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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

by balint01

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

by balint01

• why some airlines can be found on online travel sites, while others can’t?
• why some airlines provide their cheapest fares only on their own websites?
• why all airlines are marketing their own website on every occasion they can?
• why airlines mention GDS costs among their biggest expenditures?

Check out this video from by Farelogix, that is a great summary of the current battle between airlines, online travel agencies and GDSs.

by balint01

The bomb blew up on the arrival side at 16:32 Moscow time, close to the international baggage claim area, and the police believes it might have been a suicide bomber – but some reports mention a bomb in a bag that exploded too late and may have been targeted for an airliner. Smoke has filled up the airport terminal, all international flights are now rerouted to other Moscow airports and the Russian capital has been put under terror alert state. Russia Today reported that the explosion had the power of 7 kg of TNT and that some eyewitnesses say there were two explosions.

“From the preliminary information we have, it was a terror attack,” President Dmitry Medvedev told officials in a televised briefing. Medvedev postponed his planned Tuesday departure for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he was to give the opening address on Wednesday.

Although there have been repeated attacks on the Moscow subway and on Russian trains – most blamed on Chechen militants – the bombing Monday is the first involving a Russian airport since 2004 when two suicide bombers were able to board planes at Domodedovo by buying tickets illegally from airport personnel. The female bombers 7 years ago blew themselves up in mid-air, killing all 90 people aboard the two flights.

Sergei Lavochkin told Rossiya 24 television that he was waiting in the arrivals hall for a friend to arrive from Cuba, when he saw emergency teams carrying bloodied people out of the terminal. ”I heard a loud bang, saw plastic panels falling down from the ceiling and heard people screaming. Then people started running away.”

Mark Green, a British Airways passenger who had just arrived at the airport, told BBC television he heard the huge explosion as he left the terminal.  ”Literally, it shook you,” he said. “As we were putting the bags in the car a lot of alarms … were going off and people started flowing out of the terminal, some of whom were covered in blood.” “One gentleman had a pair of jeans on that was ripped and his thigh from his groin to his knee was covered in blood,” he added. He also said thousands of people were in the terminal at the time of the blast.

Some reports indicate that airport workers even broke a brick wall close to the baggage carousel so that the people stuck inside after the blast could leave the terminal. On the other hand, those who could get out were reportedly faced with the “news” that the Taxi drivers have rapidly raised their prices to 3-5 folds… But the train service (Aeroexpress) was free for those leaving the airport.

Built in 1964, Domodedovo is located 26 miles (42 kilometers) southeast of the center of Moscow and is the largest of the three major airports that serve the Russian capital, serving over 22 million people last year. It is generally regarded as Moscow’s most up-to-date airport, but its security procedures have been called into question.

Currently 77 airlines offer regular flights to Domodedovo, serving 241 international and national routes, according to the airport’s website.

Security at Moscow’s two other airports – Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo has been strengthened. The airports are operating in terror threat regime which means extended security checks, and most probably longer queues, etc.

by balint01

Asiana has not yet decided about the configuration of the cabins, but announced that it will have three classes. In a statement, Asiana said its cabin specifications to be determined by year end will be “state-of-the-art” offering “distinct, high-end service.” The order is valued at around $1.8 billion based on list prices and complements another earlier Airbus order, which is for 30 A350′s.

It plans to operate the A380 aircraft, two of which will arrive in 2014, two in 2015 and two in 2017, to the US and/or Europe. “Asiana’s decision to acquire the A380 was based on the increase in the number of [free trade agreements] in which Korea is engaged and the recent addition of Korea to the US Visa Waiver Program,” President and CEO Young-Doo Yoon said. “Due to favorable factors like these, forecasts indicate a steady and stable 5% yearly increase of passengers to Korea and the Asia/Pacific region.” He added that “the significantly reduced operating costs and fuel efficiencies afforded by the aircraft will enable us to enhance our productivity and reduce our carbon footprint.“

Airbus has received 240 firm orders for the aircraft from 18 customers (see earlier post about the continent and airline breakdown).

by balint01

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beginning Monday, March 1, 2010, ANA Group will begin introducing women-only lavatories on all of its international routes (except those flown with Airbus A320/Boeing 737 aircraft).

According to the company press release, following numerous requests from passengers for this service, one women-only lavatory will be designated in the aft section of the passenger cabin (location may differ depending on aircraft and configuration) and will be available for use by women passengers in all classes of service. Women-only lavatories will be indicated using the signage below.

Lavatories with such signage will only be available for women passengers throughout the flights except for a few special occasions. Depending on flight conditions, the otherwise restricted men passengers may also use the lavatories but will have to check with a cabin attendant after boarding. The special situations may include:

• When required for safety reasons, just prior to the seatbelt sign being turned on during take-off and landing
• When a passenger is not feeling well and a personal emergency requires such use
• When there are very few female passengers on the flight, and the women-only designation has been lifted for the flight – this will be signaled by an in-flight announcement

Wheelchair accessible lavatories on board ANA flights are separate from the Women-Only facilities.

Signage will be installed on current aircraft beginning March 1, with signage scheduled to be completed by the end of April.

Most probably the Japanese member of Star Alliance will also introduce this new “service” on its maiden Boeing 787 Dreamliner, scheduled to start operations at ANA as the launch customer at the end of this year.

by balint01

Boeing plans to complete the Flight Test Schedule of the new composite 787 Dreamliner model with 6 test airplanes. They are code-named as ZA001 -> ZA006.

ZA001: The first plane to fly, it is destined for general flight tests. Painted in the Dreamliner Marketing color scheme and temporarily registered as N787BA, the plane has been clocking up flight hours since December 15, 2009. It actually suffered an “uncommanded loss of thrust in one of the engines” last Friday (February 19), but such events are totally acceptable during flight testing. The aircraft was carrying out flutter testing (a dangerous test of the wings, the tail and the aircraft structure against in-flight vibrations), and executed an unplanned landing at Grant County International Airport in central Washington State, some 200 miles East from Paine Field. The Trent 1000 engines were inspected together with manufacturer Rolls-Royce, and the issue was traced back to “a pressure-sensing component within the engine”. Parts were transported to the aircraft and it returned to Paine Field, Everett on Sunday morning. Boeing VP-Marketing Randy Tinseth said ZA001 “will soon return to flutter testing. . .This is what happens during flight testing–and our plan accommodates such events.“

ZA002: The second plane to fly, it is focusing on systems performance tests. Painted in launch customer Japanese All Nippon Airways (ANA)’s color scheme, it carries the temporary registration: N787EX. It first flew just one week after ZA001, on December 22, 2009.

ZA003: This plane will join the test fleet at a later date.

ZA004: The third 787 to start the flight test program, but actually the fourth test aircraft built. It carries the preliminary registration N7874 and is painted in the white version of the Dreamliner Boeing scheme. It took off on its first flight on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 11:43 am local time, from Paine Field, Everett. According to Boeing, this plane flew before the ZA003 because the data that it will collect ”is needed more quickly both for certification and development of the 787-9” (the planned longer version of the 787). ZA004 flew for 3 hours and 2 minutes, reached an altitude of 30,000 feet and an airspeed of 255 knots (293 miles or 472 km/h)and “operated flawlessly,” according to Captain Heather Ross – who is probably the first woman flying the 787 Dreamliner. Together with Craig Bomben they completed the flight at 2:45 p.m., landing at Boeing Field in Seattle. Flight-test personnel were also on board to monitor airplane performance. Ross will serve as chief pilot for ZA004. This airplane will be used to accomplish the following types of tests: aerodynamics, high-speed performance, propulsion performance, flight loads, community noise and extended operations (ETOPS) and other test conditions. As the testing of the 787 fleet progresses, the airplane will fly at its expected in-service maximum altitude of 40,000 feet (12,192 m) and speed of Mach 0.85.

by balint01

Finnair Flight AY022 took off from Delhi at 10:41 local time (26 minutes late) to arrive in Helsinki today at 14:23 (8 minutes late). This 7:12 hour long flight was the airline’s final scheduled passenger flight aboard an MD-11. The type served Finnair for nearly 20 years during which time it flew some 400,000 hours, landed more than 50,000 times, transporting 14 million passengers (averaging 8 hour long flights with 280 passengers). It played a crucial role in Finnair becoming “the fast airline between Asia and Europe” – by being a great workhorse on the Nordic routes to Asian destinations.

Finnair was the launch customer of the Boeing MD-11 and as such became the first airline to operate the type on December 20, 1990 on a flight from Helsinki to Las Palmas in Spain. The aircraft, a modernized version of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 got increased wingspan and winglets, a 7 m longer fuselage using more composite materials and new engines, but kept the original concept of having two engines below the wing with an additional one at the base of the vertical stabilizer. By an all-digital cockpit it reduced the required flight crew from 3 to 2 pilots compared to the base DC-10 aircraft.

The program to create a better DC-10 was launched and cancelled several times before finally being renamed to MD-11 and committed to by the board of McDonnell Douglas in 1986. First flight was scheduled for March, 1989 but due to manufacturing issues, delays with suppliers and labor industrial actions (strikes) (we heard the same reasons for the delay of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner just recently…) the rollout only happened in September of that year. The type actually took to the skies for the first time on January 10, 1990. After Finnair, Delta Air Lines was the second to start using the type. The first reports and experiences showed that the plane was not as fuel efficient as planned – therefore could not fly to such long-haul destinations as originally claimed. This resulted in Singapore Airlines – the launch customer for the Airbus A380 in 2007 – cancelling its original order of MD-11′s. When McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997, they said the MD-11 production would continue with the freighter variant only. In 1998, they delivered the last passenger version to the now defunct Belgian Sabena and the last freighter version to Lufthansa in 2001. A total of 200 MD-11s were built.

Finnair had up to seven MD-11s at one time. It now uses Airbus A330s and A340s on its long-haul routes that burn 20% less fuel. As of February 2010 the only remaining operator that had ordered the MD-11 from the manufacturer (and not received second-hand’ used versions) is KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

The MD-11 has already been removed from the Fleet section of the Finnair website.

by balint01

At first it sounds like a reasonable idea, but let’s think about it for a second. What does fat mean? Who is fat? Who decides on that question? Will they force me to stand on the scale next to my luggage at the check-in counter? Or will a flight attendant come to me on board when she sees that I hardly fit into a seat and ask me to get off the plane?

Well, I never thought about it, as it never happened to me, but actually it happened to director Kevin Smith (you might know him as Silent Bob from movies like Dogma,  Clerks, Chasing Amy or Jay and Silent Bob strike back) on a Southwest Airlines flight.

Before you make a judgement for yourselves, please think about it: is it really the passengers’ fault if they do not have enough space next to each other?

What happens in a movie or a theater?

You can read the full story from one of my favorite bloggers, Kate Harding, who runs a blog about accepting body image.

By Szafi

Check out this funny video series by tac.tv about a cautious Pilot and the “story” of his flight:

Are we Tourists or (potential) Terrorists nowadays? Or are we “Terrourists”? “It’s hard to tell these days…“

One thing to remember: do not carry a nail file AND drink canned grape juice onboard at the same time on a French flight!

by balint01

Steven (or István or Steve) Udvar-Házy was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1946, but his family fled Hungary not long after the failed 1956 uprising against Soviet occupation and settled down in California. Steve graduated from university at UCLA, already having started an airline consulting firm.

In 1973 (still only 27 years old!!) with a savings of USD 150,000 he teamed up with fellow Hungarians Leslie and his son Louis Gonda to take a USD 1.7 million bank loan to establish ILFC. Their goal was to help out airlines that needed new, more expensive jet aircraft, but didn’t have the capital upfront to purchase them. ILFC would cover the initial capital investment by financing the purchase of the jets and would lease them to the airlines. They started the company with a single aircraft, a used Douglas DC-8, which they leased to AeroMexico and invented an entirely new business: the aircraft operating lease company. Today ILFC owns almost 1,000 modern Airbus and Boeing airliners worth an estimated USD 41.8 billion and is the single largest customer of Boeing and Airbus. The company expects that in the near future nearly half of the worlds fleet will be leased.

But back to the history of the company, in 1983 they went public and have been doing quite well ever since. In 1990, International Lease Finance Corporation was acquired by the America International Group Inc., better known as AIG – for USD 1.3 billion. Besides taking out 8,667 times more money than his original investment, Udvar-Hazy remained Chairman and CEO. The problems came with the beginning of the current economic downturn, when AIG collapsed in September, 2008, and the future of ILFC was in doubt – even though it was well in the black with USD 685.7 million in the first three quarters of 2009. Unfortunately by several large loans it was tied to parent AIG – including federal bailout money.

In September 2009 media reports suggested that Udvar-Hazy was in talks to purchase (back) a share of ILFC with other partners, but the negotiations ended without a deal. Reuters reports claimed that the consortium led by him wanted to buy a 10% stake in ILFC for USD 4 billion. He could easily do this as he’s #305 on the 2009 Forbes Billionaires’ list, with an estimated wealth of USD 2.2. billion.

Unable to arrange the purchase of the aircraft leasing giant that he started, Udvar-Hazy retired from ILFC, on February 5, 2010, last Friday.

AIG announced that Current ILFC President and COO John Plueger, who has held those positions since 1995, will take on the role of acting CEO. Former Northwest Airlines President and CEO Doug Steenland joined the ILFC board last September and quietly replaced Udvar-Hazy as chairman in December, paving the way for his departure. Late in January, 2010, the Financial Times reported that AIG had decided not to divest ILFC for the time being.

