Aeroflot to fly Sukhoi Superjet on International Routes

Aeroflot, the first Russian operator of the latest Russian passenger jetliner, the Sukhoi Superjet is introducing the plane to international routes after the initial domestic routes.

SkyTeam member Aeroflot has been using the Sukhoi Superjet (SSJ100) only on domestic routes so far, but launched it for international services on December 4, 2011 with the first SSJ flight between Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport and Oslo in Norway. They have also revealed that the aircraft is expected to fly from Moscow to Budapest in Hungary as well, raising the international routes flown by the SuperJet to two.

“The fact that the SSJ100 started to serve international routes of Aeroflot reflects the confidence of the airline in the reliability of our aircraft. We believe that the SSJ100 aircraft will efficiently serve both international and domestic routes of Aeroflot and will do our best to make sure that the growing fleet of SSJ100 meets the expectations of the airline,” Sukhoi Civil Aircraft president Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk said.

The largest Russian air company has 30 Superjets on order, and currently operates three SSJ100s, which serve routes to St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Astrakhan, Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Anapa, Perm and Minsk. Aeroflot was the SSJ100’s first Russian customer and took first delivery in May, only one month after launch customer Armenian Armavia introduced the first ever SSJ100 in April.

by balint01

LOT Boeing 767 Emergency Landing

A Boeing 767 operated by LOT Polish Airlines made a successful emergency landing in Warsaw, Poland on Tuesday, 1 November, after a hydraulic failure led to the landing gears not opening before landing.

Flight LO-16 was bound to Warszawa-Frédéric Chopin Airport from New York Newark airport with 220 passengers and 11 crew onboard. According to Aviation Safety Network, at about 13:16 local time, while on approach to Warsaw’s runway 33, the crew encountered problems lowering the undercarriage (gears). The airplane entered a holding pattern at 2750 feet but the gear could not be deployed. While on holding, they burnt off most of the remaining fuel onboard, and thenthe crew decided to carry out a gear-up landing on runway 33 at 14:35. Nobody was hurt in the “text-book” emergency landing.

The Boeing 767-300 (registration SP-LPC, named “Poznan”) was originally built for LOT, first flew in May 1997, and is powered by two GE engines – that this time served also well as the main landing gear…

More images on Airliners.net.

by balint01

First China Southern Airbus A380

SkyTeam member China Southern Airlines took delivery of its first Airbus A380 superjumbo in Tolouse, France in mid-October – adding it to service just four days later – becoming the seventh airlines in the world (and the third in SkyTeam) to operate the largest bird in the skies today. China Southern is the first operator of the A380 in the world, that deploys it on domestic routes.

The first Chinese owned double-decker airplane has 508 seats, that puts it in the middle of the field of airlines operating the super-jumbo. Interestingly, Korean Air has “only” 407 – the difference of 101 seats is about a regional jet’s capacity (!) – while Air France has 538 seats on the same size aircraft. The 58th A380 delivered by Airbus is the first to go to China, to the largest Asian airlines company. China Southern operates the largest Airbus flee in Asia with almost 200 European made planes as part of a fleet with a total of 422 aircraft, and has 4 more A380′s on order.

The world’s largest passenger jetliner at China Southern has 8 fully lie-flat reclining seats in “Platinum” suites (First Class), 70 in Business (1-2-1 layout) and 428 seats in Economy (3-4-3 layout). Passengers’ well–being will be enhanced through the onboard innovative mood lighting system including several different illumination scenarios to create a relaxing atmosphere and environment. The state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system makes it easy for passengers to select from a wide variety of audio and video programs and make their long-haul A380 trip something to remember. The cabin also offers seats and lavatories that are easily accessible to disabled passengers. The airplane is powered by 4 Rolls-Royce Trent-900 engines.

“We are proud to become the first A380 operator in China,” said CZ chairman Si Xianmin. “The introduction of the A380 in our fleet is a very important step for the development of China Southern. The economics offered by the A380 will undoubtedly improve our competitiveness on international routes and is the perfect asset to make China Southern Airlines achieve its goal of becoming a leading global carrier,” he said.

The aircraft type was first operated on the Beijing-Guangzhou route between 18-26 October, and on the Beijing-Shanghai Hongqiao route, between 27-29 October. China Southern plans to start using the A380 on international service as well, the first such route being the Guangzhou-Paris route. The launch date for this service has not yet been unveiled. The other existing A380 operators – Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qantas Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, and Korean Air – only deploy the aircraft on international services. For 2012, A380 deliveries to Malaysia Airlines and Thai Airways are on the list.

