AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR), the parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle, today announced the largest order in aviation history of 460 narrow-body single aisle jet aircraft with another 465 on option. This tops the recent record setting orders of 180 Airbus A320 family aircraft by India’s IndiGo, and 200 A320neo aircraft by Malaysia’s AirAsia. The deliveries will commence …

Last week saw yet another dastardly attack against the citizens of India in general and Mumbai in particular. As per the Government of India, there was no prior intelligence warning of the Mumbai blasts. Across the world, governments have realised the importance of involving and engaging the local community to ensure a flow of information, especially on strangers or unknown …

The Mid-Day is quite a famous newspaper in the financial capital of India, Mumbai. On July 8th, the Mumbai Police quite literally terrorised one of the papers accredited photographers Sayed Sameer Abedi who recounts the horrors he faced in this article. His alleged crime? Taking photographs of an airplane without the permission of the Mumbai Police. Bangalore Aviation readers can …

Boeing brought its 787 Dreamliner ZA002 test registration N787EX in to India’s capital New Delhi earlier today. Fellow plane spotter Uday Krishna captured this photo and has graciously agreed to share it with Bangalore Aviation. Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA002 N787EX on finals to runway 11 Delhi airport. Click on image for a larger view This photo courtesy of the airport …

Thai Airways recently upgraded its Bangkok Bangalore service to a Boeing 777-200ER five times a week. One of the neat features of this aircraft is a nose camera that gives a pilot’s view of landings and take-offs. Here is a capture from the flights IFE AVOD system. Loved the smooth approach to Runway 27 despite the mild monsoon turbulence. Regulars …

Boeing is bringing the 787 Dreamliner to India for the first time. ZA002 will arrive in Delhi on July 13th. It is scheduled to proceed to Mumbai, but Boeing officials refused to indicate their plans for Mumbai. It appears the plan as of now is for the aircraft to be in Mumbai on July 15th briefly and then return on …

Just completed an eight segment trip that took me from Bangalore to Thailand and Korea on Thai Airways. Thai Airways has upgraded its daily Bangalore Bangkok service to Boeing 777-200ERs, five times a week, the other two days remaining an Airbus A330-300. The Thai B772ERs are equipped with the lay-flat Recaro seats in business class in a 2-2-2 configuration with …

Driven by rising fuel costs, growing environmental legislation, and shrinking margins, airlines from across the world have sent a clear message to airplane manufacturers by ordering massive numbers of the fuel efficient A320neo. neo which stands for New Engine Option is a re-engined version of the single aisle Airbus A320 family aircraft equipped with new engines from Pratt and Whitney …

bmi, British Midland International, Heathrow’s second largest airline, and a member of the Star Alliance will commence a thrice a week service between Amritsar and London Heathrow starting on 14 October 2011. bmi Airbus A330-242 G-WWBB. Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal. Flights will operate to London Heathrow via Almaty in Kazakhstan. bmi will be the only airline to offer a direct …

The next time you check in to the Centaur Hotel at IGI airport New Delhi, and hand over your passport and/or credit card, beware!!!!, you are exposing your personal information to the whole world. At a time when the Government of India is imposing draconian rules on internet services providers, and battles are raging on the issue of privacy, or …

Indian low cost carrier IndiGo, which controls at 19.7% share of the domestic market, announced the launch of its international operations with the release of schedules and fares. The airline which operates an all A320-232 fleet, completed the required five years of domestic operations recently, and has been granted permissions by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. IndiGo will operate its …

The promoters of New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) have introduced a ‘Park N Fly‘ scheme at the new Multi Level Car Park (MLCP) at Terminal 3 (T3). The car park is the largest in India with a capacity of 4300 vehicles spread across seven floors. The Park N Fly facility is available at the premium parking area on …

There is a high security alert at Bengaluru International Airport till Friday. There are enhanced security checks across all stages of embarkation. This includes a very high level of pre-embarkation checks and secondary ladder point check. These checks have been mandated by various intelligence agencies who must have some credible risk perception. Airines too are closing flights for check-in and …

Over the last month, national carrier Air India has been pilloried in the press across the the world. Stalwarts like the domestic Indian Express and the international New York Times, have exposed the rot and have even called for the closure of the airline. Exposes into the conflicts between management, board of directors, advisors, bureaucrats, politicians, labour abound, and charges …

On May 24th, Korean Air took delivery of its first Airbus A380 superjumbo in Toulouse, France. As a special tribute, the carrier’s first A380 was presented to invited guests by 500 Airbus employees – who carried blue, white and red umbrellas to form Korean Air’s tri-colour logo. The airline has specified the most extra-spacious layout amongst the six operators of …

I arrived in Zurich yesterday morning to meet my friend and Bangalore Airport President Marcel Hungerbeuhler, and do some spotting. Thanks to some other friends at Bangalore and Zurich airports (who shall remain anonymous), both Marcel and me, were met by this huge strapping guy — Rolf Wallner, one of the senior plane spotters in Switzerland with thousands of photos …

Senior spotter Murtaza Sattar played host to me on Friday 20th May for a day of spotting at Manchester Ringway airport in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately Murt’s claim that he could control everything but the weather, came true. It was dull, cloudy, rainy, cold, windy day. The photos were coming out very poorly, so I decided to use the Live …

German airline Lufthansa is simplifying and harmonising its check-in free baggage allowance policy, adopting the piece concept on all its flights globally. The new rules bring Lufthansa in sync with its North American Star Alliance partners who also follow a piece concept on all their flights. Currently, the piece concept applies to all flights to/from North America across airlines. To …

I am off on a two week trip to Europe. Along with work, I have managed to make some appointments with the leading spotters in London, Manchester, Prague, and hopefully Zurich. So if the weather cooperates, I hope to post some pictures from these airports. Flying to London via Doha on Qatar Airways. Yes, yes, after my disastrous trip almost …