November 2009 Archives

Sorry, that was a lie to lure you here. Thankfully a Eurofighter Typhoon wasn't shot [down] by troops in an Alenia Aeronautica Spartan C-27J transport vehicle over the UAE desert.

The team at Eurofighter wanted some video footage of the fighter jet performing some manoeuvres over the desert in the UAE. And Flightglobal can rightly boast about going behind the scenes of the industry as I took my place in the jumpseat of the Spartan in place of RunwayGirl Mary Kirby who was unable to attend, so that I could record some footage of the event. And this is the result...

Before meeting up with the Eurofighter in the desert, Marco Venanzetti, Alenia Aeronautica's chief of flight operations showed me what the transport aircraft was capable of. If you've seen it perform an aerial display at any of the great air shows then you'll know it's able to go up and under and round before levelling again.

I was told later that Marco was "showing off because there was a lady present". I have a message for Marco: "You truly turned my world upside down."

Beat Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger's fantasy football team's performance to win VIP tickets to next year's FIFA World Cup™ Finals in South Africa including travel and accommodation. 

 

Official sponsors of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, Air BP's lubricants division is offering the chance to win tickets through its own online fantasy football-style game, Performance Manager.

Anyone in the aviation industry can select a team, before 5 December 2009, and even create a mini-league to compete against their colleagues.

The players you choose will score points based on their performance during the 2009/10 English Premier League football season.

Point-scoring starts 5 December 2009, but you can pick your team now. 

Paul Lowther, Global Marketing Communications Manager for Aviation lubricants, explains: "Performance Manager is all about using analysis and insight to perform at the highest level, consistently and reliably."

• Create your own fantasy football team 

As reported by the New Statesman, easyJet is withdrawing its in-flight magazine easyJet Traveller for the month.

The latest issue of the in-flight magazine featured two unsanctioned photographs of models posing in designer clothes among the famous concrete blocks of the "Field of Stelae", Germany's foremost memorial to commemorate the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide.

The magazine did not seek permission from the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which only became aware that the photographs existed when contacted by the New Statesman yesterday.

In a statement, the Memorial's director, Uwe Neumärker, said it "grants permissions only to projects which are related to the memorial, the Holocaust or some aspect of commemoration."

"The Foundation Memorial does not support commercial shoots, and fashion photography is considered to fall into this category."

EasyJet outsources its in-flight magazine to publisher Ink, which boasts it publishes "more inflight magazines for more airlines than any other publisher in the world". It also publishes the in-flight magazine for AirTran, Gulf Air, and Jetstar, amongst others.

Ignoring lapses of oversight at many levels, the more curious question is: what was the photographer thinking having a photo shoot at the memorial?

What is it with all these people (and not Tom Hanks in The Terminal) living in airports?

The Financial Times reports:

Mr Feng has been haunting the halls of Japan's Narita airport since being turned away from his own country by Shanghai police on November 4.
...
Mr Feng's presence in the airport no-man's-land stems from his outrage at his treatment by Chinese authorities and Japanese airline All Nippon Airways.

Mr Feng, a Chinese human rights activist on behalf of individual Chinese complaining of illegal mistreatment at official hands, says Shanghai police, assisted by an ANA employee, physically forced him on to a flight back to Japan after he was barred from returning home for the eighth time.

"I refuse to enter Japan. For a Chinese to be kidnapped and taken to Japan like this is a humiliation for me and a humiliation for China," he told the Financial Times during an interview in a Narita corridor.

...

ANA said its staff had needed to use "just a little bit" of force to ensure Mr Feng was on the flight, since it was already an hour late and Shanghai authorities had made clear it could not depart until he was on board.

Update 17 November: the e-mail in question was sent to one million members

Last Friday--13 November--Southwest Airlines cheekily wrote a blog post saying travel figures for the day had not dropped and thus passengers were not superstitious of the legendary "Friday the 13th".

Virgin Blue, unfortunately, did not fare so well.

