SkyEurope Goes Bankrupt

Following 7.5 years of operations and almost half a year of struggling to find an investor, SkyEurope Airlines has announced its bankruptcy this morning on the website of the Vienna Stock Exchange, which also means the immediate suspension of all of their flights.

We have reported earlier that a SkyEurope plane had been held up in Paris in July, then all of their Vienna flights were moved to Bratislava just two weeks ago, and earlier on Monday the company cancelled all flights from Slovakia until midnight on Monday, facing a suspension in flights from the Czech capital of Prague starting on Tuesday due to outstanding bills. Then the (not-so) shocking news saw the light this morning: SkyEurope Airlines went bankrupt. This means all of its fleet is grounded, all of its passengers are left behind wherever they may be at the moment.

The final request for the bankruptcy procedure came from the advisor overlooking Slovakian SkyEurope’s financial restructuring. Due to this, ALL OF SKYEUROPE’s flights are CANCELLED with IMMEDIATE EFFECT. Some reports claim their staff has not received their salary for some time, and it still owes a large sum of money for Bratislava Airport for the fuel they have used in recent weeks. SkyEurope first flew on February 13, 2002 and last flew on August 31, 2009.

When clicking on the banner that reads “SkyEurope suspends its operations”, you get to a page with the following text:

“Dear Guests,
Please be advised that SkyEurope has suspended its sales and operations immediately.
Those of you who have purchased flights with a credit card, please turn to your credit card issuing bank to seek refunds for unused portions of SkyEurope’s flights.
In case you have paid directly to SkyEurope in other means than credit card (e.g. bank transfer, cash), please be advised that a refund may not be possible.
If you have ordered your flight tickets via a travel agency or organizer, you should discuss the matter with them first.
If you are already at the destination or have rented a car through SkyEurope’s business partner, you may stay at the hotel and use the vehicle during the period originally agreed. You must, however, order a return flight from some other airline at your own expense.
You may also wish to contact your insurance provider to seek further guidance and support.
We regret for the inconvenience that have been caused to you.“

The worst point is the one that explains that if you are already at your destination, “you must … order a return flight from some other airline at your own expense”. This will mean a lot of hazzle, and maybe extra income and profit for other airlines flying on the same route. Earlier, when other low-cost airlines went bankrupt, easyJet and BA were the first ones to offer special tickets for passengers having a valid ticket with the bankrupt airline. We are wondering if any other airline will offer this now (Austrian Airlines, Wizzair, CSA and maybe Malev are in favor as they share(d) some routes with SkyEurope).

Update (02SEP): Three Airlines are offering special one-way fares for passengers holding a valid SkyEurope ticket: Austrian Airlines for EUR 150, Malév Hungarian Airlines for EUR 99 EasyJet for EUR 30 and Wizzair for EUR 30. Malév also offers the EUR 99 fare for passengers who planned to fly with SkyEurope from Prague – they can now take Malév’s offer for a transfer flight through Budapest.

by balint01

Michael Goulian Wins Red Bull Air Race 2009 Budapest

It was a real surprise for Budapest, Hungary to see 41-year-old US Michael Goulian winning the Red Bull Air Race in Budapest.

He was eleventh in the championship before the race arrived in Budapest, thus it was a little bit surprising that he flew the best time among the top four.

Michael Goulian

20th of August is a national holiday in Hungary. Traditionally this holiday welcomes tens of thousands watching planes flying over the river Danube in downtown Budapest on the riverbanks. The first Red Bull Air race took place here on this day some six years ago. Founder of the race, Hungarian Peter Besenyei finished 8th today.

Besenyei with the Parliament in the background

This day is also remarkable as old MIG fighter planes (MIG-29s) said goodbye to the Hungarian audience as they will get retired from serving in the Hungarian Air Force. They have been replaced by Saab Gripens.

Another highlight of the day was that rally driver Sebastian Loeb flew a Red Bull Air Race plane over Budapest.

Loeb in an Air Race plane

More news on the Red Bull Air Race on the official website.

(more pictures are coming soon)

By Szafi

SkyEurope Airlines Moves Vienna Flights To Bratislava – Temporarily?

SkyEurope Airlines is in big trouble. They have followed a different strategy from the other regional low-cost carrier, Wizzair, when opting to focus their operations on only three cities: Vienna, Bratislava and Prague. Since last Friday, this has been reduced to only two: Bratislava and Prague.

