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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The Telegraph is reporting “the leader of a group of anti-government protesters in Thailand says the week-long siege of Bangkok’s airports will end on Wednesday morning.” The blockade of Bangkok airport will end on Wednesday (December 3) after a court in Thailand dissolved the ruling party and banned the prime minister Somchai Wongsawat from office for five years, but the …

While airlines have seen one of their biggest expenses, fuel, come down in price, they are still struggling to find demand as the world’s major economies contract, and tis the season of industry consolidation. British Airways on Tuesday said it’s holding merger talks with Australian national carrier and fellow OneWorld alliance partner, Qantas Airways, in a deal that could combine …

Just received an update from Jet Airways, indicating it has mounted relief operations for transporting stranded passengers at Bangkok, due to the political unrest in Thailand and consequent closure of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. Since Wednesday, 26 November, 2008, Jet Airways is operating relief flights into and out of Utaphao (U TaPao IATA:UTP), a naval base airport in Thailand, from its …

The plan was link the two “Silicon” hubs – Bangalore and San Francisco on this Faced with huge losses, and a diving economy, Kingfisher Airlines was forced to shelve its plans to procure the ultra long range Airbus A340-500. These aircraft were instead diverted to Nigerian carrier Arik Air. As per an Airbus press release Arik Air, based in Lagos, …

This incident reported by the Times of India Kolkata takes the cake for serious goof-ups. Monday December 1, 2008 Time: 14:44 local (0914 Zulu). SpiceJet Bagdogra-Kolkata flight SG 324 is approaching Kolkata airport for landing. The pilot radios the air traffic controller on duty for clearance. The controller asks the pilot to align the aircraft to land on the secondary …

The “Zero Commision” ruckus has been ratcheted up another step, by the travel agents. As per various news reports, In a move aimed at forcing airlines to revoke their decision to withdraw the five per cent commission, previously built-in to the ticket prices, and paid to the travel agents, over 2,500 travel companies, including IATA travel agents and online travel …

Boeing Co. engineers ratified a four-year contract offer, which Boeing and SPEEA had reached in a tentative agreement in mid November. Boeing engineering and technical employees represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) IFPTE Local 2001 ratified four-year collective bargaining agreements covering nearly 21,000 employees in Washington, Oregon, California and Utah. SPEEA announced the result today …

In an open letter to the Prime Minister, Dr. Omkar Goswami says our governments have created a state that is completely unprepared to deal with growing terrorism. Dear Prime Minister On 13 January 1898, Emile Zola wrote an open letter to the French president in a major daily titled J’Accuse (I Accuse). It accused the government of anti-Semitism and the …

Coupled with the recent terror attacks in Mumbai which will hit air traffic, this step by Air India (merged with the old Indian Airlines), will definitely increase the pressure on private carriers Jet and Kingfisher to reduce air fares by pruning the fuel surcharges. Air India announced a reduction in fuel surcharge for all domestic sector flights by INR 400 …

PTI reports, V P Agarwal, a senior Board member of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), will take over as its Chief from January 1, 2009. As per official sources, the appointment of Agarwal, who will replace Dr K Ramalingam, has been approved by the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet. Agarwal has been Member (Planning) of the state-owned airports …