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Baraka Kanaan was left without the use of his legs following a car accident in 2000.

Delta Airlines is being sued after a disabled man claimed he was forced to crawl across the tarmac multiple times after the carrier refused to help him on and off the plane.

Baraka Kanaan, a former philosophy professor who now heads a not-for-profit, was scheduled to fly from his home in Hawaii to Nantucket Island in Massachusetts last July to attend a conference.

Mr Kanaan was left unable to walk after car crash in 2000 but claimed he contacted the airline weeks in advance to tell them of his disability.

According to the Huffington Post, Mr Kanaan said he was assured by Delta staff “that he would be received and given reasonable accommodation for his disability.”

Yet when his flight touched down in Massachusetts there was no equipment to help him off the airplane and to his wheelchair. When he asked what could be done, a flight attendant allegedly told him, “I don’t know, but we can’t get you off the plane.”

According to a law suit filed by Mr Kanaan this month, he said he was left with no option but to crawl in his best suit “hand over hand through the main cabin and down a narrow flight of stairs and across the tarmac to his wheelchair”.

On his return flight he was forced to go through the same humiliating experience since the airline still had made no provision for his disability. This time the airline offered to place cardboard beneath him “so that his clothes wouldn’t get dirty”, his suit alleges.

After complaining to the airline Mr Kanaan said he was offered a $100 voucher and an offer of 25,000 SkyMiles.

This story originally appeared at news.com.au.

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A former college professor who cannot walk has sued Delta Airlines in federal court, claiming that crew members on two flights told him the only way he could get off the plane was to crawl down the aisle, down the steps and across the tarmac.

D. Baraka Kanaan, who lives in Hawaii, filed the suit July 23 in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, against the airlines and 20 unnamed individuals.

Kanaan, who suffers from partial paralysis of his legs stemming from a car accident, said the airline’s “outrageous conduct” occurred on two flights he took a year ago.

On July 26, 2012, Kanaan, who is now head of the Lovevolution Foundation, was scheduled to take a series of Delta flights from Maui to Nantucket, Mass., for a conference.

Several weeks before the flight, Kanaan spoke to a Delta customer service representative about needing a lift to get on the plane and an aisle chair to get to his seat, the suit states. The representative assured him that he would be accommodated, according to the complaint.

After his scheduled flight was canceled because of weather, he was booked on another flight the next day. When he arrived in Nantucket, a flight attendent told him the airline did not have an aisle chair or a lift to get him off the plane to retrieve his wheelchair.

According to the complaint, the Airline Carrier Access Act and other federal regulations require airlines to have such equipment for disabled passengers.

When Kanaan asked about his options, the flight attendant said, “I don’t know, but we can’t get you off the plane,” the suit states.

Although a lift was visible at an adjacent gate, Kanaan was forced to crawl out of the plane and across the tarmac without any assistance from the crew and with many people watching, according to the lawsuit.

Kanaan called the airlines to complain and to report that he would need the same equipment for his return trip.

Despite assurances it would be there, the complaint states that when boarding began the needed aisle chair and lift were unavailable but a flight attendant told him they could put down a piece of cardboard so his clothes wouldn’t get dirty.

Upon his return home, a Delta representative offered him 25,000 “sky miles” as compensation, which he refused, the suit states.

Kanaan is seeking compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial, according to the complaint.

On Friday, Delta had not filed its response, according to online records.

Roanoke, VA – Delta Airlines has warned Roanoke Regional Airport officials that their one daily non-stop to New York City may be dropped, unless more people start using it.

On average, about 18 people use the 50 seat plane a day.

Delta officials want to see that number improve to at least 25.

The airline took over the route when U.S. Air gave it up last year.

The airport has until October to convince airline officials the flight is sustainable.

“But I will say that the fact that they even told us that the route needed to improve… and gave us some time, that actually means they want it to get better,” said Roanoke Regional Airport Spokesperson Sherry Wallace.

Airport officials think much of the problem is lack of local awareness of the flight. They point out that the flight out of Charlottesville is so successful a second flight was recently added.

July 24, 2013 7:47 AM

Ford, Apple, Boeing and Delta Airlines all report higher earnings and Republican senator Darryl Issa wants the US Postal service to phase out door to door mail service to save money

This Tuesday in the Delta Airlines Sky Lounge at JFK International in New York there was a guy from London who was two days off his Louisville bound travel schedule because Delta had canceled flights.  A young woman in her twenties, standing in line with me to find out why my flight was now three hours late to Boston, said I shouldn’t feel bad: her flight was supposed to leave a day ago to Raleigh.

Chalk it up to bad weather or — as George Carlin once said, “broken planes” – still, our airports are some of the best in the world for getting their passengers out on time.

According to travel industry monitor, FlightStats, Chinese airports are the worst.

The FlightStats figures showed that in June 2013, out of a worldwide analysis, Beijing and Shanghai airports came in last for on-time arrivals and departures. They had by far the worst record for on-time flights – 18.3% and 28.7% respectively leaving those busy airports on schedule.

