That failure rate was lower than a similar check of all airport scales in New York City last year, when 12% of scales had readings that were inaccurate by more than one pound, DCA said Friday.

Overall, 92% of the 608 luggage scales at Kennedy passed the department’s accuracy test, which requires that airport scales cannot read inaccurately by more than one pound. At LaGuardia, 93% of the 133 luggage scales at LaGuardia passed city inspection the first try. After airlines had five days to fix the inaccurate scales, all scales at JFK passed and only two scales at LaGuardia failed and were condemned.

Airline baggage scales are big business these days, and should be inspected just as gasoline pumps, produce scales in grocery stores and wherever else you get charged by weight.
In practice, airlines rarely charge customers if baggage weight is within one pound of acceptable limits. Many airline workers give some leeway, with a stern look or a wink and nod, when readings are close. At least that’s been the experience of my children who often are butting up against 50-pound baggage limits going back and forth to college.

The problem with a system that uploads flight plans was fixed around 10 a.m. EST, the FAA said. But problems will likely persist all day—many flights have been canceled, and scores delayed.

The good news for travelers is that the busy Thanksgiving travel surge hasn’t yet begun, so there should be plenty of seats to accommodate displaced travelers. The bad news is that FAA modernization can’t come soon enough: Simple computer shutdowns shouldn’t be able to cripple a nation’s air transportation system. In this case, the problem was with a fairly new system. But the issue is the same: The FAA’s technology, much of it old, is hampering air travel too often.

Much of the trouble today seemed to be centered in Atlanta, as well as in the Northeast. Any hiccups at those congested airports can spell trouble, and some of the Northeast was already dealing with some bad weather.

As of 11 a.m. EDT, FlightStats counted only 54% of AirTran flights that had arrived on-time. AirTran had already canceled 31 flights. Delta’s on-time arrival rate was only 64% — 56% in Atlanta itself. Delta canceled 54 flights. Its Northwest Airlines unit, in contrast, had 88% of its flights on-time Thursday morning.

By 4 p.m. EDT, Delta was still at only 58% on-time for arrivals, with 63 flights canceled Thursday. Only 59% of AirTran flights had arrived on-time.

American, United and Southwest airlines were all running at least 80% on-time most of the day. Departures aren’t getting off the ground as well, so those arrival rates may drop as the day progresses. Then again, there’s lots of cushion built into schedules these days because of air-traffic slowdowns, so some flights that leave late may well arrive on-time.

jetBlue was another laggard, running no better than 64% on-time as of 11 a.m., and only 61% by 4 p.m. Both Kennedy International Airport in New York and Logan International Airport in Boston were running right around 65% on-time for arrivals.

If you are traveling Thursday, think about pushing back your trip to Friday (airlines are allowing schedule changes without penalty) or at least later in the day Thursday. And hope that Congress and the Obama Administration can find ways to accelerate modernization of the nation’s antiquated air-traffic control system.

The Terminal will try to update important weather developments and airline issues for holiday travelers through both Thanksgiving and Christmas. So check back, and feel free to post your own experiences and tips for fellow travelers. If you run into a TSA bottleneck, encounter a bunch of airline cancellations or even discover a rental car company has run out of cars somewhere, let your fellow fliers know.

A few other ideas that didn’t make it into the story because of space limitations:

–Come up with your own solution if you run into trouble. Scour flight schedules for options, for example, rather than just relying on what the gate agent tells you. Air travel is a largely self-service endeavor these days—you have to fend for yourself.

–Be nice. Screaming at airline workers rarely gets you solutions, but a smile to a tired, frustrated worker can get you a break.

–If you think the answer one worker is giving you is wrong, don’t argue. Instead, try talking to someone else. “A lot of the time airline people give you incorrect information. So if you don’t get the answer you like, call back,” says Billy Garrett, a frequent flier from Charleston, S.C., and retired electronics company executive. “You’ll eventually get someone who knows.”

Enjoy your holiday travels, and stay in touch.

The first ad will be from an environmental news service called Mother Nature Network that is trying to spark attention by offering the chance to win a seven-night Royal Caribbean cruise. AirTran said it will ensure that the ads are all “consistent with the airline’s family-friendly atmosphere.’’

That probably means no Viagra or Cialis ads and no strip clubs, and who knows whether the airline would ban ads for the beer it sells on board. But to help the airline with its marketing, perhaps we should all offer ideas of what we’d like to see staring back at us for a few hours on airplanes.

Here are my suggestions. Add your own in comments.

