This week I celebrate my Birthday in “sunny” pre Olympics London. Lots of building work around the place. I am still not sure how the city will cope with the actual Olympics!
London
Tag Archives for London.
Malaysian Kids Free Zones -Wacky or Wise
I have flown 842 times. In that time, one child has kept me irritated for an entire flight. As he bounced up and down the seats with his oblivious mother staring at her video screen, an exasperated fellow passenger asked if she had brought anything for her child to do. She looked up and shrugged her shoulders, saying “No” and went back to watching her screen. A few babies have disturbed my takeoffs and landings but not enough for me to want children removed from my aeroplane. Most I have met on board have been well behaved or in awe…
Air Zimbabwe Going going gone?
In 1996, I spent a glorious ten days in Zimbabwe. Many say that was the last good year for the country. Since then sanctions, corruption, seizure of farms, mines and businesses have made Zimbabwe a no go zone for tourism and business. These same conditions have reduced Air Zimbabwe passenger numbers from 1 million in 1999 to 23,000 in 2005 due to suspension of many of its flights and suspension from the international financial and booking system by IATA over unpaid fees. The airline kept flying from 2005 to 2011 and even launched a new service from Harare to Kuala Lumpur. Last year, however, was a…
Farewell BA Bangkok – Sydney Trip Report
This is the fourth time I have flown British Airways on this sector- and my last. BA will cease flying this route from this Friday March 3rd. Qantas will terminate its Bangkok to London services on March 26th and its planes will turn around in Bangkok. Instead both airlines will “swap” passengers at Bangkok. The same thing is happening with their Hong Kong flights. Both airlines will maintain their services via Singapore (the “Kangaroo Route”). This shorter “hop” will be where all through Australia-London passengers will be fed. Passengers going via Hong K and Bangkok will be choosing to stop. I have some disquiet about how…
A380 Cracking Up?
Qantas Airways has temporarily grounded one of its A380 superjumbos after discovering dozens of hairline cracks in its wings. They have said tehy: 1. do not pose a threat to safety 2. they are different from the types of cracks that manufacturer Airbus found in the wings of two jets last month Should we be worried about my beloved A380?
Air NZ Struggling
My second favourite airline Air NZ has been losing $NZ1 million per week on long haul traffic. It is now investigating ways to cut $NZ100 million out of expenses. Some of the rumours I have heard are: reducing London flights (NZ flies to Heathrow via Los Angeles and via Hong Kong every day) pulling out of London altogether handing sectors over from LAX and HK to Virgin Atlantic slashing hundreds of jobs halting all “large projects” (the message from Air NZ CEO Rob Fyfe: “no sacred cows”) reducing the quality of meals and service in…
Fry Tweets Qantas A380 Failure
British actor and Tweetaholic Stephen Fry was en route from Sydney to London today aboard a Qantas A380 operating as QF 31. Four hours out from Singapore, the plane was diverted to Dubai due to engine problems. Bizarrely one year to the day since a Qantas A380 Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine shredded in what could have been a disaster for that airliner. Fry kept us entertained with a blow by blow account of today’s situation which a Qantas spokesperson said was not connected to last year’s issue (Oh yeah? how d they know?): 82 stephenfry: Taking…
More on Qantas: Reaction to the Grounding
Roy Morgan has released results, from their regular phone poll survey of public opinion in Australia. Som key feedback from the Australian public suggets that respondents were: more inclined to blame management (56%) than the unions (42%) for the shutdown overall disapproving of the shutdown with 61% against it and 35% approving wanting federal government sooner (64%) -with 32% disagreeing This suggests that the Qantas Board and Management have a long row to hoe to get Australians to support their move and new directions.
Tuesday Trip Report: Royal Brunei
Long been curious to try Royal Brunei. Due to a quirk in my schedule, I got the chance to last week. Even though it involved two stopovers, their flight got me out of London and into Melbourne at a time that fitted my schedule. My first Royal Brunei sector was actually the 787th flight of my life. I had hoped for a flight on the 787 but the timing didn’t work. (For those who have been following, I flew my 737th on a Southwest 737, 747th in a Qantas B747, then United for 757, Qantas for 767…
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