Baggage templates, which restrict the size of carry-on luggage, are getting the heave-ho from Washington’s Dulles International Airport.
A federal judge for the District of Columbia has ruled that United Airlines, which two years ago introduced the size-limiting devices on security screening equipment, conspired with other airlines to get the templates installed at Dulles over the objection of Houston-based Continental Airlines.
Still, the devices won’t be going away at other airports.
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“The decision only applies to Dulles,” conceded Dave Messing, a spokesman for Continental, who said Dulles is the third airport where Continental has successfully challenged United’s installation of the devices. Continental also has forced the sizing device out at San Diego International Airport and on Concourse A of Denver International Airport.
“In the airline industry, bigger is not always better,” Messing said. “Baggage sizers are an example of a big airline’s effort to `herd’ passengers through a cattle chute because they can’t effectively respond to customers as individuals.”
Rather than restricting the size of carry-on luggage a passenger can bring on board, Continental has spent millions of dollars expanding carry-on space on its airplanes.
A spokesman for United, noting that the Elk Grove Township-based airline also has expanded carry-on space, said United may file an appeal.
“Customers have come to like them,” said Andy Plews, a spokesman for United. “They serve the purpose for which we put them in–to help speed the boarding process. And they address some of the safety issues of huge pieces of baggage that some customers were attempting to bring on board.”
Midway break-ins eyed: Employees of Midway Airport are wondering if a theft ring is operating in the airport’s perimeter parking lots.
Sport-utility vehicles appear to have been targeted in particular, and employees said the break-ins seem to have spread to the yellow lot, where many employees park their cars. Recently, employees said almost every car parked on the perimeter was broken into.
Monique Bond, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Aviation Department, insisted that the Chicago Police Department, as well as the aviation department and Standard Parking, the lot operator, are providing security in the parking lots.
“I don’t know the status of their patrols, but we do have security patrolling,” she said, noting the police use unmarked cars for their rounds.
She said the number of reported incidents is low. In 2000, the aviation department logged 101 criminal incidents in the lots, though that’s up 46 percent from the 69 cases in 1999.
Gary Cook, of Rock Falls, Ill., says he isn’t as confident in the lots’ security. Twice in the past year, he has had the spare tire stolen off the back of his SUV while he was parked in the airport’s economy lot on 55th Street.
“How many SUVs leave the lot not knowing that their spare tire has been stolen?” asked Cook. He said it costs about $178 to replace a tire and wheel.
Orbitz feels turbulence: The same group of 20 state attorneys general that challenged Microsoft Corp. on antitrust grounds say they are now worried about Chicago-based Orbitz LLC, a planned online booking service backed by the nation’s five largest airlines.
Citing fears of online collusion in ticket pricing by the major carriers, attorneys general of New York, Iowa, California and 17 other states warned of their antitrust concerns in a filing with the U.S. Transportation Department.
Orbitz said the concerns were premature.
In a statement the company said: “Where regulatory agencies have invested the time and resources to thoroughly understand Orbitz’s infrastructure and the market, they have found that Orbitz will have a pro-competitive impact.”
More than 30 airlines and scores of hotel and rental car companies have joined the electronic reservation site, which hopes to begin accepting reservations this summer.
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