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Paraplegic passenger says he had to scoot down United plane aisle on bottom – WLS

A paraplegic passenger who relies on a wheelchair said he was forced, on multiple occasions, to scoot down his plane’s aisle while traveling on United Airlines with his wife for their honeymoon because of a lack of proper equipment.

High school football coach Tyler Schilhabel said the problems began when he landed at O’Hare for a layover between Los Angeles and the Dominican Republic. He said he almost missed his connection because he was late getting off the plane.

United Airlines, he said, did not immediately have available an aisle chair which helps passengers with disabilities navigate a plane’s narrow aisles.

“One of the flight attendants, who knew that I was in a rush and the aisle chair wasn’t there, he actually picked me up, lifted me and put me into my normal chair so that I could make my connecting flight,” Schilhabel said.

When Schilhabel and his wife landed in the Caribbean there were more problems deplaning.

“I had to scoot on my bottom all the way to the front of the plane, and when we realized there wasn’t a ramp or anything else, my wife and I just decided, no, it’s not safe. We don’t trust them to carry me down the flight of stairs, so we just hopped down. She grabbed my legs, and I hopped down step by step on my bottom,” he said.

Getting home from the honeymoon was also an ordeal. When the couple landed in O’Hare for their connection there was once again no aisle chair.

“We had a connecting flight, still had to get through customs, so I scooted on my bottom all 31 rows to the front of the plane, got on my chair, got through customs,” said Schilhabel.

United released a statement Monday, saying in part, “We are proud to operate an airline that doesn’t just include people with disabilities but welcomes them as customers … That said, this incident falls far short of our own high standard.”

United said it is in contact with Schilhabel to apologize, and called these types of incidents extremely rare.

Schilhabel said he went public with his experience in an effort to fix the problem. He said he notified the airline well in advance about the accommodations he needed.

Pilot: Shutdown adding new risk to air travel

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By Les Abend

Updated 4:46 PM ET, Tue January 8, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

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Les Abend recently retired after 34 years as a Boeing 777 captain for American Airlines. He is a CNN aviation analyst and senior contributor to Flying magazine. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN)Nobody wants to hear a recording of, “Sorry, we’re closed due to nonpayment.” If you’re an airline pilot requesting an approach clearance, this would be especially troublesome to say the least. We have no checklists for such things.

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Biggest Dreamliner: United Airlines now flying Boeing’s 787-10

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United Airlines’ newest aircraft type – the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner – is now in service at the carrier.

United Flight 2418 marked United’s official debut of its “Dash 10,” departing from Los Angeles at 8:49 a.m. local time (11:49 a.m. ET) on Monday morning en route to Newark, New Jersey. Though United touted the flight as the 787-10’s “entry into scheduled service,” the airline has quietly subbed the 787-10 onto some flights in recent weeks ahead of the formal debut.

Now, United will roll the 787-10 onto more of its existing flights that already connect the carrier’s hubs at Newark Liberty and Los Angeles. In addition to the LAX-Newark flights that begin today, United’s 787-10s will begin to pick up some of its Newark-San Francisco flights starting in February.

The 787-10s expand to international service in March, when United adds the jet to routes from Newark to the European cities of Frankfurt, Germany; Paris Charles de Gaulle; Barcelona, Spain; Brussels and Dublin. United also will fly the jet between Newark and Tel Aviv, Israel.

PHOTOS: WestJet’s first Boeing 787 Dreamliner takes flight from Everett, Washington

TODAY IN THE SKY: First look: United shows off its first Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner

United Airlines’ new animal support rules are going into effect – WILX

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(WILX) — There are new rules for emotional support animals at United Airlines.

Starting Monday, United Airlines will only allow dogs and cats to fly with passengers as emotional support animals.

The new rule also bans all support animals from flights longer than eight hours, although service animals with specialized training can still travel on long haul flights.

All dogs and cats traveling on board flights must be at least four months old.

Additionally, only dogs, cats and miniature horses will be allowed to fly as service animals.

Although the changes take effect Monday, United says it will honor reservations made by January 3rd under the old rules.

No-deal Brexit BOOST: Germany commits to maintaining air travel with UK to avoid chaos

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Germany is also in close contact with Britain with a view to avoiding disruption to air transport links in the case of a hard Brexit.

A number of Conservative MPs have spoke out in favour of leaving the EU without a deal as they maintain opposition to Mrs May’s deal.

Ross Thomson, MP for Aberdeen South, said: “Leaving the EU on WTO terms means we have our own trade policy, save billions of our own money, take back control of our own law making, regain control over our own borders and take back control of our own fishing waters.