“Four years of operation show that airlines who fly the A380 increase capacity, gain market share and improve load factors – with an A380 now taking off or landing every 15 minutes,” explained Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders at the hand-over ceremony in Tolouse. To date, A380s have flown more than 350,000 hours and carried over 16 million passengers, while serving 25 major cities worldwide, including flights that link the Middle East and Europe to Beijing and Shanghai in China. Guangzhou will be a new A380 destination with the China Southern’s domestic service, though.

by balint01

First Boeing 787 Commercial Flight at ANA

Star Alliance Member All Nippon Airways (ANA) has finally conducted the first commercial flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on October 26, 2011. This historic milestone charter flight was delayed by 3 years and 4 months in takeoff…

ANA originally placed the launch order for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner back in April 2004, with the anticipation, that it can show off the plane on the scheduled Tokyo-Beijing route in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. That could not happen due to Boeing facing several issues during the development of the plane that caused numerous delays in the program. Just to name a few of those reasons: part shortages, software issues, machinists’ strikes, network problems, and a fire during flight testing… Test flights only began in December 2009 and certification took about twice as long as planned back then.

The first Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Registration: JA801A), which is a fuel efficient airplane made almost exclusively of lightweight carbon composites, made a 4 hour and 10 minute flight from Tokyo Narita Airport to Hong Kong with 250 passengers as its first commercial flight. Following the charter flight, the first Boeing 787 regular scheduled domestic service will be routes from Tokyo Haneda to Okayama and Hiroshima, both beginning Nov. 1. Then in December 2011, ANA plans to use the new aircraft type on the Tokyo Haneda-Beijing route, which will be the airplane’s first regular international service. Further domestic services are planned to be launched before year-end from Haneda to Itami, Yamaguchi Ube and Matsuyama. The first regular long-haul international 787 service will be Tokyo Haneda-Frankfurt, beginning as a thrice-weekly service on January 21, 2012, and increasing to daily in February.

To power all these routes, ANA currently has two 787s (with special domestic configuration of 12 premium and 252 economy seats – later two different configurations will be used for international flights: 42 business + 180 economy and 46 business + 112 economy), but expects to have another five (!) by the end of the year. By the end of March 2012, ANA expects to have a total of 11 787s, and 20 by March 2013. The Japanese Star Alliance member plans to have all 55 of the 787s on order – which includes 15 of the longer 787-9 version – by the end of March 2018.

by balint01

First Korean Air Airbus A380

SkyTeam member Korean Air took delivery of its first Airbus A380 superjumbo in Tolouse, France a few days ago, becoming the sixth airlines in the world to operate the largest bird in the skies today. Classified on the ceremony as a “milestone” for the airline, the spacious Korean plane has the least seats of any A380 delivered so far.

The double-decker has “only” 407 seats on board, with 12 First (Kosmo) Class suites on the lower deck, followed by 301 Economy seats, with all 94 Business (Prestige) Class on the upper deck – marking the first ever full business class upper deck on any Airbus A380′s currently in operation. Besides all the seats and suites, the Korean Air A380 features two common areas: a lounge area at the back of the plane available for Premium passengers with sofa-style seating and a stand-up bar, and the world’s first onboard duty-free showcase shop. Passengers can browse, for example, samples of make-up, jewellery, sunglasses and cameras in this specially built area at the rear of the lower deck, before ordering the product(s) to take home. Some may question the choice of removing economy seats in favour of a shop, but theory suggests that there is more money to be made from duty-free sales than one might expect.

Tom Enders, Airbus’ CEO, at the handover of the superjumbo also used the term “milestone” to describe the significance of the event. “[It] marks a new milestone in the relationship between Korean Air and Airbus”, he said, a relationship that started nearly 40 years ago as Korean Air was the first airline outside Europe to order an Airbus aircraft – an A300 in 1974.

Korean Air’s A380  is powered by the Engine Alliance GP 7200 engine, which the engine manufacturer claims is the most fuel efficient option for the A380. Three of the existing A380 fleets (Singapore  Airlines, Qantas and Lufthansa) instead have Rolls Royce’s Trent 900 engines, while two (Emirates and Air France) use the GP 7200′s. Of the 234 A380s currently on order, 124 will have a GP7200 engine, 96 will have the RR T900, and 14 have not yet been decided on.

The maiden voyage for Korean Air’s new aircraft will be from its Seoul hub to Tokyo Narita via Hong Kong. Korean Air will take delivery of four more A380 aircraft before the end of 2011, plus a further five by the end of 2014, bringing the total to ten. The A380 will be used on flights to Bangkok from July, followed by non-stop flights to New York in August and Los Angeles in October.

