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 Steve,on June 11th,2010 In the brave new world of new media,and podcasting in particular,it is often easy to become fixated on statistics. And despite the advice of mentors &experts to concentrate on the quality of the content,it is very tempting for producers to look all too often at download rates,total downloads,number of advert impressions,number of episodes…the list goes on. This obsession leads to multiple daily site visits with the sole purpose of seeing how many more downloads have ticked by since the last check. Some might say this is unhealthy,if not a little vain,and I think they’d be correct. However,it is important to celebrate milestones,and as such we are thrilled to see that our great friends at the Airplane Geeks Podcast have reached the 100 episode mark. The show first hit the internet on June 10th,2008 and has become a weekly institution for aviation news and fascinating guests. There were many other aviation podcasts that came before them,but Airplane Geeks are kind of different from the usual “hanger flying”shows. Focused more on the heavy iron than general aviation,the show is easy going and covers airlines and industry news from around the world. . . . → Read More:Congratulations to the Airplane Geeks Podcast –100 Episodes Strong! By Grant,on June 4th,2010 Remember the American Airlines A300 that crashed in the US after the vertical stabiliser broke off? The co-pilot over stressed the tail by pumping the rudders in an attempt to get out of wake-turbulence. In a similar situation in 2008,an Air Canada A319 encountered wake turbulence and the pilot’s rudder &side stick inputs put the aircraft into a slip,stressing the vertical stabiliser beyond certified limits. The pilot wasn’t aware that they were encountering wake turbulence and thought it was a problem with the flight control computers (perhaps similar to the Qantas A330 problems off the coast of West Australia). . . . → Read More:Even with flight computers,you can over stress an Airbus tail 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 May 18th,2010 I know I’ve said it before,but this latest news from Jon Ostrower (aka FlightBlogger) about the recent Boeing 787 delay being due to a design flaw in the tail really makes me wonder if the 787 isn’t doomed to become the De Haviland Comet of our time. According to Jon’s report,the problem was discovered in December and is related to the unpressurised tail section of the aircraft. Apparently: . . . → Read More:Boeing 787 vs De Haviland Comet –Will History Repeat? By Grant,on May 7th,2010 As if Sydney Airport (YSSY) being voted Australia’s worst airport for the 4th time in a row wasn’t enough of a wake up call for Macquarie Airports and the airport’s management &board,the government is bringing forward their oversite review of YSSY from 2012 to now (admittedly with a pending election,but anyhow…). The ACCC is also going to investigate whether airports are abusing their monopoly positions (if you’ve parked your car at YSSY or YMML,then you probably have a good idea that the answer will be yes). Unfortunately,Macquaire Airports don’t seem to be listening though and continue to try to milk every last drop they can from YSSY. If it’s not sky high parking or the most expensive “per passenger”fees levied on the airlines,they’re now increasing their aircraft parking rates to the point where it could cost as much to park a SAAB 340 as it costs to park an A380. . . . → Read More:Macquarie Airports have lost it Entirely 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 August 3rd,2009 With the recent announcement from Boeing that the first flight of their 787 was to be delayed due to structural issues in the wing box area,many of us knew right away it was a major show-stopper issue. Boeing made the announcement only a few days before people were expecting the first flight,catching many by surprise. With so much riding on this project and so many delays already experienced,Boeing were pushing hard to get the 787 in the air as soon as possible. That Boeing couldn’t start the test flights while addressing this problem in parallel showed us it was a big issue,something that would either lead to a structural failure in flight or would require so many changes that testing would have to start again after the modifications were made. Subsequent to their announcement of a delay,it was confirmed that the issue involves wing flexing travelling into the fuselage leading to delamination of wing panels. This report and others do not paint a very pretty picture with many predicting that the 787 won’t fly until next year (2010). . . . → Read More:Is the Boeing 787 the new Comet? 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”? | |
