Did you ever wonder what happens to in-flight food leftovers after your plane touches down? Well, most airlines probably bin it, but a stewardess has won an award for making sure some goes to the poor. Susan Powell, who works for Delta Airlines in the US, initiated a recycling programme, and her airline's spare nosh now goes to food banks for the poor. 'With so many hungry people in the world, it really bothered me to just throw away perfectly good food,' she said.
Last week Ms Powell was given an Outstanding Service Award at the OAG Airline of the Year awards in London. Singapore Airlines was a 'runway' success, named as Best Asian Airline, and winning a total of six awards. The island state's Changi airport won Best Airport. I guess that means they have got their act together now at the transfer desk, whose staff were the rudest and most unhelpful I have ever come across after missing a connection. Emirates won the Airline of the Year award for the third year running.
A small breath of fresh air Meanwhile, Emirates seems to be getting the message that smoking is bad for your health. While most leading airlines have turned their backs on smokers - even JAL - Emirates, in spite of all its awards, still has smoking sections on nearly all flights. But from yesterday, the evening flight from Dubai to London went non-smoking. Emirates' Group managing director, Maurice Flanagan, says: 'The fact that we offer five daily flights to the UK affords us the flexibility of selecting one as a non-smoking flight.' Tough luck if you take one of the others.
The beast in us Adventure travel will soon bring out the 'beast' in people in Alaska. In August, teams will race more than 550 kilometres in the wilderness, over six to eight days. The four-person teams, each having at least one woman, will be taking part in the Beast 2000 Adventure Racing World Championship.
They will race together through the arduous Alaska Range, home of Denali National Park and Mt McKinley in south central Alaska. The race stages will include trekking, orienteering, glacier travel, mountain biking, sea rafting, ascending and rappelling, and, for the first time ever in an adventure race, pulking, or human powered sleds.
The Triathlon Ironman contest look like something for wimps in comparison. The organisers believe Alaska will get a tourism boost as the less energetic travel to Alaska to do the sensible thing - watch.