The next airlines in the queue to receive their first A380 is China Southern Airlines in the second half 2011. Next year, A380 deliveries to Malaysia Airlines and Thai Airways are on the list.

As of April 15, 2011, the worldwide A380 fleet had operated 270,000 flight hours on 30,000 revenue flights. Currently, there are 48 A380s in service and 234 firm orders from 17 customers.

by balint01

First Sukhoi SuperJet Delivered to Armavia

Armavia – the private Armenian carrier – took delivery of the first production Sukhoi Superjet 100 (registration number EK95015 for Armavia), at Zvartnots International Airpot in Yerevan on April 20, 2011 – nearly three years after the jet’s maiden flight. The aircraft was christened “Yuri Gagarin” in memory of the first cosmonaut who orbited Earth fifty years and one week ago. The Armenian carrier holds two firm orders plus two options.

“This is definitely a great milestone for the Russian aerospace industry, because this SSJ100 is in fact the first production aircraft of modern Russia, created in partnership with worldwide aerospace leaders,” said Armavia owner Mikhail Bagdasarov.  United Aircraft Corp. President and Sukhoi Holding General Director Mikhail Pogosyan added, “The delivery of the first production aircraft is the key milestone of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 Project. The event opens a new stage of the program—the beginning of commercial operation and full-scale serial production.”

Launch customer Aeroflot holds firm orders for 30 SSJ100s plus 15 options – but it is not clear why Armavia has taken delivery of the first aircraft if Aeroflot is designated as the launch customer. The only possible reason may seem that Aeroflot’s original delivery time has passed by now – and the Russian Flag Carrier is in the middle of a process to file for penalties with Sukhoi Co. – not only for being late with delivery, but also for delivering a plane with different technical specifications than originally contracted. With this delivery, Sukhoi at least could fulfill its contract with Armavia though – and will only be penalized by one of its customers, instead of two. It looks like Armavia was easier in accepting the slightly changed specifications as well.

The aircraft, which officially rolled out on Sept. 26, 2007, completed its maiden flight on May 19, 2008 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and obtained IAC AR Type Certificate on February 3rd, this year. Armavia plans to utilize the aircraft on service to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi and Ukraine. It operates a fleet of three A320s, three A319s, one CRJ200, IL-86 and one YaK-42.

Sukhoi plans to deliver one more SSJ100 to Armavia and 11 SSJ100s to Aeroflot this year. The first aircraft for Aeroflot is due to be delivered in about a month, mid-May-2011.

by balint01

The Sexiest WizzAir Flight Attendants

Here is what you’ve been waiting for! Choose your sexiest Flight Attendant and vote for her or him!

Wizzair, Central and Eastern Europe’s most popular low-cost airline has kicked off an interesting campaign on facebook, where you can select your favorite Wizzair Stewardess (or Steward) by voting. If you haven’t met (all of) them in person, you may just look at the pictures, and choose the sexiest, the best looking, the most smiling or simply the one you find the friendliest.

Sexy Stewardess are always a hot topic, and here the candidates have been pre-selected by fashion and airline industry experts, and now it’s our turn to choose the 14 faces of the airline for 2011. The winners will part-take in a professional photo-shoot and will feature in WizzAir‘s European marketing campaigns and ads this year. We can have our say of who we want to see on large (airport) billboards, in magazines or on TV.

All you need to do is:

1. go to facebook.com/wizzaircom
2. click on the “Wizz Ambassadors” link
3. allow the facebook app to use your personal data
4. vote on your favorite WizzAir girl or boy once a day – you have 7 votes per day, one for each country

Looks like the one vote per day per country is a good rule, as this should guarantee that the decision will not only rely on the number of facebook users per country, but will have votes going to all country representatives. It is also useful as WizzAir will have two faces in all countries where they operate from. By the way, the seven countries are: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary (where WizzAir started and still has its headquarters), Poland, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. You can see one of the Hungarian candidates here, Livia Toth (no suggestion or campaigning, just a pretty stewardess), but there are lots of other good looking WizzAir flight attendants in the facebook app that you can vote for!

The ones selected by the WizzAir facebook fans will not only be one of the faces of WizzAir in 2011 but I’m sure they will also gain popularity, (even more) self-confidence and potentially a new personal fan-base on facebook?

by balint01

Boeing 747-8I First Flight

More than a year after the successful first flight of the Boeing 747-8 Freighter version, the passenger version of the updated JumboJet has taken to the skies for the first time as well.

