Like many passengers, I sometimes film the take off or landing whilst en route. Some of my films are interesting and some are not. The video below is definitely very interesting as it captures the failed take off of Aeroméxico Connect Flight 2431 which crashed on Tuesday July 31, 2018 during takeoff from Durango International Airport. The Embraer 190 was bound for Mexico City, 765 kilometres (475 miles) away. Whilst accelerating in stormy weather, the aircraft apparently became airborne briefly and then veered off the runway after being hit “by a gust of wind”. The left wing…
Airline News (Friday)
Category Archives for Airline News (Friday).
Which airlines have names for their planes- and why?
For centuries, sailing ships carried names, had captains, were Christened, experienced water salutes and had their left side referred to as port and right side as starboard. These traditions continued into the air but not all airlines name their planes . No one knows why some airlines in the world adopted the tradition of naming their “ships” and others did not. When a plane is named, unlike ships, a bottle of champagne is not broken when naming them, but when used, it is poured over the fuselage. Here are as many major airlines that I…
Air Safety- Who I will and won’t fly.
Flying is incredibly safe. There are over 5000 airlines with ICAO codes. Very few of those carriers experience any major emergency incidents. Others do. Who do you know is safe or not? I rely on airlineratings.com, that rate about 10 percent of all airlines. Out of those airlines, extrapolating airlineratings.com data, 35% of airlines are fully compliant with seven safety measures. Now no one can guarantee that a “seven star” airline won’t have a crash involving fatalities but they are compliant with the most stringent safety requirements. In addition, 12% are one star airlines that…
Goodbye -The airlines that vanished in 2017
About fifty airlines stopped flying in 2017. Two were biggies. One was Air Berlin and the other UK’s Monarch. Two of the airlines had been operating for a long time: 88 years and 50. One of the airlines that collapsed had operated for just one month. I have flown two of the carriers that collapsed (marked with an asterix in the list below): Air Berlin and Hawaii’s IslandAir. Of the 98 airlines I have travelled on, 54 still remain in operation. Details of some of the 50 airlines that vanished in 2017. How many had…
Measuring Star, Skyteam, One World – Which is the “BEST” airline alliance?
Every airline passenger will have seen the name and logos of the three big airline alliances carrying almost two out of three of the world’s airline passengers. The names “One World“, “SkyTeam” and “Star Alliance” adorn planes, airline marketing materials, boarding passes, in-flight magazines and airport signs. All three of the big US airlines (American, Delta and United) are linked to one of the alliances. In Europe, it is the same with their three biggest airline companies. There are also three smaller and newer alliances: U fly, Vanilla, Value. I list of all the members…
Kenya Airways New Fight to Survive
Recently Kenya Airways ran a feel-good campaign to celebrate Customer Service Week with pictures featuring the carrier’s new Polish CEO Sebastian Mikosz: The tweets hid the turmoil behind the scenes. Sadly Kenya’s flag carrier is in deep, deep trouble. Since my time of living and travelling in Africa, I have seen so many airlines come and go. Air Gabon, Ghana Airway, Nigeria Airways, East African Airlines and Zambia Airways have gone. South African Airlines is teetering as is Kenya Airways. Kenya Airways has more than $1bn of debt following an aggressive expansion plan launched five years ago. The plan…
Auf Wiedersehen Air Berlin- what went wrong?
Next year should be Air Berlin’s 40th birthday. From a small charter operation founded in 1978, the airline grew to become Germany’s second largest, and Europe’s seventh biggest. 8,600 staff work for the carrier which up to recently, was flying to 42 destinations with a fleet of 114 planes. I have a small soft spot for the airline, its staff, history and most of all its home base, my second favourite city in the world. But nothing seems to be going to save Air Berlin. The airline has been in trouble for some time. I…
Monarch, UK’s largest airline collapse ever! What happened? Has it impacted you?
It has been a horror year for UK low-cost air passengers. Ryanair cancelled 18,000 flights between October and March 2018. Then at 4am on Monday this week, after Monarch flight, ZB3785 from Tel Aviv to Manchester landed at 319am, that airline collapsed into administration. As the UK’s fifth-biggest airline, it is the biggest airline failure in the UK. The collapse left 110,000 people stranded overseas. Monarch dubiously joins an exclusive club of established airlines currently in financial trouble including Alitalia, Air Berlin and Kenya Airways who are all close to bankruptcy. Monarch had just celebrated its 50th Birthday in…
Boycotted Tiger Airways Australia for 6 years -Time to Reassess?
Six years ago, I was refused the opportunity to check in by Tiger Airways Australia. Out of 1211 flights, this was only one of two times I have been refused check in. I had shown up 42 minutes before departure time with only carry-on baggage. The airline had no on line check in facility operating and the plane had plenty of seats. But their policy was to close check in a full 45 minutes before departure in contrast to the 30 minutes its competitors give. I was already not a fan of Tiger Airways Australia but had decided…
Ten buyers interested in Alitalia
I first flew Alitalia almost 50 years ago!* I remember it as a chic airline flying people to the glamour and history of Italy. The jumbo era was not good for the airline and it ended up the 1970s a tatter of its former self. The airline feels very frayed around the edges. I have continued to follow Alitalia as it seems to gasp for its breath one last time, multiple times. I have seen their service plunge, briefly improve and then plunge again -multiple times. Alitalia is one of the last stand alone national carriers…
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