Sky Talk

D/FW Airport sticking with TSA for now

With all of the attention on the Transportation Security Administration over the holiday weekend,  Dallas/Fort Worth airport chief executive Jeff Fegan weighed in on the move for airports to use private contractors instead of the TSA for airport security.

"We get fantastic support from the TSA at our airport," Fegan said, adding that the airport staff has not made any decision about using private contractors for security. "The TSA here at D/FW was selected as the No. 1 TSA operation in the country."

Fegan pointed out to airport board members that there are two mid-sized airports - San Francisco and Kansas City - that currently use private contractors and those airports say they feel there is no real reduction in safety.

With consumer outrage over body scanners and TSA's pat-down procedures, Fegan said there will be some efforts to encourage airports to consider private security and that Congress may look for ways to shrink government's role in airport security.

D/FW was one of several airports to receive a letter from Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) asking that the airports use private security firms instead. Mica is expected to lead the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee when the new Congress begins in January and he has received thousands of dollars in campaign donations from executives connected to private security contractors.

Fegan says the TSA's efficiency here at D/FW has helped keep security lines short at the airport, adding that the airport has a good working relationship with the local TSA office.

-Andrea Ahles

F-35 engine too big to carry to carriers

Then there is this doozy: The F-35 engine -- either one of them -- is so large it cannot be transported aboard the light cargo planes the Navy uses to fly stuff to its carriers at sea, Navy Times reports.

Well it could be slung below a V-22 Osprey or certainly a CH-53E helicopter for a couple of hundred mile ride out to a carrier, but then in a crisis situation the Navy's carriers may not be anywhere near that close to a land base.

It's even too big -- engine and transport container weigh 9,400 pounds -- for at sea transfers from a resupply ship. Another example, one analyst says, of the military procurement system not adequately looking ahead when dreaming up weapons projects.

“You’ve got a very complex aircraft — and there are many, many interesting technologies in this — where it’s tough enough to consider the operational and technological factors,” (said Jan) van Tol (of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments). “But apparently, they’ve not looked as carefully at second- and third-order issues.”

Wonder if this will come up when the Boeing salesmen are pitching the idea of buying more F/A-18 Super Hornets to the Navy and Congress"

- Bob Cox

 

 

 

 

TGI Friday's will get a new lease at D/FW Airport

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport has negotiated a new lease with TGI Friday's which already has six locations at various terminals at the airport.

That was the most newsworthy item to come out of the airport board's committee meetings held on Tuesday. The full board will vote on the lease agreement, which covers TGI's locations in terminals A, B, C, and E, at Thursday's meeting.

Board members were also informed that in the first month of the airport's fiscal year, the airport generated $8.4 million in net revenues, 7.8 percent better than it had budgeted. There were 4.96 million passengers traveling through D/FW in October, up from a projected 4.65 million.

It appears that the airport staff kept the agenda light this month, not only because of the upcoming holidays, but because Virgin America is coming to town tomorrow.

The airport is holding a large media event on Wednesday to fete the arrival of Virgin America's first flight from Los Angeles. Sir Richard Branson, who's Virgin Group holds a minority stake in the carrier, will also be at a "Bloody Mary" breakfast at the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce on Thursday morning.

-Andrea Ahles

F-35 delays opening door to competition

As the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program falls further behind schedule and its costs mount, Aviation Week reports that competitors (can you spell B-O-E-I-N-G) are being much more open about positioning themselves as available, highly capable and, yes, lower cost alternatives.

Author Bill Sweetman, whose distaste for the F-35 is seldom very camouflaged, says Boeing and European purveyors of combat jets are making sales pitches to possible buyers that revolve around what their planes can do now with the adaptation of modern weapons technology as a counter to the F-35 program mantra that it will be a "fifth generation fighter."

Sweetman cites one U.S. Air Force veteran:

“I don’t know what fifth-generation means, except that when I talk to an F-22 pilot he makes it clear that he flies a fifth-generation jet and I don’t,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Chris Cassem of USAF’s Weapons School, who went on to make the case that his Boeing F-15E Eagle does a lot of things that Lockheed Martin F-22s and F‑35s won’t do, or won’t do any better, even when they reach full capability. The F-15E, Cassem points out, brings long range, a large and diverse weapon load and a two-place cockpit to the joint campaign.

- Bob Cox

 

 

 

Debate continues over need for second F-35 engine

The mini-bombshell of the week in Washington surrounding the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter profgram last week was the revelation, of sorts, that new program executive Vice Adm.David Venlet supported continuing development of the alternative engine, contrary to Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated policy.

Now we find out that Venlet likes the idea of competition but doesn't support the F136 and isn't at cross purposes with his boss, the SecDef. So says the DoD press office anyways.

More in considerable detail on this story at InsideDefense.com (pay per view site).

As the Star-Telegram reported today, supporters of having DoD continue to fund development of the GE/Rolls Royce F-136 alternate engine are pushing to have funds included in a stopgap federal funding bill.

Many veterans of the early years of the F-16 program say that aircraft was badly hampered by only having an inferior and unreliable Pratt &Whitney engine until the Pentagon approved funding for an alternative GE engine. The competition, those vets say, brought down prices and forced a previously recalcitrant Pratt to improve its engine too. It's a parallel that Gates and others say isn't applicable in this circusmstance and besides the Pentagon doesn't have the funds.

