Running on vapours

image generated via ChatGPT

Britain’s second-largest airport is rapidly running out of fuel. {The Express 2 August}

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2235352/london-gatwick-airport-fuel-shortage

The biggest error made was assuming perpetual growth and prosperity. FTA: 

Gatwick Airport has warned that it's facing a fuel shortage amid the busy summer holiday season. The UK's second-largest airport issued a notice to pilots, telling them to fill up at other airports where possible, The Sun reports.

It stated: "Gatwick has a shortage of fuel for the next two days. Please uplift max possible fuel at outstations." Another "emergency" alert added that airline bosses should be prepared for "potential disruption to the Gatwick fuel supply".

Long-haul flights are understood to be the worst affected, as pilots will have to stock as much fuel as possible at foreign destinations without exceeding weight limits.

A source told The Sun: "Most flights beyond 2.5 hours will still need extra fuel in Gatwick. The fuel shortage warning came with many long-haul flights already en route to the UK, meaning crews were unable to bring extra fuel with them.

"Pilots will be trying to supplement as much fuel as they can down-route to protect the long-haul flights and stretch out supply.

"The longer the fuel shortage lasts, the tighter it will get. It means there is a good chance of disruption, particularly Monday onwards."

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Waiting for new horizons

generated via ChatGPT

Air Canada cuts more US flights amid high jet fuel costs and falling Canadian demand for travel. {Canadian Press 6 July}

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air-canada-halts-some-us-routes-9.7260269

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The weight of the skies

generated via ChatGPT

Misery at our decaying airports for travellers during the World Cup: ‘America’s intractable air traffic problem’. {Financial Times 22 June}

https://archive.is/TSAlW

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

End of the Jet Age dream

generated via ChatGPT

The pathetic state of airline travel in #Murica: crumbling airports, staff shortages, rising fares, and slashed services. {The Times 17 June}

https://www.thetimes.com/travel/advice/flying-in-the-us-is-now-the-worst-its-ever-been-i-should-know-07fcpjr6n

A perspective from a British writer: it is genuinely startling — no hyperbole needed — to learn how far American airlines and airports have fallen behind the rest of the developed world during the quarter-century since 9/11. Travellers are plainly dissatisfied, yet also are gaslit to be resigned to the increasingly unpleasant experience of domestic air travel within the former United States. Delays, overcrowding, ageing infrastructure, diminished customer service, and an endless array of fees have become so commonplace that Americans simply accept them as unavoidable facts of life.

Most remarkable is the absence of any meaningful political or commercial pressure to improve matters. Consumers grumble, yet continue to fly; politicians occasionally promise reform, yet little changes. The beloved Trump regime even rolled back several consumer-protection measures enacted under President Biden that were modest and entirely reasonable safeguards for passengers (specifically having to do with capping fees, if memory serves), and suffered zero popular backlash for doing so. Declining standards carry few consequences for either airlines or policymakers, because the dominant plurality of #Muricans are angry and stupid white trash.

Perchance, the greatest tragedy of modern American politics: large segments of the electorate have repeatedly accepted tangible declines in their own quality of life and freedoms in exchange for the promise that all the immigrants and other assorted ‘woke’ parties will suffer even more. Harsh though that assessment may sound, it reflects a reality that observers — inside and outside the former United States — find increasingly difficult to ignore. Americans, in the main, are not good or decent people, and my experiences in life have entirely reflected as such. Hell, I cannot even say I’ve been a good person much of the way, but at least I have the decency to be ashamed of what we’ve become now. 

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

One in three NCAA men's and women's basketball players faced abuse from bettors, including death threats, during this year’s tournaments

Angel Reese. Photo: Getty Images

NCAA: 1 in 3 star athletes receive abuse, threats by bettors {ESPN 5/18}

Methinks I am not sufficient of a constitutional scholar to know if the federal government hath any legitimate authority to regulate gambling, and I generally do despise any nanny state tendencies I detect in others. All said, I really do hate gambling. Years ago, I laboured in gas station convenience stores and felt like a glorified drug pusher with all the scratch tickets I did sell to Massholes. Most of the folk buying them were downright pathetic, but I digress. Furthermore, I have long turned a blind eye to gambling in my waning enthusiasm for horse racing, knowing that it hath always been the lifeblood of the industry. Yet, for the life of me, I shall never understand why any individual would desire to play with money. It maketh absolutely no sense.