Knee-pain remedies: Sales will go through the roof when travelers in cramped seating see offers of relief for the pain and injury they suffer onboard planes. Just make sure the ad is still visible when the person in front of you reclines.

Good Food: Tantalize travelers with ads for things you can’t have. Ice cream, perhaps.

Air Freshener: Just the thing to have available when your neighbor is odorous. And in this season: Surgical face masks. Maybe the airline should sell them on board in case the person next to you is sneezing.

ExpertFlyer.com, a subscription service popular with hard-core road warriors, has added a feature that will alert you when a currently occupied seat you want opens up for a flight. If you want a specific seat, such as a bulkhead or exit row, you can get notice if it becomes available. If you are stuck in a middle seat, for example, you can sign up for alerts for any aisle or window seat.

Like fares, seat inventory jumps around a lot before a flight departs. Sometimes airlines block seats and then open them. Other times people with reserved seats cancel or change flights. Seats open up as premium customers get upgraded. But unless you keep checking the seat map for your flight, it’s hard to follow. ExpertFlyer can now check for you on 84 different airlines around the world.

ExpertFlyer costs $4.99 a month for basic service, or $9.99 a month (or $99.99 for one year) for premium service. The seat alert function is available only with premium service. Two other nifty features that alert you when specific frequent flier award tickets and upgrades become available, or when a specific fare class such as discounted business class opens up, are also available only with premium service. The fare class and upgrade/award alert features work on only 22 airlines, but include Delta, American, Alaska and Hawaii in the U.S.

ExpertFlyer’s bread-and-butter service for heavy duty travelers allows users to peer into the booking inventory of airlines. ExpertFlyer lets you hunt for a specific fare class that may come with upgrade privileges, for example, but you have to immerse yourself in the arcane world of airline booking codes.

The growing number of alert tools available to frequent fliers can really help cut through the complexity of airline tickets. Yapta.com offers alerts on fares for specific flights you may be shopping, or specific hotels. FlightStats.com offers alerts on flight delays and cancellations. Airlines and larger booking sites are offering more and more, and savvy travelers are finding they can help. Share some of your favorites with other travelers in comments.

Members of FlyerTalk.com, an online community of road warriors and mileage addicts, have learned to love it. They travel all the time, for business and pleasure. And this week’s Middle Seat follows one of their most amazing adventures to date, a whirlwind tour through four airlines on two continents plus manufacturer Airbus.

The key to travel for these folks is learning to maximize the value of airline awards and perks, and make sure you get and keep elite status. Elite status – the higher the better – really is the doorway to better travel.

Top-tier frequent fliers get upgrades, priority, lounge access and other benefits that can make travel much more enjoyable. Flying business-class or first-class really is the key. And these folks find every way conceivable to unlock that door.

For people who travel frequently, airlines trigger visceral reactions unlike other consumer businesses. Road warriors are typically locked into one carrier or another, by reward program or by corporate contract. They spend more time with the airline, sometimes, than they do with friends and relatives.

And their lives can be helped by airlines, which get them home on time or to their next meeting, or hurt by delays, cancellations, lost baggage, surly staff and knee-pinching seating. Few other industries, if any, can impact lives the way airlines can.

There’s still romance in air travel. Airlines can take you to adventure, to celebrations and to life’s turning points. At the same time, they can ruin the adventure for many people.

Do you love it or hate it? Leave reflections on the state of air travel today in comments.

The ACLU sued TSA this summer, accusing airport screeners of overstepping their authority by searching and questioning travelers about potential crimes that had nothing to do with carrying weapons or explosives onto airplanes, which is the specific role defined for TSA. The suit was filed after a Ron Paul campaign staffer was detained and questioned about $4,700 in cash he was carrying through the St. Louis airport. In July, I wrote about that case, another criminal case in Ohio and TSA’s penchant for probing into areas beyond keeping air travel safe despite its limited legal mandate.

On Tuesday, in response to a TSA policy update, the ACLU said it would move to drop its suit.

TSA says it issued a management directive in 2007 telling screeners that any evidence of criminal activity discovered during searches “shall be referred to a law enforcement officer for appropriate action.” On. Sept. 1, that directive was revised, emphasizing that “screening may not be conducted to detect evidence of crimes unrelated to transportation security.’’ Indeed, even when illegal drugs are discovered, the policy notes, TSA can inform local law enforcement authorities and ask passengers to wait at screening checkpoints, but TSA officials do not have the authority themselves to detain people suspected of anything unrelated to aviation security.

