Angry about your airline seat? Not enough legroom, not enough width, not enough comfort? Well, here’s a solution: no seats at all.

Sounds improbable? Well guess again – Shanghai-based Spring Airlines is considering it. They figure by making planes standing room only they can squeeze 40 percent more passengers on board. Does this qualify Spring as one of the worst airlines in the world?

Hardly – there are airlines in much worse conditions out there flying the friendly skies…
The worst airlines are the ones that officially, don’t meet “essential safety levels.” Of course for the most part we don’t think twice about hopping aboard aircraft all over the world with our family and friends. But it pays to know that there are over 700 commercial airlines worldwide with scheduled service in the Official Airline Guide (OAG) – plus hundreds of local carriers – and there are a few of these we should all undoubtedly steer clear of.

Many of these appear on what has been dubbed the European Union’s “blacklist” of airlines. It was first published in 2006 and is updated annually. The list bans carriers it deems “unsafe” from operating in European airspace. The list includes 17 airlines from the Kyrgyz Republic; 51 Indonesian airlines and 57 airlines from the Democratic Republic of Congo – including the perhaps optimistically named, Safe Air Company.

A quick Google search provides many examples of disasters involving blacklisted airlines: last year, in the Congo, for instance, a jetliner attempting a take-off in Goma didn’t make it, smashing instead into shops and houses in a commercial district, killing several people. The airline was operated by Hewa Bora – which yes, has a spot on the EU’s blacklist.

However, Yemenia Airways, the carrier in the crash that killed more than 150 people in 2009, is not on the blacklist; but the airline was slated for review, according to the European Union Transport Commissioner, who also is calling for an expansion of the EU list into a “global blacklist.”

So that’s why we shouldn’t mistake a blacklist for a “crash list.” Blacklisted airlines don’t necessarily have more fatal crashes – it’s about lack of oversight and the potential for problems…

AUSTIN, Texas, November 30 /PRNewswire/ –

- www.arrivedOK.mobi Offers Monetization to Travel Social Networks, Provides Air Companies With New Ancillary Revenue Service and Customer Loyalty Tool.

ArrivedOK (http://www.arrivedok.mobi/hello), the personal flight arrival tracker finishes the phase of public beta and goes commercial now. ArrivedOK tracks air travelers’ cell phones in a mobile network when it is turned on after landing and instantly sends those tailored ‘Arrived OK’ messages to the designated recipients via SMS, email, and social media.

Logo: http://www.arrivedok.mobi/img/logo_arrivedok_full_01.png

The automated flight plan systems do not provide accurate reporting about flight arrivals all the time, which was demonstrated on November 19, 2009 when the glitch in US air traffic control network caused flight delays across the nation. Unlike other tracking services that use centralized flight status data, ArrivedOK tracks one’s actual appearance in the destination airport using individual mobile phone status.

“Even as a paid service, ArrivedOK SMS alerts allow the subscribers bypassing the heavy international roaming charges.” – says Andrey Deriabin, Director Business Development at arrivedOK.mobi Inc. “However, we’d like to make it completely free for the end users. So we are working on B2B partnerships that would allow subsidizing the mobile traffic generated by our subscribers. During the public beta phase we received very promising responses from air companies, which look for new opportunities in a time of economic hardship. While discount airlines primarily see ArrivedOK as a source of ancillary revenue, “majors” also consider it as customer loyalty tool, willing to subsidize the service to their frequent flyers.”

ArrivedOK also provides monetization opportunity to travel websites and startups. “There are a lot of travel-related social networking projects seeking monetization.” – says Andrey Deriabin. “ArrivedOK perfectly matches their audience. We’re currently doing test integration with selected sites, and will make ArrivedOK API publicly available until the end of the year via http://partners.arrivedok.mobi”

ArrivedOK has been selected as a Webby Awards 2009 Official Honoree in two categories: Best Use of GPS or Location Technology and Experimental & Innovation. The service is currently available worldwide except for the subscribers of the US and Chinese mobile networks.

    Contact: Andrey Deriabin
    arrivedOK.mobi Inc.
    Tel: +73833630139
    Cell: +79139859722
    Email: andrey.deriabin @ arrivedok.mobi
    Web http://arrivedok.mobi
    Mobile http://m.arrivedok.mobi

Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of arrivedOK.mobi Inc.

209 – 215 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8NL
Tel : +44 (0)20 7490 8111
Fax : +44 (0)20 7490 1255
E-mail : info@prnewswire.co.uk

Do you know what those abbreviations mean? I didn’t until I went to a conference in LA last month. I enjoyed it, in part because it was sunny and warm and I got my share of summer that I didn’t have this summer. I mean there was summer but it wasn’t summery, it was rainy.

Anyway, global warming aside, I wanted to make these abbreviations clear to all of you who don’t know but are curious:

ARAC = well, this one I actually don’t know, but ancillary revenue is the AR here. It was the name of the conference which was organized by AI or Airline Information (group of people) who did a GREAT JOB. And are doing a great job. It was actually the best thing that I brought back home — the relationship with the guys from AI – Michael, Roger and Chris. And then there was also lovely Gill whose accent I admired probably the most.

Yes, the conference had two parts, one of which was dedicated to FFP or frequent flyer programs which is also called “loyalty”. A lot of attention was paid to keeping people as well as making money from all of them. As to making money the most publicity undoubtedly went to… RyanAir. Because anyone talking about LCC or low cost carriers would say: “Well, but not like RyanAir — did you hear they charge you for going to the toilet?” Thus everyone remotely thinking of business thought: “Hey these guys are really in the know of how to make MONEY not just preserve the image.”

In any case, the biggest success and the savor of me not carrying a lot of junk paper was the invention of our business cards by Andrey Deryabin whom we can only applaud. Really. Check those cuties out:

Aren’t they GREAT? What else do you need to say about ArrivedOK? It says it all: memorable, cute, innovative, created by those who actually THINK.

Because, as my favorite quote goes:

“Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.”

– Bernard Shaw

I found this fascinating quote today:

Twitter has a huge aviation community – from airlines and airports, to cabin crew and aviation enthusiasts. Whether you like to fly a plane or just watch planes fly, there are lots of aviation geeks on Twitter with whom you can converse about your passions or just listen.Shashank Nigam, High Flying Tweets: 11 of the best airline or aviation bloggers / journalists to follow on Twitter, Aug 2009

You should read the whole article.

Here’s a nice piece about ArrivedOK in FOX 26 News, Houston: Auto-Text Friends When
Your Plane Lands / Website of the Day