Author: Joseph Alba
Joseph Alba
Mr. Alba was previously Editor of the Airport Press for 12 years covering both local as well as global aviation news. Prior to this, Mr. Alba had Executive positions in Systems Engineering and Marketing with IBM World Trade, and had foreign assignments in the Far East and Latin America earning three Outstanding Achievement Awards. Mr. Alba also directed a new function dealing with Alternate Fuels for Public Service Electric & Gas company in New Jersey and founded a Natural Gas Vehicle Consortium consisting of car company executives and fleet owners, and NGV suppliers in New Jersey. Mr. Alba was a founding partner of ATA, an IT Consulting company which is still active in Central and South America. After leaving the armed forces, Mr. Alba’s initial employee was the U.S. Defense Department as an analyst.
Imagine Donald Trump boarding Air Force One in the US capital and just over an hour later meeting Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London? That would be a possibility if the hypersonic plane from the startup Hermeus was ready. What sounds like a daydream has just been awarded by the United States Air Force with an initial budget of $ 1.5 million. The Atlanta-based company announced this week that it is working with the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate to develop an aircraft capable of flying at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. This USAF division is responsible for…
Editors Note: The Pandemic has had a deleterious effect on The Port Authority’s financial performance over the past quarter, and both the operating budget and the capital budget are affected. The operating budget by the continuing diminishing travel demand and reduced economic activity which affects both airport revenues and bridge and tunnel revenues; and the capital budgets because the cash layout to underpin the borrowing is not there. To save the capital projects which are listed below, the Port Authority is asking for a 15% investment by the Federal Government against the total estimated cost of $20 Billion dollars. The…
The perfect storm is brewing which could reach its maximum impact in the fall. The full impact relative to the termination of the Economic Security Act (CARES) plus the continuing reduction of manpower in all aviation jobs by most US based airlines will happen on September 30th. These positions will soon be vulnerable to job losses, unless both aid and lay-off prohibitions are extended or carriers can fight their way back to fuller operations by fall. This problem may have a mitigating factor; the job losses come at a time when retirements are at a peak, especially in skills related…
Nearly two decades ago, our nation was the target of air-borne terrorists in four planes who flew aircraft into and destroyed both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and also broadsided a wing of the Pentagon in suburban Washington, DC. In essence, the United States and our air services were taken advantage of and used in an attack against American citizens. After one of the most somber and grim days in America’s history, came an influx of governmental regulations and mandates that were meant to protect its citizens from future terrorist attacks. In an ever-changing world…
It’s been a long, long final scene for the Queen of the Skies. Over the past few years, airlines have celebrated their “final” Boeing 747 flights with a continuous goodbye tour, much like an aging rocker does before he finally hangs up his guitar. But now, a more final ending is just two years away, when Boeing is set to stop production of the latest version of the jumbo, the 747-8. Recently, the aircraft had a brief reprise of its former glory when it was pulled out of mothballs and became a savior by delivering medical supplies in a flurry…
A lone traveler enters an empty baggage claim area in Terminal Four at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. Airlines are reducing flights due to the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. Travis LeBlanc, a board member for an independent federal agency charged with protecting Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detail how it intends to collect, use and safeguard the sensitive health information. LeBlanc sought answers to a dozen questions about the government’s yet-unpublished airport screening plan. “The ongoing pandemic is not a hall pass to disregard the privacy and civil liberties of the traveling public,” wrote LeBlanc, a Democrat on the five-member bipartisan Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The agency, created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack to counter government overstepping in the fight against terrorism, has been…
As lockdowns start to ease across Europe and the Middle East, cargo crime is expected to spike as thieves take advantage of disrupted supply chains, according to TAPA. The past three months have seen crime rates fall significantly, year on year, by nearly half according to value, while the number of incidents has fallen by about 85%. Between March 1st and May 29th, there were more than 400 reported thefts of goods from supply chains, valued at more than $18.2 Million dollars including the theft of 2 million face masks in Spain in April. But with businesses and communities beginning…
The move to part with thirteen seasoned executives was part of United’s plan to cut management and support staff by at least 30% in October, the earliest it can do so under terms of $5 billion in federal aid it is getting to help cover payroll cost. United Airlines President Scott Kirby has issued bleak outlook after bleak outlook since the coronavirus crisis began hitting U.S. airlines in late February, noting each time that he was laying out a worst-case scenario. The bleakest arrived this month during the airline’s quarterly earnings conference call. Kirby said travel demand is essentially “zero,” and the airline is bracing for that to be the case…
Both Pan American World Airways and it’s famous Terminal 3 at John F. Kennedy International Airport are not around any longer. But what is typical for the aviation community is the fond remembrance of an iconic symbol. The architects immediately dubbed it “the flying saucer,” but for aviation aficionados and others who indulge in nostalgia for the golden age of jet travel, Terminal 3 of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport will always simply be the home of Pan American World Airways. The terminal’s construction was financed by the airline itself, which baptized it as the “Worldport.” But its nickname “flying saucer” stuck, because…
It’s counter-intuitive; restaurants that are on the brink of bankruptcy contribute free meals to health workers in a trend repeated by restaurants and food service companies though-out the United States. In the church I attend, the pastor, knowing the church is out of bounds for worship, sits in the parking lot several days each week hearing confessions and listening to his flock as they drive up in cars, open the window and talk with Father. Even in the rain, Father sits there with an umbrella in the middle of a 2-acre parking lot. To boost our own self-image, just…