“On behalf of AIG, I would like to thank Steve for his tireless service to ILFC. We are grateful for the work he has done to continue ILFC’s leadership in the industry,” AIG President and CEO Robert Benmosche said. “We anticipate selling some ILFC assets in the future, and we continue to review other options…” Probably behind the nice words, the disagreement between the parties may have been quite dramatic if Udvar-Hazy decided (or was asked?) to leave the company he founded…

Employed by ILFC or not, his name could also be familiar to the more than 7 million people who have visited the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington-Dulles Airport since it opened in December 2003. Started with Udvar-Hazy’s generous USD 65 million donation to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, the new facility is home to many of aviation’s greatest treasures, including Boeing’s Dash 80, the Concorde, the Stratoliner, the Lockheed Blackbird or the Space Shuttle “Enterprise”. Named after him, the Center now houses 163 aircraft, 154 large space artifacts and more than 1,500 smaller items.

by balint01

One day prior to the 41st anniversary of the first ever flight of the legendary Boeing 747-100 Jumbo Jet, the latest version completed its first test flight, spending more than 3 and a half hours in the air on February 8, 2010. According to Boeing 747 Chief Pilot Mark Feuerstein the 747-8 freighter “performed as expected and handled just like a 747-400.“Taking off at 12:40 pm from Paine Field in Everett, Washington, the plane took a route above Western Washington state, climbed to 17,000 feet and reached a top speed of 230 knots. It returned to the same airport and landed safely at 4:18 pm. The flight was delayed by nearly 3 hours due to bad weather.

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 of the Dreamliner, but keeps some of the original features of the plane, including the partial double-deck design – which is specifically ideal for Freight as it allows front access to the full cargo hold by opening up the nose below the cockpit.

The 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 freighter version. This additional length provides 16% more revenue cargo volume, meaning 7 additional hold pallets: 4 on the main-deck and three in the lower-hold. Besides taking more cargo, the new 747-8F will consume 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. The wings are being fully redesigned as well as seen on this image:

Among the special guests of the first flight at Paine Field was Joe Sutter, the chief engineer of the original 747. “It’s amazing to me that this program has lasted 41 years,” he said on a Boeing webcast following the succesful landing. The fact that the plane is still being developed and adjusted for future upgrades “says the basic design was right then and it’s still right now.“

The first 747-8F will be delivered for launch customer Cargolux, with delivery scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2010. Cargolux has ordered 13 of the type so far and is one of nine customers that have ordered a combined 76 -8Fs. Boeing also has sold 32 of the passenger version of the 747-8, the 747-8I (intercontinental), 20 to German Lufthansa, 5 to Korean Air and 7 for unidentified VIP customers. The manufacturer said the first flight of the -8 Intercontinental, will occur later this year. The Freighter version will be undergoing approximately 1,600 hours of test flights – which will be accomplished by three test airplanes.

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

by balint01

The Singapore Airlines news release states: “Daily Airbus A380 services between Singapore and Zurich will replace the existing 12 weekly frequencies between the two cities, which are currently operated with smaller Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Operations are subject to the airport being certified for A380 flights.“

Zürich airport is working on the case to be certified for the A380 as soon as possible, and had a full airport test for the aircraft type at the end of January for two days. Thousands of enthusiastic Swiss plane-spotters took the chance on a very cold morning to watch the 73 meter long Airbus A380 land in Switzerland for the first time. After spending one night in Zürich, the Airbus test aircraft flew to Geneva for similar tests.

These exclusive Airline World pictures were taken of the Airbus Test super-jumbo by Mr. Oliver Decsi, at Zürich airport:

Assuming that the certificate is granted, Zurich will be the third city in Europe and the seventh in Singapore Airlines’ network to receive the A380. The Airline started operating the superjumbo in October 2007 to Sydney and subsequently added services to London, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong and Melbourne. Many industry analysts earlier predicted Frankfurt, Germany to become the third European destination, but it looks like fellow Star Alliance hub Zürich will get the newest Singapore Airlines airplane, the eleventh of the type for the carrier.

Singapore Airlines is currently the only airline flying non-stop between Zürich and Singapore and can reduce the weekly 12 flights to a daily service, increasing efficiency. On routes where Singapore has started using the A380, it has stolen extra marketshare, and lifted passenger loads. For example on the Tokyo-Narita service, all other airlines flying the route have reported declines in number of passengers (ANA: -13%, JAL: -19%, United Airlines: -22%, Delta Air Lines: -7%), except Singapore with its A380, that gained 8%.

Singapore and Qantas are averaging an 83% load factor across their A380 flights, Airbus says. Singapore’s A380s are achieving a 20% reduction in fuel burn over the 747-400. On reliability, the A380 had a 97% technical dispatch record in the first year, which compares favorably with the Boeing 777 at around 98% and is well ahead of the Boeing 747-400, which swung between 89% and 93% when it entered commercial operations. Airbus is targeting 98% reliability for the A380 this year. The first major batch of software upgrades was introduced on Ship 33, the first for Air France, and these are “making a difference,” as reported by Airbus. The upgrade is being refitted to the other 26 aircraft in service. The A380 has generated approximately 100,000 revenue flight hours on 10,000 flights so far.

Airbus will deliver 20 aircraft this year, including three that were supposed to have been delivered in 2009. “We are at 1.5 aircraft a month and moving up to two a month by year end,” the company said.

20 new A380′s in 2010 will surely mean a lot of similar news about new airlines, new routes and new airports getting the services of the super-jumbo.

by balint01

Delta and Northwest announced their plans for merger in the middle of April, 2008, that also included the declaration that the Delta brand will be kept. We all knew this was coming, but it’s still hard to believe that such a well-known, traditional airline brand is now completely history.

Established in 1926 as Northwest Airways, it started flying mail for the US Post Office. One year later it was also transporting passengers and went international with its first route to Winnipeg, Canada in 1928.

In 1931, Northwest sponsored Charles and Anne Lindbergh on a pioneering flight to Japan, scouting what would become known as the Northwest Airlines Great Circle route, and proving that flying via Alaska could save as much as 2,000 miles (3,000 km) on a New York City-Tokyo route. In 1933, Northwest was designated to fly the Northern Transcontinental Route from New York City to Seattle, Washington, adopting the name of Northwest Airlines one year later. In 1947 it became the first airline to operate a commercial passenger flight from the USA (Minneapolis) to Japan (Tokyo) onboard a Douglas DC-4, flying through Edmonton (Canada), Anchorage (Alaska) and Shemya in the Aleutian Islands. The flight actually continued from Tokyo to Shanghai (China) and to Manila (Philippines). Soon followed by flights to Seoul (Korea) and Taipei, Taiwan in 1950. At this time the airline was re-branded as “Northwest Orient Airlines“.

In 1951, Northwest was involved in the foundation of Japan Airlines (JAL) by leasing airplanes and crew to the newly formed Japanese flag carrier. From 1952 Northwest was granted a right to operate flights out of Tokyo to other Asian destinations (12 at some point in time), and soon it became the largest non-Japanese carrier at Tokyo. It remains very active on these routes out of Japan even until today. Northwest started using the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet in 1970.

After merging with Republic Airlines in 1986 and dropping the word “Orient” from its name, in 1993 Northwest launched one of the biggest airline partnerships ever, with Dutch KLM. When KLM merged with Air France, it meant that both KLM and Northwest joined the SkyTeam alliance.

In 2005, Northwest was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection – becoming the 4th of the top 6 US carriers to kick off a reorganization process that year being protected. Northwest emerged from bankruptcy protection 20 months later, in May, 2007. Then, it took less than a year to announce the merger with Delta Airlines in April 2008 to form the World’s Largest Airline, to be named Delta Air Lines.

During 2009 the Northwest brand started to fade away with airport counters merging with Delta, as well as many aircraft getting repainted in the Delta scheme – which also meant new Airbus types carrying the Delta logo for the first time ever (for example the Airbus A330 as seen below). October 2009 saw the operational center being moved to Atlanta, GA from its long-time main hub in Minneapolis/St.Paul, MN. Other hubs developed over the years in Detroit, Memphis, Amsterdam and Tokyo-Narita are now fully taken over by Delta.

After operating as a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines for more than a year with 303 aircraft, Northwest Airlines as a company ceased to exist officially on December 31, 2009. One month later, on January 31, 2010, Delta completed the merge of the reservation systems, redirected www.nwa.com over to www.delta.com and discontinued using the Northwest name for flights. The official last Northwest flight was NW2470 from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The actual last Northwest departure was actually a chartered Airbus A319 flying as NW 9946, a flight between Washington-Dulles and Minneapolis, departed at 12:54 AM EST on January 31st. Maybe reflecting on the nearly quarter of a century partnership with KLM, the last flight to land was NW 248, a flight from Detroit to Amsterdam, landing at 5:33 AM EST.

Its headquarters building in Eagan, Minnesota that once housed approximately 1000 employees is currently up for sale. Some airplanes are still flying in nwa livery – but only until they get their new paint-job as part of periodical maintenance…

R.I.P. Northwest Airlines

Flew for 83 years and 3 months (1926-2009)

by balint01

Following in the footsteps of the mergers between Air France – KLM, Delta – Northwest and British Airways – Iberia or the ever growing Lufthansa Group, two of Central and South America’s airlines are now merging to form a new joint holding company. First announced in October, 2009, Avianca and Grupo TACA will merge under a single holding company, and the new airline group will serve more than 100 destinations and will operate 129 aircraft in its fleet (including 47 short and medium haul Airbus and Embraer planes from mainline TACA and Avianca’s 8 long-haul (Airbus A330 and Boeing B767) and 51 short and medium haul Airbus, Boeing and Fokker aircraft).

The new, joint holding company will be called Avianca-TACA Ltd. It will be domiciled in the Bahamas and held 67% by Colombian Avianca parent Synergy Aerospace Corp. and 33% by TACA parent Kingsland Holding. TACA Chairman and CEO Roberto Kriete will become Chairman and Avianca CEO Fabio Villegas will be acting as CEO once the merger takes place. The new COO will come from TACA and the new CFO will from Avianca.

With an annual revenue of USD 3 billion and 12,000 employees, their strong Latin-American network will be served from hubs in Bogota (Colombia), Lima (Peru), San Salvador (El Salvador) and San Jose (Costa Rica. The carriers also announced that they will keep their respective brands and will continue to operate separately – but under a common strategy. This will probably take shape in joint procurement, shared resources, inter-connected reservation systems as well as maybe a joint Loyalty Program – currently they have a combined of 3 million loyalty members.

Looks like Avianca – having been under ever-growing pressure from the LAN group which is dynamically and profitably growing to become South-America’s largest airline group and is virtually surrounding Avianca’s home market of Colombia from the South – have decided to look North for a partner and found TACA.

by balint01

The Boeing 737-800 airliner took off at 2.30 am from Beirut’s international airport and headed to Ethiopian capitol Addis Ababa. About five minutes after departure it disappeared from the radar and crashed into the sea just 2 kms from the shore with 8 crew members and 82 passengers aboard. The reason of the accident is not known yet.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri ordered a national mourning day in Lebanon.

Desperate relatives arriving at the airport

Rescue workers looking for debris

Rescue forces looking for debris and bodies

You can read more details about the tragedy on CNN.com.

Turkish Airlines, Europe’s fourth biggest airline that joined Star Alliance as a full member almost two years ago, is developing very dynamically and aggressively by growing their fleet, launching new routes, increasing capacity and advertising on a global scale – and remaining profitable at the same time (!). They are planning for the long-term, using the Economic downturn as a possibility to order airplanes or to purchase marketing coverage and advertising space at a lower price than usual.

Almost exactly a year ago, they launched their “kick-off” global marketing campaign titled “Feel Like A Star“, where they connected their brand with the face of Academy Award winner American actor and director, Kevin Costner. The Costner Turkish Airlines ad mainly focused on the First and Business class product, but also raised brand awareness all around the world as it aired in 70 countries in 2009.

In 2010, they are moving into the sports arena. First came the news on January 18 from Barcelona, that Turkish Airlines has closed a deal with the Spanish Champion and reigning European Champion: FC Barcelona. Turkish Airlines will be the official airline of the Spanish soccer team for two and a half years, and will pay the Spanish 7.7 million Euros over this period.

According to the terms of this “Official Sponsor” sponsorship contract, all the advertising materials and logos of Turkish Airlines will be displayed on the internal screens of the Nou Camp Stadium in Barcelona and all other locations of the team, Turkish Airlines will make commercial films with the players of the Barcelona Club and carry out the promotion of this sponsorship deal in all the arenas of advertising and mass media. As the result of this sponsorship Turkish Airlines will transport the players of Barcelona to all the tournaments and training camps as well. This will either mean a special, ever-changing schedule of their Barcelona flights, or using a separate aircraft for this task, like a special charter plane.

The official FC Barcelona website already carries the Turkish Airlines logo in its footer.

Just a few days after FC Barcelona, Turkish Airlines announced a new partnership, with Manchester United (MU). Based on the new deal, Turkish Airlines will replace Malaysian Air Asia as the official carrier of the Manchester team, for three and a half years. According to reports, the deal is in the ballpark of a “multi-million British Pounds”, but no exact figures have been released. There is a news article about the new partnership on the official Manchester United website, but nothing else – yet. According to the news report, it will also carry the Turkish Airlines logo and link among the sponsors section of the site.

