Are Korea's domestic airliners vulnerable to "short-haul fatigue"?

I don't know how well publicized the news has been about the Southwest Airlines jet that ended up with a hole in it due to metal fatigue, but it has a lot of people in the US freaked out.

We've been hearing a lot about speculation that the nature of short-haul flights — far more frequent "cycles" of take-off and landing with the concomitant pressurizing and depressurizing than with long-haul flights having the same "mileage" — may have heavily contributed to the "rupture" and that makes people worried:

Southwest Airlines' older aircraft plus its famously efficient short-haul operations — requiring planes to fly an average of six times a day — probably contributed to the fuselage rupture that forced a jetliner carrying 118 passengers to make an emergency landing in Arizona last week.

Aviation experts said the aluminum skin of the 15-year-old Boeing 737-300 could have become fatigued from the stress of daily landings and takeoffs as well as frequent changes in cabin pressure.

Six flights a day? Does that not sound like a Seoul-to-Cheju milk runner? The first thing that occurred to me was that that situation — frequent short-haul flights covering a distance of hundreds, not thousands, of kilometers — perfectly characterized the domestic operations of South Korea's local carriers, Asiana, Korean Air, and a handful of discount start-ups. Ditto with domestic carriers in next-door Japan (as well as operators between most Korean and Japanese destinations).

Sure enough, there are others who thought the exact same thing:

South Korea's government also ordered Asiana Airlines and its affiliated budget carrier, Air Busan, to conduct safety inspections of their Boeing 737 fleets, reports the Korea Times.

Neither operates Boeing 737-300s. But Asiana has two Boeing 737-400 planes, and Air Busan has three Boeing 737-400s and 737-500s.

"Our two 737-400 aircraft are only 14 years-old. Given the fact that commercial airplanes normally retire after 30 years in operation, our planes are fairly new. We have been making all-out efforts to keep our planes in good shape," an Asiana Airlines spokesman told the newspaper.

That's good to know, but it rattles the public that this kind of thing is being discovered and diligently addressed only after a serious incident occurred. If I'd been on a short-haul flight from, say, Seoul to Fukuoka and I suddenly got an instant skylight above my seat, I might be booking passage on seagoing vessels for the rest of my natural days.

The real reason airlines want you to turn off your electronics
before flight is that you might snap embarrassing pictures
of their planes falling apart before your very eyes.

Full-body skinflicks (Or, TPA versus TSA)... possibly NSFW

It's fun to get past the T... S... e... A!

There's been a lot of buzz lately about opposition to the employment of full-body scanners at various airports earlier this month. In addition to privacy concerns (the images can supposedly be inverted to make a nearly pornographic image), there are health concerns.

It's been in the news a lot this past week because flight attendant unions have joined pilot unions in opposing them. These are folks already exposed to higher levels of radiation due to their time up in the air, and the back-scatter rays may be the straw that breaks the camel's back for them.

Of course, one can opt for a pat-down, but there is a growing concern that this, too, is invasive along the lines of being sexual assault. The new meme is that sexual predators seek out these jobs, or something like that.

From one Tea Party writer:

At least for the TSA, this is a new recruiting tool. I can see their ad on Craigslist right now. “Why risk prison for groping a stranger, when you can be hired by the government, draw a paycheck and grope to your heart’s content, without the fear of arrest!”

Meanwhile, the TSA is trying to "assuage the public's fears."

Meanwhile, what prompted me to post on this was that same Tea Party writer's rumination that the nefarious Barack Hussein Obama had an ulterior motive in mind:

I have my own opt out plan. I am not flying any more. Perhaps this is part of the Obama regime’s plan to destroy another sector of the American economy. Let’s make air travel so objectionable, no one will want to fly and these companies will go out of business.

Yeah, right. Never mind that the technological, administrative, and legal push for full-body scanners got underway during the Bush administration. What with TARP, the bailout, the astronomically costly Iraq War... where were all these Tea Party activists before January 20, 2009? I defer to iheartblueballs on their apparent hypocrisy.

Not safe for work... unless you work at an airport. 

Anyway, I don't know where I stand on this, except that I want to see damned clear evidence that these scans are not going to harm my health in the long run, and I'm not so sure they've done that yet. Or even if they can. I live on an island, and the environmental activists killed off our ferry service to the neighboring islands. In other words, if I want to go anywhere, I've got to get past the TSA.

