If you can bear a 19 hour non stop flight, then the Qantas announcement of a non stop flight between Perth, Australia and London, England from 2017 might excite you. Using a Boeing 787-9 two pairs of pilots and a spare cabin crew would allow the aeroplane to make the 14,000 kilometre (9009 mile) journey in 19 hours. At the moment, Perth-London can be reached with one stop via Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, Malaysian, Qatar and Singapore. The new service to London would have an early evening departure from Perth, reaching London, the next day by noon. Even…
Aeroplane News (Saturday)
Category Archives for Aeroplane News (Saturday).
Finnair’s A350 First Commercial Flight
This week’s airline porn is Finnair‘s first every A350 visit to Amsterdam Schiphol: Oneworld airline Finnair have ordered 19 of the A350 to fly their long haul routes along with A330s. They will replace their current A340 fleet. Qatar was the A350 launch customer has ordered a whopping 80 of the type. A further 31 other airlines ordered the type. Airbus has sold 598 of the type. Finnair’s A350 has 297 seats in three classes: Business-class: 46 flat bed seats in a 1-2-1 configuration with a 78 to 81″ pitch and 21″ width. Every passenger will have direct aisle…
Longest Flight in the World
Move over Sydney to Dallas! You have been outdone! If you want to spend 17 hours and 35 minutes in a 777-200LR, Emirates will take you from Dubai to Panama, a distance of 13,821 km (8,588 mi ) from 1st February, 2016. The Panama (PTY) to Dubai (DXB) return trip will be a mere 15 hours 45 minutes. The aforementioned Qantas‘ Dallas service is a touch under 17 hours. The third longest flight in the world is Johannesburg to Atlanta at 16 hours and 40 minutes. My choice would be in Emirates Business Class for this distance! The…
Vietnam’s 787 in service
Those watching June’s Paris Air Show saw Vietnam Airlines magnificent 787-9 debut. Now the aircraft is in service after being delivered to the airline on July 6. Vietnam Airlines has will be using the 787-9 operation on their Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) to London Heathrow and Hanoi – London Heathrow routes. Originally the airline ordered 787-8s but switched the order to the larger model back in 2010. The Vietnam Airlines B787-9 Business Class has 28 seats, the airline has configured its business class cabin with a 1-2-1 layout featuring the Zodiac Cirrus seat. Each seat has…
Cathay Pacific emergency landing video- new trend?
Will it become a new trend for passengers to film or photograph their planes and themselves in emergency situations? What does it say of our voyeuristic tendencies if we watch these events especially if they occur in real time? Last week on July 29, a Cathay Pacific flight 884, a five year old Boeing 777-300ER (registration B-KPQ, travelling from Hong Kong to Los Angeles International Airport with 276 passengers and 18 crew diverted to U.S. Eareckson Air Station in Shemya, in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Before the emergency landing, passengers had been told to prepare for a ditching…
MH370- Reunion gives news but not answers
The news that part of an aeroplane has washed up on the shore of the Island of Réunion last Wednesday gives little comfort to families and friends of those who were on Malaysia Airlines 370 that disappeared on March 8, 2014. Confirmation by Malaysia on Friday, that the part is a flaperon and is indeed from a Boeing 777 tells us that it is likely that the plane did indeed end up in the sea. It does not tell us how, where or why. (See wsj: What is a flaperon?) Additional information emerged that a suitcase was…
300 Boeing 787s delivered
On July 27, Boeing announced they had delivered their 300th Boeing 787. This means the company has delivered 100 in the last nine months. Boeing has orders of 1095 for the plane’s three versions. In the four years since the plane began commercial flight, there have been 294,000 commercial flights using the 787. Almost 55 million passengers have flown 659 million miles for a total of 1.5 million revenue flight hours. 31 airlines are currently using the plane with Vietnam due to be 32nd in the next week. All Nippon Airways Aeroméxico Air Canada Air India Air New…
For Sale: Malaysia’s Six Airbus 380s
Having owned them for less than three years, Malaysia Airline’s is offering all six of its Airbus A380s for sale or lease. The Malaysia Airlines A380 has 494 seats with eight First class “suites”, 66 lie-flat business class seats and 420 economy seats. They are used to fly between Kuala Lumpur and London twice daily and Paris daily. I have not yet flown Malaysia’s version and it looks like my time to do it is limited. Also up for sale are four Boeing 777-200s. After years of losing money, the two incidents last year worsened that situation. Malaysia…
Modern Cockpit doors & Germanwings
After 11 September, 2001, airlines and authorities needed to ensure that no unauthorised persons could get into the cockpit. This resulted in the creation the cockpit doors we have on aircraft today. No more did we see the cockpit door left open on flights or people wandering in and out or passengers visiting. The doors themselves are virtually impenetrable. These may not have been topical until this week when the copilot of Germanwings 9525, Andreas Lubitz reportedly locked Captain Patrick Sondenheime out of the cockpit before deliberately flying the Airbus 320 into a French mountain. This video (which…
American has their first 787
American Airlines received their first Boeing 787 at Dallas Fort Worth Airport on Friday evening. They join United as the two US carriers with this aeroplane type. American has ordered 42 of both versions of the 787. They plan to have the 787 in service in two months time. I have still to get on a 787, although I have many A380 flights under my belt.
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