According to the contract, the same deal will be in place with MU as with FC Barcelona – all the advertising materials and logos of Turkish Airlines will be displayed on the internal screens of the Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester and all other locations of the team, commercial films will be made with the players of Manchester United Club. With title of “the official sponsor of Manchester United” Turkish Airlines will transport the players of the club to the tournaments and training camps as the team’s official carrier.

Such sponsorship deals have certainly helped the awareness of Emirates for example, that is the official partner of British Arsenal FC, Italian AC Milan, French Paris Saint-Germain, German Hamburger SV as well as Greek Olympiacos CFP.

Turkish Airlines, which operates flights both from Barcelona and Manchester Airport, carried 25.1 million passengers last year. It employs more than 12,000 people, and flies to 159 destinations around the world. Given that both football teams have fans on a truly global level, the brand awareness of Turkish Airlines will certainly grow in the next few years. We are looking forward to see innovative marketing campaigns around these partnerships!

by balint01

Air China is the first Chinese airline to provide online hotel booking services to its customers on its website. The partner in this new service is the Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN) that carries more than 100.000 products (Hotels).

The contract between the two partners is an exclusive one and marks the first time that Air China has worked with any partners to provide accommodation to global customers. The “Global” is an important word here, as having checked the Air China website recently, the Hotel Booking is only an option for the 27 international, localized versions of the website – but can not be found on the domestic Chinese version, even if you switch to English language. The customers from Australia, the USA, the UK or Korea, Indonesia or Russia can now book hotels at the same time as booking flights – but Chinese can not.

The Expedia Affiliate Network’s content for the booking engine is localized across those 27 worldwide markets, where the local language customer service support is provided by Expedia. Maybe this is the reason behind the Chinese site not (yet) rolling out this new service?

Jens Uwe Parkitny, managing director of EAN APAC, said that they “worked closely with Air China to understand their business and customer needs, and offered a solution that could bring a significant increase in customers and revenue. The ease of integration and usability of our interface is one of our key selling points and the reason we were able to partner with Air China.”

Mr. Jia Tie Sheng, Managing Director Sales Air China, added, “In order to ensure efficiency and breadth of choice it was a natural progression for us to sign the partnership with EAN as they were able to work with us to create a bespoke interface that best meets the needs of our customers and our business. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with EAN.”

The Hotel booking service can be reached directly from the Air China Homepage by selecting the “Hotels” tab, with the initial city dropdown menu including the major cities (and Air China destinations) within China only. By clicking on the “more options” link, the Customers can search and book Hotels in all countries of the Expedia inventory. Once starting a Hotel search, they will be taken to Expedia’s Air China branded website that has its Air China specific Header and Footer and carries the Chinese flag carrier’s colors.

We hope other Chinese carriers will follow in providing this more-or-less standard airline website feature, and we hope sooner rather than later the Chinese version of the EAN site will also be available on the Air China website so Chinese customers can also book all the 100.000 Hotels all over the world – in a Chinese localized website.

by balint01

We are also big fans of fancy jet interiors just like the refurbished B 747 or the design of the first A 380 delivered to Emirates.

This is my favorite one from The designed’s collection. It’s a Bombardier Learjet 85 interior.

Learjet 85

If you’re interested in the other 6 pieces, click here and check out the rest.

By Szafi

The Tupolev- TU-154 (NATO codename Careless), a trijet airliner developed in the mid 1960′s for medium-range passenger flights. The original requirements came from Aeroflot, which back then was the only Soviet airline. Aeroflot requested a new, jet engine airliner to replace its aging TU-104 as well as other Soviet built, medium-range turboprop fleet with a modern, fast jetliner. Similar to many Russian (or actually Soviet) built industrial products of that age, the TU-154 also has conceptual counterparts in the Western-world (the British Hawker Siddeley Trident) as well as in America (the Boeing 727). It uses the three engine lineup, where all three engines are attached to the aft part of the plane, with two on the side and one in the middle, just above the main cabin. Even though the TU-154 has a more powerful engine than the 727, it also consumes considerably more fuel, and is much louder.

It has been the work-horse of the Russian (earlier Soviet) air transportation, as more than a 1000 has been built in several variations. The plane has a cruising speed of 975km/h, which makes it one of the fastest civilian aircraft in operation. The average flight range is about 5280 kms – ideal for medium-haul routes. As a big plus, the TU-154 is capable of departing and arriving on unpaved and gravel airfields, which makes it ideal for operations in the extreme Arctic conditions of Russia’s northern territories or around ex-Soviet states, where airports can be very basic. This also means that it has way oversized landing gear equipment with large, low-pressure tires.

Inside the cabin, it seats 3+3 aside, with lower cabin top and less overhead luggage storage capacity. Most commonly the plane seated 124 passengers in two classes, or 168 in a one cabin layout. Some airlines used the high-density version that could seat up to 180 passengers.

Aeroflot once operated 23 TU-154s and the plane was in use by several airlines in the European part of the Warsaw Pact, such as LOT Polish Airlines, CSA Czech Airlines and Malev Hungarian Airlines just to name a few. Actually out of the 36 fatal accidents with the type, the first and most interesting TU-154 accident happened with a Malev plane, as it was approaching Beirut Airport on September 30, in 1975.

Allegedly Malev Flight 240 was to carry a group of Palestine leaders back from Budapest from a conference, but these leaders never boarded the plane. Being delayed several times before taking off, it mysteriously crashed in the Mediterranean sea near the Lebanese coast at dawn on final approach – without any report of a technical malfunction or any mayday calls from the cockpit. 50 passengers and 10 crew members were killed in the accident – and most of them have still not been brought to shore – even the aircraft fuselage lays at the bottom of the sea. The most commonly accepted theory is that Israeli forces may have shut down the plane – due to the information about the above mentioned political group onboard. The incident was classified as an accident and Malev received its insurance money but the investigation has never been closed.

The last major accident by the Tupolev TU-154 happened just last year in July, 2009 in Iran, killing all 168 onboard.

At the end of 2009 still 214 of the type were in operation with 24 airlines, mostly from the ex-Soviet Union as well as Iran. This has now been reduced to only 23 as Aeroflot is no longer operating it. According to plans, the type is expected to continue in operation until 2016, although it is expected that the number in operation will fall year over year.

by balint01

The new alliance is bringing together the two leading, lowest-cost low-cost carriers of the Asia/Pacific region, and this alliance can reduce their cost levels even more by sharing expertise and procurement procedures.

The 3 alliances among traditional airlines (oneworld, Sky Team, Star Alliance) are primarily focusing on commercial agreements and passenger benefits such as loyalty programs. The same idea was launched in the first “low-cost alliance” between JetBlue and Aer Lingus who linked their booking engines, started code-sharing on some routes and are offering through check-in of luggage for each other’s flights for example.

The idea here on the other hand is that this new alliance is not (yet) about commercial partnerships and not about bringing additional revenue to each other by “sharing” passengers, but about actually cutting costs together by sharing some operational functions. The most interesting part is that these two airlines have explicitly formed this alliance partially to create ”a joint specification for the next generation of narrowbody aircraft” and to look into a joint procurement of these jointly specified aircraft. While traditional airlines only seem to be talking about the importance of new, fuel efficient and environmentally friendly single-aisle aircraft and are looking for the aircraft manufacturers to come up with something out-of-the-blue, these two low-cost airlines are taking proactive steps – they want to make sure that the new airplane types which will be around for the next 40-50 years are designed and created in a way to fulfill their own requirements! They will not just jump on the bandwagon when the planes are around, but will actually be driving it!

And they are not talking in the air, as their combined fleets with orders and options add up to nearly 400 planes (currently operating 131) – making them a very powerful player to define the replacements of the Airbus A320 and (or) the Boeing 737 airplane families.

Alan Joyce, the CEO of Jetstar parent Qantas Group said: ”Just as both carriers have pioneered the development of the low-cost, long-haul airline model, today’s announcement … establishes a new model for achieving reduced costs and increased efficiency. This partnership will ensure that both airlines can capitalize on these growth opportunities“.

Principal terms of the agreement cover:

• future fleet specification,
• airport passenger and ramp services at airports where both carriers operate to,
• joint fuel purchasing,
• shared aircraft parts and pooling,
• procurement of engineering and
• maintenance supplies/services and
• reciprocal arrangements to mitigate possible operational disruption across both networks.

Reportedly the next step for the partners would be to look at joint venture on routes and other commercial activities including joint procurement of hotel inventory for holiday packages.

Air Asia CEO Tony Fernandes hailed the agreement as another step in “the airline’s strategy to maintain its global leadership as the lowest-cost airline operator …This is what enables us to provide the low, low fares that our guests have enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy.”

Peter Harbison, Chairman of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said the agreement could be the start of something bigger, with codesharing and equity exchanges at a later stage: “This is all about ‘let’s live together before we get married’“. Fernandes added that “This will be an exclusive partnership between both airlines. It’s difficult to have two husbands.“

We are happy to see such an innovative, but very logical initiative from two airlines in such harsh economic situation. This is really pointing forward to a future that other alliances (even the ones already established) should follow immediately. The big three alliances all have their leading, ruling large airline members, who believe they have the large enough economies of scale and do not need their (smaller) partners in such joint procurement actions – even though they should… Let’s see how this works out, we can only wish Air Asia and Jetstar a huge success and a great future of this new, cost-cutting based alliance!

by balint01

Slovakian Airport Security Authorities embarked on a very strange way of testing their own airport security operations: hiding real explosives and real bomb accessories in real passengers’ luggage – without informing them about it. They placed such dangerous materials in 8 passengers’ checked-in luggage, and have found 7 of them at Slovakian airports. But on Sunday, ONE GOT ONBOARD an airplane and actually took the 90 grams of explosives from Poprad, Slovakia all the way to Dublin, Ireland aboard a Danube-Wings flight!! A shockingly irresponsible way of carrying out such tests!

The scandal broke out on Tuesday, when Irish police was informed about the explosives (on the 3rd day after the incident!!), and arrested the Slovakian electrician in his Dublin home – after sealing off the surrounding neighborhood and evacuating all nearby houses… They later released the man, as Slovakian Authorities confirmed that he was totally unaware and innocent of the test. This still raises a lot of Legal and Moral questions!

Slovakian authorities have risked European lives, as the passenger being unaware of the explosives may have accidentally done something that would lead to an actual explosion. Or the luggage may have simply been lost – like it happens to another 2 million pieces in Europe every year! Even as the explosives were stable and without any contact to any of the required bomb accessories, a deadly accident could have occured at Poprad-Tatry airport, in the air above a German, a Belgian, or an English city, at the busy Dublin Airport, or even at the bus in the Irish capital… Or at the man’s Dublin home. What if the airplane crashes, or slides off the runway in bad weather like the three Boeing 737′s in recent weeks and the explosives get a hard hit? It’s better not think of the possible consequences…

And what took 3 days? In my opinion, if such tests are running, with real explosives, somebody from the team directing the test, should be there at the airport, and should know what bags are destined for which flights. And even if they are not found by the security personnel, those bags should be removed from the plane before take-off!! But even in such an unacceptable case when a mistake is made and the bag is taken by the plane – the destination airport should immediately be informed! What took 3 days?

In normal, European manner, real passengers are not involved in such tests – only people directly hired to try to trick the security scanners, procedures and staff. If I was the electrician in question (or any of the other 7 passengers) I would probably sue the Slovakian Authorities for placing me in such a situation. What would you do?

Where would you try to sneak in explosives on a plane if you were a terrorist? Maybe Bratislava?

Or you think this was totally acceptable and similar tests should be carried out around the world? Let us know what you think about this incident by leaving a comment below!

by balint01

Mesa Airlines, that operates as a regional feeder airline for big US carriers such as US Airways, Delta and United has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection on January 5, 2010.

Mesa Air Group, parent of Mesa Airlines yesterday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a US court in New York, claiming the process is needed for it to become a “leaner” entity able to compete in the future. Their statement also says that it “will continue to operate as normal, without interruption” during the restructuring. “

Mesa Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein has said that despite the efforts over the last two years to reduce costs and debt, chapter 11 filing was selected as the most effective and most efficient way to restructure the airlines with a minimal impact on the business and the customers. The most important goals mentioned in the filing are the will “to eliminate excess aircraft to better match the needs” and to allow for “the flexibility to align our business to the changing regional airline marketplace.” He added that the untenable financial situation is primarily due to the contracted lease obligations on aircraft excess to their current requirements.  He also said “Our company has ample liquidity to support itself during this process and we are confident we will emerge from Chapter 11 an even stronger operation.” What else can you say in such a situation? He has not announced any planned job cuts nor a timeline for emerging from bankruptcy.

According to Reuters, the court filings included the explicit plans to retire 25 airplanes on top of the 52 already parked from 130 aircraft in the Mesa fleet today. (Please note that their fleet included 178 planes in March, 2008…) This means a 60% reduction of fleet after all, which is a very significant number! This would also mean that the flying crew required for these 25 planes will have to be laid off as well. Mesa Air Group operates independently under its own brands, but most of its operations have been based on code-sharing agreements for flights with major US airline partners for feeder flights connecting smaller, regional airports to the bigger destinations and major hubs with planes carrying United Express, US Airways Express and Delta Connection (as Freedom Airlines) liveries respectively.

