Crises beget winners as well as losers. One of the winners seems to be Ian Davis—if you can call leaping from the frying pan into the fire a way of coming out on top.

The non-executive chairman of BP has been hired by another stalwart of UK business, Rolls-Royce, to help the embattled luxury-car brand deal with allegations of possible bribery by some of its people overseas.

Davis has had experience dealing with "challenging situations" like the one facing Rolls-Royce. In fact, Davis was chairman of BP's Gulf of Mexico Committee, which was in charge of the energy company's overall, long-term response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizons disaster in the Gulf.

It's taken a lot of advertising (and an Olympics sponsorship) by BP, a $4.5 billion fine and billions more in outlays for cleanup in Gulf states, but BP seems to have survived the disaster—and Rolls-Royce believes Davis had a lot to do with it. Continue reading...

The U.S. federal government’s grounding of all Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets worldwide affects only six planes being operated by a U.S. carrier, all of them by United Airlines. So the abrupt and drastic action by the Federal Aviation Administration – the first time in four decades that regulators effectively have grounded a major airliner – isn’t going to have much effect on U.S. air travel.

Yet the short- and long-term damage to Boeing’s brand could be profound. And it is far from clear that the Chicago-based company is doing enough to address that sort of damage even while it works quickly and closely with airlines and government safety authorities to figure out temporary fixes that will get Dreamliners back in the air. Continue reading...

The Dreamliner has a name that makes it sound as if it should be the smoothest-riding and fastest thing on the planet, evoking the grand age of travel with ocean liners by taking them to the sky. Unfortunately, reality has caught up to Boeing's vaunted 787 Dreamliner.

Fourteen months after Boeing revealed the sophisticated jet, Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that it is “undertaking a comprehensive review of the design and manufacture of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner after a series of problems this week,”  according to USA Today.

That said, the FAA feels that the still fledgling Dreamliner — for which Boeing increased production in November — is still safe enough for passengers to climb aboard and won’t stop any airline from using the plane. "I believe this plane is safe and I would have absolutely no reservations about boarding one of these planes and taking a flight," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

So what’s the problem?Continue reading...

Who needs in-flight entertainment when passengers can entertain each other? American Airlines' iPad app has been upgraded to add "Know It All," a free trivia game that pits fliers on Wi Fi-equipped flights against each other, in addition to passengers on other flights and players on the ground. The app is also updated for iPhone and iPod touch.

According to AA's press release, "From Nov. 19 to Dec. 31, 2012, fans who have "liked" American's Facebook page can register for a chance to win a weekly drawing for 100,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles. In addition, registrants who have downloaded the iPad app and played Know It All will be featured on a Facebook leaderboard. Each week, the Know It All player with the top score will receive an extra entry for the 100,000 bonus miles."

Download the app here.

Airport concession operator OTG Management, a comparatively new player in the game, was chosen by JetBlue for its Terminal 5 hub at New York's JFK Airport. Known for offering varied cuisine, the terminal has added free iPads for travelers to use, starting with LaGuardia, Minneapolis-St. Paul International and Toronto Pearson International airports.

“The iPads will be locked down and pre-loaded with apps that will allow travelers to check their flights, order food, check email and update Facebook. It’s a great advertising tool for OTG’s eateries and Apple (as if it needed more advertising). So look for an iPad at an airport near you soon!” notes aviation blogger/journalist Benet Wilson. 

The three major North American airports will offer 2,500 iPads for anyone’s use and according to OTG CEO Rick Blatstein, “We’re very bullish on the iPad and customer satisfaction and client satisfaction.” (Blatstein discusses his company’s plans in this video.)Continue reading...

As airlines have folded and merged and cut flights and laid off employees and jacked up prices on transporting baggage, among other things, it’s been tough for consumers to not get frustrated with them. 

But the new American Customer Satisfaction Index indicates that fliers are starting to see the skies as somewhat friendlier. In the first three months of this year, U.S. customer satisfaction with airlines rose 3.1% from a year ago.

"Thanks to operational improvements and fewer weather disruptions, our members are again delivering strong on-time performance and already this year set two all-time records for baggage handling," commented Steve Lott, spokesman for Airlines for America (formerly known as the Air Transport Association of America), about the group's latest press release to USA Today.Continue reading...

Four years shy of turning 100, Boeing just launched its first official app for iPad, 'Milestones in Innovation', in Apple's App Store. The app celebrates nine decades of aviation innovation through beautiful imagery and an interactive timeline, from its first 1916 launch (above) to the Boeing 787, winner of the 2011 Collier Trophy for aviation excellence, below.Continue reading...

Boeing has been touting its new snazzy Dreamliner 787 for some time and it is getting closer to the day when passengers will get to feel just what it’s like to experience a little turbulence on a plane that has “an interior environment with higher humidity (and) increased comfort and convenience.”

So Boeing had to take its new baby for a test ride, right? And not just any test ride. As Randy Tinseth, VP of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle, wrote in a blog post, this “was an 18-hour Maximum ETOPS (Extended Operations) Duration flight test for a 787-8 with GE engines” that had the flight team covering more than 9,000 nautical miles.

If you’re going to have to be flying for that duration, you might as well have some fun in the process, no?Continue reading...