June 2011 Archives

  

During the this year's Avalon air show I had a choice: a media dinner at Gordon Ramsey's famous restaurant, or dinner with the Lockheed Martin guys pitching the MH-60R 'Romeo' to Australia. Things military being far more interesting than things edible, I opted for the Romeo dinner. 

The meal, with three Lockheed guys and two other journalists, turned out to be excellent. Far more interesting was my discussion with one of the Lockheed guys, a former US navy officer who had spent a good part of his career hunting submarines in the Seasprite and Seahawk helicopters.  

Given the rising prevalence of super quiet diesel electric submarines in the Asia Pacific, both in North Asia and Southeast Asia, I asked him if sensors were still up to the task of finding them. Turns out the old 'listen for the enemy submarine'  - as in the iconic book The Hunt for Red October -  is no longer how its done.

These days its all about ultra low frequency sonar, which my host called 'The underwater Aegis, ' referring to the active electronically scanned array radar used on US Arleigh Burke destroyers and Ticonderoga cruisers. In the Romeo this capability is provided by the Raytheon ASQ-22 dipping sonar. He told me the ASQ-22 has been very effective in exercises against diesel electric submarines operated by allied powers.

"When the submarines hear the Romeos will be in the exercise, they know they are going to get caught," he said.

I came across this article, "Should an SIA Girl sleep among passenger seats?", by accident and it sparked my curiosity. In it, a passenger surnamed Tan was on board a Singapore Airlines flight from Christchurch to Singapore and he or she said:

"I was amazed to see the stewardesses on the flight take their rest among the passengers."

The passenger asked why there was a shortage of a cabin crew bunks, and that other passengers were asking those crew who were resting for drinks. In response, a Singapore Airlines spokesman said:

"The absence of bunks was in line with guidelines set by the Air Operator Certificate Requirements, which states that rest is only mandatory for cabin crew members who are on duty for 14h or more."

The article continues to say: "It is understood that there are no bunks for in-flight crew onboard some SIA flights to and from Christchurch and Auckland as the aircraft used for the flights -- a variant of the Boeing 777 -- do not come with crew bunks. That has been the situation since last July."

(Note: Based on the information in Innovata, SIA operates Boeing 777-200/200ER and 777-300 variants on both Auckland and Christchurch routes. The configuration varies on each plane type.)

The article quotes an unnamed cabin crew, who lamented that she got very little rest as a result of passengers approaching her and her colleagues for service on the Singapore-Auckland flights, which are almost 10h long.

When I posted the link on my Facebook and Twitter accounts, the response I got ranged from surprise to criticism of the article, of the passenger who recounted his experience, and The New Paper tabloid which first published the article.

I agree with the criticisms. As one tweet put it: "...why are the people so mean and are they stupid?"

How hard can it be to book a round trip ticket to Taipei on Singapore Airlines? With its old website, easy. Since the launch of its new website in May, impossible.

Logging on with my UserID and PIN was easy enough. On the site itself loading up the flights on my desired dates was no problem, but then I was stopped cold. There are three flights daily to Taipei, where I need to travel between the 10th and 12th of August to attend an air show. I can book the outbound leg or the inbound leg, but not both at the same time.

Trying to book the second leg produces an unfriendly message: "This option cannot be combined with the selected fair family in the onward journey." No matter what I do, this message eventually pops up. Perhaps there is a way to change the fare family, but I could not work it out. Am I just bad at tech? Perhaps I'll fly to Taipei, cover the air show for Flightglobal, and stay there.

I'm not entirely surprised by my experience. My girlfriend spent a recent Saturday morning cursing the new site. After one hour she gave up and called customer service. My colleague says he could book a flight on his Krisflyer iPhone app, but this wouldn't let him book his seats. Eventually he called SIA in frustration. 

"It took them a day to sort it all out," says he. "To be fair they were really nice, considering all the hassle they are probably getting these days."

How could this happen to the mighty SIA? In the past this branding juggernaut has been brilliant at transitions. In 2007 the carrier's launch of the first A380 was an international marketing coup. The "First to fly the A380" extravaganza cast SIA as ultra-modern and yet brought romance back to travel, an antidote to the cramped, anonymous experience of budget air travel.

