A heart-warming and amazing experience occurred over this week which highlights the power and reach of blogging. On February 4th, I wrote an article about my friend, Marcel Hungerbuehler, taking over as CEO of BIAL, the company which operates the Bengaluru International Airport. In that article was a picture of Marcel. Two days ago, I received a comment from a …

Qantas announced plans for its new Indian services via Singapore, which will replace the discontinued direct services between the two countries. From June 2, flight QF51, will fly to Mumbai via Singapore on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The return flight QF52 to Singapore will operate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Qantas will use its Singapore hub to offer passengers connections …

Turkish Airlines has just released a statement refuting rumours in the media, circulating after the crash of their Boeing 737-800 VT-JGE at Schiphol airport near Amsterdam yesterday, and clarifying their aircraft maintenance procedures. The maintenance work of our aircraft has been carried out according to appropriate procedures. It has become an absolute necessity to make the statement given below over …

Airline body, International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced international scheduled traffic results for January showing a deepening year-on-year demand slump. International passenger demand fell by 5.6% in January 2009 compared to the same month in 2008, a full percentage point worse than the 4.6% year-on-year drop recorded in December, and the fifth consecutive month of contraction. Air cargo is a …

The new domestic departure terminal T1D at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) was inaugurated today by Mr. Praful Patel India’s Civil Aviation minister. The new terminal is located between the existing Domestic Arrival T1C and Domestic Departure T1A, and will raise the capacity of domestic departures to 10 million passengers per annum. The terminal is a dual level …

A Turkish Airlines (THY) Boeing 737-800 registration TC-JGE performing flight TK1951 crashed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport at 10:30 local (09:30Z) The plane carrying 135 passengers on a flight from Istanbul, broke in to three parts when attempting to land on Runway 36L near motorway A9. There is a massive presence of emergency vehicles and crew on the scene, and there …

Airbus A380-861 MSN045 currently registered as F-WWSG, and destined as the 10th A380 for launch customer Singapore Airlines made its first flight on February 23 and flew straight to Hamburg, where it will undergo outfitting for the Singapore Airlines’ luxurious interiors, and is expected to be delivered late this year and registered 9V-SKJ. The plane had a rejected take-off the …

A preliminary report into a crash of an Air New Zealand Airbus A320 jet last November off the coast of France, is pointing the cause toward its aircrew who were performing low speed tests, claiming “the flight crew’s failure to adhere to standard operating procedures”. As a result of the interim finding air safety regulators have issued urgent advice on …

Last week Air France took delivery of the first Boeing 777F freighter. Every new aircraft is given a water cannon salute, and for aviation romantics like me, it is always a poignant occasion, and one we do not see too often. Courtesy Liz Matzelle enjoy these two videos of the new “Le Freighter” being given its first shower, and then …

Bahrain based Gulf Air has confirmed an agreement to lease four new Boeing 777-300ERs (B77W in industry parlance) from Jet Airways of India. The agreement which was signed on February 22nd, calls for three aircraft to join its fleet in March, and the fourth in May. This deal was expected since January. Gulf Air is already wet-leasing two Airbus A330-200s …

A Lion Air Boeing MD90 registration PK-LIO performing flight JT-972, on February 23, 2009, had to perform an emergency landing while on a flight from Medan to Batam, both in Indonesia. The flight with 156 passengers and 6 crew, could not lower the nose gear while on approach to runway 04. While on approach to Batam the crew noticed, that …

Very rarely do I get an opportunity to combine my two passions of aviation and wine and write about it. A very special thanks to the In-flight Supervisor on a recent Singapore Airlines flight who went in to the first class cellar and served me a superlative Chateau Leoville Poyferre, St. Julien, Bordeaux. Even at 35,000ft, it was one the …

On February 9th, there was a near miss incident at Mumbai airport which involved the President of India. The Indian Air Force is at the receiving end of an article by 737 instructor pilot Captain A. Ranganathan, who complains that poor navigation, lack of communication with the control tower and non-conformation with procedures on the part of the navy pilots …

The natural tendency during a recession is to batten down the hatches, freeze all spending, and ride out the storm. There is also a school of thought which advocates increasing investments and advertising spend during a recession to increase market share, when customers are looking to change in an effort to obtain better value for their spend. Quite evidently, Sheikh …

This photograph by Digital Airliners taken just two days ago at Toulouse shows two Airbus A340-500’s. One is still painted in Kingfisher Airlines’ colours. Kingfisher had ordered five A340-500s, but defaulted on taking delivery last year. Three were diverted to Nigeria’s Arik Air, but it appears the balance two have become the dreaded white tail for Airbus, i.e. a jet …

A Northwest Airlines Boeing 747-400, registration N676NW performing flight NW2 from Manila, Philippines, to Tokyo Narita, Japan, with 408 passengers and 14 crew, was in a holding pattern near Chiba, 40nm south of Narita, about 30 minutes before landing with seatbelt signs turned on, when the airplane encountered severe turbulence and suddenly dropped from its assigned altitude of 15000 feet. …

An Antonov AN-12, belonging to Aerolift a cargo operator in Windhoek, Namibia, registration S9-SVN freight flight LFT-1015 from Entebbe, Uganda to Nikolaev, Ukraine with 5 crew on board, had diverted to Luxor (Egypt) due to shortage of fuel. After refuelling the airplane caught fire and burned down while taking off Luxor, killing all 5 occupants. According to the Egyptian Civil …

Boeing delivered the company’s first 777 Freighter (777F) to launch customer Air France Cargo in a ceremony at the Future of Flight Aviation Center Tour near Paine Field yesterday. The contractual delivery and airplane departure are scheduled for Friday, and Air France will land F-GUOC, at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport tomorrow, 21 February, to join the airline’s fleet. This video …

A passenger on Qantas flight QF032 from London to Singapore, went berserk, on Wednesday, after being caught smoking in the toilet as per news reports from Australia and Singapore. Believed to be in his 40s, the man set off a smoke alarm in the toilet of the plane. When the Qantas cabin crew tried to restrain him, he ran amok, …

A Super Puma helicopter with 18 people on board crashed in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland Wednesday. The helicopter ditched about 120 miles east of Aberdeen while approaching an offshore platform in the ETAP field. Four helicopters, including three in-field aircraft and a Sea King from RAF Lossiemouth, took part in the rescue. The Royal Air Force …