Remember back when you used to get a meal on your flight? Heck, remember when you used to get peanuts? Well some airlines on some flights still offer meals and the site AirlineMeals.net documents meals that travelers have been served. The meal above was served, for example, in Business Class on a Continental airline flight. It looks like an improvement over the meals I have gotten in couch. You know the type. “Excuse me miss, did I get the chicken or the fish? I can’t tell”

Popularity: 28% [?]

Wear a big mustache, lose your job. That’s what happened to an airline employee in India.

Victor Joynath De was grounded by Indian - formerly called Indian Airlines- in 2001 for refusing to shave off his handlebar moustache.

He had earlier lost a case in a lower court which ruled that the airline was within its rights to sack him.
According to Indian rules, all crew members should be clean shaven.

A moustache, if worn, should not extend beyond the upper lip, says the rule book.

The guidelines do not apply to Sikh employees who are allowed to keep moustaches.

The Indian Supreme Court has now stepped into the case asking for Indian Airlines to support its position. The supreme court has assigned two clean shaven judges, but one could see why supreme court justice P. Sathasivam (pictured) might be asking “Hey! What’s wrong with a mustache that is longer than than the upper lip!?”

Popularity: 24% [?]

Airbus and Shell Oil announced a test flight was completed recently with one of the four engines operating on an alternate fuel.

The alternative fuel used on the test flight was gas to liquid (GTL), which looks like kerosene, but is clear coloured. It is a natural gas, which has been cleaned and has undergone the Fischer-Tropsch process - the conversion of synthesis gas to liquid fuel.

The goal of these experiments is to find both cheaper and “greener” fuels. While they announced the test was a success, no mention was made of how much cheaper or how much greener the fuel is than conventional jet fuel. Airlines and by extension airplane manufacturers are getting increasing pressure from the public to reduce their carbon emissions and lower ticket prices driven up in part by the rise in fuel costs.

Popularity: 40% [?]

If you have run into problems understanding some of the new airline security rules then you are not alone. Knowing this, but not wanting to have a lot of long drawn out conversations with passengers in the security line at Newark and elsewhere, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has created a new blog where they will respond to user’s questions and feedback. According to an article at ComputerWorld:

TSA Administrator Kip Hawley noted on the blog that there is no time for agency personnel to answer passenger questions during the airport screening process. Screeners have no time to explain to passengers why they are asked to do certain things and can only demand that they follow orders. The blog, he said, provides a forum to explain processes and to allow passengers to suggest changes to the TSA checkpoint processes.

“One of my major goals of 2008 is to get TSA and passengers back on the same side, working together,” Hawley wrote. “We need your help to get the checkpoint to be a better environment for us to do our security job and for you to get through quickly and on to your flight. We will not only give you straight answers to your questions, but we will challenge you with new ideas and involve you in upcoming changes.”

Here at Tripinator we applaud any effort to open the lines of communication. (Granted we would say that anyway just to stay off “the list”).

Popularity: 33% [?]

According to Reuters:

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German nudists will be able to start their holidays early by stripping off on the plane if they take up a new offer from an eastern German travel firm.

Travel agency OssiUrlaub.de said it would start taking bookings from Friday for a trial nudist day trip from the eastern German town of Erfurt to the popular Baltic Sea resort of Usedom, planned for July 5 and costing 499 euros ($735).

“It’s expensive, I know,” managing director Enrico Hess told Reuters by phone. “It’s because the plane’s very small. There’s no real reason why a flight in which one flies naked should be more expensive than any other.”

The 55 passengers will have to remain clothed until they board, and dress before disembarking, said Hess. The crew will remain clothed throughout the flight for safety reasons.

Once airline security gets to the point that they strip search everyone, this airline will be ready.

Popularity: 27% [?]