Following a series of negative financial results in a number of years (actually SkyEurope has not made profits since it launched operations in 2002), and a lot of speculation about possible bankruptcy, the airline went into “creditor protection” – a similar state to the famous US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Earlier this summer, just a few days after they announced their protection while reorganizing, one of their planes was held up at Paris-Orly airport – due to unpaid duties at the airport. It was then communicated through the media that this had nothing to do with their bankruptcy protection and was an illegal move from the Paris Airport company. However, one of their 737s has been parked at Paris Orly for two months because a French court ordered that the airline not be allowed access to the aircraft until it pays debts owed in France… They also have stated several times during the summer of 2009 that they are paying all of their bills as required and while the reorganization takes place, passengers may count on an uninterrupted service. This was true until last Friday, when:

At the end of July they named the Austrian FOCUS Equity investor group as a partner with whom an agreement had been signed, reporting that FOCUS is willing to invest up to EUR 16.5m, its condition being the successful restructuring of the firm. Ever since this news, SkyEurope has been trying to resolve the problem with lack of cash for the restructuring process.

Just last week further bad news saw the light about the airline, when Vienna Airport announced early in the week, that it will suspend ground handling services for SkyEurope by Friday, unless its outstanding fees to Vienna International are settled by then. Most likely these fees totaling approximately EUR 4 million, have not been settled, as SkyEurope went into pro-active mode on Friday night (August 14, 2009), and simply moved all of its operations from Vienna to the close-by Bratislava airport, overnight. The airports are only 48 kms apart in the air (59 kms on the road), but the move could still lead to unhappy passengers due to delayed flights.

Even though the official announcement of SkyEurope included the word “TEMPORARILY”, it is not yet announced when the Vienna flights would depart and arrive actually in Vienna again. (The information page on their website gets updated everyday to push out the end date by one day…) This temporary measure runs “until an agreement can be reached to resume flights from Vienna.” All passengers scheduled to depart from Vienna on SkyEurope flights will be checked into their flight at Vienna airport as usual and then transferred by bus to nearby Bratislava airport for their flight departures. Passengers should arrive at the Vienna airport to check in at the normal time as they would for a Vienna departure. After check-in, passengers can board the buses in front of the departure area of Vienna Airport Terminal 2. Passengers on SkyEurope flights arriving in Bratislava rather than Vienna will be transferred by bus to Vienna airport. This will mean that the Vienna departure flights will leave Bratislava at least an hour late, and given the short turn-around time used at low-cost airlines, they will arrive back to Vienna at least an hour late. Then passengers will take the bus to Vienna, which could lead to almost a two hour delay in arrivals to the Vienna airport.

SkyEurope will give every affected passenger a free airfare voucher for a future SkyEurope flight. Vouchers will be sent to passengers via e-mail after their flights.

Undermining the “Temporarily” term in the press release about the move, SkyEurope.com has a large banner on the homepage, advertising a 40% sale for “Vienna” low fares - now departing from Bratislava – for the time period September-February (2010). As the banner suggests that these flights will now depart from Bratislava instead of Vienna – it gives the impression that this move is not temporary after all, but is planned for at least half a year – for the less busy winter time-period, for sure – but more probably for the undefined future. When clicking through the banner, you will see the following message:

“By moving our operations from Vienna to Bratislava Airport, you are now saving 40% on our lowest fares.

Booking period: Aug 18, 6pm – Aug 20, 12am.
Travel period: September 1 – February 22″

Not the banner, nor the conditions mention the word “temporarily”…

Looking at this banner also made me think, whether if the move was intended due to the lower handling costs avialable in Bratislava (which may have gotten even lower with the additional capacity bringing better negotiating power with the airport operator) and the Vienna Airport situation was only used as a media reason for the move? Just think about it. Which press release would give you a better impression of the airline:
A) “We are sorry, but due to lower operational costs, we will move our Vienna operations to Bratislava as our financial situation has worsened recently and this is one of the reorganization measures in order to keep SkyEurope in the air (for the time being).” or
B) “Vienna Airport has suspended servicing our flights due to some minor unsettled issues, but SkyEurope have managed to relocate all of those flights to nearby Bratislava – and we’ll take you there by bus for free, plus give you a free flight voucher”.
I think B) just proves to be better accepted by the flying public, and makes SkyEurope look like the champion of quick, problem-solving reaction and relocation!

