By Grant,on July 26th,2011% As usual,it seems that there’s never enough time to get everything done before commencing a long journey but,despite an ever increasing “to do”list,we managed to arrive at the airport with just enough time to grab a quick photo at the gate with a phone before boarding. The flight itself went about as well as any other 14 hour slog across the Pacific,passing the time with movies,magazines and chatting. Attempts at sleep were unsuccessful even though we’d not had a lot of sleep lately as our bodies were sure it was still only mid-afternoon. The cabin crew were friendly,service was efficient and everything else about the flight went well except for not being able to sleep through it. Arrival at LAX provided plenty of views of aircraft from around the world and the chance to experience the “park &tow”arrival at our gate. Surprisingly our transition through customs &immigration was much less of an ordeal than some recent stories we’d heard,taking only an hour to get from the aircraft and out into the Los Angeles summer air. A quick walk through the heat soon returned us to the cooler air of a domestic airline terminal where we checked in almost painlessly via computerised kiosk and a bag drop counter. Passing through the TSA screening point was surprisingly easy and about on par with going through the scanners at Melbourne’s domestic terminals. The staff were courteous and aside from Grant’s belt buckle triggering a metal detector for the first time ever,it all went smoothly and we were soon walking through the concourse looking for a place to set up a base while we waited for our flight. Being limited to Starbucks,Burger King or a standard US eatery,we went with . . . → Read More:Oshkosh 2011 – Day 1 –Getting there isn’t always the best part By Steve,on November 8th,2010% It seems that QANTAS is never far from the news these days,and lately,it has been for all the wrong reasons. In this,the week that is meant to celebrate their 90th birthday,much of the partying has been overshadowed by two in flight engine failures in the space of three days. And worse,that brings the total to three since the start of September. So the question is, are these engine failures are the result of falling maintenance standards? And if the answer comes back as “yes”,then to what extent can such a fall in standards be attributed to overseas outsourcing of maintenance? It has become a hotbed topic of discussion in the aviation sector,as it has in many other industries here in Australia,and around the world. In the case of the Flying Kangaroo,there are multiple factors at work here with interesting points of view being expressed from both sides of the fence. The QANTAS media machine has kicked into overdrive and is out selling the “safety first”message to anyone who’ll listen,but they are facing a sceptical public who is becoming accustomed to seeing images of badly damaged engines on even the most modern aircraft in the fleet. To a certain extent,QANTAS finds itself in a lose/lose situation here. They are a publicly traded company and as such,have a large and almost overriding responsibility to maximise return to their share holders. On the other hand,they have previously enjoyed a long history for having a sterling safety record. As we see in many industries,it often becomes tempting for executives to focus solely on the immediacy of the next profit report. So naturally it follows that the “safety first”mantra is clouded by the “safety costs money”theory instead. But why have QANTAS become seemingly the flag carrier for maintenance problems . . . → Read More:A Happy Birthday….or not… By Grant,on October 13th,2010% Do you enjoy a few drinks when you’re flying on the airlines? Do you recall the “good ol’days”when the drinks were free even in economy? How about when cocktails were mixed for you or when drinks weren’t served in a little plastic cup? For most of us those days are pretty much gone unless we can pony up the cash for business or first class or happen to be flying on an airline that’s trying something retro (like V Australia’s self-service bars in Business Class and Premium Economy). That’s not to say,however,that there aren’t some good drinks being served on airliners around the world as they carry people from place to place high above the usual levels where drinks are consumed. A friend of mine from back in my crazy days living in Boston is now based in San Francisco and is a freelance writer covering the world of cocktails &spirits. He also runs the Alcademics.com,a blog about drinking and travelling. He’s recently started a page on his site where he’s listing drinks menus from airlines around the world. In addition to his own travels,he’s asking for people to help by taking photos of the drinks list (usually found in the inflight magazine) and sending it to him along with the date and the airline. Also supplying what route you were travelling would help but the key is the drinks,the date and the airline. So far his collection is primarily from US airlines with a couple from Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic. Given it’s a great idea and a good start,how about we help add to the stash. Next time you’re flying,don’t forget to take a photo of the drinks list and send it in. You can also help by . . . → Read More:What’s in the Tranquiliser Trolley on Your Flight? By Grant,on September 10th,2010% John Borghetti at Virgin Blue is getting some bad news lately with both the Department of Transport and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission raising objections to proposed alliances. The DoT have said they don’t like the look of the alliance with Delta (aka Delta-V) while the ACCC have said the same about the proposed alliance with Air New Zealand. The ACCC have also said they’re going to expedite their review of the recently announced alliance with Etihad so hopefully that one doesn’t get blocked