Airplane tips

On Friday, a fuselage panel blew out on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 plane seven minutes after takeoff from Portland, Oregon.

2024 has already been a challenging year for air travel, with the aviation industry plagued by strikes, technical failures and disruptive weather conditions.

Flying in Europe is at its safest level since records began, according to new research from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

2023 has been a challenging year for air travel, with the aviation industry plagued by strikes, system hiccups and disruptive weather conditions.

A cargo jet headed to Belgium from New York had to turn around mid-flight after a horse escaped in the hold, according to air traffic control audio.

French air traffic control currently works on a system developed in the 1970s - sometimes still using paper strips to represent incoming planes. Though it has been regularly upgraded over the years, it is scheduled for a major overhaul in early 2024 due to rapid growth in air traffic.

A US airline will start boarding passengers with window seats first from next week, in a bid to reduce the time planes spend sitting on the ground.

If you’ve ever had to sit through a flight with a crying baby or screaming child, you might have wished for an adult-only airline.

It’s the bane of frequent flyers’ lives and an unfortunate feature of long-distance trips for the rest of us, but what if there was something we could do about jet lag?

A laboratory study has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the UK’s travel restrictions last year.

Airline passengers who have long felt squished in cramped seats suffered a setback on Friday as a U.S. appeals court refused to order the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to adopt minimum requirements for seat size and spacing.

From applying and getting hired to working on 12-plus-hour flights, many elements of a flight attendant's and pilot's jobs are elusive.

It’s the final moments gearing up for takeoff, when you notice your seatmate is replying to text messages on their cell phone—which they clearly haven’t put into airplane mode yet. Cue the spike of fear. Are they really just breaking the rules? And most importantly: Is this inconsiderate person going to mess with the plane signals and kill us all?

On a recent business class flight, I was feeling under-dressed compared to my fellow travelers, many of whom had gone business casual while I went casual cozy.

There are certain things that passengers have come to expect while traveling by plane: long security lines, a small treat after takeoff (if you're lucky), and seats that face forward. 

Flying in this day and age can be inconvenient and uncomfortable even for able-bodied passengers, but for travelers with disabilities, the experience often ranges from a nightmarish juggling act to altogether impossible. But at least one aspect of the in-flight experience is finally poised to improve for fliers with disabilities.

You might have heard recently that Congress has decided your plane seat size should be regulated. That’s true. You may have also heard that it means your plane seat is going to get bigger. Here’s why that’s probably not true.

It’s a familiar routine: You board the plane, settle into your seat, and then text frantically, trying to eke out just one last message before you hear the flight attendant’s announcement to switch your portable electronic devices to airplane mode.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) will require bathrooms in new single-aisle aircraft to be wheelchair accessible, in a new rule finalized Wednesday.

The Transportation Department announced on Wednesday that it had finalized new regulations to require more commercial aircraft to have accessible bathrooms, a long-awaited step to address complaints from disabled travelers about the difficulties of flying.

You fought your way through midmorning traffic, waited in the airport security line just long enough to trigger a mild panic attack, and was TSA-splained to about why peanut butter is considered a liquid. All of which makes the thought of boarding your flight, buckling into your assigned seat, hitting (or not hitting) that recline button, and tucking into a Bloody Mary seem like a vacation unto itself. Until you stop to think about how many other passengers have sat in that same seat and hit that very recline button.