Emirates Orders 32 More Airbus A380′s

Dubai based Emirates has placed a firm order for 32 Airbus A380 super-jumbos – the largest single order for the type. With the already ordered 58, the Middle-Eastern airline will operate a fleet of 80 (!) Double-Deckers!

This latest order of 32 A380′s is a major milestone, for several reasons. This is the single biggest order for the aircraft type to date, valued at USD 11.5 billion (at list prices). This is the first time that an airline already operating the type ordered additional pieces – which is a real proof that the plane is fulfilling it’s promises in operations. And last but not least, it confirms that Emirates thinks about Dubai as a major worldwide Air Travel Hub even more seriously than earlier.

The order agreement was signed in a ceremony yesterday at the Berlin Air Show, in front of a very prestigious audience: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Emirates Chairman and CEO Ahmed bin SaeedAl-Maktoum and Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders.

Al-Maktoum told media that “the A380 is a great aircraft and our passengers worldwide are enthusiastic about this new dimension of air travel. This latest order, adding to 58 A380s previously ordered, affirms Emirates’ strategy to become a world leading carrier and to further establish Dubai as a central gateway to worldwide air travel.“

Enders said, “Emirates has supported the development of the A380 from the earliest days, and today’s order…is the best endorsement I can imagine.“

Emirates already took delivery of its 10th A380 this week and currently serves the largest A380 network: London Heathrow, Toronto, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Jeddah, Bangkok, Seoul Incheon, Sydney and Auckland. It plans to start A380 service from Dubai to Beijing on Aug. 1 and to Manchester on Sept. 1 and will restore A380 service on its Dubai-New York JFK route in October.

The carrier plans to have an enormous amount of widebody capacity in the future: In addition to the 80 A380s it still has on order for delivery, it has commitments for 70 A350s and 18 777-300s.

Based on the currently known orders for the A380 (234), Emirates holds 39% of the total orders for the type, meaning that more than every third A380 built will be operated by them.

by balint01

A La Carte Meals On KLM Economy Class

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has started testing à la carte meal service in Economy Class, on a number of selected flights.

When traveling on First or on Business Class, passengers can usually choose from a few different menus before the meal service, or even before taking off. In Economy, usually passengers get two options – if they are among the first being served (“Chicken or Pasta?”). If you end up sitting in a row that gets the main dish as the last ones, you may be left without any choice and just get the meal that is left.

At the end of May, KLM launched a pilot project testing à la carte catering in Economy Class on flights from Amsterdam to Bangkok/Taipei, Dubai, Cape Town, and Singapore/Denpasar. Passengers will be able to choose from four dishes while the pilot test runs across the peak tourist season in the summer, until the end of August, 2010.

KLM will continue serving its standard meals onboard, this choice of menu is offered in addition to the usual catering. The four dish choices include:

• a healthy Japanese meal,
• an Indonesian rice table,
• a Bella Italia meal (big Italian dishes) and
• a “sustainable” dining meal of organic chicken, vegetables and cheese.

Orders can be placed and paid for by credit card, when checking in online. The cost is EUR 15 (USD 18.62) per dish. Important, that in order to get this service, one must check-in online between 30 and 24 hours prior to departure. Note: if you ordered a special meal when you made your booking  (e.g.: vegetarian, kosher, lactose-free, etc.), it will be replaced by your a la carte choice.

“The wishes and choices of our customers are key. We will be testing them during the pilot project. Our aim is to align our products even more closely to what different customers want,” said Erik Varwijk, Executive Vice President of KLM Commercial.

We are looking forward to hear back from KLM how the pilot project goes, but to be honest, – shall it be successful – providing this service on flights to all the worldwide destinations that KLM flies to may be much easier than providing the same service for flights flying back to Amsterdam from across the globe. We look forward to seeing this service being rolled-out to all flights and maybe starting an onboard a la carte catering competition among airlines?

by balint01

Lufthansa A380 Flies To Johannesburg

Lufthansa flew the German National Football Team, the Nationalelf to the South African WorldCup on board their brand new flagship, the Airbus A380 super-jumbo. They titled this special flight as “Mannschaftsbus“.