too. While I wouldn’t necessarily say that these alliance plans are in tatters,they are certainly taking some body blows and aren’t looking too healthy. Unless Virgin Blue,Delta &Air New Zealand can put up some good responses to the various objections,the proposed linkages aren’t going to happen for a while. So the big question from this is what will Borghetti do if the Delta &Air New Zealand alliances are blocked? He’s already shown he is not adverse to culling failing operations or routes as he has removed Pacific Blue’s domestic operations in New Zealand and pulled the V Australia 777s out of Johannesburg,Fiji &Phuket. If he can’t get cosy with Delta across the Pacific,will he ramp up V Australia’s presence in the market or pull out entirely and settle for a code-share with Delta,channeling Virgin Blue’s domestic passengers onto Delta and taking their passengers around Australia. If he leaves the Pacific to a linkage with Delta,will he redirect the 777s to routes into Abu Dhabi to supplement flights from Etihad? Could he decide to drop the long haul 777s all together to focus on the Australian domestic market and short international flights to the Pacific and South East Asia with 737s and A330s? It’s always an . . . → Read More:Shakey Alliances for Virgin Blue By Grant,on June 20th,2010% I’ve spoken before about the on-going Jetstarisation of Qantas and despite Alan Joyce’s previous comments to the effect that there would be no further “jetstarisation,”recent developments certainly seem to indicate that this is not the case. We’ve previously joked about Jetstar taking over at Qantas and have occasionally used the phrase: Qantas,a member of the Jetstar group While this is a joke comment and I very much doubt we’ll ever see the reality officially recognised like this,recent actions and statements from the Qantas group have led me to coin the phrase: If it’s new,it’s JQ! . . . → Read More:If it’s New,it’s JQ! By Grant,on June 3rd,2010% It wasn’t that long ago that Virgin Blue could do no wrong in the eyes of the mainstream media while Qantas was being hounded over any little maintenance issue and its rapidly falling loads. How times change. In the past few weeks we’ve had reports from Virgin Blue that they’re “only”going to make $20 to $40 million this financial year instead of the $80 million they’d been saying only a few weeks earlier. The reduction was blamed on reduced consumer sentiment,a fall in leisure travel and an expectation that domestic airfares would drop by 10%. Given the fragile nature of the Australian psyche at the moment and the notice arriving after a week of sell-offs in the stock market,naturally the share price took a beating and dropped over 25%. . . . → Read More:How fast the tables turn By Grant,on May 24th,2010% Let’s see now,British Airways have been struggling for a while with reports of poor service,losing high-end premium customers,cutting back on routes and recently announcing a second record financial loss in a row. Throw in the impact from that volcano in Iceland and they are showing every sign of a major legacy carrier that’s about to go under. So,in a move copied straight from Alitalia’s union play book,the cabin crew at British Airways are going on strike. Are these people crazy or what? Whether they have a valid set of grievances is not really the point right now because win or lose,they’re going to help kill British Airways. The last thing they should be doing is going on strike as all it’s doing is driving even more passengers away from the airline,further rupturing BA’s cash flow and increasing the odds that the airline will collapse. By Grant,on February 22nd,2010% According to Alan Joyce from QANTAS,the “Jetstarisation of QANTAS”is supposed to be over. Well,I have a problem with that as I continue to see evidence that,if anything,the “Jetstarisation”is increasing. I would not be surprised to find JQ branded high density A380s flying to the USA and/or Europe while QF dwindles to only a very few select routes. Thanks to an opportunity presented by Shashank Nigam,I’ve been able to voice my concerns on his very well read Simpliflying site. This is not only getting my thoughts before a large audience,it’s also helping to promote the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast,which can only be a good thing. By Grant,on January 20th,2009% Many of you may have grown up with “Irish Jokes”(like the one about the Irish schoolboy who ate his lunch money). Here in Australia,they’re about New Zealanders (called “Kiwi Jokes”) and in the USA they were “Polish Jokes”. Then there are the “Blond Jokes”and I’ve even heard people use “Martian Jokes”in case they’re standing next to a blond Irish Kiwi who’s of Polish descent. Well,move over the lot of them ‘cos the new name for anything related to stupidity has to be “Alitalia Employee Jokes.” . . . → Read More:Is it time for “Italian Jokes”instead of “Irish Jokes”? By Grant,on October 8th,2008% I’ve been posting some comments on a couple of stories from Dan Webb’s ‘Things in the Sky’blog. He’s noted that the transport statistics for August 2008 show the on-time arrivals improved and mishandled baggage rates reduced and that he’s looking forward to September’s figures as there should be further impact from the capacity cuts recently introduced by the airlines. I think the improvements we’re seeing now are related to a reduction in passenger numbers (the figures didn’t show pax volumes but Dan found them somewhere else in his second post). We should see even more improvement due to the capacity cuts. To me,the US airport system is like juggling balls. You’re doing fine with 4 balls but when you add a 5th,you start to drop one every now and again –nothing major,just the odd “ooops”moment. The problem is when you wind up juggling 8 or more balls:it’s overload and you’re dropping lots,if not all of them. . . . → Read More:Reducing the load helps smooth out the system | |