Hawaiian Air to launch direct service to Korea

I have a boatload of unfinished posts on the effects on Hawaii of South Korea being added to the visa waiver program (trust me, K-blogosphere netizens, Hawaii does give a rat's ass), but for now I'll try to do the timely thing and mention one of the apparent effects of the move: Hawaiian Air will have direct flights to the Seoul area's Incheon International Airport (the airport name is the only time you will see me add that ugly and extraneous 'e' to Inchon).

From USA Today:

Hawaiian Airlines plans to add nonstop service to Seoul-Incheon International Airport in January, the carrier announced Wednesday. The service, which would be from Hawaiian Airlines' hub at Honolulu International, is pending approval from the South Korea government, the company says in a press release.

Initially, Hawaiian plans to fly the Honolulu-Seoul route four times a week using 264-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft. Hawaii's KHON 2 TV writes Hawaiian CEO Mark Dunkerley "hopes to expand the service to daily flights in the near future, when Hawaiian can bring on new aircraft."

Meanwhile, Hawaiian used the new Korea service to tout its global ambitions. The carrier says in its release that the Seoul "announcement follows Hawaiian's plans to begin daily service between Honolulu and Tokyo's Haneda International Airport later this year and is seen as the latest step in Hawaiian's long-term plans to expand its service in Asia."

The Pacific Business News of Honolulu writes "if the new flights are approved by South Korea's Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, this will be Hawaiian Airlines' sixth international route as it continues its aggressive expansion into the Asia market while boasting a new fleet of aircraft.

The article goes on to mention the economic importance, saying that the 54,000 seats per year could bring in $100 million to the state's economy.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser echoed the same theme:

Mike McCartney, HTA's president and chief executive, said the Hawaiian flight not only will provide a new route out of Incheon, but also an alternative transfer point for travelers from China and other parts of Asia who are looking to visit Hawaii.

He said given that Korean visitors spent an average of $238 a person per day in the first quarter, the additional Hawaiian flight could generate up to $19.4 million in annual visitor expenditures.

"As Hawaiian grows, Hawaii grows," McCartney said. "Hawaiian Air is to Hawaii what Korean Air is to Korea. We're excited about this new relationship because Asia is a gateway to Hawaii's future. It will bring Asia to Hawaii and Hawaii to Asia."

Korean Air, a code-share partner of Hawaiian, operates 10 flights a week to Honolulu from Seoul-Incheon Airport.

That code-sharing is a sweet deal for me, since it will help me rack up more useful mileage (between KAL and Asiana, I have some four or five trans-Pacific flights coming to me).

Tensions "boil over" for European travelers stuck in Inchon

I think it's the fake European food at the airport that has driven them over the edge. Anyway, this snippet from an AP article was in today's USA Today:

Tensions boiled over among frustrated passengers at Incheon International Airport in South Korea, where 30 people blocked a Korean Air ticketing counter and demanded officials arrange travel to anywhere in Europe after hearing about the test flights.

"We need a flight, we need a time," Thierry Loison, who has been stuck at the airport since Friday on the way back to France, told Korean Air officials. "We were like animals this morning."

Frankly, I don't know which side to sympathize with. I mean, it's not like IIA created the volcano or made the decision to postpone the flights. The best they can do is make sure that the non-Korean-speaking transit passengers are able to be housed and fed without being price-gouged, and that shouldn't be too hard with the E-Mart and LotteMart in the business complex near the airport or in Airport Town Square a few kilometers to the east. Right now I'm seeing reports of basic amenities, but I'm not sure that's enough.

And the more freebies they can give, the better. Portable cots (if they even have those), blankets, food vouchers, free showers, free laundry service, etc. If IIA left these transit passengers scrambling on their own (which doesn't seem likely, but nevertheless possible), then they do deserve criticism.

But I wonder how much of this is the irate rantings of people who are lashing out about the gross inconvenience and cost of being stranded for Lord knows how long, perhaps to the point of being unreasonable. These are test flights, not regular flights, and they still don't know who is going to fly from where, and there a new cloud of ash is wafting toward Mainland Europe.

That said, Korean Air and any other airline with its transit passengers stuck in Inchon should try the best they can to take the high road and get these folks as close to home as possible. It's just good business, and the kind of thing you'd expect from a place trying to be recognized as the world's best airport.

Here's an idea: Maybe anglophone foreigners and KoKos alike could organize as volunteers to take the stranded travelers on day trips into the city, to give them something to do and hopefully see this delay as an extension of their vacation. Could someone back in Korea right now alert Seoul City Hall and Incheon International Airport to this idea? I'll even let you take credit for it.

UPDATE:
I forgot Brian did a lengthy post on this.