Word: carriers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Chances are you've probably never flown Mesa Airlines, the 24th largest carrier in the country. But the Phoenix-based airline, which flies mostly throughout the southwestern U.S., is the first - and so far only - U.S. carrier to put trained security personnel on board its flights. "We're small, but we're setting a national example," says Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein. "All airlines should be doing this...
...little guys skipped the interim solutions favored by majors like United and American, such as rigging a horizontal bar across the cockpit door, chiefly because they could: the big carriers have hundreds of planes to retrofit, and that takes time and money. Frontier, which has both Boeing and Airbus aircraft in its 31-plane fleet, decided that the bars weren't up to the job. "[That bar] is simply a feel-good measure," says one pilot from a major carrier. Frontier's engineers were unable to find any acceptable hardened cockpit doors quickly and eventually built their own from scratch...
...Making the cockpit inaccessible during flight is important, but further steps are necessary. The airlines are divided on how best to approach them. "There are lots of security issues," says one big carrier source, "But first we need to get rid of incompetent screeners. That's why the federal government should take that function over." Mesa's Ornstein counters, "The industry shouldn't be complaining about screeners - it should be moving towards airlines creating their own corps of flight security officers." The major carriers say they're waiting for federal air marshals. In the meantime, Mesa's security people will...
Naval Buildup The U.S. has dispatched a fourth aircraft carrier--the Kitty Hawk--to the region to serve as a floating base for ground troops...
Italy?s national carrier Alitalia called the current situation "the worst crisis commercial airlines have faced since the end of World War II." To meet it, the carrier announced costsaving measures, including a cut of 2,500 jobs, or 12% of the workforce. The package of cuts will let Alitalia bring losses down from an estimated $350 million to $150 million in the half-year ending in March. The government has promised Italian carriers - Alitalia and a handful of private lines - a bailout of up to $200 million to reduce airport taxes and help pay for heightened security...