Continental Star Alliance
In a decidedly seismic shift in the airline alliance world, Continental has officially departed SkyTeam and joined up with Star Alliance. The move fills a long-time hole in the alliance around NYC. Continental and United opted against a formal merger in June 2008, instead creating a comprehensive link up agreement throughout their route network. Continental will introduce a Star Alliance logojet on a wingletted Boeing 757-200 (N14120) and will be unveiled today.
UAL Retires its 737s
United will fly its final 737-300 flight on Wednesday when it flies IAD-ORD-DEN-LAX-SFO as United Flight 737. The aircraft will spend some time at SFO for decomissioning then on to Victorville for a desert retirement. This aircraft is the last of 94 737-300s and -500s to leave United's fleet, leaving A320s, A319s and 757s as airline's narrowbody workhorses.
A380 for Air France
Air France will take delivery of its first of 12 A380s on Friday in a handover ceremony in Hamburg. The 538-seat superjumbo will fly its first commercial service between CDG and JFK on November 23rd. The airline is the fourth to take delivery of the A380 and the first in Europe. In addition, F-HPJA (MSN033) will be the first A380 delivered with the new Brake-to-Vacate (BTV) and Runway Overrun Warning & Prevention (ROW/ROP) systems that were certified by EASA yesterday. Flight's David Learmount was given an up-close demonstration of both systems last spring. His account of the new technology in action is well worth the read.
Sitting Still
Believe it or not, I'm actually on the ground for the next two and a half weeks or so, which is a long time for me. Next trip will be to the UAE for the Dubai Air Show. It'll be my first flight on Qatar Airways and it's going to be a long one! Twelve hours and 40 minutes after departing Dulles (777-300ER) I will arrive in Doha for a quick stop over, then on to Dubai (A321). When it's all said and done, it will take a full day (time zones included) to get to the Dubai Air Show from DC. A lot has changed since 2007, so needless to say, it's going to be an interesting show.
787 Goings On
Second production 787 (ZA101/#8) is now in the paint hangar making way for Dreamliner 12 to begin final assembly, just as soon as the aft fuselage arrives from Charleston. That section 47/48 certainly may have an interesting story to tell.
Lijit Search
You may have noticed the new search bar on the left side of the page. The new dynamic search is enabled by a sevice called Lijit that I was introduced to at BlogWorldExpo. Lijit takes the average blog search and expands it to the universe of content available beyond the blog. For example, Lijit will now search FlightBlogger, my Flickr feed, LinkedIn Profile, Twitter updates, Twitpic uploads and YouTube videos to provide the broadest possible results for your searches.
Searches will pop-up inside FlightBlogger and provide four tabs of results: 1) Results from the blog. 2) Results from extended content. 3) Results from sites in my blogroll. 4) Google results.
In a decidedly seismic shift in the airline alliance world, Continental has officially departed SkyTeam and joined up with Star Alliance. The move fills a long-time hole in the alliance around NYC. Continental and United opted against a formal merger in June 2008, instead creating a comprehensive link up agreement throughout their route network. Continental will introduce a Star Alliance logojet on a wingletted Boeing 757-200 (N14120) and will be unveiled today.
UAL Retires its 737s
United will fly its final 737-300 flight on Wednesday when it flies IAD-ORD-DEN-LAX-SFO as United Flight 737. The aircraft will spend some time at SFO for decomissioning then on to Victorville for a desert retirement. This aircraft is the last of 94 737-300s and -500s to leave United's fleet, leaving A320s, A319s and 757s as airline's narrowbody workhorses.
A380 for Air France
Air France will take delivery of its first of 12 A380s on Friday in a handover ceremony in Hamburg. The 538-seat superjumbo will fly its first commercial service between CDG and JFK on November 23rd. The airline is the fourth to take delivery of the A380 and the first in Europe. In addition, F-HPJA (MSN033) will be the first A380 delivered with the new Brake-to-Vacate (BTV) and Runway Overrun Warning & Prevention (ROW/ROP) systems that were certified by EASA yesterday. Flight's David Learmount was given an up-close demonstration of both systems last spring. His account of the new technology in action is well worth the read.
Sitting Still
Believe it or not, I'm actually on the ground for the next two and a half weeks or so, which is a long time for me. Next trip will be to the UAE for the Dubai Air Show. It'll be my first flight on Qatar Airways and it's going to be a long one! Twelve hours and 40 minutes after departing Dulles (777-300ER) I will arrive in Doha for a quick stop over, then on to Dubai (A321). When it's all said and done, it will take a full day (time zones included) to get to the Dubai Air Show from DC. A lot has changed since 2007, so needless to say, it's going to be an interesting show.
787 Goings On
Second production 787 (ZA101/#8) is now in the paint hangar making way for Dreamliner 12 to begin final assembly, just as soon as the aft fuselage arrives from Charleston. That section 47/48 certainly may have an interesting story to tell.
Lijit SearchYou may have noticed the new search bar on the left side of the page. The new dynamic search is enabled by a sevice called Lijit that I was introduced to at BlogWorldExpo. Lijit takes the average blog search and expands it to the universe of content available beyond the blog. For example, Lijit will now search FlightBlogger, my Flickr feed, LinkedIn Profile, Twitter updates, Twitpic uploads and YouTube videos to provide the broadest possible results for your searches.
Searches will pop-up inside FlightBlogger and provide four tabs of results: 1) Results from the blog. 2) Results from extended content. 3) Results from sites in my blogroll. 4) Google results.
on October 27, 2009 1:43 PM | Reply
Maybe I missed this, but has Boeing indicated which line number will incorporate the wing fix? 3 months per a/c, the extra labor hours for each delivery are going to be copious
on October 27, 2009 8:13 PM | Reply
Did you consinder positioning to Toronto to catch the EK A380 to DXB? just a thought - no doubt you are required to take the cheapest-available flight. (Did you hear about the East Coast hacks who would fly to the Singapore Show via Frankfurt, ie through 13 time zones eastabout rather than 11 westabout via say Tokyo, just to save pennies? They said it didn't matter which way they flew, the time change would be the same when they got there...)
on October 28, 2009 3:36 AM | Reply
Mary Kirby reported on a787 Connectivity RFI (Request For Information) that Boeing has in the works. In it, they ask about the ability to support delivery in 3rd quarter of 2011.
Has Boeing inadvertently released their internally expected first delivery date for the 787?!
on October 28, 2009 9:55 AM | Reply
I suspect that the first planes will be bare bones IFE for ANA's 'local' flights. I suspect the connectivity won't come in until the trans- pacific or trans-atlantic carriers start flying. I have a feeling that the first year of service will be trying to get all the bugs out; Why would Boeing throw in a connectivity learning curve at that time? Makes the most sense to do this after the bugs from introduction are worked out. JMHO
on October 28, 2009 10:18 AM | Reply
Jon, we just wanted to say thanks again for giving Lijit a try on your blog and for letting your readers know about the value of our service.
It was a pleasure seeing you at Blog World and if you (or any of your readers) have any questions about Lijit, feel free to send them my way. I'm tara [at] lijit [dot] com and I'm happy to help!
on October 28, 2009 12:40 PM | Reply
What makes you say that the LN12 section 47/48 certainly may have an interesting story to tell?