- Bob Cox

Like Sky Talk? Like our new Facebook page

At Sky Talk, we blog and we tweet. But until this month, we did not Facebook.

But now, Sky Talk has its own Facebook page where I will post more photos and quick comments from different news events that I might be covering in the D/FW area.

To show off our new page a little bit in the Facebook world, on Wednesday, I will be posting photos and updates from the launch of Virgin America's new D/FW-LAX service. The plane will land around noon CDT and D/FW will have it pull up to its newly renovated corporate aviation terminal for a media event.

Hundreds of you already follow us on Twitter, where I often live tweet from media events and airline news conferences. But if you don't know about Sky Talk on Twitter, follow us at http://twitter.com/sky_talk

On Facebook, Sky Talk will have an open Wall so you can post on our Wall, comments, questions and anything else aviation-related. However, the same rules apply to the Wall as our Sky Talk comments section: no vulgarity and no offensive posts and all of the rest of the stuff in the Star-Telegram online policy.

So "like" us at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Sky-Talk/152084014816519

-Andrea Ahles

Southwest sweeps five categories in Zagat's airline survey

Southwest Airlines continues to be a favorite among travelers, according to a new Zagat airline survey.

The survey, which covers 16 domestic and 74 international airlines, rates each airline on comfort, service, food and its web site.

"While fliers are slowly but surely returning to the skies, they remain focused on good values and reliable service," said Tim Zagat, chief executive of Zagat Survey. "Airlines like Virgin America, Southwest, JetBlue and Continental score well with surveyors for precisely this reason."

While Southwest was not top in its category of "large domestic economy class" - that distinction went to JetBlue Airways - the Dallas-based carrier was rated tops in the Best Check-in Experience, Best Luggage Policy, Best Consumer On-Time Estimates, Top Website and Best Value among domestic airlines.

Continental Airlines - which is now part of United Airlines - was the top rated large domestic premium class carrier with Fort Worth-based American Airlines in second place.

Singapore Airlines had the top spot for International Premium Class and International Economy class carriers.

But what's always fun from the Zagat survey is the comments from some of the 8,000 frequent fliers who took a collective 139,300 flights in the past year. Here is a sampling:

-"When two crummy medium-size airlines merge, all you get is a crummy large airline."

-"My bags get better service, but they pay extra."

-"Seats make an iron maiden seem comfortable."

-Andrea Ahles

American launches new contest to compete with Virgin America's debut at D/FW

Travelers on the Dallas/Fort Worth-Los Angeles and D/FW-San Francisco routes, get ready for some intense competition.

With Virgin America launching service on those two routes in December, American Airlines is already matching fares and now has a new contest for those travelers who choose American over its new competition.

On Monday, American announced it will be giving AAdvantage members who fly those two routes, double elite qualifying miles and double flight miles on flights starting today through February 28, 2011.

And for the first fifteen days in December, American is giving customers on several flights a day complimentary items such as Admirals Club one day passes, $100 AA Vacations coupons and 5,000 frequent flyer miles.

Virgin's first flight from LAX will land at D/FW on Wednesday and Sky Talk will be there to watch Sir Richard Branson step off the plane. Check back then to see what he says about coming into American's home turf.

-Andrea Ahles

 

Holiday headlines

Hope all the Sky Talk readers out there had a good holiday week and enjoyed some turkey.

The blog took a little break (although the reporters didn't, we just had to write Black Friday stories instead...) but it is back now with a quick look at some of the weekend headlines from the aviation world.

FYI....look for an announcement from SkyTalk in a post later this afternoon.

Headline #1: Local San Antonio media reports that an American Airlines jet made an emergency landing at the San Antonio International airport on Sunday afternoon. The plane took off from the airport heading to Chicago with 139 passengers and 5 crew members when the plane experience engine trouble. The plane returned to San Antonio and landed without incident.

Headline #2: Delta is adding Wi-Fi to 223 regional jets operated by its Delta Connection carriers. The Atlanta-based carrier said it will begin  Wi-Fi installation in January and complete the project by 2011. Once the installation is complete, Delta says it will have Wi-Fi on 772 aircraft, more than 80 percent of its domestic fleet.

Headline #3: National Opt Day pretty much fizzled as airports across the country reported few security problems. Here is  what Star-Telegram reporters, Sandy Baker and Gordon Dickson, found at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Wednesday.

-Andrea Ahles

Aussies to retire GD-built F-111s

Stephen Trimble posts on Dew Line that the Royal Australian Air Force will retire its fleet of Fort Worth-built F-111 jets next week, which ought to being a tear to the eye of some of the former General Dynamics employees around who helped design and built the jets.

The U.S. Air Force retired its last F-111 in 1997, after they saw combat in Vietnam, Libya, Iraq and Serbia (if I recall correctly).

Trimble writes: The F-111 emerged after perhaps the most controversial weapons contract award in history. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara overruled the recommendation of his military evaluators, which overwhelmingly favored Boeing's riskier approach, and gave the contract to General Dynamics. McNamara's private decision triggered several years of congressional investigations. Meanwhile, his decision to force the US Air Force and US Navy to buy a common airframe proved at least as controversial, with the Navy finally allowed to drop out of the program in 1968 and paving the way for the F-14. The F-111's reputation remained stained by its acquisition legacy until it proved its worth in Operation El Dorado Canyon on April 14, 1986, when the US Air Force bombed five Libyan bases.

- Bob Cox