By now, everyone is familiar with standard airport security procedures: shoes off, boarding pass out, water bottles empty and laptops in a separate bin. But do these strict and irritating rules apply to everyone equally … even celebrities?

And what about dress codes on airplanes? In the last couple of years we’ve heard media reports of women being kicked off planes for being dressed to provocatively, and just this week a man was denied his seat in first class for dressing too casually.

Is it fair to lose your seat because of the way you dress? Read on to learn how the rules of flight - or lack thereof - are sometimes inconsistently enforced.

A massive luggage-theft operation was uncovered in Arizona Monday after a man arrested for stealing a suitcase from an airport in Phoenix was found to have hoarded more than 1,000 pieces of luggage at his house.

Authorities arrested the first suspect Keith Wilson King, 61, three weeks ago when he was caught stealing a bag from the Sky Harbor International Airport. After being released following that incident, police began conducting surveillance on him, and caught him trying to steal bags from the same airport again on November 2.

Keep reading to find out more about what happened and how you can avoid getting your luggage stolen.

The position of air traffic controller has generated a lot of interest after being named the top-paying job with the lowest minimum education in a recent Investopedia survey. According to the survey, air traffic controllers receive median annual salaries between $86,000-$142,000 with good benefits.

But it’s far from easy money, and it’s not an occupation that everyone can handle. Air traffic controllers have one of the most stressful jobs out there and can often involve making life or death decisions under extreme pressure.

Southwest Airlines has apologized for removing a mother and her boisterous 2-year-old boy from a flight last week.

The boy’s piercing shrieks of “Go! Plane! Go!” and “I want Daddy!” were allegedly so loud that other passengers could not hear safety instructions.

Airline officials have said they do not regret pulling the uncontrollable kid and his mother from the flight, but they did apologize for any problems it may have caused the family.

Did the disruptive duo deserve dismissal, or was Southwest in the wrong?

The Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot their destination by 150 miles have told investigators that they were distracted because they were using their personal laptops.

First Officer Richard Cole was allegedly helping Captain Timothy Cheney understand a new crew scheduling program while they lost track of time, according to a statement from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

So how exactly could something like this happen?

Is it possible to truly experience a new city in eight hours?

Flying from Los Angeles to southern China, Cathay Pacific’s late-night departure dropped me off in Hong Kong at 7:30 a.m. My flight to Guangzhou on the mainland was scheduled to depart that evening.

One thing was for sure, there was no way I would spend my layover curled up in the airport lounge, no matter how tempting a nap and free nibbles sounded. Nothing says faux-traveler than someone who claims to have “been” in a country when they never left the airport.

It’s not often that an airline confers free flights for life on a passenger, but that’s just what happened to one lucky newborn.

And in other airline news, two Northwest pilots may have been sleeping like babies when they overshot their destination by well over 100 miles.

Get the stories behind these headlines…

Sir Richard Branson probably said it best: Want to know the fastest way to become a millionaire? Start off a billionaire and then buy an airline.

Just a few weeks ago, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that 2008 yielded more losses for airlines than originally forecast, and that 2009 will likely be worse than projected.

Now that the third-quarter numbers are in, were their dire predictions true, or are carriers showing signs of life?