A processing error accidentally upgraded "many" (the airline won't say how many) of its Velocity frequent flyers, including yours truly, to its top-tier gold elite status for one year. Normally gold status is obtained after accumulating 50,000 status credits. Gold has the perks of complimentary lounge access (which otherwise costs $369 a year), priority boarding and checking, and free checked luggage.


Two and a half hours later Virgin Blue sent a message saying "Friday the 13th strikes!" The carrier apologised and informed passengers that no, they were not elites.


While the carrier's mistake is easily forgivable, there were naturally were some displeased passengers venting on Twitter. The ACCC, Australia's consumer watchdog, said it would investigate any complaints but was unlikely to take action.

Last night at the 2009 Dubai air show the Flightglobal achievement award for aviator of the year went to US Airways Captain Chesley Sullenberger, who famously landed an A320 in the Hudson River last January.

Sullenberger's win for his phenomenal skills remind us preparation and training are two keywords in this industry. But perhaps there are times when preparation goes too far, or at least too public.

As reported from Gulf News, Oman Air with government and airport agencies staged a drill to respond to a hypothetical aircraft crash.

The Oman Air website even put up a condolence message from their CEO for 'those killed in the crash'.

The crash announcement on the website said: "Exercise Exercise Exercise Exercise 13th November 2009 11:14 hrs. Revised information indicates that Flight WY900 had a total of 158 people on board, there are 126 injuries, 29 fatalities (including all 8 crew) and 3 unaccounted for. It is further reported that there are five resident fatalities."

Anyone know of any other drills that got mistaken for a real incident?

Last week's TWEEK (review of trending aviation topics on Twitter) was Star Alliance-heavy with the Star Mega DO following Continental's entry in Star Alliance. This week Mexicana became the 11th member of the Oneworld alliance. You can see photos of Mexicana's Oneworld-themed aircraft here.

The A380 has been in service for two years and we produced a special report. One of the more popular features was the comparison of A380 cabins (here for Singapore, Qantas, and Emirates and here for Air France).

Last week saw the launch of the Flightglobal iPhone application. It gives you all the latest news from Flightglobal. It's free so go ahead and download it, give it a whirl, and let us know how it is.

Some other popular articles included:

• EU research budget cannot cut aircraft emissions says UK
• Boeing officially confirms install of 787 wing fix
• Does Malta really need its own airline?
• FAA to reinforce controller training for loss of radio communication

Finally, it's the 2009 Dubai air show!  There will be lots of Tweeting about the show. You can search for the #DXB09 keyword or view the Tweets with our handy Dubai Tweet directory.

Photo from AirSpace user Wowbagger

The Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, unveils its 2010 line-up - and for the first time, it includes a female pilot.

Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore from Lincolnshire previously served as a Flying Instructor, teaching students to fly the advanced fast jet trainer at RAF Valley, before flying the Tornado GR4 on operations in Iraq.

From the BBC, which has a great video of Moore giving a tour of a Red Arrows aircraft.

Despite all the fanfare last month, some Internet sites are clearly struggling to remember that Continental Airlines has joined Star Alliance. Like this one.

 

 

 

As part of low cost carrier Ryanair's launch of its 2010 Cabin Crew Charity Calendar earlier today, three local cabin crew braced themselves for chilly autumnal London temperatures to pose for pictures in front of hundreds of photographers and eager onlookers.

 

 

 The airline aims to raise €110,000 for UK charity KIDS which provides support to disabled children in the UK. The calendars are available on the Ryanair website for €10.

KIDS, through its web-based Direct Short Breaks service, gives disabled children and their families access to regular  and much needed short breaks.

 

The latest calendar was shot at Ryanair's Alicante base in September.

Ryanair's press officer Stephen McNamara said: "Ryanair's cabin crew stunners once again strip off for charity and this year they're doing it for the KIDS charity. Every year the calendar sells like hot cakes and the 2010 edition won't be available for long.

"Ryanair's cabin crew have raised almost €300,000 for charity over the past three years".

KIDS chief executive, Kevin Williams said: "It's great when a bit of fun can serve such a serious purpose."