Absolutely nothing of goodly import is emerging from the explosion of legalised sports betting currently taking place. When combined with the endemic, regressive, and all-pervading hatred raging in the United States at this time, it doth create a deadly combination. The ESPN article notes that female collegiate basketball players are about thrice more likely than their male counterparts to receive abuse. One day, somebody is going to get killed, but it will not matter to the puissant interests invested in the commons casting away coin they cannot afford to lose. It ought to go without saying, this is beyond shameful and yet another sign, among thousands, that the people of #Murica are, in laymen’s terms, losing their s**t.

Alito J6 controversy ‘another blow for Supreme Court under fire’ - Lifetime tenure for Justices was a huge error of foresight by our nation’s founders. {AP 5/17}

President Biden signs a significant aviation safety and airline reform bill into law. {Reuters 5/16}

Cost of living crisis. Suze Orman warns ‘If you don’t have at least $5 million or $10 million, don’t retire early’. {Yahoo! 5/16}

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

America’s president shows steady leadership as Russia’s president wages genocide against the Ukrainian people and unimaginable horror plays out; meanwhile, the American people cry about gas prices and play the blame game. Insights and headlines from another week of war in Ukraine

AP

Working to prevent World War III is a delicate operation, and President Biden is displaying proper leadership during this crisis. Not that very many Americans seem to appreciate it, but thankfully we have a leader who is not going to put fickle public opinion ahead of the lives of the Ukrainian people and global security. Sadly, I’m afraid Ukraine and other vulnerable nations will not be able to count upon America’s help in the future, and Americans are going the way of the Russians. Decaying, mean-spirited, heartless, soulless nationalists and Fascists. I support President Biden because he is essentially the only one standing between us and tyranny, even as most of our fellow Americans and their political idols embrace it. Once he is gone, America is going full-on Nazi, and the world will be an even more dangerous and unpleasant place than we already endure. 

I am sensing that most Americans are starting to become annoyed with having to pay attention to the situation in Ukraine, and only want to bitch about gas prices, illegal aliens, and made-up controversies such as Critical Race Theory or the 2020 presidential election being rigged. We can't even be bothered to any longer take precautions against a deadly virus, and shrug our soldiers at nearly one million dead from said virus. We are not a good country, Americans are not good people anymore, by and large, and can no longer be counted upon by anybody.

It is not Americans who fight for freedom anymore - indeed, too many Americans no longer really know what ‘freedom’ actually means. Instead, they embrace mindless populism. Populism is a disease. It is at once a narcissistic belief in one’s superiority, and a persecution complex of never measuring up to others around them. Populism is one desperately screaming, ‘you will respect my willful ignorance, or else.’ Desperate to never be anything other than an idiot, and willing to commit genocide to protect their stupidity. That is where we are at, as is Putin’s Russia. In both cases, it is not going to end well. Russians and Americans really no longer matter, aside from the damage they can and do inflict upon the world: It is the Ukrainian people who are either going to save their nation, Europe, and the world from its most nefarious menace, or they will perish trying. This is their 1776. Слава Україні. Via the New York Times -

WASHINGTON — President Biden will announce sanctions this week on hundreds of members of Russia’s lower house of Parliament, according to a White House official familiar with the announcement, as the United States and its allies reach for even stronger measures to punish President Vladimir V. Putin for his monthlong invasion of Ukraine.

The announcement is scheduled to be made during a series of global summits in Europe on Thursday, when Mr. Biden will press Western leaders for even more aggressive economic actions against Russia as its forces continue to rain destruction on cities in Ukraine.