FlightStats came out with their report two weeks ago, but being stuck in JFK for three hours, and listening to people stuck because of delayed Delta flights , had me thinking twice about the reliability of U.S. airports.  Truth is, they are not as bad as Americans tend to believe. And despite all the billions of dollars spent on new and modern airports in China, the air traffic controllers cannot get their planes in the air on time.

Chinese airline performance makes Delta look like the best airline in the world. China United Airlines had just 27% of its flights arriving on time. Large national carriers like Air China and China Southern also reported massive delays along those same lines. Mainland experts attribute the problem to excessive military control of the airspace and poor urban planning, the South China Morning Post reported on July 12.

“Nearly 80% of China’s airspace has been reserved for military use. In other countries, such as the U.S., the situation is exactly the opposite,” a senior executive of Hainan Airlines Hainan Airlines said.

Jan. 4, 2013, fog delay at China’s Kunming Changshui International Airport.

At least 42% of flights from Beijing get delayed by 45 minutes or more while Shanghai International had just 24% of its flights departing on time last month, compared with a 38.9% on-time departure rate six months ago.

Although Beijing has tried to solve the delay problem for years, little has been achieved, South China Morning Post reported. Delays often trigger violent protests at airports.  One made the rounds on YouTube, of course, when security cams caught one man slamming the living daylights out of a poor check in receptionists computer terminals. In recent months, there have been frequent reports of angry passengers smashing airline counters and attacking ground staff in an outbursts of anger. Many have given up flying and have moved to high-speed rail where possible.

The top 10 performing major international airlines and their on-time percentages included in descending order:

Iberia Airlines: 85.70%
Korean Air Lines: 86.80%
EasyJet: 87.20%
KLM: 89.70%
Tyrolean Airways: 90.27%
Finnair: 90.34%
Japan Airlines: 91.29%
ANA: 91.42%
Gulf Air: 92.06%
South African: 93.33%

Top performing North American airports included Honolulu (86.29%), Vancouver (86.18%) and Salt Lake City (85.55%). Top performing large European airports were in Amsterdam (83.52%), Munich (83.35%) and Vienna (82.15%).

Best Airports In The World

MAZATLAN, Mexico, July 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — From December 2013 to April 2014, Delta Airlines will operate four non-stop flights per week to Mazatlan, Mexico, from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Minnesota. This is a 237 percent increase in the total number of Delta flights to General Rafael Buelna International Airport compared to the 2012-2013 Winter season, as well as a 129 percent increase in the duration of service. Flights will resume on Friday, December 20, 2013.

“Delta Airlines’ four weekly flights from Minneapolis will make Mazatlan more accessible to the Midwest than ever before,” said Carlos Berdegue, Vice President of the Mazatlan Hotel Association and President CEO of El Cid Resorts. “We are poised to have our best summer season ever, and look forward to welcoming additional US travelers to our sunny ‘colonial city on the beach’ this winter.”

During Winter 2012-2013, Delta Airlines operated three direct flights per week to Mazatlan from Minneapolis. This year’s extended service will increase the total number of seats to Mazatlan from 2,850 to 9,600 and will more than double the number of weeks of service from seven to 16.

In May, the Mazatlan Hotel Association announced that Sun Country airlines will also resume non-stop service to Mazatlan from Minneapolis in December, with weekly flights starting  Saturday, December 21, 2013, and twice weekly flights on Saturdays and Tuesdays starting on January 11, 2014. Each Sun Country plane will have the capacity to carry 162 passengers.

To learn more about visiting Mazatlan, please visit http://www.gomazatlan.com.

For more information, please contact:
Marissa Lyman
Ogilvy Public Relations
Marissa.lyman@ogilvy.com 
212-880-5352

Evangelist Annette Edwards Balkcom, 71, of Florida City, Fla., widow of the Rev. John T. Balkcom, went home to be with the Lord on Wednesday, July 17, 2013, at 8:21 p.m.

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June 26, 2013

WASHINGTON D.C–(WENY-TV)– Delta Airlines has been fined 750,000 dollars by the government for violating travelers rights when it comes to overbooked flights. The National transportation department says that delta would bump customers from overbooked flights without offering any compensation or asking for volunteers before they started the bumping process.
     Airlines frequently overbook flights but are supposed to ask for volunteers before they start bumping customers, and if they have to bump customers, those fliers need to be offered compensation such as hotel room, or flight vouchers.

Posted at: 07/16/2013 5:47 PM

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A big boost for kids in our area. Delta Airlines came to Rochester to present a donation geared at helping to support youth sports programs.

The $25,000 donation will go toward the Y’s “Love 15” Summer Tennis Program as well as the Y’s summer basketball, soccer and swimming programs.

Company officials say it is all part of Delta’s mission to stay involved in the communities it operates in.

Gail Grimmett, Senior VP of NY, Delta Airlines, said, “We always say we don’t just want to serve the community. We want to be a part of the community and we’ve partnered with the YMCA here in Rochester for a couple years now and we continue to find programs that help them, not just stay active in the summer, but learn life lessons that they can take with them all year round.”

Delta employees from the Rochester Int’l Airport were on hand for the check presentation and they even got to hit the tennis courts with some of the Y’s “Love 15” participants.

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