Singapore Airlines subsidiary Scoot two weeks ago announced that their 787-9 will have a whopping 375 passengers aboard. This number of seats is a far cry from Boeing’s promise of roomy flights with passengers sitting 2-4-2. Budget airline Jetstar has gone with 335 seats on their 787-8s and Norwegian has 291 seats on theirs. The budget carrier will receive the first of their twenty 787s in November. The plane will replace their six Boeing 777-200s which were originally flown by Singapore Airlines. The plane will initially fly from Singapore to Australia, Japan and Taiwan. The airline has orders for ten 787-8s and ten 787-9s. Eight…
Low Cost Carrier
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My “Scoot” to Singapore!
Singapore airline launched Scoot in 2011 as a low cost carrier. I think their intention is to position Scoot between ultra low cost Tiger and regional subsidiary Silk Air. Late last year, Scoot announced an arrangement with Thailand’s Nok air to extend the brand from Thailand so I think Scoot is here to stay for a while. Scoot has gone with a vibrant youth focused vibe. It feels somewhat more “hip” than its parent. For example, they refer to “cuddly” passengers who they encourage to buy two seats. Booking: 10 out of 10 Their booking engine (www.flyscoot.com), available in Cantonese, English,…
Airlines that vanished in 2013
Twenty carriers disappeared in 2013 compared to twenty-six 2012 . Six of them were based in Eastern Europe/former USSR countries. Most of the carriers were small regional airlines with tiny fleets. Kingfisher of India was only one carrier that could have been considered major, although it has been some time since they were India’s largest airline. Nearly all of the airlinest that vanished are young but a few Evergreen, JAT, OLT Express and Ryan International are old names in the airline game. I thought Air Zimbabwe would finally vanish but they managed to get enough…
Rating US airlines
As a regular flier, I like to rate who I fly with. I am not alone. Over 16,000 readers of Consumer Reports magazine reviewed 31,732 US domestic flights in February, 2013 for the Consumer Reports National Research Center. The carriers were rated by the readers on six dimensions: 1. Ease of check-in 2. Friendliness and responsiveness of cabin crew 3. Cabin cleanliness 4. Baggage handling 5. Seating comfort 6. In-flight entertainment The results were not a huge surprise as to where the eleven US carriers ranked. The ranking was very close to my own assessments…
Poorly Maintained Red Wings Wingless
Red Wings was founded in 1999 as VARZ-400. It aimed to be a discount airline. It became Airlines 400 in 2001 and then adopted their current name Red Wings in 2007. The airline owned ten Tupolev TI 204-100B, passenger jets capable of flying 210 passengers. On December 29, 2012, one of their planes crashed in Moscow overshooting the runway and ending up on a highway. killing five crew. Faulty brakes were found to be the cause. This was the second overshoot for the carrier. The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsiya held a series of unscheduled operational and maintenance inspections of Red…
Aer Lingus: Budapest to Dublin (updated)
Background Aer Lingus is the flag carrier and second biggest airline in Ireland. Operating since 1936, its name an Anglicisation of the Gaelic Aer Loingeas means “air fleet” . A lot has changed for Aer Lingus in the last six years not the least being the Irish economic situation. The government reduced its 85 per cent stake to 25 percent through a listing on the Stock Exchange in 2006. Ryanair, arch rival and biggest Irish airline has now picked up close to 30 percent and attempted three takeover bids in five years.Abu Dhabi-based and owned Etihad…
Time ran out for 1time
In September, commenting on South Africa’s only truly independent airline going into bankruptcy protection to reorganise, I asked the question “will 1time run out of time and become another lost carrier in 2012?” On November 2nd, CEO Blacky Komani announced that the “1Time board, together with business rescue practitioners, decided to suspend services with effect this afternoon“. Planes in the air at the time flew back to the Johannesburg base. All other scheduled flights remained grounded. South African banks promised their Credit Card customers full refunds for any tickets bought using their cards. The National Consumer Commission began investigating claims that 1time…
Sterling -Final demise
On the morning of Thursday May 3rd, 2012, Denmark’s regional airline Cimber Sterling filed for bankruptcy after its owners pulled financial support from the company. The carrier had 19 international and six domestic destinations. Four of its six domestic routes were monopoly routes. Sun-Air of Scandinavia, Danish Air Transport (DAT), Norwegian and Skyways have all taken over routes very quickly. I have never flown them but I was interested for two reasons. The first is how many airlines have gone this year. We are up to ten with some big names (Malev, Air Zimbabwe, and Spanair). Three went in January, four…
Air Australia–Where does a new Carrier fit?
Since the start of aviation , Australia’s domestic airline market has been largely composed of two major national airlines. From time to time the cozy duopoloy is challenged by a new entrant with a blaze of low fares.The latest such carrier is Air Australia. 2011 Background Twelve months is a long time in aviation. Qantas the dominant domestic carrier suffered a series of rolling disputes in 2011 culminating in the dramatic three day grounding of the carrier’s services. Tiger Airlines Australia was also grounded be the safety authorities in mid 2011 for safety breaches. Virgin Blue the nation’s largest discount carrier has made a move to full service airline. Brisbane-based Strategic Airlines Operating…
Website: “I Hate Ryanair” to close!
One passenger (Robert Tyler) who disliked Ryanair immensely set up ihateryanair.co.uk in February 2007. The site has acted as a place for passengers to share horror stories. In January 2010, Mr Tyler began accepting ads on the site which earnt him 365 pounds. Ryanair then took Mr Tyler to a domain name tribunal complaining “that the site took unfair advantage of the Ryanair name for commercial gain.” The adjudicator agreed saying: “It cannot be fair to take advantage of the reputation attached to another party’s trade mark in this manner, whether it be good or bad.” and has demanded that the…
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