Whatever the truth is, we hope SkyEurope succeeds in its reorganizational efforts, even though we have our doubts. A low-cost airline using only two basis airports is simply not destined for long-term survival, especially when it has been kicked out of two airports due to unsettled fees in recent months… Keeping our fingers crossed!

by balint01

Japan Airlines Retires Last Boeing 747 Classic Jumbo Jet

Japan Airlines has retired its fleet of the Boeing 747 Classic Jumbo Jets with the last scheduled international flight of the type: JO 073 flying from Honolulu, Hawaii to Tokyo Narita airport in Japan, landing on July 31st. (The last domestic flight by a Boeing 747-300 was scheduled to land just 5 minutes earlier, departing from Sapporo Chitose.)

The last JAL operated Classic Jumbo Jet was a Boeing 747-300, that still had to be operated by a 3-man flight crew (modern airliners fly with only 2 pilots). The plane was originally manufactured for JAL and received by the airline in 1983 – 26 years ago.

In the mid-1960s, unprecedented development in technology and the availability of large-thrust engines led to the creation of the giant 747, beginning with the 747-100, the first in the 747 Classics series which also includes the -200 and -300 models. JAL first took delivery of a 747-100 in 1970, and was the launch customer of the 747-100SR (Short Range) in 1973. One of the SR variants formerly operated by JAL is currently being used by NASA as the Shuttle Carrier. For its ever-expanding international network at the time, JAL owned the largest fleet of 747 Classics in 1984, and from 1987 through to 1989, it held the record number of 65 such aircraft – a figure that still stands as the most number of Classics owned by any one airline at a time.

Starting in 1983, Japan Airlines have also been using the Boeing 747-300 type, that had a longer upper deck that could seat more premium passengers. Decommissioning the Group’s remaining 6 747 Classics – of which the earliest was delivered in November 1983, attests to the Group’s steady progress towards downsizing its fleet and operating more fuel-efficient aircraft such as Boeing 777. The Boeing 747-300 was the only airplane in Japan Airlines’ fleet that carried all three liveries over the years. The last two -300s in the fleet have the registration numbers: JA812J and JA8166.

Special ceremonies were held today to bring the curtains down on a long-standing service by the Classic Jumbo Jets in grand fashion. The flight was draped in a giant Hawaiian lei before departure at Honolulu Airport, where an elaborate ceremony was conducted with a proclamation declaring July 30, 2009, as “JAPAN AIRLINES CLASSIC JUMBO JET DAY,” with local dignitaries in attendance.  Upon arrival in Tokyo (Narita), the aircraft was received at the gate by its designer – the “Father of the 747”, Mr. Joseph F. “Joe” Sutter, JAL staff as well as members of the media. Mr. Sutter who led the development of what would become the world’s first wide-body airliner and who is now a senior advisor to the Boeing Company also graced this special occasion with a talk about the birth of the 747.

To memorialize the role of the popular Classic’s in the history of JAL, a sell-out commemorative flight organized by JAL Tours flew fans of the Classic Jumbo Jet from Tokyo (Haneda) to Shimojishima on a round-trip day tour on July 5, 2009. A total of 449 enthusiasts, members of the media and staff had the rare opportunity to go down memory lane, when cabin attendants who wore the 8 different uniforms in the history of JAL welcomed them onboard and served them during the flight.

Over the 39 years of service by the Classic 747 fleet, among thousands of flights and probably lots of memories for millions of passengers as well as crew members, one of the scariest crosswind landings by the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet captured on video was also conducted by JAL in Hong Kong, as seen here on Youtube. Besides the Cargo version (also in old livery), a number of special liveries were also used over the years: Super Resort Express 1, Super Resort Express 2, Reso’cha 1, Reso’Cha 2, Glay Rock Band, and the special Cargo liveries and variants: Untitled Cargo Livery, Shiny Cargo Livery, Super Logistics, Reversed Super Logistics and JA Super Logistics. As a bonus, here is a Zebra painting – which was painted on the livery by the reflection, creating a very nice effect.

And looking forward: Most of the 747-300s have been replaced by Boeing 777-300ER’s.

by balint01

British Airways Removes Inflight Meals

Following a leak of information earlier this week, yesterday British Airways has confirmed that it will remove onboard catering in economy class (Euro Traveller) on flights shorter than 2.5 hr. from next week (3rd of August, 2009). Previously they used to serve a sandwich with a small chocolate bar on most of their flights – together with the famous waste-bag included in the meal package.