As of March 2009, the Group operated as:

• US Airways Express (48 regional jets + 6 turboprops)
• United Express (46 regional jets + 10 turboprops)
• Delta Connection (28 regional jets)
• + 8 regional jets as operational spares

In November 2009, United Airlines significantly scaled back Mesa’s flying on its behalf, terminating an agreement for operation of 26 50-seat Canadair Regional Jets and the 10 turboprop Dash-8′s, with the aircraft to be phased out by April 30, 2010. 20 CRJ-700′s are remaining operational, mostly out of Chicago O’Hare. Delta on the other hand has been trying cancel its full agreement with the Mesa Group for more than a year now with several court cases and rulings. Mesa now sees Chapter 11 as a vehicle to bring its legal dispute with Delta to a “more timely conclusion“. It said it is seeking USD 70 million in damages from Delta. It might also use Chapter 11 to cancel a firm order for 10 CRJ-700 aircraft with Canadian Bombardier – to whom it already owes USD 130 million in leasing fees.

Mesa Air Group’s Hawaiian inter-island subsidiary go! is not included in nor influenced by the bankruptcy filing.

by balint01

Helsinki, the capital of Finland currently has two airports, Helsinki-Vantaa and Helsinki-Malmi. Opened in 1938, Malmi was the original airport and served as the only such facility of Helsinki until 1952, when the new airport was opened for the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics, near the small suburban city of Vantaa. Since 1952, Malmi has been operating as a small, local airport and is the home for most Finnish pilot schools and flying clubs.

Helsinki-Vantaa with 3 runways and approximately 20.000 employees on the other hand has grown to be an international hub of oneworld member Finnair and a main connecting hub for passengers flying to Asia from Europe or the East Coast of North-America. In 2009 more than 13 million passengers have visited the airport, with more than 80% of them flying on international routes and more than 1 million connecting to Asian destinations. The airport itself is only 17 kms away from Helsinki’s city center, and only 5 kms from the center of Vantaa, thus the now legacy name.

Finavia, the state-owned operator of 25 of Finland’s 27 commercial airports, has now rebranded Helsinki-Vantaa as Helsinki Airport in a EUR 30,000 (USD 43,200) marketing initiative. The rebranding is intended to reinforce the message that Helsinki is a modern hub with all the services of a large international airport, ideal for connections to Asia owing to its position directly over the shortest great-circle routes connecting the continents. This is fully in-line with the strategy and marketing mesage of Finnair, that advertises itself brilliantly as the airline providing the shortest and smoothest route from Europe to Asia. Helsinki Airport is also less congested as other major, larger European hubs and has been one of the most punctual airports in Europe for years.

The branding initiative actually went into effect on December 11, 2009 with the formal opening of the final phase of a EUR 143 million extension to the airport’s Terminal 2. It includes the 1,000-sq.m. Via Lounge, which is open to all passengers for a fee and to oneworld premium passengers for free. It also features the 600-sq.-m. Via Spa, featuring a range of saunas and treatments in true Finnish style. After all, they invented the sauna!!

The extension increases the number of widebody gates in Terminal 2 (T2) from five to eight and allows all long-haul flights to be handled in one terminal. Additionally, it has enabled Finnair to move all its flights to T2 along with oneworld partners British Airways and Malev Hungarian Airlines. Moving all domestic flights to T2 allows Finnair to maintain a 35-min. connecting time between any two flights, a very low time compared to minimum connection times at London Heathrow or Paris Charles de Gaulle – where I personally would never plan my connection to be less than 2.5 hours…

by balint01

The second flying Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft – that is referred to as ZA002 and powered by the Trent 1000 – took off and landed at the same locations as the first flight test aircraft. Leaving from Paine Field in Everett, it touched down at Boeing Field in Seattle after a 2 hour flight.

Boeing stated “We are delighted that the second Dreamliner is in the livery of our launch customer, ANA,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program. “We are honored by the airline’s support and look forward to delivering ANA the first production airplane next year.“

Captain Randy Neville was at the controls for the flight, with Chief Pilot Mike Carriker operating as co-pilot. They piloted the first flight just a week ago, but have switched seats for the second one. Neville and Carriker took the airplane to an altitude of 13,000 feet (3,962 m) and an airspeed of 200 knots, or about 230 miles (370 km) per hour. The airplane took off at 9:09 a.m. PST and landed at 11:10 a.m. PST.

This is the second of six 787s being used in the airplane’s flight-test program. Each of the airplanes will be used for a specific set of tests, with this airplane focusing on systems performance. Like its predecessor, ZA001, the airplane is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines.

by balint01

The plane with 165 people onboard attempted to take-off on the first Sunday morning of the year 2010, heading to the Canary Islands on January 3rd, but according to the pilot, they detected some technical problems in the cockpit while accelerating. Due to the wintery conditions, the plane was unable to come to a complete stop on the tarmac and slid off the runway. No passengers or crew got hurt, all passengers disembarked the plane safely through the rear-doors of the aircraft using regular stairs, even as it lay nose-down on an embankment. The plane is undamaged.

The Air Berlin spokeswoman said that the pilot had followed procedures correctly during the incident, which is believed to have been caused by a malfunctioning speedometer in the Boeing where the Captain and the co-pilot were being shown different speeds. The airline is now examining if the airport services could have been at fault for the accident, they are investigating, whether the surface was completely de-iced.

A spokesman for Dortmund airport said that following the incident the runway had been closed to allow the recovery of the aircraft, the Air Berlin passengers were flown to Las Palmas from the nearby Paderborn airport, with another aircraft.

The plane is the third Boeing 737-800 to leave the runway in recent weeks. On December 22,  an American Airlines flight from Washington left the runway as it landed in Kingston, Jamaica, in heavy rain. In that case, the fuselage cracked open, the left main landing gear collapsed and the nose was crushed as the plane stopped at the ocean’s edge. There were no deaths, but many passengers needed hospital treatment in that accident. On December 23, a RyanAir Boeing 737-800 with 129 people on board skidded off the runway while taxiing at Glasgow Prestwick airport after hitting a patch of ice.

by balint01

Air Comet, the second biggest Spanish airline operating between Spain and Latin America has shut down on December 22, just before the 2009 Christmas holidays – leaving thousands of holiday passengers at airports around the Spanish speaking part of the World.

Established in 1996, Air Comet started operations in March, 1997 as Air Plus Comet, and was based at Madrid Barajas Airport in Spain, at Terminal 1. In 2007 it took over the routes of the bankrupt Air Madrid, that (also) left thousands of Holiday passengers behind over the Christmas period of 2006 and that’s when it simplified its name to Air Comet.

It operated scheduled flights to a number of Central and South American destinations, including Havana (Cuba), Bogota (Colombia), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Lima (Peru), Quito and Guayaquil (Ecuador) as well as Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia) – just to name a few. It temporarily suspended its flight Santiago de Chile earlier in 2009 due to focusing on other markets.

Air Comet’s parent company, Grupo Marsans had ordered a number of new planes, including four Airbus A380 superjumbos that were to have 620 seats and were to be operated on the most popular routes to South-America. Besides the big A380′s, Grupo Marsans also ordered 10 A350′s and 17 new Airbus A330′s, the first of which was already delivered in August, 2008. It now looks like, the A380′s will never be operated under the Air Comet brand and livery…

The problems came in early 2009, when in February, IATA has suspended Air Comet from the IATA Clearing House system, as it failed to pay its January balance. Then since April it failed to pay the salaries to a number of its employees. Then on December 22 it announced that it ceases operations immediately. This announcement came after the German HSH Nordbank – the owner of the Air Comet fleet – requested a court order as the airline has not been paying its leasing fees for some time (summing up to EUR 17 million by now). According to the Bank, they offered Air Comet the option to continue operating the aircraft for a few more days to be able to bring Christmas holidaymakers to their destinations. But according to the Spanish transport ministry, the airline did not even have enough money left to pay for fuel and fees, thus it has withdrawn Air Comet’s Operating License immediately.

The airline said it plans to lay off all 640 employees and file for bankruptcy. In the meantime, the plans to take over Air Comet by the US Air Transport Group Private Equity firm have failed, due to the repossession of the whole fleet – see the HSH Nordbank reference above.

Dozens of angry Air Comet customers blocked the entrance to Barajas’s Terminal 1 on December 23. They described the company’s management as “thieves”, according to the AFP news agency.

The Spanish Government is spending 6.3 million Euros on renting 4 airplanes to bring home about 7000 stranded passengers of Air Comet.

by balint01

Check out this special Holiday Wish from the co-workers of TAP, the Portuguese National Carrier. They prepared a special show for their passengers right before Christmas at their Home Airport in Lisbon, Portugal, using the Airport Terminal as the stage and playing the accompanying music through the airport loudspeakers.

by balint01 and Szafi

The Boeing 737-800 carrying 148, mostly Jamaican passengers going home for Christmas and 6 crew members reportedly landed on the runway at 22:22 local time after a 90 minute flight from Miami. Then it couldn’t stop and overshot the runway, skidding across the airport’s fences and a rainwater ditch, almost breaking into two parts and after crossing a road, it came to a rest on a beach. The aircraft’s nose only came to a full stop about 3 m’s (10 feet) away from the Caribbean Sea. As you can see on the map below, the plane must have skidded off the runway at the South-Eastern end.

44 people have been hospitalized, mostly with bruises, broken bones and back pains, 42 of whom have been released immediately after the treatments. The first reports claim no deaths nor life threatening injuries. Most witnesses claimed many passengers sustained injuries from hand luggage falling from the overhead compartments – on the head, neck and shoulders. This indicates that the plane must have touched down very hard and may have even bounced on the runway a few times. The plane’s fuselage was cracked at two locations (before and after the wing), both engines broke off and the left landing gear collapsed from the impact. It is not yet known whether the landing gear collapsed during landing, or afterwards when the plane actually overran the runway.

Passengers from the plane have said the flight was very turbulent all the way, with the crew trying to serve drinks three times and finally giving up. The captain also warned before landing that more turbulence is ahead… The crew have directed emergency procedures very effectively and evacuated all passengers onto the beach. Inside the plane passengers claim they smelled smoke and jet fuel, while rain was pouring through the roof where the fuselage was broken.

The plane was delivered to American Airlines in 2001, and had the registration number N977AN. Interestingly, the areas where the plane cracked before and after the wing are almost the same as the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 that crash-landed at Amsterdam airport in February this year.

by balint01

The Dreamliner was revealed on July 9, 2007, two and a half years ago. According to the original schedule, the first flight test aircraft should have taken off in the same year. This was first pushed out just two months later, when in early September 2007 Boeing announced a 2 month delay for the maiden flight. Back then they communicated that the first delivery would still be on time (it would have meant a 5 month flight-test period compared to the 777′s 11 months…), so that launch-customer, Japanese ANA could still take passengers to the Beijing Olympics on the new state-of-the-art airliner. The Beijing Olympics came and went, the Pittsburgh Steelers won Superbowl XLIII in Tampa, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley cup, Barcelona claimed the Champions League crown for 2009, Sebastien Loeb victored in Rally again and Jenson Button won the 2009 Formula-1 world title with the new Brawn GP team, but the Dreamliner has still not taken to the skies yet.

There were delays due to “software problems“, “shortage of bolts“, “difficulties around the global supply chain”, then in July came the latest Dreamliner delay news about “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” – which blew the Summer 2009 first flight plans as well.

But Santa in 2009 seems to bring a huge and long-awaited Christmas gift to all Boeing Commercial employees, to all the 55 airlines that have so far ordered 840 (!) 787′s (some of them have cancelled already, due to the delays) and to all aviation fans: THE FIRST FLIGHT !

Following the power-up, the extended stress tests on the aircraft body, the low speed taxi tests and the high speed taxi tests this past Saturday, the 787 took to the skies at 10:27 am Seattle time at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, heading to Boeing Field. The historic maiden flight was piloted by Michael H. Carriker, Chief Pilot of the type and Randall Lee Neville, Engineering Test Pilot of the 787. Carriker has been with the 787 Program since 2003, while Neville joined in 2005, after clocking more than 600 hours in 9 years with the F-22 Raptor fighter. Interestingly he also played an F-22 pilot in the movie “The Hulk”. Carriker was the captain on the first flights of the Boeing Next-Generation 737-600 and 737-900 type. They both hold type ratings in all current Boeing production models.

Just a little after 3 hours of flight, the first 787 flight touched down at Boeing field in rain, but in perfect style and the landing looked like a very soft one – from the outside. The plane was escorted on the slightly more than 3 hour flight by two T-33 training planes with cameras onboard. The plane arrived to Boeing Field at 1:35 pm local time.

You can ready about the Design Highlights of the Dreamliner here.

by balint01

380 tickets for each of the first flights were auctioned off on e-Bay in October, where all proceeds went to charity organizations selected by Air France. The first European owned SuperJumbo seats 538 passengers – compared to just 450 at Qantas, 471 at Singapore Airlines and 489 at Emirates. The so-far most crowded A380 has only 9 seats in First Class, 80 in Business and 449 in Economy. 22 flight attendants will be taking care of the 538 passengers – meaning one steward(ess) for every 25 travellers. Besides being the first European airline to own the A380, Air France will also be the first to operate the aircraft to the African Continent as it plans to introduce the plane to a daily Johannesburg flight later this winter following the Paris-New York route.

