Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today that the $45 million Queens Plaza Improvement Plaza has wrapped up. The result is a newly landscaped 1.5 acre park with 489 newly planted trees, and the mayor's office says it's got non-invasive and drought-tolerant native plantings, wetlands, artist-designed benches and interlocking / permeable pavers to direct storm water to these plantings. This new open space is now called "Dutch Kills Green," which was one of 600 entries submitted in a naming contest. Translation: the goal was to transform Queens Plaza into a place people where people don't hate being. more ›

Understandably (and unsurprisingly) outraged that over 200 luggage thefts occur every day at JFK Airport, Senator Charles Schumer has a solution: “I think there should be some undercover agents in the belly of the plane,” Schumer told CBS. "They’re probably less able to be caught, less able to be seen, but the answer to that would be having undercover agents there who can witness this.” Yes, the industry that can't be bothered to give us six peanuts to distract us from the pain of compressing our spines into a "seat" will surely put a dragnet in every plane. more ›

A JetBlue flight from JFK airport to Las Vegas had to make an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas this morning after the captain had some sort of "meltdown." Initial reports from Fox 5 had it that "a man apparently told passengers to 'say their prayers' and tried to storm the cockpit." That man, it turns out, was the freaking CAPTAIN, who had to be subdued by an off-duty NYC cop and by an off-duty JetBlue pilot. [UPDATE: We spoke with a passenger on the flight.] Here's video taken by one passenger after the Captain was subdued—be sure to watch all the way to the end for a real New York moment in Texas: more ›

Want to see how your luggage gets from point A to point B when you check it at the airport? Well, sit back and relax, here's a short but sweet video showing one (drug free) bag's journey from Atlanta to New York: more ›

Frequent flyers with four-legged friends probably already know this, but short-nosed dogs like bulldogs, pugs and Boston terriers are being banned from many airlines. The reason? They keep dying in transit. more ›

American Airlines is scrambling to show the public that employees are working hard to find a cat they lost at JFK... after the kitty's distraught owner launched a social media campaign. Last Thursday Karen Pascoe and her two cats went to JFK for a flight to San Fransisco, where Pascoe was relocating for a new job. After clearing security, she bid goodbye to her two pets as the American Airlines handler was putting the plastic ties around the kennel door. But before boarding her flight, she got a call that one of her cats was missing. On the Facebook page Jack The Cat is Lost in AA Baggage at JFK, she writes (in the third person): more ›

The U.S. Department of Transportation has updated its Passenger Bill of Rights and the new rules are good for the common flyer. Highlights include the fact that, when the new rules start in a few months, airlines will not be able to keep international flights on the tarmac for more than four hours and they'll have to reimburse luggage fees for lost lost luggage. Also the amount of money you are eligible for if you are involuntarily bumped from a flight is being doubled. more ›

After saying travelers were at a "breaking point" with extra luggage fees, Senator Chuck "Picklepuss" Schumer has convinced the CEOs of numerous major airlines not to adopt a fee for carry on luggage, which Spirit Airlines will be rolling out in August. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and JetBlue Airways have all agreed not to charge for carry on bags, despite the fact that they will all be reporting first quarter losses. more ›

Air travelers, here's something to rejoice: The federal Department of Transportation is telling airlines that domestic passengers can only be stranded on tarmacs for three hours. According to the AP, "Under the new regulations, airlines operating domestic flights will be able only to keep passengers on board for three hours before they must be allowed to disembark a delayed flight..." more ›

During the first nine months of the year, LaGuardia, Newark, and JFK have maintained the worst record for on-time arrivals among the 31 major U.S. air hubs, according to the FAA. And because so many flights pass through these hubs, nearly three-quarters of all delays in the U.S. could be traced to a problem in New York. The line of planes waiting to land at LaGuardia Airport can sometimes stretch unbroken in the sky for 40 miles, according to one air traffic controller, who tells the AP, "All we can do is take them and space them out as close as FAA rules allow. It's not like you can put more aircraft in there. That's it. We're just maxed out." more ›

Continental Airlines apologized after admitting that "miscommunication among staff members resulted in the child being boarded on the wrong aircraft." Jonathan Kamens had taken daughter Miriam, 10, to Boston's Logan Airport and explicitly spoke to Continental agents about Miriam's solo trip to Cleveland to visit her grandparents, "They seemed like they knew what they were doing. The paperwork" had her flight number, destination, and phone numbers for himself and his in-laws. But Miriam ended up at Newark International Airport, not Cleveland, because the gate was being used by two different flights and the girl was put on the wrong flight. Kamens said he only found out that Miriam never made it to Cleveland as scheduled when his father-in-law called—and Continental couldn't tell him where his daughter was for 45 minutes. While Continental rebooked Miriam on another flight and she made it there a few hours later, her dad questions the airline's procedures, "I'm sure there are rules that the flight crew is supposed to verify the number of people on the plane matches the number of people on the manifest." more ›

A state law proposed to offer airline passengers trapped aboard grounded planes at New York airports a baseline of humane treatment (e.g. water, air, bathroom facilities) was struck down by the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today. The New York Airline Passenger Bill of Rights was enacted after some high-profile incidents that had passengers stuck aboard delayed flights for hours, with overflowing toilets and no food or drink. more ›

The Dept. of Homeland Security is funding the installation of a number of anti-missile defense systems on commercial jets flying in and out of JFK Airport. The tests are the third stage of testing of a system that is already used by military aircraft. The defense system consists of equipment affixed to the bottom of the aircraft that electronically jams the heat-seeking component of shoulder filed missiles. The latter are referred to as man portable air defense systems, or MANPADs. The current test of the anti-MANPAD systems on jets is to see how the equipment holds up on the real world operating conditions of a commercial jet. more ›