The flight, numbered as LH 2010 left Frankfurt a bit late at almost 9 pm on Sunday evening, June 6, 2010 to arrive in Johannesburg at 8:15 on Monday morning – right at the scheduled time. About 150 football fans were also aboard the A380 along with the players, the DFB (German Football Association) trainers and assistants. The team was given a warm send-off in the Business Lounge at Gate C14 at Frankfurt. Before the flight, Team Manager Oliver Bierhoff and the players took part in a talk session. All the passengers on the special flight were presented with an exclusive Lufthansa World Cup fan kit full of items the supporters will need to cheer their team on.

Captain Jürgen Raps, Member of the Lufthansa German Airlines Board and Chief Pilot, was pilot in command of the special flight. Supporting him on the flight deck were Captain Raimund Müller and Captain Werner Knorr. All three of them had a painted German flag on their faces, like all the real fans usually do. The cabin crew comprised two pursers and 19 flight attendants. “We’re flying to South Africa with a good feeling,” said Manuel Neuer, goalkeeper of the German national squad.

“We are thrilled to be the first guests on board Lufthansa’s biggest and most modern airliner and hope after a relaxed flight to realise our sporting ambitions at the World Cup in South Africa,” said Team Manager Oliver Bierhoff.

The youngest German World Cup Team since 1934 had a full floor to themselves on the double-decker aircraft. The lower level of Economy class was occupied by journalists and the above mentioned 150 lucky fans.

As a surprise, however, on the upper deck, one of the First Class seats was occupied during the flight by the famous singer: Shakira! Her private jet arrived in Frankfurt a little bit late, thus she missed all the pre-flight events, but the A380 did wait for her and took off a few minutes late. Reportedly, members of the team taught a few German words to the pop-diva, who is scheduled to perform on the first ever FIFA WORLD CUP KICK–OFF CELEBRATION CONCERT, together with Alicia Keys, The Black Eyed Peas, John Legend just to mention a few from the very impressive, long line-up of musicians. The historic event is taking place the night before the first match at 8 p.m. local time on June 10, 2010, at the newly-renovated Orlando Stadium in Soweto/Johannesburg.

The well-rested and stylishly traveled German Football Team will play their first match against Australia in Durban, on Saturday.

Minute-by-minute reporting from the flight in German: here.

Photos taken from the Lufthansa Facebook site.

by balint01

First Lufthansa Airbus A380

Lufthansa has taken delivery of their first Airbus A380. The German airline will first use it to transport the German National Team (“Nationalelf”) to the Football (soccer) World Cup in South Africa starting in less than two weeks.

On May 19, Lufthansa become the second European airline after Air France (and the 5th worldwide) to receive the super-jumbo when Airbus CEO Thomas Enders handed over the aircraft to Lufthansa CEO and Chairman Wolfgang Mayrhuber at an official ceremony at the Airbus plant in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, which was attended by about 700 honorary guests. The plane powered by Trent-900 engines carries the registration number D-AIMA and is named “Frankfurt am Main”.

The German flag-carrier first plans to operate its first double-decker for pilot training across 13 German airports plus Zurich and Vienna from May 31 through June 3, and also on a few selected scheduled flights from Frankfurt to Munich and Hamburg in order to familiarize crew and airport staff with the aircraft, while also generating publicity. On June 6, 2010, this super-jumbo will transport the German national soccer team to Johannesburg for the World Cup in South Africa.

Lufthansa has configured its Airbus A380 with 526 seats (12 less than so far recorder Air France). The entirely new First Class cabin (seen above) with eight seats on the upper deck reflects the concept of individuality and offers the ultimate in comfort and technical innovation, which further enhances the travel experience. However, Lufthansa did not opt for the personal Suite-type of First Class product as fellow Star Alliance member Singapore Airlines, or Emirates. Lufthansa is rolling-out an overall new First class product together with the introduction of the A380 as originally announced two years ago. Also on the upper deck is the Business Class cabin with 98 seats. The main deck features 420 Economy Class seats providing an unprecedented level of passenger comfort in coach-class (seen below).

Download the full Seat-plan of the Lufthansa Airbus A380-800.

Long-haul scheduled services, starting with Frankfurt-Tokyo Narita route, will commence on June 11, 2010, with thrice weekly return flights, replacing a Boeing 747-400 on the route. The Tokyo A380 service will become daily from August 4, after Lufthansa receives the second super-jumbo. Currently the second plane is undergoing painting work and cabin interior installment in Hamburg, and will be named “München”.

