The annual Skytrax awards reveal last year’s best airlines as voted by passengers. The 2016 results were announced at the Farnborough Airshow this week. (One day I will get to the show!). Looking at the results, their awards are closely aligned to what I have experienced – with some minor exceptions. The Skytrax Top Ten does not dramatically change each year. It just seems to slightly rearrange! The same names have dominated the top 20 airlines continually. Of the Top ten ranked airlines, Skytrax nominated, I have flown eight. The 2016 winners are: Emirates (EK), United Arab…
Lufthansa
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My travels with the #19 year old #StarAlliance
The Star Alliance turns 19 tomorrow, Saturday the 14th of May. The network is now an “adult” with 27 member airlines carrying almost 638 million passengers annually. This compares to SkyTeam with 20 airlines and 588 million passengers annually and Oneworld with 15 airlines and almost 513 million. Starting with just five airlines, the network has grown to include: I have flown 159 times with nine Star Alliance members for a total of 424,788km (263,951 miles), almost ten times around the earth! This represents 14% of all my flights and a third of the distance I have ever flown! The Star…
Post Germanwings: 2 in cockpit
On many of my flights, I have watched the pilot come out of the cockpit to use the lavatory. On some airlines, as he or she has emerged, a member of the cabin crew has replaced him. On others, the pilot or co pilot has left their colleague alone in charge of the plane. The U.S.A had rules before last Tuesday’s Germanwings crash requiring airlines to have two crew members present at all times during the flight. Many other countries allowed airlines to set their own policies. And this has always bothered me. I have always…
Modern Cockpit doors & Germanwings
After 11 September, 2001, airlines and authorities needed to ensure that no unauthorised persons could get into the cockpit. This resulted in the creation the cockpit doors we have on aircraft today. No more did we see the cockpit door left open on flights or people wandering in and out or passengers visiting. The doors themselves are virtually impenetrable. These may not have been topical until this week when the copilot of Germanwings 9525, Andreas Lubitz reportedly locked Captain Patrick Sondenheime out of the cockpit before deliberately flying the Airbus 320 into a French mountain. This video (which…
Germanwings 9525 Crashes in France
An Airbus A320 registration D-AIPX, operated by Germanwings, has crashed near Digne les Bains in the mountainous French Alpes-des-Hautes province on Tuesday morning 24th March, 2015, shortly after 10:47am local time. Flight 9525 was carrying a total of 144 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew. A distress signal was issued by the pilot flying at 6800ft. “We do not yet know what has happened to flight 4U 9525. My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew on 4U 9525. If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark…
1500th 747 delivered
The 747 has been one of my favourite aircraft from my very first flight with Pam Am on July 2nd 1971 (yes 43 years ago this week!) . The 747 had entered service with Pan Am in January, 1970, some 18 months before I hitched a ride on one. Since then I have flown on the 747 96 times covering 774,769 kilometres (481,419 miles) on the “Jumbo” with 14 airlines. And 1500 of the 747 have been rolled out. 500th 747 went to Scandinavian in 1981: The 1000th went to Singapore in 1993. On June…
Etihad finishes Alitalia Due Diligence
Etihad Airways has reportedly finished a due diligence for a possible 40 percent investment in Alitalia. Maurizio Lupi , the Italian transport minister told parliament on Wednesday that Etihad could present its industrial plan for the troubled Italian carrier to the government by the end of this week. The Middle Eastern airline is apparently considering its options which a month ago its’ Chief Executive James Hogan said could swing either way. Etihad has said it will invest in the Italian carrier only if it fits in its network and if Alitalia has a credible plan to return to profit.…
The world’s most crowded 380
When the 747 debuted over 40 years ago, the airlines promised luxurious lounges, roomy bar areas and elaborate staircases. The oil crisis of the early 1970s woke airlines to a basic premise: those spaces cost revenue. The trend after that was to see how many extra rows of revenue generating seats could be crammed in! The same thing seems to happening with the Boeing 787 and the Airbus 380. Seat capacity of the 380 carriers is Korean: 407 (plus Duty free store!) Singapore: 409 or 471 Qantas: 450 or 484 British Airways: 463 Singapore Emirates:…
Considering Carry On
I was standing at the check in counter for Lufthansa at Frankfurt. The check in agent asked the passenger next to me to present his carry on bag so she could weigh it. “why? It’s just carry on” “yes sir. I need to weigh it. Sir it weighs 12kilograms. You must check it. ” “the last airline let me carry it on” “You have to remove items or check it in sir” “this has nothing to do with safety. You just want to make money. Get me your supervisor” The customer then berated the supervisor.…
Eastern Europe Airline Update
Following on from last week’s post about Czech air, the ex European bloc airlines have not fared well since the dissolution of the former Soviet states. In Slovakia, Slovak Airlines closed in 2007, SkyEurope 2009 and Air Slovakia in 2010 Last year, Malev, the airline of nearby Hungary collapsed and WizzAir has made continuous losses since launching in 2003 Poland’s LOT is in financial difficulties Bosnia and Herzegovina B&H Airlines was grounded briefly last month Romanian government owned TAROM has had five years of losses Croatia Airlines has lost money almost every year since commencement in 1989 and was unable to…
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