At the launch ceremony Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon did not only focus on the ”usual” media messaging around the unrivaled luxury of the A380 (as Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Qantas did earlier), but instead pointed out the savings that this aircraft will bring for the company. Each aircraft will allow the carrier to save €12-€15 million ($17.7-$22.1 million) per year based on their calculations. This is mostly due to the size of the plane and that it can replace two other flights, which could be serviced by an Airbus A340-300 (equivalent to the upper deck) and a Boeing 777-200 (equivalent to the main deck of the A380) for example. Flying the same number of passengers in just a single A380 instead means 20% reduction in operating costs as the frequencies on busy routes can be rationalized by replacing two flights which leave at similar times by one flight, while offering the same number of seats. For example, between Paris and New York, an A380 leaving at 1:35pm can replace two flights operated by an A340 and a 777-200, leaving at 10:30am and at 1:35pm respectively. The same connecting morning flights can still service and feed the “big” flight.

On top of all the rationalization of flights, the A380 uses less fuel per passenger. It burns less than three litres per 100 km! Besides the gas emmissions, the A380 creates less noise than its closest rival, the Boeing 747 – half as much at take-off! I had the personal experience of seeing and (not) hearing the A380 land in Frankfurt on one of its test-flights back in 2007 with Lufthansa crew – and we were all shocked by the little noise it generated compared to other aircraft landing on the same approach route before and after it. The Air France A380 is also quieter in the cabin itself, and besides the 220 windows it has special lighting features to reflect the time of the day within a flight and to help synchronizing the body-clock of the passengers. Guests can also meet up during the flight for a drink and a snack in one of the 6 bars onboard. One of these is for Première (First Class) on the main deck, two for Affaires (Business Class) on the upper deck and three for Voyageur (Economy Class), with two at the main deck and one upstairs.

We hope Air France and its passengers will be happy with the first new Airbus A380 flying under European registration and providing the first Transatlantic connection aboard the double-decker superjumbo between Europe and North America. Please leave your comments if you happened to be on one of these flights and would like to share your experiences with our readers!

Download the AirFrance Airbus A380 Factsheet (pdf)

Separately, but conincidentally at the same time as the first Air France A380 flight: Emirates said it will begin serving Paris Charles de Gaulle with a 489-seat A380 from Dubai on Dec. 29 rather than Feb. 1. “An operational review, coupled with demand on the route, has led to an earlier introduction,” it said. The A380 will fly thrice-weekly to start, becoming daily Jan. 17.

by balint01

Well, it’s pretty much the same as with cars. Once a car becomes totally useless you take them to salvage yards, where you can take them apart and buy some parts if you can use them for anything.  Otherwise they rest in peace in these graveyards for decades.

How many plane cemeteries are there on the planet? Well, who knows? But it’s not just one or two. There must be millions of plane both military and jets around in deserted areas. Some of them are in the US, some in the Middle-East, but they can be located practically anywhere.

Today I found this blogpost with a nice story and even much nicer photos of a plane junkyard in the Mojave desert, California.

Plane Graveyard Mojave, California

Plane Graveyard Mojave, California

Take a look at them and if you like them, here is another album on Flickr with a bunch of other beautiful photos – even if the subject of the pictures is rather sad.

Plane Graveyard Mojave, California

Have fun with them!

by Szafi

On-car Advertisement 

The champion Brawn GP started out this season as a new team, with practically no sponsors. The first to sign up was Virgin and we were hoping to see some Virgin Atlantic or other Virgin airlines branding on those cars at some point in the season – which did not really happen. On the other hand, the Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways has been actively participating in Formula-1 – as an on-car sponsor of Scuderia Ferrari – showing Etihad logos on the front and tail wings of the car, the helmets of the drivers and also on the shoulder of the drivers’ overalls.

Track side Advertisement 

Etihad was also the naming sponsor of the first “2009 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix” – which they have used as a truly worldwide global campaign opportunity. All those who have watched the race have seen the Etihad logos all around the circuit on static displays as well as on dynamic giant LCD displays.

Special Aircraft Liveries

And where can an airline advertise any more visible than on its own aircraft? Etihad Airways has prepared two special livery airplanes over the last year to support its high profile involvement with the first ever Abu Dhabi Formula-1 Grand Prix. The intercontinental ambassador of Etihad is an Airbus A340-600 (registration: A6-EHJ), the currently largest airplane of Etihad that has been carrying a special livery for almost a year that has a shaded background (from white through red to black) and shows a checkered flag on its tail.

Etihad has also designed a special livery for one of its smaller planes, an Airbus A320 (registration: A6-EIB), also known as “Etihad’s Black Jet”. The plane is painted in full black livery, with a Formula-1 car on its tail

Congratulations to Etihad for showing the world how to use Formula-1 for a truly, global promotion campaign! 

by balint01

Qantas will operate three sightseeing flights over Antarctica during the Southern summer with its new A380. It is partnering with Antarctica Sightseeing Flights of Melbourne once again, with whom they have previously provided similar special flights aboard Boeing 747-400s.  The idea originally came from New Zealand, where Air New Zealand provided similar flights in the ’70s, until November 28, 1979, when one of its McDonnell Douglas DC-10‘s tragically crashed into Mt. Erebus on Antarctica. It took many years before Qantas paired up with Croydon Travel in 1994 for their first scenic Antarctica flight. They have safely operated 85 flights over the 15 years taking more than 30,000 people to experience the world’s ‘last great wilderness’ during this one and a half decade. In contrast to the 30,000 people flown above it, this continent has given birth to only one human in 1978 and has only around 1,000 researchers living on its soil year-round (but nobody is registered there).

The first A380 flight is scheduled for takeoff on December 31, 2009 from Melbourne, the second on January 24, 2010 from Sydney. There will be third Antarctic flight on February 14 from Melbourne, but with a Boeing 747. The New Year’s Eve flight will be under the command of Capt. John Dennis, who has flown more than 40 of Qantas’ 85 747 flights to the ice, and both others will be commanded by a senior Qantas Captain who had flown at least once to Antarctica. The most frequently used route takes the aircraft over the icecap, the South Magnetic Pole, the French scientific base at Dumont d’Urville and finally the spectacular Trans-Antarctic Range. Approval has been secured for 19 Antarctic flight routes, with final selection based upon weather and viewing opportunities.

All flights include two meals with the on board experience enhanced by a panel of experts, including world accredited Antarctic scientists, glaciologists, explorers, adventurers & mountaineers. On to top of the view from the windows, the on board entertainment system would show the live picture of the panorama from the cockpit.  The passengers of the “New Year’s Eve Midnight Sun Party Flight” will be the first to see the sun in 2010– as it will be full daylight at 12.01am over the ice – and the flight will feature dancing in the aisles to the music of a live jazz band.

The flights take about 3 hours to reach the first icebergs of Antarctica, followed by four hours flying above the continent and another 4 to reach Australia again – totaling an average flight time of between 11-13 hours. When over Antarctica the plane flies at approximately 10,000 feet above sea level as this altitude provides excellent viewing while still respecting the wildlife habitats at sea level. The aircraft flies in long sweeping ‘figure 8s’ over various points of interest to allow the spectacular sights to be viewed from both sides of the aircraft. Passenger will be given two boarding passes and will have to switch seats half-way through the flight. This means that all passengers (except the ones flying in Economy Centre or Business Centre seats) will have a window seat at least for half of the flight. Given that there is no dark at night over Antarctica during the Southern summer time, it doesn’t really matter which half of the flight you have the window seat. The seatmap is available here.

Fares for this unforgettable experience start from AUD999 (USD899) for the Economy Class Centre seats and go up through 6 other seat-types to the First Class seats for AUD 6,299 (USD 5,667).

by balint01

Each custom fabricated piece includes a 1/2” tempered glass top, supported by mirror polished aluminum stand-offs.  Behind the bar includes a hardwood bar counter top with bottom shelves for storage.  Available in multiple finishes including mirror polished.

If you like this one, you should check out this very exciting website I have just found via Born Rich blog.

By Szafi

Malev, the Hungarian airline company initiated an aircraft livery design contest. The finalists were selected by a smaller jury that includes Mr Laszlo Zsoter, the designer of the present Malev livery. Malev’s planes are sometimes called Blue Nose among planespotters. If you take a look at this picture, you will understand why.

Malev Q400

Now you can visit Malev’s site and vote for the design you like the most. Don’t miss it, it’s fun! Here are some examples:

By Nora Vera Csovari

By Szabolcs Kozicz

By Gabor Tamas Nemeth

By Szafi

I will not repeat myself. It’s a sad day. Let’s light a candle for them!

By Szafi

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

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

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

After arrival his fear got proven, his guitar worth more than 500 dollars was broken. He immediately claimed his damage, but it was rejected by the airline.

He promised himself to write three songs about this incident and he will make sure that each song will be viewed at least 1 million times. The first video was uploaded at the beginning of July and it was viewed more than 150 thousand times in the first 3 days.

After the appearance of the video the airline revised the case and offered a compensation, but Dave refused it and told them to give that sum to charity.

Later Taylor guitars offered Dave that they fix his guitar for free plus they gave him a shiny new one.

This was the song about the incident by Son of Maxwell:

Here is the second song:

By Szafi

Five Italian tourist and a pilot were aboard the helicopter, while three people were travelling on the small plane, including a child.

Eye witnesses said they heard a loud boom, they saw a wing of a plane and the helicopter falling like a stone into the river. Debris fell on the New Yersey side of the river almost hitting motorists.

Rescue teams rushed to the scene, but found only wreckages and dead bodies. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at  press conference that most probably nobody survived the accident.

The following video is from Fox News:

By Szafi

I don’t know whther this commercial really exists or this is just a hoax. I tried to check it on the airline’s website, but there was no sign of this billboard there.

Anyway if this is true, I have no clue what their real goal was with it. People are skeptic about these very eastern, not well-known airlines, it just scares passengers in vain. If it is just a hoax or a guerilla marketing, it is a good one, because I myself have never even heard about this airline, but today I have learned they exist.

If anybody knows anything more about it, I would be grateful if he or she shared it with us as a coment here.

Photo: Airliners.net

By Szafi

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

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

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

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 is famous for creating media buzz

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:

by balint01

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

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

The reason to buy her own private jet seems ridiculous: cost cutting. Reportedly last year the royal family flew 137,000 miles on 18 scheduled and 21 chartered flight. The total cost of these travels was 6,5 million pounds. (£ 167,000 per flight) Well, in comparison with that cost, £ 3 million is really cost cutting.

In the meantime to make waiting less boring, she will receive a new helicopter, because the leasing of the old one has expired. The heli will cost £ 500,000 per year.

Maybe it is just me who thinks she should try Ryanair or Easyjet instead. I am interested in your opinion.

By Szafi

Boeing says it will not release any other dates for the maiden flight in the next couple of weeks. It did not say whether or how long first delivery to ANA, slated for the 2010 first quarter, would be delayed, either. This is the sixth (6th!) time the program has been delayed so far.

The project has now been delayed a few times, so everybody looked at this end of June deadline with high expectations. The first delay of 6 months was announced in October 2007. The second announcement came in January 2008, when Boeing projected the maiden flight for June 2008. Then shorter delays came, and apparently a year later we still do not know when we will see the new Dreamliner flying.

We will inform you about the developing story. Please follow our blog via RSS!

By Szafi

The pilot lost control over the plane after a dog ran cross the runway. Noone was hurt during the incident, but the plane suffered some damages.

The video shows the whole scene including the very fast evacuation process.

Thanks to Domi for the link!

By Szafi

But the economic crisis may be helping smaller, upcoming aircraft manufacturers to record some orders – as they can probably stay cheaper than the two major global companies. One of them is the new Russian Sukhoi Superjet, that has reportedly gained 30 orders from Malév Hungarian Airlines today. Sukhoi Superjet International has announced that it closed a deal with oneworld member Malev for 30 Sukhoi Superjet 100s (15 firm + 15 options), as Martin Gauss, CEO of Malév and Alessandro Franzoni, CEO of Superjet International have signed a letter of intent today at Le Bourget. It is not yet known whether it’s a complete purchase or a leasing deal, but the deal’s value is said to be in excess of 1 billion USD. According to the plans, the first aircraft would arrive at Malév in 2011, and 6 would follow each year. The Hungarians are the first known “Western” customers for the type, which marks its entry into the skies of the European Union – therefore it is a very important announcement for Sukhoi.

The Superjet was revealed in September 2007, but then fell behind original plans and got delayed, similar to other new aircrafts in the 21st century, but finally took to the skies on its first flight in June 2008. Malev has been tied with a possible order earlier, but this seems to be confirmed today.

Malév Hungarian Airlines currently operates a short-haul fleet with 18 Boeing 737 NGs making up most of the fleet and the turboprop Bombardier Q400 taking the regional role (replacing Fokker-70′s as those are being phased out). The question unanswered at the moment is whether the two-class configured SJJ100′s would be introduced as the third aircraft type or would replace either the 737s or the Q400s. We hope these 30 will be additional, as the 98 seat Superjet would not be able to take the role of the 737-700 and -800s that can carry up to 140 and 180 passengers respectively.

The deal itself may sound a surprise to some, but given the fact that the Russian state-owned Vnyesekonombank holds a minority stake in Malév and has been postponing its promised capital injection, this order for the Russian aircraft type may be part of the behind-the-scenes inter-government deal pushed down the throat of the ailing Hungarian state carrier.

by balint01

On Wednesday June, 11 a Spanish carrier had to land at the Canary Islands shortly after take off due to engine problems. The aircraft was an Airbus A320.