Furthermore Lufthansa will receive two additional A380s this year (one in July and one in September). Its third A380 will operate between Frankfurt and Beijing thrice-weekly beginning Aug. 25 and its fourth will fly between Frankfurt and Johannesburg thrice-weekly from Oct. 25.  The German carrier will take 4 more such planes next year and expects each A380 to transport 366.000 passengers each year, while flying 4.6 million kms each. It received the first plane 2.5 years later than the original schedule and has 15 firm orders currently with 10 more options for the aircraft type.

The first Lufthansa Airbus A380 has also received a brand new maintenance hangar (the largest in Europe) at Frankfurt Airport, by Lufthansa Technik, after seven years of preparational work. The new facility underwent final tests in early April, when a test aircraft was flown in from Toulouse for this purpose. Lufthansa Technik already employs 80 A380-licensed technicians including staff for stations outside of Germany. It invested €150 million ($200.5 million) to build its A380 maintenance facility at Frankfurt expanded later. Currently, it has the capacity to handle three A380s and two MD-11s at one time. Lufthansa will also get support for the first several months of A380 operations from Airbus, which will provide nine specialists to assist the carrier, and Rolls-Royce, which will supply 20 temporary support staff.

We are happy to see another European airline starting to operate the European-built, largest aircraft in the world, and hope that it will bring the expected results, including reduced noise levels for both passengers and residents on the ground, as well as reduced fuel consumption and less emissions.

The big question remaining is: how will the 11 starting players of the Nationalelf share the 8 First Class seats on their June 6 flight to South Africa?

by balint01

Afriqiyah Airways Crash In Tripoli, Lybia

An Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330 has crashed at the Tripoli International Airport while trying to land. There were 104 people on board, the lives of all but one are believed to have been lost.

The Afriqiyah Airways flight 771 arriving from Johannesburg, South Africa, after a 9 hour flight, carrying 93 passengers and 11 crew members was about to land at Tripoli at 10 minutes past 6am this morning. The plane was scheduled to continue its journey to London-Gatwick as flight 8U 912, thus a few British citizens were also aboard with other nationalities including South Africans and Europeans bound for other connecting flights. As confirmed by the Dutch authorities, there were 62 Dutch citizens on this flight! All the crew were from Lybia. Nicky Knapp, a representative of the Airports Company South Africa, provided the breakdown in the destinations of the passengers aboard: seven to London, 32 to Brussels, 42 to Dusseldorf, one to Paris, and 11 to Libya. She was speaking on behalf of Afriqiyah Airways.

First reports suggest the plane has exploded in the air before touching down (“It exploded on landing and totally disintegrated,” a Libyan security official told AFP), but these are not yet confirmed. Some burnt airplane parts are also lying on the ground, together with intact airline seats, which would indicate that we may have some survivors. Ambulances are continuously arriving at the scene. Early reports indicate there is one survivor, an 8 year old Dutch child! He is currently undergoing surgery at a local hospital with some bone injuries.

By the afternoon, 96 bodies have also been recovered from the wreckage… Some of the TV footage show a destroyed car wreckage being moved by rescue workers as well – it is unknown at this stage if there were any casualties on the ground as well.

Officials also recovered the plane’s flight data recorder, which investigators use to piece together a flight’s last minutes.

The plane was one of three Airbus A330-200′s operated by Afriqiyah Airways. Carrying the registration number 5A-ONG (pictured here above), it was handed over to Afriqiyah just 8 months ago, thus was a new a plane. The planes in the fleet carry the logo 9.9.99 – the date when the African Union was formed, and this plane was handed over to the airline exactly ten years later, on 9.9.09. Ended her short life after accumulating about 1,600 flight hours in some 420 flights in a very tragic way.

by balint01

United And Continental Announce Merger

After a long period of speculation, that included reported merger talks between US airlines in practically all combinations, it became official today: United Airlines and Continental Airlines are merging to form the world’s Largest Airline Company in a “Merger of Equals”.

Following the mega-merger of Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines announced practically two years ago, the third and fourth largest US airlines are merging to form not only the largest in the US, but also in the world. They will remain in the Star Alliance, under the name “United”, but will keep the Continental logo and airplane liveries.

The two airlines together will operate a very extensive domestic US network and a very advanced international network – where currently they operate no overlapping routes, with a fleet of 692 aircraft! Connecting 370 destinations in 59 countries the more than 144 million passengers will have access to the widest global network of any carrier, which combined with the benefits of the Star Alliance will provide a true Global reach, with emphases on the 91 million (!) frequent flier members. With 10 hubs (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco, Washington DC, Denver, Cleveland, Guam and Tokyo), the combined United Airlines will be at home in the four largest US cities.

