Economy Class & Beyond

The UK Civil Aviation Authority does something useful… a constantly updated list of fees…

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Now here is something useful from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (The CAA). A list of how airlines will get you. But more importantly, they will be keeping the list up to date. The list covered covers many of the major UK based airlines in a comparison table. It covers  the cost of taking hold luggage on board, having an in-flight meal and reserving specific seats is all … [Read more...]

ANA has Teething troubles with Long Haul 787 services…

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All Nippon Airlines seems to have some growing pains with it's introductory long haul 787 service, with 2 of the 10 flights operating between Tokyo-Haneda and Frankfurt so far. Whilst ANA has five 787's so far, only one of them is equipped for long haul duties (JA805A),  with a failure with the aircraft flap system on the ground at Toyko-Haneda with one incident, and … [Read more...]

United Economy Plus on all ex Continental Boeing 757-200’s.

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Good news if you're trapped in a long pencil plane that's going over the pond or going trans-continental. United Airlines have confirmed they have rolled out Economy Plus seating on all it's ex Continental Boeing 757-200's. For those new to United, Economy Plus gives you more legroom in the Economy cabin with varying degrees of space - from a derisory 3" extra on a 747 to … [Read more...]

Malev in more trouble

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It appears that the Hungarian carrier Malev appears to be in a precarious state, with Hungary taking steps to restructure the company - by passing a decree to protect the Malev from bankruptcy proceedings. Malev - one of the bigger occupiers of Budapest International Airport - was ordered to repay the state aid lent to it by order of the European Commission. The decree … [Read more...]

Cebu Pacific to start long haul operation

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It seems yet another low cost Asian carrier is going to have a go at trying to launch a Long Haul Low Cost Carrier. Cebu Pacific (most recently famous for their in-air safety demo to Lady GaGa's "Let's Dance") is to launch a service, operating up to eight Airbus A330-300's. They plan to operate to low-cost services to Australia, the Middle East, parts of Europe and the … [Read more...]

Rob Fyfe of Air New Zealand to go…

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News from New Zealand and Air New Zealand with Rob Fyfe resigning from the carrier - to leave at the end of the year. Rob Fyfe joined the airline in 2005, and has done his best to keep the airline afloat in troubling times. He is resigning from Air New Zealand to allow the airline's s "talented and capable" executives the room to realise their full potential  according to … [Read more...]

All back to normal with Amadeus

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It seems all has got better with Amadeus, with a posting on their blog released: Amadeus can now confirm that all airline systems are restored. Some travel agency customers may continue to experience service disruption which we are investigating. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused. A quick check of CheckmyTrip.com is running a bit slow, whilst the classic … [Read more...]

Rock me Amadeus… or work at least please…?

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It seems there are a few issues with Amadeus at the moment (the booking engine used by some airlines). Using the CheckmyTrip.com interface, after entering a valid PNR/Surname, you're normally able to examine your itineraries and such. Alas, The database seems broken at the moment, so it's not available via this interface. Which rather annoying if your airline uses … [Read more...]

Emirates to re-gauge Dubai-Dublin run

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Emriates recently launched a Dubai to Dublin service, and it seems to have gone down well. Well enough that Emirates has confirmed re-gauging of the service from the currently operated Airbus A330-300 to Boeing 777-300ER thanks to the 90% load factors that have appeared to be filling the planes. The service is being switched to a three class Boeing 777-300ER, configured … [Read more...]

Airplane Art – Spanair A320

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Time for a slightly bittersweet piece of airplane art. This week, it's a SpanAir Airbus A320 parked at Barcelona El Prat Airport in May last year. As we all know, Spanair has now folded after negotiations with Qatar Airways ground to a halt on Friday 27th January. More airplane art of course next week! … [Read more...]