On March 20, 2011, the latest version of the legendary Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet, the 747-8I (the “I” stand for “Intercontinental”) has taken off from Paine Field at 9:59 local time, to land at Boeing Field at 14:24 – after four and a half hours in the air. The plane was piloted by Boeing 747 Chief Pilot Mark Feuerstein and captain Paul Stemer. They told the media that the 747-8I systems as well as the four General Electric GEnx-2B engines performed as expected, as the plane reached 6096 meters altitude and 463 km/h (250 knots) speed.

Test plane RC001 in “Sunrise Orange” livery will be one of the test aircraft that are scheduled to complete a 600 hour flight test program in the coming months. This first flight took the plane out North first, then West above the Western Washington state area, and returned it back after a large circle around the Seattle area.

Somewhat similar to the 787 Dreamliner situation, the 747-8 program has also faced some delays, but not as bad as the Dreamliner. The 747-8 family is a major redesign of the famous Jumbo Jet designed to compete with the Airbus A380, using the engine and cockpit technology, as well as the larger overhead compartments and the Sky Interior of the Dreamliner, but keeps some of the original features of the plane, including the partial double-deck design – extended even a little bit more than the previous longest double-deck version, the 747-400.

The 76.3 meter long 747-8 will be powered by new generation GEnx engines, but this is not the only change, as the aircraft will be 5.6 ms longer than the current Boeing 747-400 version (4.1 ms before the wing on both decks and 1.5 meters after the wing only on the lower deck). This additional length provides a few more seats onboard for the passenger version that can fly up to 14.800 kms. The new 747-8 will have a maximum take off weight of 442.250 kgs, but will still have a 12% less maintenance costs. It consumes about 17% less fuel, as on top of the new engines types, some parts of the fuselage will be replaced by lighter materials than in the current version. This also means 16% lower (CO2) emissions and a 30% decrease in noise levels from that of the 747-400.

The first 747-8I will be delivered to launch customer Lufthansa, with delivery scheduled for the end of 2011. Lufthansa has ordered 20 of the type so far with 386 seats (the maximum density could be 467). Boeing has sold a combined 33 747-8Is (besides the 20 to German Lufthansa: 5 to Korean Air and 8 for unidentified VIP customers). Most recently Air China has indicated that it would purchase 5 pieces of the longest ever passenger jet, but that order is yet to be confirmed and approved by the Chinese Government. Boeing also has sold 76 of the cargo version of the 747-8, the 747-8F (freighter).

You can find more photos about the first flight and the test aircraft on airliners.net.

by balint01

Friday Fun: Changing Landing Gear In The Air

It is not a classical joke or typical Friday Fun edition, instead this is a classical video from classical times, when airplanes were slower and allowed such a special acrobatic achievement. I hope you enjoy it and find it interesting, like I did.

by balint01

Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport Opens SkyCourt

Budapest International Airport (BUD) has opened its new SkyCourt area, that links the existing terminals 2A and 2B. As part of the opening ceremony, the airport has been officially renamed to be Budapest Ferenc Liszt airport – to mark the 200 birth anniversary year of Hungarian composer, Ferenc (or Franz) Liszt.

Budapest Airport handled 8.2 million passengers in 2010 (up by 1.2% from 2009) and this new addition to the Terminal 2 block will nearly double the capacity of the terminal itself (from 4.5 million to 8.5 million) and enhances passenger handling and experience by adding 28 new passenger security screening channels, 50 border crossing points, 21 boarding gates, 80 check-in counters, 16 self-check-in kiosks and multiple retail outlets. The contemporary structure extends over five stories, two of which are underground, and offers an impressive view of the apron. Only from iron, 1200 tons were used, mainly for the roof, that spans over 80 meters.

The 24.000 square meter SkyCourt represents an investment of €70 million and is part of a €261 million, five-year expansion plan dubbed BUD Future, which aims to position the airport as a key Eastern European hub. BUD Future is co-financed by the EU and the airport’s owner, Budapest Airport Zrt, a public-private partnership with the Hungarian state holding 25% and the remaining 75% owned by German company Hochtief AirPort and four financial investors. BUD Future also includes the construction of a “cargo city” comprising 140,000 sq. m. of cargo and logistics terminals designed for airlines, handlers and integrators. The building is designed in a way, that together with the two terminals, it can later be further extended with two more wings and even satellite terminals to handle up to 20 million passengers at full completion.

Now work will focus on renovating and upgrading Terminals 2A and 2B, as well as the construction of a airport hotel.

The airport incorporates two terminals; T1 is a dedicated Low-cost terminal and T2 services traditional carriers. Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport is the base for oneworld member Malev Hungarian Airlines and is home to a further 32 carriers serving more than 92 destinations in 40 countries worldwide.

by balint01