Economy Class & Beyond

Airplane p0rn – Spanair MD87

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It's Sunday again, so it must be time for some more airplane p0rn. This week, it's Spanair McDonnald Douglas MD87, painted up in Star Alliance colours parked up at Barcelona El Pratt Airport. More of course next week! … [Read more...]

BA: A Right Royal messup.

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It seems the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (or Prince Will and Kate Middlton to the rest of us) had a problem on the way home from the USA.The couple flew BA on a 747 from LA to London. Alas, the bird decided to have an IFE failure inflight. And as a result, service compensation went into play. Which, if you're stuck in BA First (and there are worse places to be in the world … [Read more...]

KE: Don’t Ding that new A380… oops. Too late.

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AVHerald picked this gem up. It seems a Korean Air Airbus A380 was landing at Tokyo Narita - an airport famed for it's mad winds sadly, made a landing - landing on one of the engine pods. I'll let the picture do the talking.Picture - avherald.comNot the most graceful of landings.The aircraft itself was able to right itself on landing, and rolled to the gate safely. The runway … [Read more...]

Shuttle Atlantis: Home Safe.

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Ok, this is nothing to do with commerical flight, but I don't care. An end of an era today as the Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down safely at Kennedy Space Centre today. Images: NASA. The landing brings to a close of 30 years of Space Shuttle programme. Atlantis will be put into a museum at the Kennedy Space Centre in the future. … [Read more...]

ANA and Air Asia to form Air Asia Japan

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It seems ANA want to really get into this Low Cost Carrier thing. As well as developing their own Lo-Co "Peach Aviation", they have also today annoucned a new joint venture with Air Asia to form Air Asia Japan.The aim is to go after the Japanese domestic market. As such, ANA and Air Asia have agreed not to attack the new airline - however the agreement allows Peach Aviation to … [Read more...]

AA: New Order – Airbus eeks ahead of Boeing.

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Surprisingly, American's orders for new aircraft will be a "win" for Airbus over BoeingFor Boeing frames it's 200 frames, split between the current 737NG models (700/800/900ER) and the "expected evolution of the 737NG" (the frame Boeing doesn't talk about - least of all they don't know what that frame looks like yet...)First Boeing 737's NG are expected from 2013.Meanwhile, … [Read more...]

AA: Massive Narrow Body renewal: Airbus and Boeing share the spoils….

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It seems American Airlines is in the mood to upgrade parts of it fleet, with the announcement today that has agreed with Boeing and Airbus to renew it's fleets. Under the new agreements, American will acquire 460 narrowbody aircraft from the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families beginning in 2013 in what American calls "the largest aircraft order in aviation history." Don't think … [Read more...]

BD: Off to Nice and Agadir

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It's never a dull minute at Castle Donnington where BMI have announced new routes to Agadir (Morocco) and Nice (France)The Nice service will commence on 25th August on a single return flight a day on the 25th August 2011, scaling up to 2 return flights a day from 30th October 2011. This will be operated with an A320. From 25 August – to 29 October 2011:BD195 Dept LHR … [Read more...]

BAA: Competition Commission says “Flog Stansted … and either Glasgow or Edinburgh “

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It seems that the Competition Commission has has enough of BAA, and has ruled it must sell Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports. This is a follow on from the case in 2009 where BAA was instructed to sell Gatwick as well (which it did unwillingly), and challenged the sale of the other airports. BAA is "dismayed" and is preparing to launch a judicial review - buying … [Read more...]