The delivery last Sunday of a Boeing 787 to Guangzhou based China Southern airlines makes the carrier the first in the world to fly both the 787 and the Airbus 380. China Southern are now the largest passenger airline in Asia, carrying over 85 million passengers last year. The carrier is rated a four star airline by Skytrax. The status of orders of the two craft by Chinese carriers is: At first, China Southern will use the 787 on the Guangzhou – Shanghai services. By the end of the year the carier plans to have five…
I will have fries with that: Air Baltic
The phrase: “the chicken or the beef” might finally become a relic on all airlines if they follow airBaltic of Latvia’s meal service Customers can pre- order their meal online from the time of booking anytime up to 24 hours before boarding. Cold meals are available on all flights and hot meals are served on most flights of 1.5 hours plus. The online ordering system allows passengers to drag and drop their choices into a “virtual airline tray”. After payment, this pre-ordered meal is linked to the passenger. If a flight is changed or cancelled…
The Most Popular City 2013
Bangkok is now the world’s popular tourist destination with 15.98 million overnight visits expected for the year. Those tourists will spend $14.3 billion dollars in the city. Thailand’s capital has been growing rapidly (18% in 2011 and 2012 and 9.8% this year) and leap frogged over last year’s number one: London which is expected to host 15.96 million. Paris remains in third place but is the only destination city among the top 20 that shows a decline in the estimated number of international visitor arrivals with forecasts of a 0.7 per cent drop. Number 4…
Picnicking on an ice block
Something to add to your list of things not to do on holidays…. A volunteer rescue team saved four US tourists who became stranded on an ice floe in Fjallsárlón glacier lagoon after it broke loose from the shore. Five tourists set up a table and chairs to picnic on the ice when part of the ice floe broke loose and drifted off ten metres (yards) into the water. One tourist jumped off and got help. Staff members from Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon located west of Fjallsárlón were despatched with a boat to rescue the tourists…
Adios Room Service
I have stayed twice at the New York Hilton Midtown. The largest hotel in the city, it occupies almost an entire city block on Sixth Avenue, between West 53rd and West 54th streets. It has almost 2,000 rooms. From August, 2013 there will be no room service. Instead it will open a cafeteria-style restaurant called Herb n’ Kitchen which will offer breakfast, lunch and dinner. This follows other Hiltons that have done the same thing. Not that I would notice, having never ordered room service at any NYC hotel! With a whole city of amazing late night food…
Driving on the wrong side of the road
An endless source of discussion with international friends is the division of the world into countries that drive on the left and countries that drive on the right. Which side is “wrong”? For my US friends, Australia drives on the “wrong side”. We feel the opposite. My understanding is that up to the 17th century, all rode on the left. In fact, in 1300AD, Pope Boniface VIII stated that all pilgrims heading to Rome should keep left. Napoleon reversed this. Some say because he could. Others say because he was left-handed and others so he…
Picturing Air Routes
58,000 air routes cross the globe. Michael Markieta from Arup has developed a visualization of them. The result are beautiful images that look more images of galaxies.
Rating US airlines
As a regular flier, I like to rate who I fly with. I am not alone. Over 16,000 readers of Consumer Reports magazine reviewed 31,732 US domestic flights in February, 2013 for the Consumer Reports National Research Center. The carriers were rated by the readers on six dimensions: 1. Ease of check-in 2. Friendliness and responsiveness of cabin crew 3. Cabin cleanliness 4. Baggage handling 5. Seating comfort 6. In-flight entertainment The results were not a huge surprise as to where the eleven US carriers ranked. The ranking was very close to my own assessments…
Airbus drops 100 feet
What caption would you put on this picture? This picture taken by Alan Cross and published to Instagram has gone viral. The two Singapore Airlines flight attendants sit calmly after being ordered to their seats when their Airbus A380 (registration 9V-SKH) encountered severe clear air turbulence 90 minutes into a Singapore to London flight on 26 May. Behind them is a scene of devastation. Breakfast was just being served when the plane dropped 100 feet. Eleven people had minor injuries as a result of the turbulence. The flight SQ308 continued onto London and landed safely…
Airline Alliances -no future?
Regularly, a debate seems to emerge as to whether alliances have an on going future. The latest salvo from James Hogan, CEO of Etihad: “The traditional airline alliances have evolved into slow-to-respond, bureaucratic organisations which struggle to deliver added value to their member airlines, many of which are no longer compatible with each other.” Tim Clark, CEO of Emirates said in 2009: We see alliances as having significant anti-competitive elements and believe that our membership in one would be an artificial brake on our own business plans Willy Walsh of British Airways owner which is part…
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