Economy Class & Beyond

Alitalia boosts services at London City

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It seems London City Airport is doing a good job of pull inning in more services with Alitalia adding an extra service. Alitalia will add extra services Milan Linate and launching a new route to Rome. Milan-Linate - London City will increase to 18 flights a week for the current 11 from the 31st March Meanwhile, on the 1st April, the Rome - London City route will open … [Read more...]

Etihad buddies up further with… Garuda Indonesia

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Another day, another Etihad partnership update it seems. This time, Etihad and Garuda Indonesia will be adding codeshares, and adding earn and burn between the two airlines frequent flyer programmes. themselves. Garuda Indonesia will be adding Etihad's EY flight code on routes from Jakarta to: Amsterdam via Abu Dhabi Balikpapan Denpasar … [Read more...]

Lufthansa to take a cut to First Class Cabins

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Lufthansa is to take an axe to some of its first class seats aboard its international services by 25% according to Bloomberg. The cuts will be targeted in two ways - on certain routes (such as Vancouver) and plane classes (Airbus A340-300 and Boeing 747-400). Chief Executive Officer Christoph Franz says: "They’ll serve routes where there is simply no more demand for … [Read more...]

787 Watch: Batteries in the ANA 787 incident showed signs of swelling

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Time to turn our attention back to the 787, and to the issues with batteries that the class is having. Investigators in Japan have been analysing the lithium-ion battery that powers the auxiliary power unit (APU) have revealed swelling in two of the eight cells - as well the main battery aboard the plane (also Li-ion) failed and overheated too. Investigators have been … [Read more...]

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

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And a happy Chinese New Year to all my readers. The coming of Chinese New Year is marked by many things - red lanterns, firecrackers, red packets and of course - travel so that families can reunite for the New Year period. And the travel part normally applies to me as I normally head to my parents for the weekend. Alas this year, other things have conspired against … [Read more...]

Iberia mangment and unions fall out – strikes ahead

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After a short period to negotiate, Iberia and its unions have once again fallen out over job cuts, with 5 days of continuous strike action to take place. No date has currently been set, although it is expected to take place in the 2nd half of February. The Unions rejected a plan that would cut the initial 4500 job cuts to 3,147, 30 percent,  lower wage reductions and … [Read more...]

Boeing goes on the defensive again over 787 batteries

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Boeing it seems is on the full defensive on the use of Lithium-Ion Batteries in its 787 Dreamliner plane in a rebuttal from Elon Musk (of Tesla Cars and SpaceX) who states the batteries shipped to Boeing are "fundamentally unsafe". As you're all aware, the 787 Dreamliners are all sitting on the ground after two battery incidents with the aircraft. In the FlightGlobal … [Read more...]

Safety Video Saturday – Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium… with Mega Mindy

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It's time to place your seat in the upright position, stow your tray tables and ensure the isles are clear as it's time for this week's Safety Video. This week, it's from Thomas Cook Airlines who seem to have employed Mega Mindy (a children's show in Belgium), with Samson and Gert (another Belgium children's Tv show... and err. Yes. well... this is really one to watch... and … [Read more...]

Airplane Art – United Airlines Boeing 747-400

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It's Sunday again, and whilst I'm cold and snowbound, it must be time for some more airplane art. This week, it's an United Airlines Boeing 747-400 in classic Blue Tulip (and a bit of a dirty tail) taxing at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. The image is clickable if you want to see a larger version – and yes you can keep them for your desktops! More … [Read more...]

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