Airline News (Friday)

Category Archives for Airline News (Friday).

Ryanair backtracks on US again

March 20, 2015 by Martin J Cowling Leave A Comment

The idea that Ryanair, the Irish budget carrier (and one of my most disliked airlines) would fly to the USA seems to have been raised noisily every other year since 2007. The proposal is always that there will be ultra low cost economy (coach) fares starting at $US15 and a business class service. The transatlantic services would operate under different branding to the main carrier. This same transatlantic idea is then quietly retired each and very time. It almost seems like a free publicity strategy by the carrier to increase its current passneger load (currently 90million per year). On…

Time to reconsider Garuda?

January 23, 2015 by Martin J Cowling 2 Comments

I have been avoiding flying Garuda Indonesia for two decades now! The financially troubled carrier had an appalling safety record, an ageing fleet, European bans, a patchy service culture and massive competition. To turn this around would seem impossible. Yet last month Skytrax announced that the Indonesian airline has been nominated one of the world’s five star airlines. This is an honour reserved for seven other carriers: Asiana Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific, Hainan Airlines Malaysia Airlines (currently under review) Qatar Airways Singapore Airlines. This news surprised me. I have been aware of the changes at Garuda but…

The airlines that failed in 2014

January 9, 2015 by Martin J Cowling 2 Comments

Overall, fewer carriers seemed to fail in 2014. For many airlines, it was a much more profitable year. Of concern was how many of the carriers that collapsed were only flying for months. I am tempted to call 2014 “the Year of the shortlived airline”. Air One Italy: 23 November, 1995 to 30 October, 2014 Fleet: 10 Alitalia’s low cost subsidiary never quite made sense. Following the takeover of Alitalia by Etihad, Air One was shut down. AirTran USA: 26 October, 1993 to 28 December, 2014 Fleet: 138 Destinations: 72 (at peak) On 28…

My Top Five Airlines of 2014

January 2, 2015 by Martin J Cowling 3 Comments

I feel this post is almost a repeat of the last two years! Not much has changed for me at the top of the airline pecking order! I did fly fewer times and far fewer kilometres than other years. I did a lot more surface travel through Asia and can certainly give you the best and worst bus companies and rail operators! I rate each flight I take for every factor from Booking to Check-in to deplaning. and keep a tally of my rating using Flightmemory.com. The scores averaged out give me the ranking…

Ryanair US site – tips for flying

December 26, 2014 by Martin J Cowling 1 Comment

I have flown 90 airlines to all continents of the world (except for Antarctica) and one airline continues to dismay me: Ryanair. People keep flying Ryanair for one reason: cheap fares. I avoid them because of their seats, customer disdain, staff attitude, ethical concerns and their flying to random secondary airports nowhere near the city I am flying to. My experience of Ryanair is that they are like a bus. If you like bus travel, its fine. If something goes wrong, then you are on your own. The airline has made a concerted effort to improve…

Finnair Uses Frying Fat to fly

December 19, 2014 by Martin J Cowling Leave A Comment

Finnair are experimenting with using biofuel, made of grease and fat recycled from restaurant kitchens to power their planes. They have been using it since 2011. Emitting less greenhouse gas than regular aviation fuel, it does not compete with food production or negatively impact biodiversity. The only drawback is that it costs twice what teh airline pays for aviation fuel. Finnair believes with increased demand and the development of supply chains will see the cost fall. (and no it is odourless, you wont smell French fries or hamburgers in the exhaust fumes).

Ryanair keeps O’Leary to 2019

October 30, 2014 by Martin J Cowling 2 Comments

My least favourite airline Ryanair last week signed a contract extension for its CEO Michael O’Leary that will keep him until September 2019. Ryanair plans to grow by 50percent over the period increasing passenger numbers from last year ‘s 81 million to 120 million people a year by the end of 2019. After signing the contract O’Leary predicted that SAS, Alitalia and Air Berlin would reduce short haul operations or go bust. Other competitors that O’Leary predicts will be “cutback and consolidated” include Olympic Airlines of Greece; TAP- Transportes Aereos Portugueses; Spain’s Iberia which is…

NZ’s Vincent Aviation Vanishes

October 24, 2014 by Martin J Cowling Leave A Comment

Following the collapse of its Australian operations in May, the Vincent Aviation New Zealand went into receivership this week. The Wellington-based company was established in 1990 and had about 30 workers . The company carried out flight operations, administration, engineering, planning and compliance, as well as charter flights. They had run scheduled flights, in the past, on behalf of Air New Zealand. Owner Peter Vincent blamed the collapse on Vincent Aviation Australia which had was $US7.7 million. Two weeks ago, NZ helicopter company Helipro, also failed suggesting things are not easy in the world of NZ aviation. Related Posts Vincent Aviation Australia…

Airlines add 380s to Dallas

October 11, 2014 by Martin J Cowling 1 Comment

In the last two weeks, Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), the USA’s fourth busiest airport, has had new very long distance Airbus 380 routes added. Qantas upgraded their non stop Sydney -DFW service to an A380 from a 747 on September 29th. This upgrade means that the longest scheduled commercial flight in the world is now served by the largest passenger jet in the world! The flight is approximately 12, 200 km (8,600 miles). It takes 15 hours 35 mins from Sydney to DFW and 16hr 55mins from DFW due to the headwinds! Thats a few movies on a flight advertised as…

Etihad launches Etihad Airways Partners

October 10, 2014 by Martin J Cowling Leave A Comment

Middle Eastern carrier, Etihad has created a brand for six of the airlines it has shares in airberlin Air Serbia Air Seychelles Etihad Airways Ethihad Regional (Darwin Airlines) Jet Airways Alitalia and Virgin Australia do not appear to be included at this stage. The alliance is open to any other airline that wishes to join – not just airlines that Etihad has a stake in. The benefit of the alliance is akin to the other three alliances: One World, Skyteam and Star Alliance, namely integrated networks, timetables and frequent flyer programs. he frequent flyer program, reportedly, will be designed to provide a…

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