Why United Airlines is investing in crushed rocks | Fast Company

February 26, 2025February 25, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The airline industry is notoriously hard to decarbonize: large jets traveling long distances can’t feasibly use batteries, and sustainable aviation fuel is still only produced in tiny volumes.

As airlines explore a range of options, United Airlines Ventures’ Sustainable Flight Fund just invested in one possible solution—a system that uses crushed rocks to capture CO2 for use in fuel or to store underground.

The fund announced today that it invested an unspecified amount in Heirloom, a company that uses a powder made from limestone to pull CO2 from the air, relying on the material’s natural ability to absorb the greenhouse gas. At a facility in California’s Central Valley, robots stack trays of the limestone powder into tall stacks exposed to outdoor air. Then the powder is heated in furnaces to release the CO2 so it can be used or stored.

United Airlines kicks off labor contract negotiations with Teamsters union | Fast Company

August 8, 2024August 7, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

United Airlines has begun negotiations with the Teamsters union, which is pushing for a new contract covering 10,000 aviation maintenance and related workers in the United States, the labor union said on Tuesday.

The Teamsters National Negotiating Committee is seeking industry-leading wages, a faster timeline for reaching the top pay rate, improved healthcare benefits and higher safety standards.

The negotiations — which have begun four months before the current contract is set to become amendable — come at a time when thousands of maintenance staff members and flight attendants across airlines are demanding higher wages and more benefits after carriers posted record profits helped by a rebound in travel demand post-pandemic.

United Flights Halted: The Malicious Work Of A Hacker Or An Old-Fashioned Computer Glitch? | Forbes

June 3, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Was the world’s second-largest airline grounded for nearly an hour Tuesday morning by a hacker?

Probably not. But that was the immediate suspicion after Chicago-based United Airlines began experiencing significant problems with its flight dispatch system around 8 a.m. CT.

The Federal Aviation Administration quickly issued a ground stop, effectively shutting down the airline’s more than 700 jets (except, of course, those already in the air). The ground stop order was lifted about 40 minutes later.

Wired.com and other media outlets quickly posted online news stories about the event in which they quoted Tweets and other social media postings from passengers stuck onboard grounded United planes. Though all those early reports cautiously added that the actual cause of the dispatch system disruption remained unknown, at least to the website editors – they speculated that United’s system had been hacked into by outsiders.

United and Orbitz are suing a 22-year-old who exposed cheap airfare hack | Mashable.com

December 30, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

United Airlines and Orbitz are suing a 22-year-old website founder who has made it easier for travelers to find “hidden city” tickets, which can offer big discounts on airfares.

“Hidden city” ticketing is the practice of booking a one-way plane ticket from one city to another, and then getting off the plane on a layover before the final destination. It may seem counterintuitive, but booking the longer flight can sometimes be cheaper because of the convoluted mess that is airline pricing.

It’s not illegal — but that doesn’t mean airlines and booking sites want people to do it.