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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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Air New Zealand Safety Video: Cool or Cruel?

I have been pondering about what to say about Air New Zealand’s safety video. On 28th November 1979, Air New Zealand flight TE 901 took off from Auckland for a sightseeing flight over Antarctica. Due to a computing error, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 slammed into  Mount Erebus a 3,794 metre (12,448 ft) volcano located on Ross Island. All 237 passengers and 20 crew were killed. This was followed by complex search and rescue mission and a bitter and complicated investigation. There was such grief in NZ as the small nation felt connected to the disaster…

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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 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 the three major airline groups. There are also three smaller and newer alliances: U fly, Vanilla, Value. I list of all the members of the alliances at the…

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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…

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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…

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Europe’s LCC Wizz is 14 -plans to keep on Wizzing!

I have been fascinated with Wizzair for over a decade. They have been aiming for dominance of European skies from their Hungarian base.  Celebrating their 14th birthday this month, they now operate 80 aircraft from 19 bases in ten countries across Central and Eastern Europe flying to a massive 140 cities in 50 countries. They have now flown 100 million people. For most of its history, Wizzair reportedly lost money. So much so that in  2009, they were voted by Bookmaker Paddy Power as the next airline likely to go bust. Interesting that both airlines Wizz were…

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I just flew my 1199th Flight -This trip was with Thai Airways

  Thanks to a sublime Thai airways Business Class experience this week, my travel clock ticked over my 1199th flight! Next year, I will have been flying for fifty years and on average I have flown 24 flights or 55,000 km (33, 000 miles) a year. The reality is that it took me 31 years until I flew my 100th flight! My 200th was in 2004. My 500th just five years later in 2009 and my 1000th was in 2014!So now I can say I have spent over five months of my life inside planes travelling a distance equivalent to…

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Who is the best One World airline?

It’s an interest obsession of mine to “collect” airlines flown. I am inching closer to 100 different airlines flown. Some of those carriers are no longer flying. In most cases this a tragedy (eg Pan Am, Ansett Australia, Malev) and in others, probably a good thing (Air Australia). I’ve flown airlines that belong to all of the three major airline alliances (One World, Skyteam and Star Alliance).  Truth be told, 40% of my flights have been with One World carriers, however. So I pricked up my ears when on Wednesday, the CEO of IAG (Iberia/British Airways) suggested…

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Tiny Intersky insolvent

Austrian airline Intersky ceased flying immediately this week. The cessation was caused by the company that owned four of the planes leased by Intersky recalling them over unpaid leasing charges.The company reportedly owes five million Euros mainly to airports in Europe. A potential investor then withdrew their interest in the airline. The airline’s only owned plane flew the carrier’s last service from Zürich, Switzerland to Graz, Austria. The video below shows Intersky Dash 8 taking off from Graz for Zurich two months ago. Intersky, started operations in 2002. They flew charter and scheduled flights  from Graz and Salzburg to…

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2015 CAPA Aviation Awards in Helsinki

Airline Finnair received their brand new Airbus A350 in time to show it off at this year’s CAPA 2015 World Aviation Summit in Helsinki, Finland. Presentations and discussions at the event organised by CAPA (Centre for Aviation) addressed Open skies, Subsidies, Ownership, Alliances, Distribution and Productivity. In the midst of the event were announcements for CAPA’s 2015 Aviation awards: Ethiopian – Airline of the Year for their leadership in the African market. IndiGo – CAPA Low Cost Airline of the Year Qantas -the CAPA Airline Turnaround of the Year Qantas CEO Alan Joyce named CAPA Airline Chief Executive of…

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