Interestingly, United and Continental were first reported to be in talks at the time of the Delta-Northwest announcement, but the merger rumours about United Airlines merging with US Airways were stronger recently, played down only early last week. The news about a possible tie-up with Continental got stronger (again) towards the second half of the week – but this merger had surely been in the pipeline for some time, as they even have developed a special website only dedicated to the merger: www.unitedcontinentalmerger.com

In a presentation targeted at investors, the new company announced that it will be headquartered in Chicago, “maintaining significant presence in Houston” as well, with the CEO having offices at both locations. On a pro forma basis, the combined company would have annual revenues of approximately $29 billion based on 2009 financial results and ownership will be: 55% United shareholders and 45% Continental shareholders. The holding company for the new entity will be named United Continental Holdings, Inc.  The proposed transaction is expected to generate approximately $200 million to $300 million in annual net cost savings by 2013. The two companies currently employ 87.529 (46.602 (United) + 40.927 (Continental)) people.

Talking about employees, the two airlines’ pilot unions released a joint statement observing that “history has demonstrated that the integration of two airlines is always a difficult challenge. The support of the pilots is pivotal in determining whether a merger is successful or not, as will be the case with this merger…“

Of course the merger is subject to approval by shareholders and anti-trust regulations, but will most probably be completed according to plan before the end 2010 (by Q4 this year), with the single operating certificate targeted for the first half of 2012. (It took Delta Airlines to reach that goal by the end of 2010 and to retire the Northwest brand – thus United plans to work with similar timelines).

Looks like if American Airlines wants to stay in the game, it is now left with only one potential partner of significant size: US Airways. Will that be an acquisition type of merger like Delta, or a merger of equals like United and Continental, we’ll see, but it looks like the only logical step to be taken.

by balint01

European Airports Reopen, European Flights Resume

Following almost 6 days of Flight Feast in Europe, Airports have been reopening since yesterday across the continent, and close to 90% of the flights are back to normal by today. The live air traffic on FlightRadar24 shows lots of planes cruising in the European airspace, and even my friend’s Mother going for a week-long vacation in Iceland, has left this morning and arrived safely to the Nordic island.

Airports and airlines are in overdrive across Europe – as you can see on this photo above sent by my friend, Robert. Airlines needed to collect and relocate their planes that were stuck at airports abroad because of the volcanic ash caused airspace closure but are now mostly operating their fleets according to the regular schedule. This is great news for the passengers. Mostly for those, who were booked for today or later, and for those who were rebooked from last weekend to flights today or over the coming weekend. It will still take a few days to get all passengers to their original destinations, and have the not-yet-rotten air cargo be delivered as well.

Soon, all parties involved in this vis-maior, maybe overreacted airspace closure will announce the numbers about the last 6 days of flight interruptions, such as: 6.8 million passengers infected, ~70.000 flights cancelled, 750.000 passengers stuck on other continents, EUR 5-10 billion loss in tourism, a drop of jet-fuel prices, and the price increase of fresh vegetables and fruits. Not to mention the enormous amounts paid in recent days for train/bus ticket, car rentals, etc – which companies made a fortune and played by the free-market rules all around Europe. Rental car prices may be back to normal within a few days – but now that airplanes are mostly back to their hubs, these rental cars need to be relocated… Some rental companies are now renting cars for only the price of the fuel, if you as the renter take the car back to its original location.

(This is a snapshot of European Airspace on Thursday 1pm GMT. Take a look and compare it with the snapshot in our earlier article here)

It now seems that the volcanic ash powered clear skies are now history. At least for a while. The volcano in Iceland just entered another state of the erruption, with less ash and smoke. But other Volcanoes may follow…

by balint01

European Airspace Closed Due To Volcanic Ash From Iceland

Most of the European airspace – that of 19 European countries in particular – have been closed for three days by now, since the Icelandic Volcano, located below the Eyjafjallajoekull Glacier has started to spread ash in the air on April 13, 2010, creating an enormous ash cloud in the atmosphere that went up to reach 36000 feet or 10 kms – dangering any airplanes flying through it.