“That’s Brexit. That’s closer to what people voted for.”

The EU Commission has already announced a series of plans to minimise disruption and has also urged member states to step up their own preparations.

In December, Brussels a number of temporary measures, in areas such as finance and transport.

“These measures will not – and cannot – mitigate the overall impact of a ‘no-deal’ scenario,” the Commission said in a statement.

Strikes disrupt air travel across Europe

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Hostilities between aviation workers and their employers have resumed across Europe, with thousands of passengers caught up in the first major stoppage of the year.

Security workers at Berlin’s Tegel Airport took industrial action between 5am and 8.45am, the busiest time of the week for outbound departures. The strike triggered cancellations that will disrupt travel through the morning.

Lufthansa and its subsidiaries Eurowings are hardest hit, with multiple flights to Frankfurt, Cologne and Munich grounded.

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Services to Paris, Copenhagen, Basel, Zurich and Vienna are among the international flights cancelled.

The airport told passengers: “From 5am to 8.45am there will be severe disruption in air traffic. Enquire about the current status of your flight with your airline before travelling to the airport.”

Ryanair cabin crew employed in Spain are planning strikes on 8, 10 and 13 January after failing to reach an agreement with Europe’s biggest budget airline over employment conditions.

As is customary in Spain, the government has stipulated a minimum level of operations, which means that all domestic flights and 35 per cent of international services must run.

The airline said it planned to operate a full schedule of flights to, from and within Spain on Tuesday 8 January – but urged passengers to arrive at the departure airport at least two hours ahead.

The latest strike to be called is in Italy on Friday 11 January. Eurocontrol said the four-hour strike, timed for the busiest afternoon of the week – from 1-5pm – will affect domestic, European flights and long-haul departures, but not overflights or incoming intercontinental flights.

Passengers whose flights are disrupted are entitled to a duty of care – meals and accommodation – until they reach their destination, but the right to cash compensation is disputed.

US Air Travel Delays Worsen As Air Traffic Control, TSA Crisis Looms Amid Government Shutdown

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Unions representing Transportation Security Administration employees, air traffic controllers and airline pilots demanded that President Donald Trump and Congress end a 16-day partial government shutdown that has wreaked havoc on air travel.

Airport and airline employees across the country have urged air travelers to arrive hours earlier than usual for flights in light of increased security checkpoint wait times and backed-up lines. Employees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, for example, told KIRO-TV that several passengers had been left crying outside the gates after they’d waited hours to get through unstaffed security checkpoints—the situation got worse as several TSA employees, who have been working without pay during the shutdown, called in sick.

“It was a huge line, Sea-Tac employee Sarah Burgisser told KIRO-TV. “I think it was just one guy who came to work.”

Pilots and air-traffic controllers are also affected, which has sparked concerns about safety. Controllers were expected to implement a new text messaging system that communicates directly with pilots in the cockpit, but the shutdown has stalled the initiative. If they can’t use the sytem by January 15, expensive retraining sessions will be forced on workers.

The third week of the partial government shutdown prompted Joe DePete, president of Air Line Pilots Association International, to write a January 2 letter to Trump saying that the block on paychecks and services to pilots is threatening the “safety, security and efficiency of our national airspace system.”

Unions representing TSA workers, air traffic controllers and airline pilots are demanding President Donald Trump and congressional leaders end a 16-day partial government shutdown that is now causing safety and wait time issues. Getty Images SCOTT OLSON/Staff

“The nation’s airspace system is a complex transportation network that involves government and industry partnerships to function properly, and the disruptions being caused by the shutdown are threatening the safe operations of this network,” DePete wrote to Trump last week.

The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 30,000 workers in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, including TSA employees, told WCPO-TV it was filing a lawsuit against the federal government.

“We’re saying it’s against the law to work employees without paying them. These are not slaves. It’s against the law,” Arnold Scott, of the American Federation of Government Employees, told the Cincinnati news station. “The fair labor standards require federal employees be paid for the work that they perform.”

The National Air Traffic Controller Association said the pain of the partial government shutdown was forcing its employees to work long hours without payment. “We are working six days a week. Some are working 10 hours a day, that’s across the country,” said Marc Schneider, president of the association, in an interview with WCPO-TV. “We are at a 30-year low in staffing for air traffic controllers nationwide. The school in Oklahoma City is shut down.”

