Airlines across the globe are grounding planes, cutting capacity and delaying or even canceling orders for new aircraft as the global economic crisis hits both passenger and cargo air traffic. Add to this airline mergers like those of Delta-Northwest, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa-BMI, the proposed British Airways-Qantas, leading to industry consolidation, and in the worst cases even going out of business, …

While we passengers spend tons of money on noise reduction headphones, and drive cabin crews silly with our umpteen requests for earplugs, weary Emirates Airbus A380 pilots are complaining that they cannot sleep in their crew-rest area in the aft main cabin because the aircraft is too quiet!!! The pilots claim that the lack of engine noise in the A380’s …

Declaring victory, thousands of anti-government protesters in Thailand today ended their siege of country’s two main airports allowing landing of the first international flight in eight days, bringing relief to over three hundred thousand stranded passengers including Indians. Thousands of protesters came out of the Suvarnabhumi international airport in cars and trucks ending the siege prompted by the decision of …

Hamburg is cold and snowing, but it had warm news for Australian national carrier Qantas. Two QANTAS A380s all painted up. MSN015 (F-WWSL – VH-OQB) is seen here taxiing out with MSN022 (F-WWSS – VH-OQC) in the background. Both birds should be bound for warmer temperatures in the warm summer of Australia (in the southern hemisphere) very soon. Tipping my …

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum announced today a gift of $6 million for Phase Two of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center from Airbus Americas Inc. The gift is the largest corporate gift to the Smithsonian Institution in 2008. In recognition of the donation, the Imax Theater at the Udvar-Hazy Center will be named the Airbus Imax Theater. “The …

Airline also gets nod from MoCA for international operations from Mumbai and Kolkata The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) yesterday granted Kingfisher Airlines the permission to operate to eight international destinations and gave the go ahead to commence international flights from Mumbai and Kolkata. According to a report in the Times of India today, the airline has also got a …

Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS) is in talks with national carrier Air India to ink a pro-rata agreement for providing connectivity to its passengers from New Delhi to seven more domestic cities. According to a report in today’s Economic Times, SAS will also look at other areas of co-operation with Air India such as ground handling (maintenance and servicing of aircraft) …

Dr. Vijay Mallya spoke to Business Today magazine. Excerpts from that interview. The original article can be read here.———Can the ‘King of Good Times’ survive the turbulence in the current aviation downturn? In an exclusive interview that started well past midnight and continued for over two hours at his residence on Delhi’s tony Sardar Patel Marg, Mallya shed light on …

All international airlines operating to Bangkok, are preparing to resume operations to Suvarnabhumi International Airport by December 5th. Airlines are waiting for Thai officials to certify the airports are ready for operations. Inspection of systems at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi international airport will begin today. Most airlines indicate they will be able to resume flights on December 5th, subject to the Thai …

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