BA has also communicated that it will continue to serve breakfast on flights departing before 10 a.m. and offer free drinks and snacks. It will not sell food onboard and claimed it is “not unusual to make small changes [to inflight catering] to avoid waste and save money where it makes sense and it meets customers’ changing tastes.” British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Assn. said the airline is also considering cutting additional amenities such as chocolates in first class, hot towels in business class and pretzels in economy, the BBC reported. It expects to save £22 million ($36.1 million) annually as a result.

Even though the news have been communicated through the media, there’s nothing about it on the British Airways website. It seems like this must have been a quite rapid decision to be made, as the website still describes the Euro Traveller class today (July 31st) as “then once on board let our team of experts serve you complimentary food and drinks from our free bar service“. In the Inflight Meal section of the website, there is a mention of complimentary snacks in the Euro Traveller cabin, but no details. While you make a booking, the booking process does not provide any information about the catering for the flights at all, except linking the same travel cabin description as quoted above.

It will be interesting to see if this traditionally low-cost approach to short haul onboard services will spread to more “full service” carriers in these turbulent economic times or not. Iberia and Brussels Airlines for example only sell food on short-haul flights, while Lufthansa for example only offers a small sandwich with a chocolate bar. We are wondering if such amenities will ever return – even in better economic times…

by balint01

Top 5 Airlines in 2008

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has published its latest ranking of the world’s airlines in terms of passengers carried and passenger kilometres flown on scheduled flights for the year 2008.

International and Domestic - Number of passengers

Based on number of passengers carried on scheduled flights in 2008 and considering International as well as Domestic traffic, US and Chinese companies seem to rule the world with Southwest Airlines taking number one. However, if we would count Delta and Northwest as one entity (they merged in 2008), they would claim the number one spot (seen in line 0 in the table below). It should be noticed that the fifth position in terms of passengers carried has been taken by a Chinese air company (China Southern Airlines) – which also signals the ongoing growth of the Chinese domestic air travel market.

International - Number of passengers

Looking at only International scheduled traffic in 2008 (excluding domestic), Ryanair has grown to be the largest International airline in the world. Mostly European airlines are included in this bucket, as most of their flights are international, even though the distances flown would in most cases match up with the US (or Chinese) Domestic flights. This just shows how strong the US airlines are on their domestic market and how weak they are on the international routes – in terms of number of passengers. It is interesting to note that Air France and KLM are a merged company since 2004, but operate their separate networks. Also interesting to see that 2 of the top 5 are low-cost carriers (Ryanair and easyJet). If we would consider European international flights as domestic (in terms of distance intra-European flights are similar in nature to the domestic flights within the US or China), none of the European airlines would make it in the top 5 – based on the number of passengers flown, even though Ryanair comes very close to fifth position China Southern.

International and Domestic - Passenger kilometres

When looking at passenger kilometres flown, it gives a slightly different view of the same results. Such a statistic shows us all airlines in terms of passenger kilometres flown (passengers*kilometers flown) and theoretically levels out the difference between the European International flights and the US Domestic flights for example – which produce similar numbers in terms of passenger kilometres. On the other hand, this gives a chance for airlines flying mostly longer routes with less passengers to move up the list. (E.g.: a Budapest-London flight is 1 passenger or rougly 1500 passenger kilometres, while a Paris-Rio de Janeiro flight is also counted as 1 passenger, but rougly 9400 passenger kilometres.)

It is interesting to see that this view is still ruled by the US airlines, and the only non-US in the list is the merged Air France – KLM group, taking the fourth position. We are missing Southwest Airlines from this table, as they do not fly long-haul and fly only a limited number of mid-haul international flights to Central America thus their average kilometers flown per passenger is much lower than those big American airlines that also fly long-haul routes. It is also a notable change that American Airlines (considered to be the largest airline company for years) is passed by the new Delta Airlines (merged with Northwest) by as much as 35%.

It will be interesting to see these numbers for 2009 in a few months – where Delta will most likely hold the number one spot for overall passenger numbers as well as passenger kilometers, but Lufthansa may move up a little bit if they start to publish their numbers together with Brussels Airlines and Austrian Airlines. We are also looking forward to the much talked about possible British Airways – Iberia tie up, which would produce an Air France – KLM like congolmerate that could fight for a top 5 position in terms of worldwide passenger kilometers – considering Iberia’s long flights between Europe and South America.

by balint01

Boeing 787 Dreamliner News

We last talked about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner program one month ago, when Boeing announced a further delay, due to “a series of relatively small areas” on both sides of the aircraft’s body in the “upper wing join area” that registered stress levels during static testing that “exceeded expectations“. That was the sixth time Boeing had delayed the program – and the maiden flight – to an undisclosed date.

