Air New Zealand took its stake in Virgin Blue(owners of V Australia and Virgin Australia) to 19.9% as a result of a fairly low share prices.The last time they took an interest in an Australian airline (Ansett), it almost bankrupted Air New Zealand and the Australia’s longest running domestic carrier Ansett ceased to exist. Ten years later, Air New Zealand are hopefully wiser and Virgin are a better business than Ansett Australia were. Former chief executive Rod Eddington “described Ansett publicly and internally as a great airline, but a poor business”. It makes huge sense for Air NZ to have a strong…
Yearly Archives
Yearly Archives for 2011.
San Francisco in 24 hours
I started the day with a run along the waterfront near the Embaracdero with the city on one side and the Bay on the other: -outstanding! I ran 5miles (8 kilometres). This got me ready for breakfast at the Ferry Plaza Farmers market. Held three times a week, it has an amazing range of local, fresh and often organic fruit and vegetables. I bought the most delicious peach I have had for years, As the juice rolled down my fingers, I marvelled at the difference to the supermarket ones I buy from time to time. No comparison.…
Perfection 777th flight on an NZ B777
After 43 years of flying I flew on my 777th flight. In a previous Blog post, I was trying to decide whether to fly my 777th on an Air New Zealand or V Australia 777. I appreciated the advice from friends to try Air NZ’s new 777-300 and was glad I did. I have recently blogged about V’s superb business class product on the 777-300. This Air NZ flight gave me lots of opportunity for comparison. For those who haven’t been following: I flew #737 on a Southwest B737, #747 on a Qantas B747, #757 with United and #767…
Wild about Travel hits record audience numbers
The number of readers to this blog has been rapidly climbing which I am thrilled about. June, July and August were my three biggest months. September is shaping up to beat them. To do that I need 33 more readers every day. Love you to do one of four things please: Keep reading each of my blog posts Comment on them Tell me whats missing-what do you like reading about in my posts? Recommend to others please Thank you for joining me in my travel adventures.
Lufthansa names an A380 “Zurich”.
On Tuesday13th September, Lufthansa named A380 D-AIMF “Zurich“, after the Swiss city which is hub for the Lufthansa owned SWISS airline. This particular A380 was the sixth in the Lufthansa fleet and has been flying for them since April this year. While the plane is named Zurich, there is no suggestion of it moving from its Frankfurt base to the Swiss city. Passengers will have to fly from Zurich to Frankfurt to connect with Lufthansa to its A380 destinations (Beijing, Miami, New York, Only a couple of weeks for my Lufthansa A380 flight, which will be my fourth A380 carrier (already flown Emirates, Qantas and Singapore)
See 787 handed over to ANA – LIVE
Apparently we will be able to watch the handover of the 787 from Boeing to ANA (at last) at 0900h US Pacific time Monday 26th- midday US Eastern time, 2am Sydney on the 27th and oddly 1am Tokyo on the 27th. I would have thought an afternoon time in Seattle would have been better. It would allowed people to watch it live at a civilised hour in the Airline’s home country. e.g. 8am Tokyo time which equals 4pm Seattle time. Wonder why this timing?
New Names for Qantas Asia
Picture from The Age is a digitally altered plane. The fairfax Press (Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers) are suggesting RedQ or RedQ Executive Express is emerging as the most likely name for Qantas Asia ahead of RedSky and OneAsia. The new 49% venture will be 49% owned by Qantas and is one part of Qantas restructuring. Alan Joyce CEO of Qantas said that the move would create a “newer and stronger Qantas,” by tapping into the major growth that is occurring in Asia. I hate the sound of RedQ. It doesn’t sound enticing. It definitely…
Way out Wadi Ramm (Wadi Rum)
Wadi Ramm or Wadi Rum as it is more commonly known, is a long valley cut into sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan about km from Amman (see my post about that amazing city). It is one of the longest inhabited places on the planet with people living there since prehistory (at least 4500BC). The Nabateans who built Petra (see my Report on that amazing place) lived in Wadi Ramm.T. E. Lawrence known as Lawrence of Arabia based his operations here during the period of the Arab Revolt from the Turkish Empire at the…
Exciting News Coming
I can hardly contain myself as I have a secret!I have some very exciting news regarding this blog: “Wild about travel” Watch this space for more! In the meantime, thank you for your readership and comments (more comments please!)
Korean A380 for Seoul-LAX
Korean Air now has four Airbus A380s as of last Thursday. The newest A380 will undergo the usual tests and will start flying from Seoul/Incheon to Paris ( Mon, Wed, Fri) from 26 September until 29 October and to Los Angeles (every Tue, Thu, Sat) from 10 October 2011. I plan to fly the Seoul-Lax route in November. Anyone want to join me?
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