WOW’s rapid demise after seven years of flying trapped up to 4,000 passengers and crew were abandoned in destination cities around the globe. The impact of the collapse will be keenly felt in Iceland. There are currently six other airlines which should be concerning passengers: Adria – Slovenia’s national air carrier; Star Alliance member Code: JP. 18 planes 1.2 million passengers, 18 destinations If you want to get to your destination on time, do not fly Adria. They reportedly cancel an average of at least two flights per day due to ” crew shortages and…
Airline News (Friday)
Category Archives for Airline News (Friday).
WOW no longer wowing
After 7 years, of which six were characterized by rapid growth and the last year by a rapid demise, Wow is no more.The airline that put Iceland on the map could not keep itself on the map. (ad in happier days for the launch of WOW flights to Delhi. The route lasted just four weeks before being axed in January. It was meant to save the company!). The demise is not a surprise. In November last year, Wow had to return four planes (two A320 and two A330) because the airline could not afford them.…
Japan Airlines low cost Zipair to fly for Olympics
JAL (Japan Airlines) revealed its new low cost subsidary set up to compete with ANA’s budget airlines Peach/ Vanilla (which are merging in May) as well as Air Asia, Jetstar (owned by Qantas) and Scoot (Singapore). The newbrand will be known as ZIPAIR Tokyo. ZIP, meaning speedy travel between ZIP CODES and Tokyo presumably to link the airline to next year’s Tokyo Olympic games. I am decidedly underwhelmed by the logo. I pictured something speedy and dashing. Something that zips between zipcodes should be exciting not this: The font is set in Roman and the…
HK Express in active talks with Cathay- Why I am so interested
Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd reported on Tuesday it is in “active discussions” about acquiring discount airline Hong Kong Express Airways Ltd, also known as HK Express ( 香港快運航空). Buying HK Express would be a game changer for both Cathay Pacific and the region of Hong Kong. Cathay has been hit by competition from Air Asia and Qantas low cost subsidiary Jetstar and has been forced to price discount. The airline has had two consecutive losses for the first time in 71 years. This deal, if successful, would allow Cathay to gain…
Joon, the airline searching for purpose, to shut down
Air France in 2016 unveiled its new low cost subsidiary which they called Joon. It’s aim was to win market share back. The word “Joon” is meant to sound like “jeune” which is French for “young“. Rolled out as a “new generation travel experience”, a low cost carrier for Mellinials, It therefore aimed to attract a new market to flying -at a cheap rate, it aimed to attract a new market to flying -at a cheap rate. On board, Joon offered VR-headset entertainment, allowed access to inflight streaming, had cabin crew dressed in “trendy” clothes made…
Goodbye -The airlines that vanished in 2018
You know the scene, as you have seen it on the news programs. Passengers milling around desks in airports whilst a news commentator drones on about the number of planes grounded. Usually, the news does not affect you unless you are flying or when you might be an employee or family member of an employee. This scene repeated itself about fifty times around the world in 2018. Some of these airline collapses were with a bang and some with a whimper. A number of carriers were merely folded into their parent company or another subsidiary.…
Herb Kelleher passes away
The world today will be full of blog posts, interviews and articles about Mr Kelleher, co-founder, CEO, and Chairman Emeritus of Southwest Airlines. I wanted to pay my own quick tribute. Born March 12, 1931 Mr Kelleher died on January 3, 2019. He was a lawyer and reportedly created the Southwest concept on a serviette with one of his law clients. Southwest became known as an airline that was fun, friendly, low fares and operated direct low fare flights in opposition to its competitors of the “hub-and-spoke” scheduling systems. This successful airline stemmed from Mr…
Ten of My Faves -My Top Airlines
People often ask me what are my favourite airlines? Here is the answer, after 1300 flights on 103 airlines almost 75 times around the world. Of the 103 different airlines I have travelled on, two of them I will never choose to fly on again (Air Asia and Ryanair) and two I regularly avoid (TigerAir and United). Others have merged or gone bust. My top ten currently ranked favourites are: 10. Virgin Australia -in a few short years, they have transformed themselves from a budget carrier to a full service global carrier. I really enjoy…
Welcoming Royal Air Maroc to fracturing OneWorld
Royal Air Maroc has been revealed as One World’s newest member ending days of speculation as to whether it or China Southern were joining. Royal Air Maroc fixes a massive hole for One World: a member airline based in Africa. Star Alliance have Ethiopian and South African as members giving them a massive footprint across the continent, Skyteam has Kenya which currently has a substantial network too. One World only has a handful of routes in Southern Africa through British Airways Comair. Royal Air Maroc serves 94 destinations: The airline flies to several One World…
Air Malta, CityJet, LEVEL, Qantas , Wizz CEO and WOW win 2018 Excellence Awards
The CAPA – Centre for Aviation was launched in 1990, to build aviation knowledge. I find them a great go to site for good deep air research. Since 2003, their annual Awards for Excellence have been intended to showcase success and industry leadership. Their 2018 winners were announced this week in Berlin at the 2018 CAPA World Aviation Outlook Summit. I wish I had been there for the buzz, the award announcements and the wonderful city that is Berlin. Being in two places is hard to do! And the winners this year were: Airline of…
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