Back at the end of June, the company did not set a new target date for the first flight, they only said that a new schedule would be released in “several weeks“. In the meantime it was announced that a new schedule for the flight test program will be released before the end of September. This means “several weeks” in Boeing terminology may mean “up to 12 weeks”… Following the mid-June top management statements that the first flight would happen before the end of the second quarter of this year, this means a new, possibly very long, additional delay to the program.

In the meantime, Boeing has completed gauntlet testing on the first 787 and conducted taxi testing up to 130 kt., while the second Dreamliner has run up its engines. The third and fourth aircraft have been powered on and off. The fifth Flight Test Plane received a new livery on July 21st, painted white with blue accents, the new livery incorporates visual and color elements from the distinctive blue-and-white Boeing Commercial Airplanes livery seen on the first 787 Dreamliner flight test airplane and other new commercial models. The simplified paint scheme will be applied to the three remaining unpainted flight test airplanes (Nos. 3, 4 and 6). The modified livery, which saves time and expense compared to the full Boeing livery, will remain on the airplane until the flight test program is completed.

Boeing has been working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which manufactures the 787’s wings, and Fuji Heavy Industries, which handles the detailed design and assembly of the center wing box and its integration, to determine a fix. They have also confirmed earlier that a fix to the defect has been identified, but yesterday The Seattle Times has reported that the “787’s structural design problem is more complex than originally outlined“. One engineer with knowledge of the problem claimed that it will take “at least 3-4 months just to get something installed on the 787,” while a second, familiar with Boeing’s construction methods, claimed that the fix first must be installed on the nonflying test aircraft in Everett and only will be applied to flight test aircraft if proven successful.

Let’s take a look at the suggested timeframe quickly. Once the local fix is fully developed, the new parts first will have to be applied to the static test aircraft and then put on the flight test aircraft. These new parts will mean further ground testing before the first flight, but Boeing promises these fixes and the extra weight will have no impact on either performance or maintenance. As currently it’s the end of July, and according to the engineer quoted by The Seattle Times it takes 3-4 months to apply these parts, ground testing will only be able to commence around mid-November. This practically means that the first flight is being delayed until very late 2009 or more likely: to the first half of 2010.

It is also influencing the first delivery to ANA, currently slated for the 2010 first quarter (which is very unlikely to happen in the light of this prediction). Original delivery was planned for June 2008, so that ANA could have used the first Dreamliner for the Beijing Olympics… The program has suffered 73 cancellations this year. The latest structural problem likely will have a serious impact on deliveries, according to a client note issued by Bernstein Research of New York. It suggested that the company now will deliver only three in 2010, down from 15; 25 in 2011, down from 35, and 50 in 2012, down from 60.

We hope to see the 787 Dreamliner taking its maiden flight as soon as possible - either in the “traditional” blue or the new white livery – but also respect Boeing’s continous decisions to make sure that the plane is safe to fly on its maiden flight as well as for decades to come.

by balint01

Ryanair Passengers Willing To Stand For FREE

Ryanair is famous for creating media buzz with the strangest ideas, including collecting money for using the restrooms onboard, or asking passengers to actually carry their luggage all the way to the airplane. Their latest such idea is to install standing “seats” for passengers on short flights. This idea has also been raised by the Chinese low-fare airline, Spring, not so long ago. Ryanair has claimed they are in talks with Boeing to install such devices (let’s not call them seats), but Boeing has not yet confirmed or denied such a study being conducted.

Ryanair however, took the idea one step further, with conducting a survey on their site. During two weeks in July 2009 they were asking their website visitors three questions – that were answered by 120,000 people. Today (22nd July) they announced that over 80,000 (66%) passengers said they would stand on short one hour flights if it meant that their fare would be free (FREE – not simply cheap). 72,000 (60%) agreed that airline passengers should have a choice of standing on short flights as they already do on buses, trains and underground transport while a minority of 50,000 (42%) said they would stand if they could pay 50% less than seated passengers. This means most of the passengers are only willing to stand – if the fare is FREE. Simply offering cheaper fares will not do the trick – in case the majority of the passengers. However, 42% is still a large number to be considered.

