Economy Class & Beyond

Kingfisher… floundering?

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It seems that the airline Kingfisher is foundering. Quite badly. On Friday, Kingfisher cancelled more flights, and its shares sunk on it revealing it is almost $1.2billion in debt, and is trying to raise cash. The founder - Vijay Mallya - insists the airline will not close, but will rationalise itself and reconfigure itself. And that could be too little too late with … [Read more...]

Remembrance Day

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I’ll take a moment to stop yattering about A380′s, Boeing 787's, Mad aircraft deployments and all the normal stuff that I talk about about - to talk about something a bit more important today - Remembrance Day. If it was not for those people who have given their lives in conflicts around the world, it would simply be not possible to travel the world in freedom we expect … [Read more...]

Hong Kong Airlines confirm Gatwick as their UK destination

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Yesterday, I wrote about Hong Kong Airlines starting up it's all business class service between Hong Kong and London. Well it seems Hong Kong Airlines have settled on a route and times. The planes will be heading to London Gatwick (in line with a few operators who are either new to the airport - Vietnam Airlines, Lufthansa - or have switched from Stansted in the case of … [Read more...]

Airbus: A350 is going to be late, A340 is no longer for sale.

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Two bits of news from Airbus today. Firstly, the Airbus A350 unsurprisingly.. is going to be late (and anyone who thought the A350 would be on time really needs to look at the recent history of new aircraft deliveries from both Boeing and Airbus). The A350-900's schedule has now slipped to "final assembly" beginning in early 2012, and Entry into Service to the first … [Read more...]

FCO posts its latest “Odd requests for help”. May Induce Laughter…

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The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has released it's latest list of "Odd requests for assistance. And some of these are just comedy gold. Here's a few requests the poor people at the FCO have had to handle A telephone number for Phil Collins Phoning the Sydney Consulate to ask what clothes he should pack for his holiday Asking them to sell a house in Sofia A lady … [Read more...]

Hong Kong Airlines to deploy single class business product on LON-HKG…

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Here's a good one. Hong Kong Airlines has decided to sell tickets on a new route. Nothing new you might think, except this will be a single class route between London and Hong Hong. With Business Class Seats. Tickets will go on sale in December, with flights launching in March 2012. Hong Kong Airlines plan to operate this with *three* A330-200, configured with 34 lie-flat … [Read more...]

Transaero orders more aircraft… this time Boeing 747-8i’s….

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Remember a couple of weeks ago I wrote about Transaero ordering some Airbus A380's? Well it seems Transareo are at it again, this time ordering big aircraft from Boeing, with a preliminary agreement to order four Boeing 747-8 passenger aircraft. Transaero is planing for these planes to be fitted in a four-class configuration with about 460 seats installed. Transaero is … [Read more...]

United to launch Manchester (UK) route

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United is beavering away, and has announced the launch of a Manchester <> Washington Dulles Route Subject to approval, the following flights will operate: DEPART MAN 12:00  ARRIVE IAD 15:00 DEPART IAD 22:15 ARRIVE MAN 10:20+1 Operates Daily Commencement: May 2012 (Subject to approval) Equipment Booked: CO 757-200 You'll note the equipment used - a Continental … [Read more...]