Economy Class & Beyond

SQ: Maybe there is money beyond the main cities…

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Singapore Air is a funny old beast of an airline, running A380's across the world and keeping its fleet relatively young.It's also had a link to Manchester for quite some time, that has been recently under strain when the direct service went patchy to 3 days a week, and finally, the service was switched to 5 days a week with a diversion to Munich to pick up more passengers.Well … [Read more...]

Airplane p0rn – Northwest 747-200

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It's that time of the week again, and it's time for some Airplane p0rn.This week - something from my archives - a Northwest Boeing 747-200 at Seattle-Tacoma, shot in 2008.  More airplane p0rn next week! … [Read more...]

Kingfisher passes OneWorld safety audit – on target for joining.

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As airline alliances are start starting to buddy up together, Kingfisher has successfully passed the first stages of membership - a safety audit, the approval approval from India's Ministry of Civil Aviation and completing a formal membership agreement, and moves up to the status of "Member Elect"At this time, Kingfisher is now negotiating all the bi-latteral agreements with … [Read more...]

US Airways offers Star Silver on Trial… but there are more strings attached.

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It seems everyones favourite Star Alliance member (not not BMI for once), is once again offering status for anyone who wants it.US Airways is offering in conjunction with Budget a 90 trial of Silver Preferred Status, on condition that your first buy a non refundable ticket for travel within the USA from them. To maintain Star Silver, you'll need to fly 10 US Airways segments or … [Read more...]

Finnair orders some A321’s… with Sharklets!

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Oh Pam Ann would love this (after all, she'll never fly anything that hasn't got a Winglet on it).Finnair has signed up with Airbus for them to provide Five A321's to replace it's 757 leisure fleet.  Whilst this is "small news", this the second order for Airbus A320 series aircraft with Sharklet winglets instead of the standard Airbus A320 series wingtip fences.Bur who … [Read more...]

Welcome to SkyTeam Vietnam Airlines

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Skyteam has formally accepted Vietnam Airlines as a member of it's alliance.The airline has been through a bit, but has modernised with long haul services, and short haul is slowly gaining respected traction - enough for a major alliance to sit up and pay attention to it.This adds 20 more destinations to SkyTeams  network, which is still smaller than Oneworld or Star … [Read more...]

Immigration: How not to do it…

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It seems that the UK is still an entry hotspot, and it's been highlighted in a lovely post on the BBC News site.It seems a 20-year-old Romanian wanted to escape Vienna, and stowed away in the rear wheel compartment of an aircraft, not knowing where it was heading. According to the CAA, there was a varity of way he could had been killed on the journey "If they don't find the … [Read more...]

Guess who wants more strikes? BA vs Unite…

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Well I've gone a few days without mentioning the BA vs Unite strike, so fittingly as the current round of stoppages are coming to the end, Unite has come along acting all big and strong saying it's preparing to ballot its members again on further strike action at BA.Oh LOVELY. The current legal protection to strike will end on the 11th June. For Unite to continue to strike, it … [Read more...]

TAM dances over to Airbus for more aircraft…

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(oh, it's the Internationale Luft- und Raumfahrtausstellung - ILA Berlin 2010 this week, so expect a few more of these..) TAM it seems has a few pennies in it's back pocket, and it aiming to strenghen itself now its a member of Star Alliance by going to Airbus and buying some more aircaft.In this order, TAM are ordering 20 x A320 series aircraft, and 5 x A350-900's. This in … [Read more...]

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