TSA administrators issued a statement Monday morning rejecting reports of longer-than-average security wait times. The agency reported increased efficiency despite a spike in travel and the government shutdown. TSA’s statement said its employees had screened “approximately 2.22 million passengers Sunday, a historically busy day due to holiday travel; 99.8 percent of passengers waited less than 30 minutes; 90.1 percent of passengers less than 15 minutes.”

But social media posts showed long lines, and passengers who spoke with KIRO-TV in Seattle said unstaffed TSA checkpoints caused passengers to miss flights. TSA spokesman Jim Gregory told The Washington Post “sick outs” or “call outs” had increased at airports, but had had “minimal impact” on the 30-minute average wait time.

But TSA employee union leaders tell a very different tale. “Fifty to 100 people are calling out at any particular airport,” said Hydrick Thomas, president of the TSA union under the American Federation of Government Employees, in an interview with The Washington Post. “They are not coming to work because they don’t have the money to get to work. They’re not just taking off. They’re not saying, ‘We’re going to shut things down.’ They are the lowest-paid employees in the federal government, and they don’t have the money to get to work.”

One passenger at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, Anna Gedstad, in a Sunday tweet, which has since gone viral, that a TSA agent responded to her question about removing her laptop from its case by saying, “I don’t care, I’m not getting paid.”

Passengers and airline employees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport said longer lines caused by fewer TSA checkpoint workers had caused hundreds to miss their flights Monday.

“Your ticket may say get here three hours early, [but] I say get here five hours early,” said Valante Weems, an employee at Sea-Tac.

Even the TSA’s website was forced to issue a statement acknowledging that the staffing shortage had affected their digital presence. “Due to the lapse in federal funding, this website will not be actively managed. This website was last updated on December 21, 2018, and will not be updated until after funding is enacted. As such, information on this website may not be up to date. Transactions submitted via this website might not be processed, and we will not be able to respond to inquiries until after appropriations are enacted.”

National airline delay maps showed Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago and New York airports experiencing mild Monday morning delays.

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United Airlines introduces cookbook for its airline food. Yes, really.

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Turns out airline food doesn’t have to come in a snack-sized bag and doesn’t have to stay on the plane.

Now folks can recreate some business-class meals with the new United “Polaris” cookbook, The Daily Meal reports.

But this isn’t the peanuts and pretzels served in coach —United Airlines shared an image of the cookbook featuring a recipe for “coconut soup with sambal oelek chicken” with the Free Press.

According to the United Airlines shop, its $29.99 cookbook features over 40 recipes from United’s executive chefs and chefs from The Trotter Project —which works to provide education and mentorship to benefit young chefs in the culinary and hospitality fields.

On its website, United has said that it is “excited to be the official airline of The Trotter Project” and partners with the nonprofit to bring gourmet options for the United Polaris business class passengers and premium transcontinental service flyers, plus new dishes for those enjoying international economy dining.

“A portion of proceeds (for the cookbook) will be donated to The Trotter Project to continue its mission of inspiring the next generation of culinary professionals,” a United spokesperson said in an email.

According to Travel + Leisure, other airlines have previously ventured into cookbooks: Southwest Airlines published “Feel the Spirit, Savor the Fare” in 2006 and Delta put out a book of recipes compiled by its flight attendants called, “First-Class Meals” back in 1987.

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Visit the Detroit Free Press at www.freep.com

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United Airlines sets 8-hour limit for emotional support animals

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United Airlines is tightening rules on animals which can be brought into the cabin starting Monday. One new restriction is regarding the length of flights.

The airline said emotional support animals won’t be allowed on flights longer than eight hours.

“We have seen increases in onboard incidents on longer flights involving these animals, many of which are unaccustomed to spending an extended amount of time in the cabin of an aircraft,” the company said in a blog post.

Kittens and puppies under four months old will not be allowed on any flight regardless of whether they are emotional support animals, service animals, or pets. The airline said animals under four months typically don’t have the required vaccinations.

Only dogs and cats will be allowed as emotional support animals. Service animals will be limited to dogs, cats, and miniature horses.

The airline said reservations made before January 3, which is when the change was announced, will be honored.

United Airlines changes policy for emotional support animals – WPVI

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If you’re flying soon, you’ll face a new policy on at least one airline when it comes to emotional support animals on flights.

United Airlines has announced that the support animals will not be allowed on flights longer than eight hours.

The airline says it’s seeing more on-board animal-related incidents.

They believe this is because they are not accustomed to spending so much time on an airplane.

The new policy also prohibits kittens or puppies less than four-months-old because they typically haven’t had all of the necessary vaccinations.

The new changes in policies go into effect Monday.

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