More pictures - 

• Gallery of images from the 2010 Calendar
• 2008 Ryanair Charity calendar
• 2009 Ryanair Charity calendar

In another example of art imitating life, George Clooney is starring in Up In the Air, a film about a frequent flyer mile hoarding businessman who loves traveling and found a woman who loves it too--but suddenly his company grounds him and puts him back at the desk.

Last month Gabriel Leigh made a documentary about frequent flyers.

Who knew such a relatively small group could garner so much interest?

Check out Clooney's advice on how to navigate those pesky security queues. The film hits cinemas next month.

Stuck on a layover with nothing to do?

No worries. Travel + Leisure has compiled a list of the strangest activities at airports around the world, from 4D movies in Hong Kong to teeth cleaning in Sao Paulo.

Read about it here.

After a bit of a delay, here's what was popular over the last week on Twitter.

The story of the errant Northwest A320 was still on the minds of the Twitterati with our story of FAA Administrator Babbitt defends revoking licenses of Northwest laptop pilots

Safety concerns continued with No survivors as Il-76 crashes in eastern Russia

and two more articles:

Rockwell Collins: New avionics for a safer runway

Sleep cycle factors strongly in new ALPA pilot fatigue policy: Natural circadian rhythms factor strong

In-flight entertainment and connectivity proved to still be a hot topic with this article drawing attention:
Boeing ranks the cost of new commercial jet subsystems: #1 engines; #2 in-flight entertainment

Out of London was the news BA is considering one-cabin only short-haul flights from Gatwick

In the US, one hot topic was NASA's decision to fund Boeing for open rotor noise study

Last week was the Star Mega DO, the largest-ever gathering of frequent flyers. Holding various Star Alliance frequent flyer memberships, the group stopped by Chicago, Newark, Frankfurt, Oslo, and Toulouse. On their journey they visited the offices of United, Continental, Lufthansa, SAS, and Airbus. In Oslo, user nickpiggott Tweeted, flight attendants sang on an aircraft wing inside a hangar while the snow fell outside. For more, search for the tag #starmegado.
 
Also last week was the first flight of the A330-200F, and the Twitterati were keen to see photos of the first flight.

On the topic of social media, a shout out goes to Simpliflying's Shashank Nigam, who was awarded the Global Brand Leadership Award for airline branding.

Finally, what would a week be if Ryanair wasn't in the news? Ryanair received lots of attention with its pressuring of Boeing and threat to cancel 737 orders.

Last month Air NZ turned one of its LA-Auckland flights into a special "matchmaking" flight. Passengers who sign up have in-flight mingling activities, a special ball in Auckland, as well as general time to socialise--and hopefully find Mr/Miss Right.

Did it work?

Well apparently so. One passenger wrote about her experience and at the end said as a result of the flight she's now in a relationship--with one of the pilots who was on board the matchmaking flight.

Who knew you could fine love at 35,000 feet?

From a Sikorsky statement:

Sikorsky Global Helicopters, a business unit of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., has delivered a new VIP S-76C++™ helicopter to the Royal Travel Office for use by the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. Sikorsky is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp.

Sikorsky has provided helicopters to support the Royal Family since the early 1950's, including the R4, S-51, S-55, S-58, S-58T, S-76B and the S-76C+ helicopters. The new S76C++ helicopter entered service in September.

"The new S76C++ helicopter will continue to provide the Royal Family with a high quality and efficient helicopter travel service," said Captain Christopher Pittaway, Manager and Chief Pilot of The Queen's Helicopter Flight. "It most closely meets the mission requirements by providing a quiet and comfortable cabin environment, low carbon footprint and best value for money.  We have enjoyed excellent product support from Sikorsky over many years and I look forward to a continued relationship."  

Carey Bond, President, Sikorsky Global Helicopters, said: "The S-76C++ helicopter has distinguished itself by its quality, safety, performance and style as an aircraft of choice for VVIP transport. We are honored that the Royal Family and so many others entrust their safety and comfort to us."  

 The S-76C++ helicopter features engine, air vehicle, interior and avionics upgrades.  These include a more powerful Turbomeca Arriel 2S2 Engine, an inlet barrier filter to protect the engine against erosion and environmental contaminants, a new VIP interior, a new optional Health and Usage Monitoring System and a quiet main gearbox using Quiet Zone™ technology that significantly reduces interior noise levels without any weight maintenance penalties.