A second directive this fall specifically addressed the issues raised in the ACLU’s lawsuit, stating that “traveling with large amounts of currency is not illegal,” and that to the extent bulk quantities of cash warrant searching, it is only to further security objectives.

It does to a group of road warriors embarking Tuesday on a unique venture organized by FlyerTalk.com, an online community of expert travelers.

The Star Alliance MegaDO (as in a “really big ‘do”) starts with a briefing with United Airlines in Chicago then jets off to Newark, N.J., for a behind-the-scenes look at operations, including the in-flight meal kitchen, at Continental Airlines’ hub there. That night, the 88 participants, who collectively already hold 24 million frequent flyer miles, fly to Frankfurt and join more than 100 more airline junkies in Europe for meetings and briefings with Lufthansa executives.

The following day, a chartered Boeing 757-300 will take the group of 200 to Oslo, Norway, for breakfast with SAS, then Toulouse, France, for a tour of the Airbus A380 final assembly line. Then it’s back to Frankfurt for a stint at Lufthansa’s flight attendant training academy.

Airlines coddle these uber-travelers because they are among their best customers. With business travel in a deep slump, the Star Alliance airlines are bending over backwards for the event.

Stay tuned for updates on the group’s experience.

Last Wednesday US Airways Group Inc. announced a major realignment of its flying next year, revealing plans to cut capacity, eliminate 1,000 jobs and concentrate its network mainly around three hubs. One city slated to lose flights: Boston.

The next day, Thursday, jetBlue Airways Corp. announced a 30% increase in the number of flights offered starting with next year’s summer schedule.

To be sure, both airlines surely had the plans in the works for some time, and both announcements represent the continuation of long-standing trends. Previously we’ve looked at jetBlue’s climb in Boston and on the shift of domestic capacity to discount airlines from bigger network carriers.

But last week’s news just drove home the trend. In Boston, US Airways will close its pilots’ base and shift Shuttle flights to regional jets instead of full-sized Boeing and Airbus planes. Sure, the Embraer 190s US Airways will use are nice, comfortable planes – a major step up from the first generation of small jets. JetBlue flies the E190 out of Boston as well.

Still, the downsizing of the New York shuttle from Boston is significant, reflecting increased customer preference for the Acela train, decreased business travel and more competition from jetBlue, which now flies eight times a day between Boston and New York-Kennedy.

US Airways is also shrinking considerably in Las Vegas, where it will drop to 36 daily departures from 64 by February. Las Vegas was once a major hub for America West Airlines, which bought US Airways. But no longer. And five European destinations are being dropped from Philadelphia, a setback in that airline’s efforts to beef up its international reach.

Airlines are losing lots of money, and those that are struggling the most need to cut capacity in order to try to get fares up to profitable levels. When other carriers expand, perhaps able to make profits on lower fares, it just means that traffic shifts from one company to another.

There have been three colossal piloting errors at U.S. carriers in recent days.

• A Delta Air Lines crew landed a Boeing 767 on a taxiway in Atlanta.
• Northwest Airlines pilots go off in their own world of laptops and crew scheduling changes and fly 150 miles past Minneapolis, their destination.
• A Midwest Airlines captain taxis a regional jet past a hold line and stops only 70 feet short of an active runway where a Northwest Boeing 757 is rolling to takeoff. An air-traffic controller spotted the error, even before warnings went off in the control tower, and got the wayward pilot to halt in time. The planes came within an estimated 82 feet of each other.

All those cases are being investigated, but in only one, so far, has the Federal Aviation Administration revoked the licenses of the pilots. That one would be the one that got worldwide attention—the crew-scheduling fixated pilots who weren’t paying a lick of attention to flying their airplane. Not even a glance at instruments for more than an hour.

The carelessness of the Northwest pilots was the most inexplicable mistake. It may well have been the most egregious error, though their passengers were not in nearly as much danger as passengers on the other two planes (unless the Northwest jet was close to running out of fuel). The Minneapolis-bound pilots clearly broke company and FAA rules, and so many will see the swift revocations (and likely firings that will soon follow) as justified. They weren’t fatigued or confused or busy; they just both took an extended break from flying duties.

We can debate the severity of each incident – leave comments below. Plenty of readers will want to debate the appropriate punishment. And there likely will be legal and union challenges to the action the FAA has taken so far.

The bottom line, however, is that each one of those piloting mistakes may well have a good measure of complacency in the mix. Each one was a close-call that sends a message. They are warnings. With all the improvements made in aviation safety, the biggest danger now may simply be complacency.