Here are the results from the Survey:

Question	Yes	No
1. If it meant your fare was free would you stand on a one hour flight?	66%	34%
2. If it meant your fare was half that of a seated passenger would you stand on a one hour flight?	42%	58%
3. Do you think passengers should have a choice of standing on short flights as they currently do on trains, buses and underground transport?	60%	40%

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: : “With 120,000 passengers voting and 80,000 saying they would stand on board, Ryanair will continue to explore the concept of ‘fare free standing’ flights with Boeing and the relevant aviation authorities in the US and EU“. We are looking forward to this exploration, as it would only work for short, commuting flights. If an airplane is equipped with let’s say 50 standing “seats” besides the regular seats - it can only be used on such routes and can not be rotated to a longer a flight – unless it gets re-seated, or only sells the regular seats (at reduced capacity). This is very unlikely in our opinion, especially at Ryanair, as they already work with a very low turn-around time – that would leave no room for reorganization of the cabin. This would also break one of the foundations of the low-fare business model – the unified fleet, as rotation of aircraft and yield management would have to consider special cases for a few aircraft which would add to the maintenance overhead – in terms of scheduling and reservation systems. It is not yet know if such seating areas would require more or less cabin staff, how children would be handled with such tickets, how would the open seating work for check-in and boarding, etc. We’ll keep an eye on this development, though.

Here is a funny video about Ryanair’s idea (posted on their own website…): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymLWycAPZaQ

by balint01

Airbus A380 News

With 19 Airbus A380s already in service around the world, it’s time to take a look at the latest Airbus A380 news – following our latest updates about new flights and operational issues.

Singapore Airlines - 9 A380s in service – 5 (+ 1) routes

The launch customer of the Airbus A380 superjumbo  – since October 2007 – has already received 9 of the type and has brought the A380 to 7 cities so far. More than 1.4 million customers have flown on its A380s that have clocked more than 35,000 flying hours on more than 4,000 flights since the start of commercial service. Following the first flight to Hong Kong in early July, Melbourne in Australia will be the latest airport to receive the A380 service with 471 seats on board in three classes, following Singapore, Sydney, London, Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong – when the first flight will land in the second most popolous Australian city on 29 September, 2009. The daily A380 flights will replace an existing daily Boeing 747-400 service to Melbourne. SQ227 will depart Singapore Changi Airport at 2100hrs and arrive in Melbourne at 0610hrs (0710hrs from 4 October 2009 due to daylight savings) the next day. On the return leg, SQ228 will depart Melbourne at 1550hrs (1650hrs from 4 October 2009) and touch down in Singapore at 2140hrs.

Emirates – 6 A380s in service – 5 (+ 2) routes

Emirates currently has the largest order placed for the doubledecker aircraft and has already received 6 of the type. Starting in July 2008, Emirates have been serving London Heathrow, Sydney, and Auckland. Since the 1st of June they have been operating the A380 to the Thai capital of Bangkok on a daily flight and to Toronto in Canada, three times weekly. The next Asian destination for the Emirates A380 will be the Korean capital, Seoul, from the 1st of December. The 489 seat, 3 class configuration Emirates A380 features two fully equipped bathrooms with showers and an onboard bar for first and business class passengers as a specialty. In Europe, the next airport served will be Paris Charles de Gaulle from 1st of February, 2010. But Emirates will operate a single service to UK’s Birmingham to mark the Airport’s 70th birthday on September 9th, 2009. This will be the first commercial A380 service outside of London Heathrow in the UK and will park at the new Pier of Birmingham Airport – which opens on the same day with the Emirates A380 as the first aircraft being served there.

Qantas - 4 A380s in service – 4 routes

Qantas has been operating the A380 is its fleet since October 2008. The fourth A380 arrives to Australia at the end of July, allowing Qantas to increase its Sydney-Singapore-London A380 services from three to five per week, and Sydney-Los Angeles services from three to four per week. The fifth and sixth airplane scheduled to arrive in 2009 will further increase the frequency between Australia and the UK and the US, as by November Qantas will operate daily A380 services to London and LA and will increase the Melbourne-Los Angeles services from two to three A380 flights per week. By the end of 2009 this will mean 34 return flights per week. The 450 seat, four-class configuration aircraft type has so far transported more than 200.000 passengers at the Australian flag-carrier.

