Economy Class & Beyond

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...]

It’s BACK! Safety Video Saturday – United Airlines 747-400/777-200

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It's Saturday, and it's back - Safety Video Saturday returns for a month or so as I've got some new content. However, to start of with, here's the new United Safety Video for a United 747. My comments are... below.. Right. Now you've watched it, and thinking what I'm thinking... Dear United.  Which focus group let this abomination through? The seems be little … [Read more...]

Spanair – Operations cease after running out of funds

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Continuing from yesterdays breaking story that Spanair has filed for bankruptcy, more details are emerging and the impact that is rippling through the Spanish Aviation industry. To recap: Spanair were declared to be "in an emergency financial situation" on Wednesday 25th January. the airline was in talks with Qatar Airways in purchasing a stake in the airline. On Friday the … [Read more...]

Spanair – Operations Suspended

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Well this sneaked up, but apparently, Spanair has suspended all flights after failed talks with Qatar Airways. Qatar Airways was in talks to buy a stake in Spanair, but it seems those talks have collapsed according the the Catalan regional government (who owns 80.1% of the company) and SAS who own 19.9%. A rescue effort was launched on the 25 January 2011, after the … [Read more...]

Passenger Focus UK: People are unhappy with rail fares. REALLY???

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It's time to wander back to the wacky world of the British Railway network, with Passenger Focus releasing it's latest customer satisfaction survey. And if you're a Rail company, you won't care really with the results as you've got an iron cast grip on some travel requirements. Based on a survey of 30,590 Rail Passengers between 1 September and 18 November 2011, only 46% … [Read more...]

The sting in the tAAil – American Airlines 777-300ER

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So all the buzz has been about American Airlines launching a new Business class product with a 1-2-1 business product which admittedly, does look lovely. However, like everything there is a sting in the tail - enough for me to avoid these birds if I ever fly American Airlines. And it's down the back. Ignoring the obvious of a very nice IFE screen, power at seat, … [Read more...]

Alitalia plans to merge with two other airlines

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The Cranky Flyer's favourite target - Alitalia -  has made a tentative agreement to merge with two other Italian operators Blue Panorama and Wind Jet. Now those of you scratching your head will probably have never heard of these airlines. There's probably good reasons for that as Blue Panorama is a charter outfit operating a small fleet of Boeing 767's, Boeing 757's and … [Read more...]

Norwegian Air Shuttle splashes the cash – orders a lot of birds….

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Well it seems someone has a few pennies to spend, with Norwegian Air Shuttle opening its wallets to both Boeing and Airbus. From Boeing,  Norwegian has placed a firm order for Boeing 737-MAX's (737-8MAX variant) and 22 Boeing 737-800's. Meanwhile not to leave Airbus out in the cold, it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with them for 100 A320NEO's. In addition, … [Read more...]