The S-76® helicopter serves a multi-mission role that includes offshore oil transport, VIP transport, including head of state, emergency medical transport, search and rescue and civil defense. The S-76C++ helicopter was initially certified by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in January 2006.  More recently, it was certified for unconstrained operations in extreme snowy conditions. The European Aviation Safety Agency certified the type design in July 2006, allowing for the export of the S-76C++ helicopter to all European Union countries.

Attention Twitter users, we have two new accounts for you to follow.

For in-flight entertainment and connectivity news, follow @FG_IFEC

For aviation and the environment news, follow @FG_Environment

Thanks to the list function on Twitter, you can easily find and follow all of our accounts here.

Hi Stefan here.

FlairJet recently took delivery of its Phenom 100 which took off from Orlando. I was lucky enough to be invited to travel on the first UK 'G' registered Embraer Phenom 100 (G-SRBN).

We touched down at its new home at London Oxford Airport,  at 15.28 (GMT) on 29 October. At the controls were Oxford-based FlairJet CEO and Capt David Fletcher and Capt Graham Rose.

We were met by the FlairJet team at the Oxfordjet FBO with champagne at the ready. I might have had more than my fair share.

The journey back began from Orlando where FlairJet attended the 62nd NBAA show and picked up the aircraft.

Last minute changes meant we needed to fly from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale in the Phenom 100, then from Miami to Sao Paulo by a scheduled TAM flight. 

FlairJet formally accepted the aircraft from Embraer in Sao Jose dos Campos following the certification of airworthiness issued by the UK CAA. The delivery was completed in two stages with the Phenom 100 originally leaving Embraer's Brazilian facility for delivery to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

See the rest of our route  below and click on the images of me.

 

It was truly a Phenom-enal journey(!) and although it wasn't the most direct route, it meant I got acquainted with FlairJet and its new aircraft.

Capt Fletcher said: "The aircraft handled brilliantly. It was a joy to fly, especially the spectacular approaches into the Caribbean, the Dutch Antilles of St Maarten and the fjords of Narsarsuaq, Greenland."

Total 'delivery' flying mileage was 7,730nm. Capt Fletcher, former pilot on Monarch Airlines' Airbus A320, compared flying the two aircraft: "In many ways, the Phenom is similar to the A320 with its intelligent flight management system and ease of operation, but it is much more fun to fly."

• Flightglobal Business & General Aviation Editor Kate Sarsfield reports on the Phenom 100 delivery to FlairJet...  

From the third-quarter results of SAS Group today:

 

 

Er...nothing, really. Airbus assures me that this isn't a made-in-Toulouse version of the 'tall vehicle, low bridge' gaffe, which would have been unfortunate timing given that the A330-200 freighter is scheduled to make its maiden flight tomorrow.

Although the appearance of the vertical fin in this photo, from the Skyliner site, has prompted one or two comments in web-world, a chap close to the programme says the working party had removed the Flight Test Installation end-cap for a minor modification. It's already back in place ready for 'le grand spectacle'.

 

The London Times has a great collection of tales from cabin crew.

"A lady boarded with the biggest hair and became quite on edge when she saw she had a window seat. She told me: 'I can't sit there, I've just had my hair done and have an important meeting when we get there. If anyone opens the window, it'll be ruined.'"

You can read the rest here. If you have stories of your own, please share in the comments section.

Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann recently predicted Ryanair's demise, saying, "I think the Ryanair model is coming to an end. The more Ryanair flies to a destination, the more losses taken by the airport and the local tax payers wont stand for that."

Ryanair responded by saying, "We only reply to airlines that have a significant market share. Germanwings is the fly on the arse of the airline industry, so we're not going to bother."

Another day in the world of European LCCs.

For an assignment at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley,  frequent flyer miler hoarder Gabriel Leigh decided to make a documentary about his fellow frequent flyer mile accumulators.

