Wow — this just in from Air Transport World— this would have been a nice delayed flight to be on. Everyone upgraded to business class, and having two flight attendants each — better than the Concorde of years past.
American Airlines likely would have gotten credit in the old, pre-global-warming days for operating a nearly empty 777 across the Atlantic to avoid further disrupting the travel plans of a handful of customers. But in today’s hyper-climate of environmental concern, the airline is taking some heat for the decision. The Feb. 9 flight from Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow, revealed in London newspapers yesterday, occurred when the originally scheduled flight was delayed 11 hr. owing to a mechanical failure and most passengers were moved to other flights. The five remaining passengers were upgraded to business class and reportedly were outnumbered by flight attendants two-to-one.
Norman Baker, a member of the UK House of Commons and the Liberal Democrat party’s transport spokesman, blasted the flight as a “climate change crime” and an example of “the ludicrous nature of the aviation industry.” Greenpeace also was boiling mad, calling the flight “reckless.” AA said it considered canceling the flight but the “knock-on impact” would have been “a planeload of westbound passengers stranded in London Heathrow who were due to fly back to the US on the same aircraft.”
Courtesy of http://www.atwonline.com/
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