Did airlines fly their aircraft slower in response to oil prices in the 1970s?

Modern airliners generally have lower cruise speeds than those of comparable aircraft from 40 years ago (the venerable Boeing 737 seems to be something of an exception; it has always had a more leisurely cruise speed).

Airlines had to respond much faster to the oil crisis than manufacturers could – to what extent were airlines able to economise on fuel consumption by flying more slowly, and what sort of margin was available to them at cruise (and by extension, what sort of margin is available in modern aircraft, should economic factors drive operators to seek lower fuel consumption by flying more slowly)?

For Trump, Power and Values Matter Less Than Dollars and Cents

Why would an American president offend allies and cozy up to adversaries?

If there was an answer in Mr. Trump’s tumultuous week on the global stage, it may be that he disregards the traditional preoccupations of American foreign policy — power and values — in favor of a more narrow worldview shaped by his experience as a businessman.

Mr. Trump’s bitter clashes with Canada and Europe over trade, as well as his solicitous courtship of North Korea’s brutal dictator, all reflect this mercantile perspective. In his transactional approach to foreign policy, considerations of financial profit or cost — often measured in ways that economists deem simplistic — can outweigh virtually any other consideration.

.. Trump, like a lot of businessmen, doesn’t pay much attention to Canada, or Europe, or Japan,” Mr. Bader said. “Businessmen pay attention to the growth markets: Vietnam, Brazil, India, China.”

.. A slick promotional video that Mr. Trump showed Mr. Kim sketched out a gleaming vision of a prosperous, nuclear-free North Korea, with swooping construction cranes and high-speed trains.

.. ”They have great beaches,” Mr. Trump said to reporters. “You see that whenever they’re exploding their cannons into the ocean, right? I said, ‘Boy, look at the view. Wouldn’t that make a great condo behind?’ And I explained, I said, ‘You know, instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world right there.’”

.. Mr. Trump considers it a prime location amid booming economies. “Think of it from a real-estate perspective,” he said.

.. “We save a fortune by not doing war games, as long as we are negotiating in good faith — which both sides are!” Mr. Trump said on Twitter.

.. The president expressed particular spite at the B-52 bombers that the United States has flown over South Korea in missions from Guam.

.. a potent manifestation of the American commitment to protect its Asian allies. But to Mr. Trump, they burn a lot of fuel and serve little purpose

.. “I know a lot about airplanes,” he said. “It’s very expensive.”

.. Asked on Tuesday about his clash with Mr. Trudeau after the Group of 7 meeting in Quebec, he answered with a long list of grievances — some based on erroneous data — about the trade deficits the United States runs with Canada, Germany, and other allies.

.. “They don’t take our agricultural products, barely. They don’t take a lot of what we have and yet they send Mercedes into us. They send BMWs into us by the millions. It’s very unfair.”

.. If anything, experts said, this common history is a red flag to Mr. Trump.

.. A consistent theme of the Trump administration has been to downgrade the value of allies and alliances,”

.. “To the contrary, they tend to be judged as military free-riders or economic rivals or both. That many are assertive, independent-minded liberals that regularly challenge the president only makes it worse.”

.. In his single-minded focus on economic gain

.. “The bottom line,” said Daniel R. Russel, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs now at the Asia Society, “is that President Trump paid retail for a few warmed-over promises and appears to have given away both leverage and deterrence.”

.. “The containment doctrine has given way to the condominium doctrine.”

Plane Travel Less Risky than Choking to Death on Pretzel

You are more likely to choke to death on a pretzel than to die in a plane crash. With just one fatal accident for every 16m passengers flown, 2017 was the safest year ever for air travel. But one area of concern relates to the danger that drones pose to aeroplanes. A recent report found that drones buzz too close to planes about 250 times every month. Although light, they are capable of harming an airliner’s engine, wing or windscreen

El Al can no longer ask women to move seats on religious grounds

A court rules on a case of airline discrimination in Israel

 In 2015 flight attendants on El Al, Israel’s national carrier, asked Renee Rabinowitz, an 81-year-old holocaust survivor, to move seats after she boarded her flight in New Jersey. An ultra-orthodox Jewish male passenger had objected to having to sit next to her. Haredim, it was explained, are forbidden from close contact with females who are not relatives.
.. At the time, Ms Rabinowitz told the Guardian that she was flying from Newark to Tel Aviv in business class, when a “Haredi-looking gentleman came and sat down next to me”.
.. I asked him what his problem was and I said I was 81. He started to tell me about how the Torah prohibits it.I was pretty upset but I also didn’t want to sit next to this man who didn’t want me to be there for 11 hours. The thought was not pleasant so I decided to move of my own accord.

I asked him what his problem was and I said I was 81. He started to tell me about how the Torah prohibits it.

I was pretty upset but I also didn’t want to sit next to this man who didn’t want me to be there for 11 hours. The thought was not pleasant so I decided to move of my own accord.

.. Following the incident, Ms Rabinowitz sued the carrier for discrimination. On June 22nd a court found in her favour, confirming that the practice of asking women to move seats on religious grounds is illegal.