+ Air France - 0 A380s in service – (+1) route

Air France – the first European operator of the type – has rolled out the airplane in its new livery on the 9th of July. This airplane is scheduled to enter service in November on a daily Paris Charles de Gaulle – New York JFK service. It is interesting that Emirates had operated the A380 to New York JFK before, but has since withdrawn the aircraft from the route. The French A380 will be configured for 538 passengers in a three-cabin layout with 80 business and 106 economy seats on the upper deck and nine first class and 343 economy seats on the main deck. That compares with 450 seats on Qantas A380s, 471 on Singapore Airlines and 489 on Emirates. CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said in a recent conversation in Paris to Airwise News that Air France’s A380s would not be equipped with special luxury features specifically designed for the double-deck aircraft like spas or spacious premium suites. “It’s an aircraft, an aircraft offering high-density seating and thus offering lower unit costs,” he said. “We will use it as such.” AirFrance will be the first European airline to operate the A380 and the first to use it on transatlantic flights between Europe and the US. It has 12 on order, four of which will start operating this winter and next spring.

by balint01

168 Feared Dead In Caspian Air Crash

Today at 11.33 am a Tupolev belonging to Iran-based Caspian Air crashed near Qazvin, Iran about 140 kms from the capital Tehran, with 168 passengers and crew on board. The plane was heading to the Armenian capital of Yerevan and took off from Tehran only 16 minutes before the crash.

All aboard flight number 7908 were killed according to the first news coming from local TV stations.

It took a long time before anything has appeared on the official website of the airline, but the international website still shows no information about the crash. When we called the local representative of the carrier earlier today, we were the first to tell him about the accident.

The Tupolev TU-154M plane involved in the accident was built in 1987 and was originally delivered to Ariana Afghan Airlines. It is one of the four of the type that is operated by Caspian Airlines – which is a Russian-Iranian joint venture established in 1993. They have also been using a fifth one of the same type that was operated for them, by Aerotur Air. Reports suggest that the lost plane was registered as EP-CPG (shown on the image above). The local television channels showed a huge crater and debris spread around in in a wide area. According to a representative of Caspian Air there were mainly Iranian citizens onboard (29 of them were members of Iran’s some 100,000 ethnic Armenian community – many of whom frequently use the flights between Tehran and Yerevan to visit relatives in Armenia), with 40 Armenians  (6 of them were Armenian citizens, the rest are Iranian citizens as mentioned) and two Georgian citizens also on the plane.  Besides the 156 passengers there were 12 crew members working on the flight. It is unclear whether other nations were also involved in the crash, but a boarding card belonging to a Japanese citizen was found at the crash site, Iranian reports said. Among those on board were eight members of Iran’s national youth judo team, along with two trainers and a delegation chief, who were scheduled to train with the Armenian judo team before attending competitions in Budapest, Hungary on Aug. 6, Iranian state TV said. 

There are no reports about potential death, or injury of anyone on the ground.

First eyewitness reports suggest that the plane’s tail was on fire and had circled in the air (probably trying to find an area available for emergency landing) before crashing in the ground, nose down.  “Then, I saw the plane crashing nose-down. It hit the ground causing a big explosion. The impact shook the ground like an earthquake. Then, plane pieces were scattered all over the agricultural fields,” Ali Akbar Hashemi, a 23-year-old who was laying gas pipes in a nearby home, told the Associated Press by phone. This confirms the reports on the Aviation Herald website claiming that the pilot had reported a fire in the left engine mid-air, before quickly losing altitude and deviating to the left of the assigned flight path. This information has not been confirmed by any authorities yet. Based on the above mentioned footage of the area, the plane has practically been desintegrated into small pieces by the impact of the crash, and its broken parts have spread around in an area bigger than 200 square meters. The crater is about 10 meters in depth.

“I saw a finger of a passenger on the ground. There is no sign of the airplane, just small pieces of metal,” said a witness. “I do not see even a complete leg or arm.“ “The Tupolev plane has been totally destroyed and the corpses, unfortunately, have been totally burned and destroyed,” Qazvin police commander Massoud Jafarinasab told semi-official Fars News Agency.

Weeping relatives and friends gathered at Yerevan Airport where a notice on a wall listed people who were on board. Doctors treated relatives for shock and heart problems. (You can find the full list of the flight crew and the passengers in a comment added to this article below.)

The plane’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been found at the crash site, state television reported late Wednesday, so an explanation of the crash is likely to be found.

By Szafi and balint01