His result is a 20 minute look into the fascinating--or bewildering, depending on your point of view--world of frequent flyer programmes. As the occasional mileage runner, I could easily relate to the video. The highlight for me was hearing how one mileage runner found an $8 fare between two cities in Thailand and hired local Thais to fly the route multiple times a day for 6 weeks. The organizer (who I presume took control of his workforce's accounts) ended up with over a million frequent flyer miles--and an inquiry from the Drug Enforcement Agency about if he was actually flying drug mules around Thailand.

This is 20 minutes but exceptionally well put together and worth your time.

Frequent Flyer from Gabriel Leigh on Vimeo.

The Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (GAPAN) has awarded the Master's Medal to the crew of US Airways Flight 1549, for an exemplary exercise in ditching their Airbus A320 in the Hudson River near New York with no injury or loss of life.

The detailed citation on the crew's work that day, 15 January 2009, includes this statement: "The crew quickly cleared all the passengers: parents with children, an elderly woman, and dozens of people travelling on business. Capt Sullenberger then walked up and down the cabin, twice, to make sure everyone was out. He then took a final look at his sinking aircraft, grabbed the maintenance logbook and jumped onto a life-raft that was then filled with passengers."

The presentation took place at the Guildhall in the City of London on 29 October, and the medal was received on behalf of the crew by the aircraft commander, Capt Chesley Sullenberger, and two of his cabin crew, Donna Dent and Sheila Dail.

 

 

Not present for the ceremony were the flight's First Officer Jeff Skiles and Flight Attendant Doreen Welsh.

The awards were presented by the Guild's Master, Rear Admiral C Cooke-Priest, and the immediate Past Master Air Commodore R Peacock-Edwards.

GAPAN also presented Flight International with its Award for Aviation Journalism. The citation noted Flight's work in "charting the major events and developments in aviation and making sense of them to both the general public and to the professionals since its first issue was published 100 years ago on 2 January 1909, weeks after Cody's 'hop' at Farnborough."

It added: "Flight International's team of committed and knowledgeable journalists under the current editorship of Murdo Morrison, are trusted by the people they interview and in turn trusted by their readers to deliver factually accurate and balanced information and well-informed insights. They provide a valuable service to the general media of providing expert comment to explain the complexities of aviation to a public audience."

The Award was accepted on behalf of the Flight International team by Operations and Safety Editor David Learmount.

The Guild presented more than 20 Awards for outstanding services to aviation that evening. A list of the Award winners can be found on the GAPAN website.

Related blog:

LEARMOUNT: Opening doors onto the Hudson River

LEARMOUNT: Why Sully succeeds

Related stories:

Hudson crash: A320's engines lost power simultaneously - including CNN video news report

Archive:

The Cody Flyer

 

Head over to our DEW Line blog to hear the story of a passenger who ejected himself from an aircraft mid-flight.

Out of London this morning is Michael O'Leary's proclamation (no, not about needing a better deal from Boeing on more 737s, and no, not the BBC documentary was biased) that Ryanair could overtake British Airways as the largest domestic British carrier.

(It was at this point O'Leary qualified his statement, saying that would occur only if the carrier could obtain more favorable rates on new 737s.)

Ryanair's headline-grabbing tactics aside, Ryanair will very likely overtake BA. This decade has seen the shift of low-cost and secondary carriers overtake their legacy counterparts. In Australia, Virgin Blue (which is a "new world airline", not a LCC) offers more domestic flights than Qantas, the country's dearly-held carrier.

In America, LCCs like Southwest and jetBlue have become traveler's carrier of choice. In the next decade, we'll likely see this trend continue.

For once, Michael O'Leary wasn't all about hot air.

No, it's not The Terminal, but a former airline pilot lived for two weeks in a Brazil airport until authorities removed the German man.

There are conflicting reports if the man was waiting for his girlfriend or had been broken up with. Either way, the man was apparently out of money and decided to stay at the airport.

While the man was no longer a pilot, this is a reminder of increasing public awareness that being a pilot--and working for an airline in general--is far, far gone from its golden days.

Our very own David Learmount recently said why you shouldn't marry a pilot. For further evidence, consider the cohort of airline pilots that live in a parking lot at LAX.