Another Delay for Sbirs ... This Time For Weather

If you wanna play, ya gotta pay!  Need another reason to give up smoking? Ireland's Belfast International Airport is now charging smokers £1 ($1.64) to light up before their flight at a 'designated smoking area,' reports the Daily Mail.  The airport says the fee will cover the cost of building and maintaining the facility.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: guns/ammo and airports DON'T mix!  Two separate men were stopped at Miami International Airport after being caught with guns in their carry-on bags, reports NBC Miami.  The first man, who had a gun in his carry-on, says he was licensed to carry the weapon and forgot it was in his bag. The second man had boxes of ammunition in his bag.

I guess he didn't care about job security. British Airways employee Bryan Benning was fired after he posted a rant on YouTube threatening to poison a pilot he called a 'Scab,' reports the Daily Mail. In the rant, he called pilots 'glorified bus drivers'.

Where's Donald Trump when you *really* need him? Miss USA 2003 Susie Castillo did a media blast this week, including on the Today Show, to complain about what she called an intrusive pat-down by Transportation Security Administration screeners at Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport.  Trump owns the Miss USA pageant.

And speaking of Donald Trump...Check out this interview inTheStreet.com, where Trump says he ran "a great airline." In 1989, he bought the assets of the Eastern Airlines Shuttle and ran the Trump Shuttle for a year and a half.

You know it doesn't snow in LA! Esteban Galtes got a three-year prison sentence after he was caught smuggling $100,000 worth of cocaine from Colombia to Los Angeles International Airport, reports the Beverly Hills Courier.  He hid the coke in egg-shaped candy.

If I were Norm Mineta, I'd be insulted! The San Jose city council decided not to come up with a new name for Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport, reports the San Jose Mercury News.  The move was suggested as a way to include Silicon Valley in the airport's name.

ONLY $10,000? CrankyFlier.com and Online Travel Review have a good chuckle about this new Cathay Pacific press release headline: "Cathay Pacific Offers First Class Service from Chicago to Hong Kong Starting at Just US$10,241 – Roundtrip!" I guess that's a bargain for some people! ;)