In Brussels on Thursday, Mr. Biden and other leaders will announce a “next phase” of military assistance to Ukraine, new plans to expand and enforce economic sanctions, and an effort to further bolster NATO defenses along the border with Russia, Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said on Tuesday. (Read more)

Maximilian Clarke/Story Picture Agency

Mariupol reduced to ‘ashes of a dead land.’ The scary thing is, up until now this has been a very pro-Russian city. The vast majority of residents are (or were) Russian speakers. Yet, Putin chose to punish the city the hardest of all. Pure evil (The Guardian 3/22)

‘Ukrainian forces fought off continuing Russian efforts to occupy Mariupol and claimed to have retaken a strategic suburb of Kyiv on Tuesday, mounting a defense so dogged that it is stoking fears Russia’s Vladimir Putin will escalate the war to new heights’ (AP 3/22)

Putin has used Belarus to attack Ukraine from its north, and he sought to use Belarusian soldiers as ‘cannon fodder,’ with the Belarusian dictator’s total compliance. Belarusian railway workers have put a major dent into these nefarious plans, destroying vital rail lines from Belarus into Ukraine (EuroMaidan Press 3/21)

Russian troops fire grenades and bullets at peaceful demonstrators against occupation in the city of Kherson (Sky News 3/21)

‘This is what they call the “operation of denazification.”’ One of the saddest stories yet from this unjust war: 96-year-old Holocaust survivor killed in Russian strike on the city of Kharkiv (CNN 3/21)

This man is a true hero, in a world that persecutes heroes and they are few in number: Opposition leader Alexei Navalny found guilty of ‘fraud,’ sentenced to nine additional years in prison (NPR 3/22)

‘The U.S. and Ukraine have knocked back Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to falsely frame the narrative of his brutal war, but they are struggling to get a more accurate view of the Kremlin’s invasion in front of the Russian people’ (AP 3/22)

China crash is ‘unprecedented’ given Boeing 737′s stellar safety record, says aviation analyst (CNBC 3/22)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Delta Airlines reports that 8,000 of its employees have contracted COVID in just the past four weeks

Mario Tama/Getty Images

A staggering figure, but to at least some extent Delta Airlines may have brought this upon itself. -  

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said about 8,000 of its 75,000 employees tested positive for Covid-19 over the last four weeks, absences that marred the company’s financial results during a busy holiday travel season. 

Delta reported a loss for the quarter and forecast another for the first three months of the year because of the fast-spreading omicron variant, but predicted travel would begin to rebound again in late February. 

A series of winter storms and airline crews sidelined by omicron infections contributed to more than 20,000 U.S. flight cancellations industrywide between Christmas Eve and the first week of January. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby on Monday said 3,000 of its close to 70,000 U.S. employees were positive for Covid. 

Flight cancellations have eased significantly in the past few days. Delta said that its operation has since stabilized and that 1% of its flights were canceled over the past week because of omicron. 

The employees who tested positive had “no significant health issues,” Bastian said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” after releasing quarterly results. 

Delta late last year updated its sick leave policy for employees who test positive for Covid-19, providing them five days of pay, outside of sick banks, and an additional two days if they test positive on the fifth day. Previously staff had 10 days of paid leave for Covid infections aside from regular sick days. That came after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidelines for Covid quarantining, halving its recommendation to five days. 

Delta and other airlines had urged the CDC to make the change. (Read more)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

New ‘omicron’ COVID variant discovered; the United States and European Union move to restrict travel from eight nations in southern Africa as stock markets fall

AP Photo/Denis Farrell

As President Biden has noted, it is time for some of these other countries to step up their efforts to contain this plague. Notice I said ‘contain,’ because there is no hope now of actually eradicating it, thanks to those who have spent this entire pandemic whining about their freedom instead of following necessary protocol. From the AP - 

The White House said the U.S. will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries in the region beginning Monday. It did not give details except to say the restrictions will not apply to returning U.S. citizens or permanent residents, who will continue to be required to test negative before their travel. 

Medical experts, including the WHO, warned against any overreaction before the variant that originated in southern Africa was better understood. But a jittery world feared the worst nearly two years after COVID-19 emerged and triggered a pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people around the globe. 

“We must move quickly and at the earliest possible moment,” British Health Secretary Sajid Javid told lawmakers. 