My girlfriend works for a big IT firm. I asked her about software migrations.

"They probably did what we call a big bang," she replied. "A big bang sees everything migrated all at once. It's very risky. Big internet firms offer users the option to use the previous version of the site until they sort out the bugs in the new site."

"That makes sense. Why didn't SIA do this?"

"I have no idea, but a big bang is much cheaper."

Sadly myself, my girlfriend, and my colleague are not alone. Complaints about the new site on Twitter and Facebook are legion.

Long term impact of all this? Krisflyer miles and SIA's route network ensure the local market remains captive, but what of travellers in overseas markets such as the UK and Australia? I've not heard of any issues on the Qantas and British Airways sites lately.

However vexing the site 'upgrade' may be to SIA's prospective customers, eventually the airline will sort it out. Perhaps it will be superior to the old site, which many felt was excellent.

Advice to SIA: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." 

Two big news items today, one about China's new aircraft carrier, the other about India's. 

China, more or less, confirmed its carrier programme. Although the former USSR carrier Varyag is clearly visible in Dalian - apparently a great view is available from the bedroom section of Ikea - the country has never officially acknowledged the ship, though it has been crawling with workers for years. What's more, the ship has a new phased array radar and bristles with other antennas.

The Chinese language Hong Kong Commercial Daily quotes a senior Chinese officer, chief of the general staff Chen Bingde, confirming (finally) the programme's existence. He added that the ship is not ready - as China's internet community already knows.

Chen noted that the carrier is not for offensive purposes, but serves a defensive role given the pressures China faces on its various ocean frontiers in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea. Apparently the other countries that share these seas need not feel pressured by China's rhetoric ('we own the South China Sea') and major military build up. It is widely reported, incidentally, that the new carrier will bear the name Shi Lang, a Chinese admiral who conquered Taiwan in the 17th century.

Above is a clip about the Admiral Kuznetsov, the Varyag's sister in operation with the Russian navy. Apparently the Chinese have removed the SS-N-19 Granit anti-ship missiles carried in vertical tubes beneath the flight deck. If you can get through the Russian guys talking, it gives a fairly graphic depiction of the ship's missile and self-defence systems.

Meanwhile India Today reports that the INS Vikramaditya (pictured below) will sail to India early next year. This is consistent with recent comments to Flightglobal by the Indian Navy, which has just received five new RSK-MiG 29 K/KUBs, that the new ship will be in service in 18 months. It has been a long, long road. The carrier programme has been plagued by spats over costs and delayed work.

Both countries have long term plans beyond the Vikramaditya and Shi Lang. India plans two indigenous carriers equipped with catapults - the Vikramaditya will launch aircraft via ski jump. The catapults on the two new ips, which are expected to be in service by 2020, will enable heavier takeoff weights, as well as the deployment of airborne early warning & control (AEW&C) aircraft. The Indian navy has approached  Northrop Grumman for more information about the E-2D Hawkeye.

China's plans are less clear. The Shi Lang is widely expected to be used mainly as a training carrier. China is a newcomer to naval aviation and faces a long learning curve in deploying this capability. How many carriers she plans and their configuration is anybody's guess. 

The Airline Business team has had a busy few days covering the IATA 67th annual general meeting here in Singapore, where we put out three dailies. I had the opportunity to catch up with some airline CEOs on the sidelines of the meeting to find out what's happening, and among them was Thai Airways International president Piyasvasti Amranand, who recently announced some very exciting plans at Thai!

 

 

We also spoke to Malaysia Airlines CEO Azmil Zahruddin, who set the AGM buzzing on the first morning with the news that MAS had joined Oneworld. He tells us why he chose Oneworld over the others.

 

More videos from China.

First one shows more of the Chengdu J-20 undergoing flight tests, including a takeoff as well as a landing with the deployent of two chutes.

Second video shows the new Chinese carrier undergoing re-fitting. This thing is no secret, just look at all the civilian boats passing by. Surprising we are not getting more photo angles of the ship. At the end there is a nice clip of the Shenyang J-15 taxiing and taking off.

Apologies for the music with the carrier clip. The macho, 'let's kick butt' music that often accompanies these clips is a bit distracting.