Twice I have noted that Armenia’s national airline has been rumoured to be on the edge of bankruptcy. Last year, their owner threatened to bankrupt the airline unless Russia’s Vnukovo (Moscow) reduced fees. On March 29, 2013 the carrier finally collapsed with debts of: $US5 million owed to Zvartnots International Airport $US22 million to VTB bank $US1.5 million to Vnukovo airport. The airline is the third Armenian carrier to go after Armenian Airlines collapsed in 2003 and Armeninan International merged with Armavia in 2005. In the post bankruptcy discussions, the collapse was blamed on poor…
iDotto Audio Guides
The idea of wandering around a city listening to an audio tour does not excite me. Until now. iDotto is an intriguing app for the future of travel guiding. It is an audio guide that “accompanies” its users around a city and gives them a personalised guided tour. With a guide book, you usually have to follow a set route, or turn to a particular page. With IDotto, you download, whack in your headphones, walk where you want to and listen.”iDotto doesn’t give you orders, or impose an itinerary. It goes with you and tells you about what you are looking at. After all, it…
787 in weeks???
On Friday, “line number 86,” a Boeing-owned 787 Dreamliner built for LOT Polish Airlines took off for a test flight to “demonstrate that the new battery system performs as intended during normal and non-normal flight conditions.” This was the second test flight of the aeroplane since Boeing unveiled its improvements designed to circumvent the potentially disastrous on board lithium-ion battery fires. The company said its fixes address more than 80 possible causes. “Possible Causes” because no one -Boeing, regulators, airlines knows what caused the fires. The jet, carrying test equipment, nine crew and two Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials, took off from the Boeing…
Qantas/Emirates: Positive, Negative, Alternative
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJmj_KgH_x8 With a spectacular flyover Sydney by two Airbus A380s, the Qantas/Emirates “partnership” was officially “birthed” a week ago. Announced in July, 2012, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce claimed this was the most important deal in the 92 year history of the airline. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission gave final approval for the alliance after deciding that the deal will not lead to negative effects for passengers. It however, rejected Qantas’ argument that its international operations face a ”terminal decline” without the Emirates alliance. There are lots of pluses for Qantas passengers but I have yet to…
In Samoa your weight counts
It is hard to know if it is an April Fools Day prank but Samoa Air has announced a new fare calculation based on passengers weight. The airline’s Chief Executive, Chris Langton, told Radio Australia this week that the policy is proving successful.The airline began flying in 2012 and introduced the pricing policy in January, 2013. I tried it out booking a fare from Pago Pago, the main city of American Samoa to Asau which is situated on the north west coast of Savai’i island in Samoa. The total for the fare was 380 Tala for…
Boeing calls for 787s to fly
Following a two hour 787 test flight on Monday, Boeing announced: “We have a high degree of confidence in the technical solution we are testing right now with the Federal Aviation Administration. They expect that the plane’s return to the skies “will be sooner than later.” t The test flight was staffed by six crew members: two pilots, two instrumentation engineers, a systems operator and a flight analyst. The crew were cycled the landing gear, operated all backup systems and performed electrical system checks from the flight profile. Seeing the first fire was after a…
The American Wedding moves closer.
On Wednesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane approved the plan of American Airlines parent company: AMR Corp to merge with US Airways. The merger still needs regulatory approval. American Airlines must also construct a formal restructuring plan that incorporates the merger. If the courts and creditors approve this plan, then the airline can emerge from the bankruptcy status it has held since November, 2011. American was the last of the major US legacy airlines to go through the Chapter 11 process. They filed for bankruptcy citing untenable labor costs after years of fruitless negotiations with…
Farting on board
I once spent 13 hours seated next to a man who broke wind continuously across the Pacifc from La. On disembarking, a flight attendant asked him if his stomach was feeling better? I could have assured her that it wasn’t! I was interested to read of a recent paper produced by a team of Danish and British gastroenterologists and published in the NZ Medical Journal. The lead researcher Jacob Rosenberg considered the issue worth researching after his own embarassing experience on a flight between Copenhagen and Tokyo. The study recommends passengers and crew break wind…
Line Vigilance
There is a downside to travel sometimes and that is the queues (or lines) depending on your country! An American friend and I were discussing the linguistic variations that refer to the action of lining up for something! Some countries do lines very well. For example, the British. In some the queues look haphazard but in fact are very well organised. In other places, queues are in fact non existent and the line consists of a mass of people shoving to be first. Lined up at Buenos Aires main airport, I was amazed at how…
787 Testing
Further to my post last week, Boeing plans to conduct two flight tests of its revamped 787 battery system.The flights would depart from and return to Paine Field, the airport in Everett, Washington, where the 787 Dreamliner is made. One flight would collect data for its own usage. The data from the second flight would be submitted for FAA approval. If successful, then this would be a step forward to Boeing getting the aircraft approved for service within weeks. None of the airlines using 787s have begun planning to get their planes up yet. In…
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