There was no immediate indication whether the variant causes more severe disease. As with other variants, some infected people display no symptoms, South African experts said. The WHO panel drew from the Greek alphabet in naming the variant omicron, as it has done with earlier, major variants of the virus. (Read more)

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.

AG Merrick Garland instructs U.S. attorneys to ‘prioritize prosecution of federal crimes occurring on aircraft’ as incidents involving unruly passengers explode

Getty Images

What a nation of violent and aggressively stupid jackasses we’ve become. America’s worst enemy is itself - 

A woman was kicked off an Allegiant Air flight and arrested Sunday for refusing to wear a face mask, police said. As she was wheeled down the jetway in Las Vegas, police said, the woman allegedly yelled obscenities and "Let's go, Brandon" — a euphemism involving the president, reported CBS affiliate KLAS. 

Katrina Alspaugh, of Las Vegas, faces one charge of violating airport rules, according to KLAS. Police said Alspaugh had earlier attempted to punch another passenger at the security checkpoint who pointed out Alspaugh was not wearing her mask. 

It is one in a stream of incidents of alleged unruly behavior in the skies, and came as the hectic holiday travel season starts. A Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said Tuesday was the sixth straight day agents screened more than 2 million passengers, the longest stretch of days topping that mark this year. Tuesday's passenger volume was 91% of its 2019 level, the agency said Wednesday. 

The Federal Aviation Administration said this week it had received 5,338 reports of unruly passengers so far this year, 3,856 of which involved masks, and is requesting a total $161,823 in fines against eight passengers for alleged alcohol-related incidents. That brings the total civil penalties against passengers to at least $1.3 million in 2021. 

The largest of the fines announced this week, $40,823, stems from an April incident aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from San Jose to San Diego. A passenger allegedly drank their own alcohol during the flight despite being told by a flight attendant it was prohibited, then sexually assaulted the flight attendant and smoked marijuana in the bathroom, according to a news release.  

A passenger on a March flight from Fort Meyers, Florida, to Detroit that was diverted to Atlanta is accused of repeatedly taking off his face mask after crew members told him to keep it on, swearing at other passengers and accusing them of stealing, and appeared to be intoxicated, according to the release. 

"This is America. This is free speech. What don't you understand?" he allegedly yelled at a crew member. (Read more)

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says he does not foresee vaccine mandate for domestic air travel in the immediate future

AFP/Getty Images

Dr. Anthony Fauci – making an assessment of the toxic political environment – says in a television interview that he does not foresee proof of vaccination for domestic air travel being mandated soon. Watch, when that particular mandate does go into force (and it will), the anti-vaxxers will point and say Dr. Fauci lied to them yet again. Context is key. - 

Amid a growing push for passengers on domestic flights to show proof of vaccination, top infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci said he doesn’t see it happening in the near future.

His statement came Sunday during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” after anchor Dana Bash asked if he would like an air travel vaccine mandate in effect for the holidays. He said such a decision would be made with “input from a number of parts of the government.”

“On the table is the issue of mandates for vaccine,” said Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser. “It’s always discussable, we always wind up discussing it, but right now I don’t see that immediately.”

Late last month, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a bill that would make vaccination, a negative coronavirus test or proof of recent recovery from the virus mandatory to fly domestically. Earlier in the month, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) proposed legislation to require proof of vaccination or a negative test for domestic air or Amtrak travelers.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The Washington Post last month that he would support a vaccine mandate for domestic flights if Biden wanted to move forward with one.

During the interview Sunday, he declined to weigh in on whether he supported a mandate, saying he did not want his comments to be taken out of context.

“We have everything on the table, and it will be discussed by the medical group,” he said. (Read more)

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.

The TSA announces that mask mandate for transportation will be extended through January 18

Reuters

Better safe than sorry - 

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration confirmed late on Tuesday it plans to extend requirements for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations through Jan. 18 to address ongoing COVID-19 risks. 

A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesperson confirmed the extension, first reported by Reuters. "The purpose of TSA’s mask directive is to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation," the spokesperson said 

Major U.S. airlines were informed of the planned extension on a call with TSA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday, four people briefed on the matter said. 

The current TSA transportation mask order runs through Sept 13. (Read more)

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.