Travel News - Aviation.com

With a retail organization's spokesperson announcing that its members will have to increase prices to reflect higher costs from suppliers and McDonald's saying it can no longer absorb wholesale increases, it's worth asking if the airline industry should follow their example.

Backscatter X-ray and millimeter-wave imaging technologies that give Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers the ability to see through passengers' clothing and look for prohibited objects hidden next to their bodies are being used at an increasing number of U.S. airports. Voluntary use of the technologies by travelers reportedly has been high, even though the new technologies allow security screeners to see intimate details of passengers' bodies and personal medical items. ...

Air New Zealand will perform a demonstration flight in September to highlight the possibilities for more sustainable air travel.

Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik are taking over the record books in 2008. First the pair broke the world record for a rotorcraft flight from New York to Los Angeles. Then, earlier this month, they set the mark for a flight from New York to London. On Monday, Kasprowicz and Sheik landed in New York after circling the world less than two weeks.

Cash is king, the saying goes. As if to convince us of this, a press release came across my desk this week touting the ease of wiring cash to airlines to buy plane tickets. No easier way to pay your air fare, the release said. Safe, modern, convenient. No muss, no fuss.

Star Alliance is claiming an airline-industry first with the launch of an automated service intended to simplify the task of verifying passengers' travel documentation requirements.

American Airlines, British Airways and Spain's Iberia Airlines want to become transatlantic triplets.

In their attempt to break the speed record for world circumnavigation by helicopter, the two pilots flying an AgustaWestland 109 Grand twin-engine chopper have made considerable progress since they began their flight on Aug. 7 - but not without incident.

On June 20, a violent storm crossed northern California and the border regions of Oregon and Nevada, producing some 8,000 lightning strikes and starting more than 2,000 wildfires on local, state and federal land.

Since the genesis of powered flight with the Wright Brothers in 1903, the paramount objective of safety has driven evolutionary progress to organize and regulate airspace better. Other imperatives for the organization of airspace have been the need to make the best use of a finite medium and to make airspace usage convenient and logical for both pilots and controllers.

It's getting almost comical the way revenue-hungry airlines are justifying all the new fees and surcharges they are laying on travelers in lieu of charging realistic fares.

It took about a day and a half for Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik to travel from New York to Iceland - a distance of about 3,000 nautical miles. That leaves only some 17,000 nautical miles (19,560 miles) to go before they are home again.

You're paying more to travel, and not just for your plane ticket. Every pound counts as the number of carriers charging for all pieces of checked luggage racks up. So it stands to reason that the public might wonder why airlines don't charge extra for passengers with significant overages of a more, uh, personal nature.