Today (June 12) an Aeroflot flight had to abort its way from Yakutsk to Moscow and immediately land at Novosibirsk with 122 people on board, because one of the winshields of the cockpit got cracked. The plane was an A 320.

Australian JetStar’s A 330 had to make an emergency landing Tamuning, Guam. The plane took off from Osaka, Japan and was about to fly to Coolangatta, Australia. There were 200 people aboard, and the casue of the emergency landing was a fire in the cockpit.

JetStar's faulty A330

Luckily nobody was hurt during these incidents.

Airbus is facing hard times financially, as both A380 and the new A350 cost more than predicted. The company turned to the governments of the owner countries as bank credits do not cover the additional costs.

By Szafi

Some days later the German-Italian couple Johanna and Kurt Ganthaler arrived back in Europe safely. From Munich they decided to drive home – Merano, Italy – by a rental car.

On the way around Kufstein their car changed lanes for some reason and they ended up in the opposite direction, where they had a head-on collision with a truck.

The woman died in the hospital where she was taken after the accident. Her husband was also injured and he is still in hospital.

After reading such stories, I start to believe in fate.

By Szafi

The Airbus A330 should have landed in Paris at 11:10 local time but it has dissappeared earlier this morning. The plane – with 216 passengers (126 men, 82 women, 7 children and a baby) and 12 crew members onboard – took off from Rio de Janeiro Sunday evening at 7pm local time, heading towards Europe on a route that would lead northwards above Brazil, then crossing the Atlantic towards Senegal and flying through Spanish air-space before arriving to the French capital. However, contact with the aircraft was lost about 3 and a half hours into the flight (~1:33 GMT), when the plane was cruising at 35.000 feet at a speed of 840 km/h, approximately 300 kms from the Brazilian shore (565 kms north-east of the Brazilian city of Natal), above the Atlantic Ocean – already outside of Brazilian radar-space. It had last contacted air traffic control in Recife, Brazil. Brazilian Air Force started the search early Monday morning around the Northeastern Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha (365 kms from the South-American coast). They were later joined by a French military plane flying out of Senegal to help with the search. Brazilian officials cautioned that the search area could be three times the size of Europe. See map on CNN.com and the map on BBC.co.uk.

There were several possible scenarios why contact was lost, it could have been a transponder problem, a hijack or a crash. Transport analyst Kieran Daly told CNN that the lack of communication with the aircraft “does suggest it was something serious and catastrophic.” He said the aircraft involved was one delivered to Air France in April 2005. Given the fact that that Airbus A330 is one of the safest airplane types currently flying around the Globe – not having a regular fatal accident since its first commercial flight in 1998 -, theoretically it could have done a water landing – similar to the US Airways flight that ditched in the Hudson river earlier this year - but the fact that all radio contact had been lost does not sound too positive at this stage. Also in the middle of a storm at the open ocean it is a much harder task than the Hudson river in quite weather.

The plane was hit by heavy turbulance in stormy weather and reported electrical problems before it lost contact, Air France said Monday. The automatic system of the Airbus A330-200 began a four-minute exchange of messages to the company’s maintenance computers, indicating that “several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down,” at 02:14 GMT (four hours after leaving Rio de Janeiro) as it hit strong turbulence early in its 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told a news conference. “This succession of messages signals a totally unforeseeable, great difficulty,” he said. “Something quite new within the plane.” During that time, there was no contact with the crew, Gourgeon said, adding that ”It was probable that it was a little bit after those messages that the impact of the plane took place in the Atlantic,” he added. He also said that flight AF 447 was probably closer to Brazil than to Africa when it crashed. Speculations are now pointing towards a possible lightning strike as the cause of the electrical malfunction – but that alone should not have brought down a modern airliner such as the Airbus A330. The jet had also sent a warning that it had lost pressure, the Brazilian air force said. The missing jet, registered as F-GZCP last had a maintenance check on April 16 and has been flying in service since April 18, 2005 – with 18870 recorded flight hours and was powered by General Electric CF6-80E engines. According to Reuters, two Lufthansa planes have flown over the same area shortly before and shortly after the Air France flight – without any incidents. Both German pilots reported the bad, stormy weather.

The chances of finding any survivors were “very low,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy admitted Monday. Air France identified the nationalities of the victims (based on the information received from the Brazilian Authorities) as two Americans, an Argentinean, an Austrian, a Belgian, 58 Brazilians, five British, a Canadian, nine Chinese, a Croatian, a Dane, a Dutch, an Estonian, a Filipino, 61 French, a Gambian, 26 Germans, four Hungarians, three Irish, one Icelandic, nine Italians, five Lebanese, two Moroccans, three Norwegians, two Polish, one Romanian, one Russian, three Slovakian, one South African, two Spanish, one Swedish, six Swiss and one Turk. This means 32 countries are involved in the tragedy. The four Hungarians are said to be 2 adults and 2 children. A woman returning from a 3 week training in Brazil - that she held on behalf of the International Pető Institute – with her spouse and her child – traveling together with another child who had visited relatives in Brazil. According to Brazilian sources, Luis Roberto Anastáci, President of Michelin South America was also among the passengers. Two ticket holders were not allowed to get on board due to the expiration of their passports.

Update (02/June, 20.00 CET): some debris of a plane were found by rescue teams. According to new sources a seat, a life vast, an oil drum and signs of oil and kerosene were found, but there were not enough material to make sure these were parts of the lost plane. Three commercial ships were directed to the area later in the afternoon.

Update (07/June, 10.00 CET): According to CNN, two bodies and some parts of the aircraft were found yesterday. Also a backpack and a leather briefcase were found, the latter holding a flight ticket, which was identified by Air France and it was proven to belong to one of the passengers. Airbus said the automated error messages may show that the speed controls were faulty.  Read more here.

by balint01

This time Air New Zealand surprised us with some unexpected creativity and announced the launch of cupid flights between Los Angeles and Auckland in October this year. According to the original news source, passengers of the matchmaking flight will attend a gate party and they can take part in onboard games to have the chance to get to know each other.

Read the full story here.

Do you think it is possible to find the love of your life on a plane? Share your opinion with us!

By Szafi

EUROPE’S largest low-cost airline Ryanair is looking at the possibility of getting passengers to carry their luggage all the way to the plane, cutting out the need for baggage handlers.

“We would say to passengers … take your own bag down through airport security, leave it at the bottom of the steps, we put it in the hold and on arrival we deliver it to the aircraft steps and you take it with you,” Chief Executive Michael O’Leary told a news conference yesterday.

Ryanair’s business is centered around cutting costs and the carrier is planning to eliminate check-in desks from October this year, saving up to 40 million euros annually.

An airline spokesman said the group would not pursue the luggage plan if it jeopardized their quick turnaround times.  (Original sourc: Reuters)

Now let’s think it over for a moment. It is clear that if they close check-in counters completely, they get in trouble. We all know that luggage self-check-in does not work. People cheat with it, they screw up sticking bag tags properly on the luggage, they spend 10 minutes by sticking the bag tag instead of moving away from self check-in kiosks, so they queue up, which is not efficient at all. In the end it is always more simple to open up a check-in counter and have them pay an extra cost for checked-in lugagge. They actually do so. If you fly Ryanair, you will need to pay an extra lugagge fee. Wherever they launched it, they use carousels to take the luggage from the check-in kiosk to the security check.

So now instead of carousels and a central luggage assorter it is the passenger, who takes the luggage to security – which is actually the same security that checks on-board baggages. First of all how do they decide whether you can take a bottle of wine with you? If it is a checked baggage, it can stay there, if not, then leave it here for us? Or what?

Who weighs the baggage? The passenger? I can predict – although I am not a fortune teller – that there will be no overwiehgts any more. So how can a balance sheet be prepared for the ground staff? Is it safe?

Then the passenger takes the luggage to the stairs, puts it into a container, so the ground handlers will start loading them into the plane exactly when boarding starts. Because earlier no luggage can be left alone anywhere, otherwise it is a security hole again. For me it seems impossible to finish loading in time, but miracles can happen.

After the plane arrives it is fine that passengers take it from the container and they will not stand along a carousel again, but what about lost luggage? It would be fun to handle their claims right at the plane, when again loading starts for the return flight. Yes, I know, they can be directed to a customer management desk, but passengers are strange people: if they will see loading staff, they will try to convince them to go and look for their luggage again.

And what is it that they really save at the end of the day? A carousel that takes checked luggage to the central assorting place, then to the security and then to the aircraft, which is almost fully automized. I am not sure it is such a big deal. And on the other hand passengers pay for this service.

Well, I will keep my eyes on this story. I am too skeptic to believe this is actually going to happen.

How about you? Would you carry your checked-in luggage all through the airport to the plane?

By Szafi

A Sunday in early March 2009 marked the first commercial flight by American Airlines, using a blended winglet fitted Boeing 767-300ER. The aircraft with the freshly installed winglets flew from Dallas/Fort Worth to London Heathrow with 204 passengers onboard. The winglet has been designed and developed by Aviation Partners Boeing, that has previously worked on similar, post-production winglets for the B757 for example. The 767-300ER has received very large, and especially tall additions to its wings, as these new winglets stretch 11 feet high (3.35 m!!) from the tip of the wings and “represent the largest piece of structure ever retrofitted to a commercial aircraft“.

According to the airline, the winglets will reduce fuel consumption per airplane per year by up to 500,000 gallons (~6.5%), which also means a carbon dioxide (CO2) emmission reduction of up to 277,000 metric tons annually.  This figure makes “blended winglets the greenest aftermarket product available to the aviation industry today” – says Joe Clark, founder and Chairman of Aviation Partners Boeing. Using the special winglets also extends the airplane’s range by up to 360 nautical miles (666 kms) as well as increases the payload by up to 12,000 pounds (5450 kilograms) - by enabling better take-off performance without any engine updates. The winglets have been installed by American’s Maintenance & Engineering organization at its maintenance base in Kansas City, MO.

When American started to work with Aviation Partners Boeing, they estimated the winglets would save an annual 17 million gallons of kerosene for the airline, but with the final design they now predict to save 29 million gallons of Jet-A fuel a year when the winglets are installed on the full fleet of American‘s 58 Boeing 767-300s – they plan to finish the installation by 2011.

The 767-300ER Blended Winglet program proved to be a huge success even before the first commercial flight, as Aviation Partners Boeing has pre-sold more than 130 systems to 10 different airlines, even before the solution received certification.

Recently American’s fellow oneworld partner, LAN Airlines has also reported their first commercial flight between Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires with a blended winglet equipped 767-300ER on 31st of March, while Delta and Austrian have also received their first jets with this adjustment. LAN is planning to update its whole fleet of 37 767-300s by year-end (investing nearly $70 million), with Austrian planning 4 planes to carry the high red winglet by the end of May, 2009, after the first two (registrations OE-LAE and OE-LAY with special Star Alliance livery) have joined its fleet earlier this month. Further airlines planning to introduce blended winglets on their 767s include Air New Zealand, Condor and Hawaiian Airlines (with 8+7 options).

To date over 2,480 Boeing aircraft have now been equipped with Blended Winglets, which includes 124 Boeing 757s and 77 Boeing 737s in American’s fleet alone.

by balint01

Do you remember the scene in Airplane the movie, when the main character, the veteran pilot has to land a jet after all three pilots get sick of the food served? Well, it must be a nightmare, when it actually happens to you.

Just like in the old Hollywood movie, Doug White held a pilot license, but he had never flown a plane as big as this one.  They took off from Marco Island. The plane was leased by the company of Mr White. During take off the pilot got sick and lost consciousness. White travelling with his family realized there’s no other way than landing the plane by himself.

(c) Wikipedia

He radioed the traffic control and asked them for help. One of the controllers called a friend of his, who knows this aircraft type. Together they navigated the plane down exactly like in the movie. The auto pilot could not be used as the pilot programmed the original destination into it.

In Fort Meyers, when they finally reached a safe position, fire fighters and ambulances were waiting for them. They tried hard to save the life of Joe Cabuk, the pilot, but he did not survive.

Although the drama has a partial happy ending, therefore no manuscript will be based on it, there is one important thing to learn: when you’re in the biggest trouble and you think there is no way out, don’t forget to repeat it to yourself at least three times: “Yes, I can.”

Read the full story and watch a video about it on MSNBC.com

Learn more about King Air planes on Wikipedia.

By Szafi

We all know the story that Honda shockingly withdrew from Formula-1 late last year and the Brackley-based team had a very rough and tough winter – with a lot of speculation about the future of the team. Finally it seemed that the potential buyers were down to only two options: Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin group and Mr. Ross Brawn, the technical director. In the end Brawn bought the team for one Euro and seemed that Virgin will still remain outside of F-1.

Following the pre-season tests, Brawn GP seemed quite strong and Sir Richard Branson used his timing-skills and announced a partnership just one day before the first race of the season. It was a quickly brought together deal in the eleventh hour, the official announcement coming just before the first qualifying session of the year. A downside to this quick deal is that the car has not (yet) received a new livery, and the team and driver overalls saw no Virgin branding at all (missing an opportunity to show Virgin at the top of the podium…), but I’m also sure that Sir Richard made a good deal in the middle of the economic recession. He must have gotten either more coverage for the same money, or is paying less for the same coverage – than would have done last year. So the famous Virgin logo – used by a number of airlines around the world – were quickly added to the cockpit area of the Brawn-Mercedes challengers and will probably be in the news around the world in the coming days – as Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello took an already legendary 1-2 finish in the first race ever of the Brawn GP team.

