Gulliver

AS PART of a promised $140m investment in new technology, Delta Air Lines has developed an iPad app that gives passengers a bird's-eye view of the ground under their plane. The "Glass Bottom Jet" app feeds real-time data of your flight position into maps and satellite imagery of the surrounding area. It then combines that information with the destination guides, photographs and social-media gizmos for which travel websites are more commonly known. The app does not use live footage, and it obliges you to pay for Delta's in-flight Wi-Fi service.

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES, one of America's favourite passenger carriers, is continuing its aggressive expansion into the Asian market. The airline plans to buy over a dozen new Airbus jets, the Associated Press reported on Sunday. The rapidly growing airline plans to add about 1,000 jobs over the next half-decade or so to handle its expanded capacity. The deal is worth around $2.8 billion, according to Reuters.

Hawaiian is a positive story in America's domestic airline industry. Its planes arrive on time, it gets good passenger satisfaction scores, and it is growing.

FOR most commuters, going to an airport named after someone famous is not high on their list of priorities. But recently, proposals to change the names of various airports have been proving controversial among commuters and journalists alike. Just before the new year—admittedly a silly season for the news—the Birmingham Mail reported that there were ideas being mooted to rename the city's gateway "Ozzy Osbourne International Airport", in homage to the Black Sabbath musician and former resident.

Jim Simpson, a record label boss who discovered Black Sabbath, is reportedly behind the proposal.

LAST week it was confirmed that Jet Airways, an Indian airline, is courting investment by Etihad Airways, the deep-pocketed flag-carrier of Abu Dhabi. It comes at an auspicious time for both parties. Local media reports suggest that a 24% stake could exchange hands, although the $330m figure doing the rounds has raised some eyebrows. But equity analysts are broadly positive about the would-be partnership; far more so than they were for the rumoured deal between Etihad and Kingfisher Airlines, for example, which prompted incredulity last month—many commentators struggling to see value in a debt-ridden airline that has never posted a profit and which has been grounded since October.

AMERICA'S Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates airline safety in the country, has recently been giving evasive explanations when asked why passengers have to turn off their electronic devices for takeoff and landing. They have told Nick Bilton of the New York Times that iPads and Kindles have to be turned off because they could disrupt a plane's electronics—but have also allowed pilots to bring iPads into the cockpit. Previously, agency representatives had claimed they were just being cautious. Other reporters have received similar, ever-changing explanations over the years.

AIRLINES don't want you to know how much your ticket will really end up costing. For over two years, American carriers have been battling Barack Obama's Department of Transportation (DOT), which is considering requiring airlines to disclose fee information to travel agent distribution systems and online ticketing agents like Orbitz. Some airlines previously sued the Obama administration over a rule requiring they disclose taxes as part of the cost of their flights, but they might hate the fee proposal even more. And their explanation for their position on fee non-disclosure is especially bizarre. The Associated Press explains [emphasis added]:

PRESUMABLY tired of complaints from passengers and watchdog groups, America's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has agreed to review the safety of the full-body scanners that have become common at many American airports. The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday that DHS will pay the National Academy of Sciences to review existing research on the safety of the devices—conducting a study of studies, essentially.