Recently in Quirkies Category

Iberia must be grateful not to need the services of Samuel L Jackson after airport workers at Buenos Aires airport in Argentina discovered hundreds of poisonous snakes and endangered reptiles inside the baggage of a passenger trying to board a flight to Madrid.

They discovered 247 lizards, snakes, spiders and snails from Central and South America in the luggage of Karel Abelovsky, packed inside plastic containers and socks.

Had Abelovsky's wriggling luggage made it onto the flight, the boa constrictors, poisonous pit vipers, coral snakes, lizards and spiders could have escaped the cloth suitcase and attacked passengers.

A Czech citizen on his way to Prague via Madrid, Abelovsky is facing up to 10 years in prison.

Interesting deployment of dual brand management now low-cost carrier guru Tony Fernandes has a foot in both airline camps following the ground-breaking tie-up between AirAsia and network carrier Malaysian Airlines.

The AirAsia name has made regular sponsorship appearances within sport in the past, including the shirt sleeves of the ever-popular English Premiership referees. And with Fernandes newly-acquired Queens Park Rangers being shirt sponsor-less after its deal with Gulf Air ended this summer, there was an obvious opportunity. But what name to put on the shirt? AirAsia or Malaysia Airlines...

...the answer of course is both. Malaysia Airlines for the home kit, AirAsia for the away kits. You can see the look in the picture below (QPR manager Neil Warnock, centre left, ponders which of the new signings to play in midfield with Joey Barton on Saturday)

I can't think of another example of different home/away sponsorship - but could this set a new trend? Could we see Arsenal playing away from the Emirates with FlyDubai adorned across their shirts?

And why stop there. With airlines operating premium and low-cost airlines, and football clubs spending varying transfer fees on different players, why not tailor the airline sponsor's name for each player to their individual transfer fee? Though I guess you would know if you come in one day and find you suddenly have Ryanair on your shirt that your dream multi-million pound move to Barcelona isn't happening. 

So English premiership side Manchester City have today confirmed that its City of Manchester Stadium, aka Eastlands, will from today onwards be know as the Etihad Stadium, as part of a expanded long-term sponsorship deal with the Gulf carrier. It follows in the footsteps of several other English football clubs in selling the naming rights to the stadium - notably Arsenal which play their home matches at the Emirates.

In many ways Manchester City and Etihad have mirroring ambitions, as both have been more recent arrivals to the top table. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier has rapidly grown to a $3 billion business since its launch in 2003 and has already climbed into the top 50 biggest airlines by revenue in 2010 (look out for annual rankings of the top 150 airlines in our August issue). And with a 100 aircraft on order has plenty of scope for more growth.

Man City meanwhile, after three decades in the doldrums and some pretty eye-popping transfer spending, finally last season broke the big four's stranglehold on Champions League football and will this season be looking to go one better and usurp arch rivals Manchester United's grip on the Premiership (apart from talisman Carlos Tevez who is looking for a transfer).

It's all a far cry from when Man City were playing in English football's third tier back as recently as 1999 at its old Maine Road ground - dubbed the Theatre of Base Comedy (in contrast to Man United's Theatre of Dreams) by City fan and commentator Stuart Hall.

We wait to see how long it will be for the Etihad name enters the lexicon of football supporters in the same way Emirates does at Arsenal - the latter was aided by it being a new stadium which didn't have any previous names.

And will more airlines follow suit? Could QPR one days be playing at Gulf Air Road? Or maybe Luton will play their home games at EasyJet Road. 

Fresh from its appearance at the Paris air show, the Boeing 787 has arrived in Warsaw, the home base of Polish flag-carrier LOT - one of the first European operators to sign up for the twinjet.

Plenty of images of its arrival on the Gazeta Wyborcza website, although possibly the most interesting - featuring a different livery for the airline - appears to have been curiously cropped since it appeared. So we've taken the liberty of borrowing it:

We've all been there. One misheard quote and suddenly your journalistic creativity runs riot while your common-sense filter is out on a tea-break. Even on a publication as venerable as The Times of India.

Can't say I was at the press conference, but a quick check of other Indian papers suggests minister Ashwani Kumar actually said those second- and third-tier cities would be served by a "70- to 100-seat" aircraft...

Korean Air might want to pick up a couple of tips from Emirates on the art of creating a polished Airbus A380 advertisement.

The Seoul-based airline, which took delivery of its first A380 in May, has its own promotional video showing the aircraft being put together in time-lapse footage.

But wait a second...

Korean Air's A380s are powered by Engine Alliance GP7200 engines; in fact, the handover ceremony in Toulouse included a speech by Engine Alliance president Mary Ellen Jones, who said she was "delighted" that the airline would be the first Asian carrier to use the powerplant.

So what's being bolted onto the wing of that A380 about seven seconds into the Korean Air video? The orange engine cover clearly says, er, Trent 900...

Emirates might already have 90 Airbus A380s on order but it built a 91^st - or at least gave a computer-enhanced impression that it had - on a film set in South Africa, to promote the economic benefits of the Dubai-based carrier's fleet programme.

In a 30-second advertisement actor Maxim Deluc, playing a flight attendant, is shown wheeling a drinks trolley down the aisle while the A380 is put together around him.

Shooting the commercial involved constructing a full-scale fuselage barrel of the A380, on which to film the basic nose-to-tail walk, while the engines, detailed internal fittings and background were filled in afterwards with computer-generated jiggery-pokery:

Emirates is using the advertisement to emphasise the "economic significance" of its commitment to the A380 which, it says, supports creation of 200,000 direct and indirect jobs. It adds that 72% of the jobs are in France, Germany, the UK and Spain - hence the European flavour of the advert, which shows the A380 being assembled to an accompanying refrain from Strauss' Blue Danube waltz.

This video shows how the advertisement was put together, which also features a few facts about the aircraft's manufacture you might not have previously appreciated: "Six continents contribute to a single A380," it says. "Everywhere but Antarctica. Sorry, penguins." 

All the tools needed to assemble this huge model of a Hawker Beechcraft business jet are laid out on the company's stand here at the EBACE show.

The show is coming together on this press day ready for the grand openng tomorrow when all Hawker's aircraft will be assembled, shiny and pristine, along with the scores of others (models and the real thing).

For full coverage of the show from Flightglobal - videos, news, Twitter, blogs and images - visit our EBACE landing page.