This flight disruption is the biggest since September 11, 2001, and has stopped travelers on all six continents since last Thursday. Unlike some of the recent volcanic ash-clouds, this particular one flew in and above one of the most congested airspaces in the world – changing the plans of tens of thousands of people. My friends on facebook have been complaining for two days in countless posts: some of them were to fly to Marrakech from London, one was expecting her Mother for a visit in Ireland, some were to spend the weekend in Istanbul, or flying to Seattle for business, and one friend in Bosnia was waiting for his aunt to visit. A colleague scheduled head back to Dallas on Sunday was rebooked for next Thursday as the earliest possible option… All of them were influenced by this volcano in Iceland. The funniest thing is that nobody can actually see this ash-cloud, other than viewing sunsets that are more red and colorful than usual, or when looking at meteorologist images. Or when looking at the air traffic above Europe live on Flightradar 24 – that shows no planes in Western Europe (as seen above).

The reason is simple: It is dangerous to operate jet engines in air that has such concentrated micro dust and even glass and ash particles originating from the volcano. You can read more about why it is dangerous here.

The ash has been spreading out over the last few days, with its concentration falling constantly, and also moving downwards. But even if it has been descending to 6000 metres and below in most countries – the planes still have to cross this area during take-off and landing, thus the danger is still present. Therefore as a pre-caution all 19 European countries have been extending the closure since they imposed it step-by-step North-to-South and West-to-East since last Thursday. Train and bus companies are making a fortune in this situation, though as most infected passengers seek alternative ways to each their destinations. Most European International trains now run with an 80-90% load-factor, with some (like the Eurostar) being able to raise their prices due to never-seen before levels of demand.

Even if the concentration of the first wave of the ash is reducing, the volcano is still continuously errupting, sending more ash in the air… Some reports claim the last such operation of the same volcano in 1830 lasted for almost a year… We hope it will be over quicker this time. It has already brought some interesting stories, from Sebastien Vettel’s Red Bull Racing Formula-1 car waiting for some parts in China that arrived days late to the band Depeche Mode driving for 21 hours from London to Budapest to hold a concert on Friday night. The most talked about of all such events being influenced has been the funeral of Lech Kaczinsky, the Polish President who died in an air-crash just a week ago.

Interesting that a Moldavian family is the only people being stuck in the Budapest Airport Transit area for three days by now, as they have no visa to enter the European Union – thus can not leave the airport… Most probably similar issues are happening all major European Hubs with a lot more people…

Have you been affected by the ash? Let us know about your story in a comment!

by balint01

Volcanic Ash – Why Is It Dangerous?

Strange days for us in Europe. We can’t see planes in the sky. Trains, buses and other transportation networks are overloaded, people got stuck at airports and businesses loose a lot of money due to this strange phenomenon. This is something that never happened in the history of commercial aviation. Why are these ash clouds so dangerous that it basically collapsed European aviation? Is it just a hype or is it a real fear?

The story begins in 1982, when a Boeing 747 (jumbo) took off from Malaysia and headed to Perth, Autralia. When the jet passed by Java, where a volcano erupted earlier, all four engines stopped, so the pilot had to glide. At 12 000 feet he could restart the engines and managed to land safely in Jakarta, although one of the engines failed again later on the ground. According to investigators at was the volcanic ash that clogged the engines for some time.

Although this was the only incident caused by volcanic ash, obviously aviation experts were afraid to put flights at risk, therefore aviation authorities decided to close down all affected European airports.

You can read the whole story with explanations on BBC Online.

Read more on BBC Online

Although the sky seems nice and blue, and I am still not convinced that such a light concentration of ash would really harm jet engines, I guess everybody understands that it is better not to risk people’s life. It is rather surprising for me that there is noone who could answer this question and help aviation authorities in bringing the right decisions.

I would be grateful if you shared your opinions with us in a comment.

By Szafi

9th Emirates A380 Destination: Manchester

Emirates Airlines is going to fly their Airbus A380 superjumbo to Manchester, UK from the first of September.

The Dubai based carrier will be replacing one of their two daily flights between Dubai and Manchester on September 1, 2010. The plane to be operated to their second A380 destination in the UK will be a 517 seat version of the largest Airbus plane. The A380 will replace a Boeing 777 that currently operates the route.

Manchester will be the 9th destination that Emirates flies the A380 to, and the third in Europe, following London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle. Outside of Europe they operate the doubledecker aircraft to Toronto, Jeddah, Bangkok, Soeul Incheon, Sydney and Auckland.

This announcement didn’t come cheap for Manchester, though: “We have invested close to £10 million in upgrading the airfield and terminal. . .to accommodate the aircraft,”  Andrew Cornish from Manchester Airport said.

by balint01