The official sponsorship announcement included hints that the addition of the red Virgin logo to the cockpit area is only the first step. Besides the technical partners’ logos, this was the only brand on the white livery of the cars – but a brand new, Virgin livery is expected before the following Malaysian grand priy, which is the “home” grand-prix for the Williams sponsor, Air Asia. Last year Air Asia prepared a special airplane livery for the Malaysian grandprix, we are looking forward to any similar announcements this year. We also wonder if Virgin will use a steady livery throughout the year, or will they start showing different brands of the Virgin Empire at different races – which would mean that some of the Virgin branded airlines’ logos could appear on the cars at some point of the season? I hope at least Virgin Atlantic will join a number of other airlines currently sponsoring Formula-1 teams: Air Asia (WilliamsF1), Etihad (Scuderia Ferrari), Kingfisher (Force India) and will also mark the sponsorship deal with some special airplane liveries across its fleet?

Let’s hope to see at least one of the Virgin branded Airlines’ logos on the Brawn GP (to be renamed Virgin Formula-1?) cars in 2009 and beyond as well as more special, Formula-1 themed aircraft liveries at Virgin!

by balint01

I am not sure it is not a well prepared guerilla marketing action of the airline, but anyway, it is fun, so do not miss it.

If anyone of you has flown together with this guy, please share your experience with us!

By Szafi

On 2nd of March, 2009 Qantas had no A380s in service for a short period of time – all 3 aircraft having to be removed from operations due to unrelated fuel system problems. The first mega-jumbo of the Australian airline (named Nancy-Bird Walton) had technical troubles back in Sydney on Saturday (February 28) when it was delayed 19 hours (!) before taking off for London Heathrow. On the return trip, the aircraft suffered a fuel leak and passengers were transferred to a Boeing 747-400 – 12 hours later. Engineers in London fixed the fuel leak and the A380 was back in service by late Tuesday.

The other two A380s (pictured here above) had a different fuel system issue and were removed from service at the same time. Qantas has stated that two A380s were declared unserviceable with a ‘”fuel tank indication system problem”. They also returned to service on Tuesday after the fixes were made in Sydney. According to ATWOnline, “the issue related to the Fuel Quantity Indicating System (FQIS) and some microbiological contamination, which resulted in faulty FQIS readings.”

The introduction of the Airbus A380 is still referred to as the best entry into service of any aircraft with Australia’s national airline.

Since entering service in October 2007, the 13 A380s flying with Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Qantas have flown 31,750 hours and 3,300 revenue flights, with 97.8% leaving on time. There were only a few, minor incidents earlier at Singapore Airlines.

by balint01

It was noticed by the crew during the final approach before landing that the front landing gear did not open to its extended position. Following several attampts to release the nose gear, a low pass over the runway was performed to visually check the nose gear position. It was confirmed from the ground to be in the up position and therefore an emergency landing was decided - which was broadcasted live on Romanian Television.

All procedures went according to the books and professional plans, the flight spent more than an hour and a half circling around the airport to burn fuel, thus reduce the risk of an explosion or fire upon landing. They landed at 9:44 (instead of the originally planned 8:05) with more than 20 ambulances and fire engines on the site, prepared for the worst.  The aircraft stopped perfectly on the centerline axis shortly after the nose of the aircraft had touched the runway surface. Preliminarily, a foam carpet had been created on the runway to diminish the fire risk (the whote foam is clearly seen on the image above).  Both pilots in the cockpit were very experienced as they have flown for more than 40 years, with more than 10.000 flight hours recorded individually.

Passengers had been disembarked through the front passenger door. No passenger or crew member was injured. The aircraft has no noticeable damages following the emergency landing.

Carpatair is a regional airline serving several airports in Romania and surrounding countries as well as flying to Italy, Greece, Austria and Germany with a fleet of 14 Saab-2000′s and 3 Fokker F100′s. It also flies in cooperation with oneworld member Malév Hungarian Airlines on several routes to and from Budapest, Hungary.

by balint01

There were 135 passengers on the plane: 127 passengers (with 72 Turkish and 32 Dutch nationalities) and 7 crew members according to Turkish media.

(c) CNN

The first pictures show the plane broken into 3 parts, but there is no sign of fire, therefore everybody is optimistic about the number of survivors.

A few hours after the accident, the Dutch authorities have confirmed that at least 9 people (including 3 pilots) have been killed, with more than 50 injured – 5 of those are in a life threatening condition. By noon local time, all survivors have been escaped from the wreckage, while many lucky passengers have simply walked away after the accident.

Update from Turkish Airlines’ emergency website: “Turkish Airlines regrets to confirm that its flight Number TK 1951 from Istanbul to Amsterdam the capital of The Netherlands  was involved in an accident today near the Amsterdam Airport.
The aircraft, a B737-800 was during the landing when the accident occurred, at around 11:30 a.m. local time.
At this time, after the search and rescue operations, we have 9 casualties, and 50 passengers were injured. Turkish Airlines staff has been doing everything possible to assist the emergency services and local authorities.
There were127 passengers and 7 crew members on board Flight Number TK 1951 and we are currently confirming the details of the passenger manifest for this flight.“

The plane crash-landed in the fields just outside of Schiphol International Airport, coming to a rest only 150 m’s from the A9 highway. The plane broke into three parts with the aft part totally destroyed, while the front has broken in two around the front part of the wings. Many of the around 50 people who walked away from the plane have left the aircraft in the back where the cabin was wide open after the back of the plane has broken off.

The first reports suggested, the plane attempted to land but was too high and instead the pilots chose to abort landing but by then the plane was too slow to fully take off again, and the back of the fuselage hit the ground just after the the end of the runway. This process has been explained both by a passenger onboard as well as by a witness on the ground. However most of the reports are suggesting that the plane was on final approach to the runway which is also supported by the Aviation Safety Network’s Flight Path image. Some witnesses claim that the Boeing was quietly gliding just before the crash – which could theoretically mean that there was an engine failure, or could also mean that the plane has simply ran out of fuel. This second version is also supported by the fact that the plane has not caught on fire after the crash. (Last year a British Airways Boeing 777 crash-landing short of the London Heathrow runway - where nobody was hurt.)

The plane was a Boeing 737-800 with 165 seats. Turkish Airlines flies 52 of these planes in its fleet, while this type is considered as one of the safest airliners in the skies. This particular plane (registration: TC-JGE, name: Tekirdağ) first flew on January 24, 2002 and was originally delivered to Turkish Airlines.

By Szafi and balint01

Now you can learn it yourselves how difficult this maneuver is. Of course this time it is just virtual, but still it gives you some idea how hard it is. I am sure that for some people this is still traumatic, but as an old commonsense says: humor heals everything.

Game 1

The first game is simpler, but it is funny. Click here to play.

Game 2

The second game has much better graphics and it is really exciting to play. The aim is to avoid bird strikes, and after the second strike you have to land perfectly on the river. Click here to play.

Enjoy the games!

By Szafi

Plane Landing goes back to 2001, when she first came up with the idea of creating a special, large balloon with the shape of a landing passenger airliner and inflate it at places, where we would not expect to see a jet airplane. Then it turned out to be a relatively complicated engineering project at Cameron Balloons of Bristol (the company that gave us Darth Vader, Coke Bottle or Flying Cow shaped ballons just to mention a few) where the actual balloon was designed and manufactured. It became a science project rather than art at this stage with aeronautics, engineering and design playing the major roles.

The balloon became an impressive one:

• Length = 20.8 meters
• Wing span = 15 meters
• Volume = about 100 cubic meters
• 4 different fabrics = white gas fabric (white gas fabric with overlaid silver), black hyper last for the go-faster stripe, black window fabric and red doorframe artwork fabric.
• Approximately = 1 km of thread and heat sealed seams

It was first inflated in Compton Verney, in the UK in 2003 with three successful test inflations and with the first crowd gathering around it in the park. Mir usually prepares a collage or a sketch of the location where she is planning to land the plane – and after approval she lands it. We have no information on where the plane had spent the following five years – maybe at the Mojave desert among the other parked planes or simply flying in the air - but the next documented landing only happened in July 2008 ,when the plane arrived in Switzerland. Contrary to the original idea, it showed up in a place where we would most expect it to be: at Zürich Airport! It was first inflated at dawn at the place where the plane observers watch actual planes touching down, while the second landing took place overnight at the airport tarmac, in front of Gate 44.

Just a little more than 3 months after landing in Zürich, the plane arrived to dowtown Paris in October 21-22-23, 2008 with inflations around the most famous locations such as the Eiffel Tower or the in front of the Louvre. You can see all Paris pictures at aleksandramir.info.

I’m not fully convinced that this project can be categorized as art, but I very much like it as a gig, and hope to hear about its next landing somewhere in the near future!

Aleksandra, if you happen to read this post and plan to land the plane in Budapest, Hungary, please let us know, we would help you with organization and some publicity!

by balint01

Air France becoming AirFrance

Air France SkyTeam becoming AirFrance Skyteam

Boeing 777 showing new AirFrance livery

In case of an airline logo change, one of the most important questions is how it will translate to aircraft liveries? In this case it will be very simple, the fleet will gradually get the new design with the regular paint jobs, and the only two things changing will be the carrier’s logo in the front, and a very minor change to the tail: Turning the old 5 simple lines to only 4, flourish type of lines as seen here below.

Old and new Tail designs for Air France

You can see a video explaining the change at the Air France Corporate website.

by balint01

Photo: Buffalo News

According to the first official news, the plane reported serious technical problems when it approached Buffalo airport. People who live near the crash scene said the sound of the engines was strange and shortly before the crash there was a thunderous explosion. Other witnesses claim the strange engine sounds had stopped for a few seconds, right before the actual crash at 10:20 pm.

After the plane crashed into a building, surrounding houses were also evacuated as they caught fire, too. The flames could be seen from miles away.

Photo: Buffalo News

The house the plane crashed into was completely flattened. Nobody on board survived the crash.

The airplane was a Bombardier Dash-8 (also known as DHC-8 or Q400), flying as Continental Connection Flight CJC 3407, operated by Colgan Air, registration number N200WQ, built in 2008.

Read more on Buffalo News.

By Szafi

Now with the help of this simple guide you can become an expert of airport signs and you can show off with it to the passenger seated next to you.

The pictures are taken from a PDF file I found on AOPA‘s website. This post here presents only the more interesting ones, but if you would like to become a real expert or you are getting prepared for your pilot license exam, you can download it and print it for yourself. Here is the full version.

Before we get started, let’s clarify some basic expressions:

- taxiways: a system of tracks the lead planes from the terminal building to the runway. Once a plane enters the taxiway, it is under the control of the tower and must follow their instructions.

- runway: where planes land and take off. It is dangerous to stay on the runway too long, therefore planes are directed to the taxi ways if they need to wait for their slot.

- holding point: where the plane has to wait before entering the runway.

- ILS: Instrument Landing System – an automated system that helps pilots in landing. Most airports that accept passenger jets are equipped with ILS that becomes extremely important in case of bad weather.

And now the signs:

ILS critical area holding position sign:

Hold at this sign on the taxiway, where the ILS is in use and the weather is less than 800 feet and 2 miles. Aircraft taxiing beyond this point may interfere with the ILS signal to approaching aircraft.

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Runway holding position sign:

Hold here. In this example, the threshold for runway 15 is to your left and the threshold for runway 33 is to your right. This sign is located next to the yellow holding position marking painted on taxiways. The “A” sign is the Taxiway location sign. It indicates the taxiway you are on.

Taxiway direction:

The yellow signs usually seen next to a taxiway location sign, indicate the direction of intersecting taxiways. In this example taxiway Charlie is to the left and right, and Alpha takes a turn to the right ahead.

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Runway approach area holding position sign:

Taxiing past this sign may interfere with operations on the runway. In this case, aircraft arriving to runway 15 or departing from runway 33. It is located next to the yellow Holding position markings painted on the taxiway pavement. The aircraft has to stop on the solid lines side of the marking. The dashed lines show the direction towards the runway. Planes must stopped at this line until cleared.

Have fun with your new knowledge during your next flight!

By Szafi

The world is celebrating a new superstar:  Captain Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot of U.S. Airways flight 1549 that crashed into New York’s Hudson River on January 16, 2009. Thanks to the crew of the flight now passengers were wounded and everybody survived the crash caused most probably by bird strike.

Now another pilot, Susan O’Donnell who was traveling on flight 1549 when the accident happened, is telling us her version of the story. She is not a journalist, so the text contains some jargon, but still it gives you thrills as you read it.

This is the captain. Brace for impact.

This is the sentence you never want to hear on board a passenger jet. How did the passengers react? What happened to them exactly? Read the full story on Sky Talk from one of the survivors, a jumpseat passenger: another pilot.

By Szafi

The Boeing 747-400, registration number: G-CIVP (also known as “The V.P.“) has been given a new paint-job, displaying large “member of oneworld” titles on the front part of its fuselage. The letters of the smaller “member of” text from a distance look like if they were additional windows on the top floor. The large letters in “oneworld” are painted between the two floors of the Jumbo, with the top of the “d” vritually ending smoothly in one of the top floor windows.

