years. Traffic was down 2.9 percent during the first nine months of 2003 from the same period in 2001. BTS | Posted 6:25 a.m.
-- America West posts net profit
-- American narrows quarterly loss

-----------------------------------

• And finally ... frequent fliers are frustrated by the lack of information about airline accidents, including midair near-misses. The good news: the Federal government does release that data. The bad news: It's practically indecipherable. Thanks for nothing. Posted 6:25 a.m. | Send us your comments.

>> Yesterday's Notes | Tomorrow's Notes <<

E-mail Elliott | Other bloggers | About this blog

Latest Travel Notes | Complete Archives