From: Adam <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the field.near
the bridge">

Don Hills wrote:
> In article , Adam
 wrote:
>
>>This is a sarcastic mail....
>>
>>Is it just me or is air travel becoming steadily less pleasant & more
>>shifting stock animals.
>>
>>Signs such as (at "Homeland Security") :
>
>
> It has always been a bone of contention that the USA requires transit
> passengers to pass immigration, and the new security checks and delays are
> proving to be too big a hassle to put up with. People are increasingly
> prepared to pay a premium for a non-stopover flight in sleeper seats, and
> the airlines are responding with planes such as the extended range variant
> of the 7X7 (One recently flew nonstop Hong Kong - London, a 22 hour flight.)
>

I would not transit the US. No way no how. Too much effort & way to
much attitude from the DHS people.

TSA people are generally OK but the DHS people think they're God looking
down from on high.

> Such services will be initially introduced on routes carrying a high
> proportion of business and 1st class travellers, especially on the Asia -
> Europe services such as the aforementioned Hong Kong - London route.
> The cost of carrying the extra fuel and the space required for sleeper seats
> will be partly offset by the increased utilisation and the saving in landing
> fees. This may cause problems for the transit hubs in the USA, especially
> LAX, where landing fees for transit flights are a significant part of their
> income.
>

Yup. Also I'd do point to point for the smaller US cities too. I am very
curious what the EU_US open skies deal means.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4451440.stm

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/18/business/skies.php

etc.

I'm curious too when they manage to crack the foreign ownership rule in the
US as otherwise the number of US-EU joint companies will be 0 as the EU
won't let there be any asymetry.

Adam

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