British Airways or oneworld is yet to publish any press coverage about the special livery, or whether if other planes would follow, but ”The V.P.” has already been spotted at Heathrow two days ago.

The first pictures are available on airliners.net.

by balint01

S7 Airlines, Russia’s biggest domestic airline is the first airline to have confirmed the cancellation of its full order for 15 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. As widely known, Boeing’s promising new Dreamliner has not flown yet, and is more than 2 years behind the original schedule. The first plane should have been delivered to All Nippon Airways last year, before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but the plane has yet to take to the skies for the first ime. S7 is the first carrier to actually terminate a major deal for Boeing’s next generation widebody airplane.

The May 2007 order placed for 15 787s, due to be delivered in 2014, was worth about USD$2.4 billion at list prices and also included 10 purchase rights. The cancellation is a blow for Boeing, as other customers standing in line for the Dreamliner and simply acknowledging each news about further delays (the manufacturer has delayed the 787 program five (!) times already) may get powered up and decide to also cancel their orders. The current financial crisis is hitting practically all airlines around the world really bad, thus cost-cutting is vital for them. And Boeing running so much behind its schedule and not fulfilling its contractual duties, is in a bad position to protect and save these deals, while airlines may see 787 Dreamliner order cancellations as an effective way of saving some money in these hard times.

The order is gone, but we may still see the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in S7 livery

The airline (formerly known as Siberia Airlines), did not offer a reason for the cancellation but said in a statement that it “retains interest in using the Dreamliner and at the moment is looking into receiving the planes under a leasing scheme at an earlier date, for which it is in negotiations with several leasing companies.“

Boeing’s 787 backlog now stands at 895 from 58 customers. Overall, it has taken 914 gross orders for the Dreamliner. In addition to the S7 cancellation, Xiamen Airlines in 2006 replaced an order for three 787s with an order for seven 737-800s and Azerbaijan Airlines replaced one 787 with one 767-300ER last summer.

Boeing has originally planned to deliver around 100 787s in 2009…

by balint01

airliners.net - 29/01/2009

The Airliners team created a very nice site with aquote from Leonardo da Vinci saying:

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

Probably this is the most accurate way to describe what we flyaholics feel about aviation.

Guys, please follow his footsteps and continue the great work you are doing there at Airliners.net!

Paulo Emanuele was 47 years old.

By Szafi and balint01

Lufthansa has been shopping around Europe as we reported earlier, but has missed out on purchasing a stake in the re-launched Alitalia a few weeks ago, who in the end chose to cooperate with their long-time SkyTeam partner, Air France-KLM. Lufthansa (and Star Alliance) had a very good relationship to the second biggest Italian carrier, Air One, but Air One is included in the newly formed Alitalia, thus probably that relationship will sooner or later end. But the German flag-carrier is not sitting around waiting for that, instead, they have chosen a different way to strengthen their position in the Italian market: setting up their own subsidiary outside the safe German home-market.

The new Lufthansa Italia took to the skies on January 28, 2009 with a panoramic flight over the Alps which was followed by the christening ceremony of its first two Airbus A319s, named “Milano” and “Varese” respectively. Until now all Lufthansa planes have been named after German cities, therefore these new names are symbolically emphasizing their aggressive expansion strategy and real focus on the Italian market.

The A319s were painted in Lufthansa Italia livery and refurbished with 138 seats across two classes. The cabin interior will be designed Italian-style, in-flight service will be in the hands of Italian fights attendants and Italian delicacies will round off the in-flight cuisine. Scheduled service will start February 2, 2009, with the first two destinations: thrice daily flights to both Barcelona and Paris (Charles de Gaulle).  After the arrival of the next two aircraft, starting March 2, 2009 twice daily flights to Brussels, Budapest and Madrid plus a daily service to Bucharest will be added to the timetable four weeks later. London (Heathrow) (four-times-daily ! ) and Lisbon (daily) will be brought into the network from the start of the 2009 summer flight schedules at the end of March when another two Airbus A319s join the fleet. Five aircraft are ex-Germanwings and one will come from the Lufthansa mainline. The new services will provide Lufthansa customers with fast, non-stop connections to European metropolises.

In the summer, the new airline will operate some 260 weekly flights out of MXP in addition to the 140 operated by Lufthansa. This will mean that Lufthansa and Lufthansa Italia will operate a total of weekly 400 flights from Milan-Malpensa!

Once LH Italia receives its own Air Operators Certificate (AOC), it will employ some 300 people. Lufthansa Italia is seeking an Italian AOC in large part to secure traffic rights to non-EU destinations like Eastern Europe or countries that do not have open skies agreements with the EU.

by balint01

Torsten Koerting was a project manager at Virgin Blue at the airline’s Brisbane Headquarter office, but he resigned last November, sending a farewell email to his colleauges. Until this point, this is a very typical story of one leaving a company, but he included a funny board game in his last email, criticizing the company’s decision making process, with 50 steps to make a decision (which is the ultimate goal of the game).

Based on the classic Snakes and Ladders format, his version contains ladders and ropes taking you forward (ladder) or back (rope) if you end up on the bottom of the ladder or the top of the rope. If you end up on a square that has a Virgin Blue airplane, you have to take an Action card, and this is where the inside joke really comes into play. All action cards are referring to actual Project Experiences that he gathered while working for Virgin Blue, but let’s face it, the Australian Low-cost airline is not the only one in the industry facing such difficulties around decision making. I’m sure if we would replace “EMT” with whatever the Project Approval Board at your airline (or company) is called, the game would be very well targeted for your colleagues as well. You may have to recolor the board and replace the plane images as well as the faces on the figures, but it would probably be playable at your upcoming Team Building weekend or in a longer Friday lunch-break in the cantine. “CEO on holiday – no decision – go 1 step back” is something that we probably have all been faced with at one point in our carriers. But I have a feeling that the “Parlez-vous Français? – if yes go 3 steps forward, if not go 3 steps back” action card may be refering to working with one of the strongest Aviation and Tourism IT company based in Nice, France.

We are planning to have a game session with this board game sometime in the future, and will add a comment about our experiences.

Download the full resolution pdf file.

by balint01

After a few years break the huge plane is back in business again, but this time it stays at the entrance of Arlanda Airport, where it operates as a hotel.  It is useful for both the airport and the passengers and besides that it just looks great!

Watch a video about the Boeing-747 hotel:

you can read more about the hostel at jumbohostel.com.

By Szafi

Singapore was the first one to bring the A380 to London Heathrow nearly 10 months ago, and now is the first one to operate this aircraft type to Paris. They have passed the 2000th flight with an A380 with more than 20,000 flying hours, and are currently the largest operator of the type, already having 6 aircraft in service, each equipped with 471 seats in three cabins. First class features the famous and revolutionary Singapore Airlines Suites, a new and luxurious class of travel with each Suite enclosed by sliding doors for privacy, and a full-sized flat bed that is separate from the seat. Paris will be the carrier’s fourth A380 destination after London Heathrow (twice-daily), Sydney and Tokyo Narita (each daily) and will follow the delivery of the seventh and eighth aircraft. It has a further 13 Airbus superjumbos on order.

Sector	Flight Number	Daily Departure Time	Daily Arrival Time
Singapore-Paris (From June 1, 2009)	SQ334	2340hrs	0655hrs + 1
Paris-Singapore (From June 2, 2009)	SQ333	1225hrs	0655hrs + 1

Separately, Singapore Airlines is very close to reaching another exciting milestone less than one and a half years after the inaugural flight, as they are expecting to fly the one millionth A380 customer in February 2009, less than only four months after the first anniversary of launching A380 commercial services.  The Airline is expecting to welcome its first millionth customer onboard the A380 in the month of February, and is planning to surprise the lucky customer and other customers on the flight with a series of goodies. The lucky millionth customer will be greeted with the news upon check-in and a special package.  Beyond the enhanced inflight experience, the winner will get to enjoy a host of prizes at the destination, including a three-night stay at a luxury hotel and a chauffeur-driven limousine ride to the hotel, experiences at top-class restaurants as well as a series of other goodies to take away. To commemorate this special occasion, customers in all three classes on the millionth customer flight will also be presented with champagne onboard and special Singapore Airlines giveaways.

by balint01

First reports claim, that the plane (registration: N106US, first flight in 1999) took off at 15:26 local time, and soon afterwards passengers heard some sort of an explosion and the plane started shaking. The FAA has disclosed that less than one minute after take-off, the pilot reported “a double bird strike” after colliding with a flock of birds. Soon after the explosion the plane started to turn around and asked for clearance for an emergency landing at La Guardia, just east of Manhattan in Queens which it was granted. Later the pilot chose to try to land at Teterboro which was closer, but couldn’t make it there, either – which resulted in the first controlled emergency landing on water of a US commercial aircraft in more than 50 years at 15:30 local time (less than 6 minutes after takeoff). He informed the passengers ”to get ready for the impact” and landed in the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan, just across New Jersey. Passengers claim it simply felt like a car-accident. Witnesses reported that the plane landed very softly on the river, slowly touching down on the surface at around 48th street, without making a bounce (more about the dangers of such bounces in our earlier article: How to survive an Air Crash?)

Air temperature at the time was -6 Celsius, with the water being +6 C. Television images taken shortly after the accident showed that the aircraft appeared intact and just partially submerged, with local ferry boats quickly rushing to the scene and taking all passengers and crew onboard from the deployed slides/rafts, saving them from being chilled as the aircraft subsequently began to sink. Many were photographed standing on the wings. Passengers have reported that there was indeed some panic onboard after the landing, but the crew was professional in getting them all out of the aircraft through the doors, with women and children first. The 57 year old ex Air Force pilot, Captain Chesley Sullenberger was the last to leave the plane sweaping the center aisle twice to make sure nobody was left behind! He has been flying with US Airways since 1980 and just one day after the accident it regarded as a Hero (similar to the pilot of British Airways flight 038 last year).

There were widespread but unconfirmed reports of various injuries, including cuts, broken bones and hypothermia, but nothing life threatening. Victims were treated at local hospitals.

“Our preliminary report is that everyone is off the plane and accounted for,” US Airways Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said, adding that it was “premature to speculate about the cause.” Such planes as the Airbus A320 can easily survive the strike of one bird in one of the engines, but hitting 4-5 birds at the same time can cause such an accident as this one.

Landing such an Airbus A320 airliner on water with such precision has never happened before and is claimed as a miracle by many. This type of aircraft typically lands at a speed of around 250 km/hour and hitting the water surface with such speed may make a lot of damage to the fuselage and could practically tear off the engines and the wings or even break the cabin apart – which would result in quick sinking. But luckily this hasn’t happened and the plane landed safely.

This was the second take-off accident in the US within a month that all passengers survived, as on December 20, 2008, a Continental Airlines Boeing slid off the runway in Denver. About a month and a half  ago on November 28, 2008, an Airbus A320 crashed in water on a test-flight, killing 7 people onboard.

by balint01

Naturally we were interested in the airline industry awards. Some winners were surprising, but I think if someone knows these airlines will be able to guess even without seeing the results. I am not sure whether this poll shows the real picture or it is built on preconceptions and good marketing, but I truely miss some smaller and thus more creative airlines.

Besides that I linked in the websites of the awarded airlines and I really wonder why all these big companies still use their 1999-style webdesign and why they don’t feel the need to improve them. I think one of our next posts will be an early 2009 overview of the biggest airlines with the most austere websites.

Anyway, let’s see the winners:

- Best Overall Airline in the World:  Emirates
- Best Airport in the World:  Changi Airport (Singapore)
- Best First-Class Service in the World: Jet Airways
- Best Business- Class Service in the World:  Qantas
- Best Premium Economy Class in the World: Virgin Atlantic
- Best Economy-Class Service in the World:  Singapore Airlines
- Best Airline for International Travel:  Cathay Pacific
- Best Airline for North American Travel:  Continental Airlines
- Best Flight Attendants in North America: Continental Airlines
- Best Airline in Mexico: Aeromexico
- Best Airline in Western Europe: British Airways
- Best Airline in Central and Eastern Europe:  Czech Airlines
- Best Airline in the Middle East:  Qatar Airways
- Best Airline in Asia: Korean Air
- Best Business Class to Asia/Trans-Pacific:  Korean Air
- Best Airline Advertising Campaign:  Korean Air
- Best Flight Attendants in the World:  Asiana
- Best In-Flight Services in the World: Asiana
- Best Overall Airline Customer Service: Asiana
- Best Airline for First-Class Service in North America:  American Airlines
- Best North American Airline for International Travel: Air Canada
- Best Airline for Business-Class Service in North America:  Air Canada
- Best In-Flight Services in North America:  Air Canada
- Best Airline for Business-Class Service to South America:  LAN
- Best Airline for Business Class to Europe/trans-Atlantic:  Air France
- Best Business Class to Australia/New Zealand/South Pacific:  Air New Zealand
- Best Business Class to the Middle East:  Etihad Airways
- Best Business Class to Africa:  South African Airways
- Best All-Business-Class Service: All Nippon Airways
- Best Airline Cuisine/Meals: bmi
- Best Airline Alliance Program: Star Alliance
- Best Low-Cost Airline in North America: Virgin America
- Best Airport Clubs/Lounges: Delta Air Lines
- Best Frequent-Flyer Program: Delta Air Lines
- Best Airline Web Site: Delta Air Lines
- Best Airport in North America: Denver International Airport

By Szafi