I have flown 842 times. In that time, one child has kept me irritated for an entire flight. As he bounced up and down the seats with his oblivious mother staring at her video screen, an exasperated fellow passenger asked if she had brought anything for her child to do. She looked up and shrugged her shoulders, saying “No” and went back to watching her screen. A few babies have disturbed my takeoffs and landings but not enough for me to want children removed from my aeroplane. Most I have met on board have been well behaved or in awe…
Trip Report: Skywest (Australia) EPR-PER
My report today is about my roundtrip flights from the West Australian city of Perth (pop: 1.7 million) to Esperance (pop 9536), a regional town in Western Australia and return on Skywest Airlines Pty Ltd. This Singapore based carrier flies regional and commuter services across the mining and agricultural state of Western Australia. Flights are operated under their own colours and some will soon be flown with Virgin Australia colours. NB This is not the same Skywest who fly regional services in the USA on behalf of United, US and Delta. Since 2004, Skywest in Australia have expanded their fleet…
This Week: 9 to 15 April
Remarkably in the week coming: a week at home with no travel! Last week, I flew my 840th flight (Esperance to Perth in Australia – see this Tuesday’s Trip Report). this took my total time inside planes to 112 days (16 weeks). I have also reached a milestone of five times the distance to the moon! I am closing in on two million kilometres of flying! What are you up to this week?
Air Zimbabwe Going going gone?
In 1996, I spent a glorious ten days in Zimbabwe. Many say that was the last good year for the country. Since then sanctions, corruption, seizure of farms, mines and businesses have made Zimbabwe a no go zone for tourism and business. These same conditions have reduced Air Zimbabwe passenger numbers from 1 million in 1999 to 23,000 in 2005 due to suspension of many of its flights and suspension from the international financial and booking system by IATA over unpaid fees. The airline kept flying from 2005 to 2011 and even launched a new service from Harare to Kuala Lumpur. Last year, however, was a…
JAL airline #2 for the 787
Japan Airlines (JAL) received its first two 787s last month out of its total order of 45 Dreamliners. They plan to use the planes to increase international services by 25 percent by 2017. On Sunday 22nd April, JAL flew the first scheduled 787 Dreamliner passenger service into the USA, with its new Tokyo to Boston service, the first time ever these two cities have been linked by direct AIR service. JAL will fly the 14 hour hop four times a week: From Boston: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This shows the potential of then plane combining its capacity…
Trip Report: Train to Toodyay
Everytime I said I was taking the train to Toodyay (Too-Jay) a rural town outside of Perth, Australia, people looked at me incredulously! “There is no train to Toodyay” was the usual comment. People offerred to drive me there and told me to call them if I “got stuck” There have been trains to Toodyay since 1995 using the currrent Diesel Multiple Unit train since 2005. See AvonLink_Map. The train runs once a day in each direction plus there is an extra service on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday in each direction. There is no weekend service using Avonlink…
This Week
I am spending most of the week in Western Australia, the largest of Australia’s states with three days in Perth and two days in Esperance, a small rural community Perth is the most remote city of a population of one million or more in the world. Its nearest large city is Adelaide, Australia 2,139 kilometres (1285 miles) away. I will then heading 2700km (1500 miles) east to Sydney. Flights will be with Skywest and Virgin Australia (expect blog posts soon). This week I plan to blog about a recent train trip and whats the latest with Air…
Running in Perth
One of the ways I get to know a city, when I am travelling is to run through it. It needs little equipment and no fixed time periods and it is something you can almost do in any weather. I have just completed today, a stunning 6 mile (10 kilometre) run around Perth, the capital of Western Australia. Known as the Bridges run, it starts at Langley Park (thats where I am standing in this photo) The course headed west along the river on the city side, past the Perth Ferry Terminal with its iconic…
Check in on Qantas New Strategy
I am not a complete fan of Qantas survival strategy outlined by CEO Joyce in 2011. The strategy involved the following key elements: Paring back Qantas International to key points such as Hong Kong, Bangkok, Los Angeles, Santiago and Dallas, handing passengers over to One World partners at those points Creating a Premium airline in Asia in conjunction with an Asian partner called RedQ, RedQ Executive Flyer, OneAsia or RedSky, all names Qantas trademarked in Jun-2011 This carrer would operate an initial fleet of eight A320s, growing to 11 in the medium-term, focused on service to key medium-haul Asian destinations like China and India…
Wacky Wednesday? Air Pacific Nationalises
Today’s wacky Wednesday post is a little different. Is what Fiji doing with their carrier Wacky? The Fijian government led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power in a coup d’état in December 2006. Fiji has been running against the world and pushing back against Australia since then. Australia and Fji expelled each other’s diplomats in 2009 and Fiji has been increasingly making it difficult for foreign owned [often Australian controlled] businesses to operate. Now the “war” has moved to the air. Air Pacific, the flag carrier, was Fiji Air. It was founded in 1951 by Gatty, an Australian aviator. 70 per cent of all travellers to the island nation use Air Pacific, although competition by the two…
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