Airbus has confirmed it is further cutting down production rates for its A380 superjumbo from 18 to 14 for this year in response to specific customer requests for deferrals during the on-going economic crisis. According to the new plan, Airbus expects to deliver 14 double-decker aircraft in 2009 and more than 20 aircraft in 2010 Airbus had already revised its …
Read More »Tag Archives: Emirates
Emirates Boeing 777 delivery deferrals: We will!! We will not!!
The last two days has been abuzz about the deferrals of deliveries of Boeing 777s by Dubai’s flag carrier Emirates Airlines. En-route to over-taking Singapore Airlines to become the world’s largest Boeing 777 operator, Emirates recently took delivery of it’s 75th 777. Abdullah al Shams, a fleet manager at Emirates based at the Boeing factory in Washington, USA, was recently …
Read More »ATSB report and images of Emirates A340 tail-strike incident in Melbourne
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) released it’s preliminary report along with detailed images and simulations in the tail strike incident of the Emirates Airlines A340-500 A6-ERG at Melbourne on March 20, 2009. The jet with 257 passengers, 14 cabin crew and 4 flight crew on-board narrowly avoided disaster as its pilots struggled to take off from the end of …
Read More »Emirates receives it’s fifth Airbus A380 and 75th Boeing 777
It has been an delivery filled last few days for Dubai based Emirates Airlines. On April 24, Emirates took delivery of it’s fifth Airbus A380 superjumbo. MSN0017 flew to Dubai as A6-EDE. On April 30, Emirates took delivery of it’s 75th Boeing 777, a Boeing 777-300ER. N5017V flew to Dubai as A6-ECQ. Emirates is set to soon overtake Singapore Airlines …
Read More »Images: Cockpit close-ups shows pilots during landing
I went spotting last week and managed to get close enough to get some close-up pictures of pilots during landing. I was rather surprised to see all the Airbus pilots leaning forward when the one picture of a Boeing pilot shows him sitting back comfortably. It will be interesting to hear comments on the differences. Any pilots reading Bangalore Aviation? …
Read More »An incident filled week at Bengaluru International Airport
The past week has been an incident filled “odd” one for Bengaluru International Airport (BIA). On Monday (day 1 of the week), a Kingfisher Airlines Airbus A320 skidded off runway 27 in rain and high winds and damaged runway lights and its landing gear, forcing the airport to shut down the runway during the peak international flights period for an …
Read More »Skytrax awards Qatar Airways best Economy class in the world, Etihad Business, Singapore Airlines First
Qatar Airways has won the annual SkyTrax airline award for the best Economy Class in the world, which means a lot in these tough economic times when passengers are increasingly moving to the back of the plane from the front. Qatar Airways recently revamped its Economy Class meal service using a more environment friendly, upmarket, appetising and stylish way. Qatar …
Read More »Two first deliveries on the same day: Airbus A330-300 to Finnair, Boeing 777F to Emirates
Two deliveries of “first” of aircraft model occurred on March 27th. Airbus delivered the first A330-300 to Finnair, out of an order for eight. Powered by General Electric CF6-80E1 engines, the new aircraft is in a two class configuration 42 Business, 229 Economy for a total seating for 271 passengers. On the same day, Boeing delivered the first 777 Freighter …
Read More »Gulf Air withdraws Bangalore Hyderabad, Jet Airways starts Mumbai Kuwait service
Effective March 29th, Gulf Air is withdrawing its flights from Bahrain to Bangalore and to Hyderabad. No explanation has been provided by the airline, but I suspect that they have been crowded out by the far more aggressive Emirates Airlines. Gulf Air flies a small Airbus A320 to Bangalore daily and a slightly larger A321 to Hyderabad four times a …
Read More »Emirates Airbus A340 runs off, damages, and disables runway at Melbourne
An Emirates Airlines Airbus A340-500, Emirates Airlines Airbus A340-500, registration A6-ERG performing flight EK407 from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with 225 people on board, damaged and decommissioned the main runway at Melbourne airport while taking-off. The aircraft ran off the runway 16 (length 3657 meters / 12,000 feet) around 22:30 local (12:30GMT) March 20, during its …
Read More »Emirates to drop A380 from New York, slams Airbus for defects
Emirates recently announced that it will commence services to Toronto and Bangkok with its Airbus A380 superjumbo from June 1st. In order to do this Emirates will have to reposition two of its A380s from the current double-daily New York route. Emirates representatives have confirmed this re-positioning. One aircraft will be deployed on the three times a week Dubai Toronto …
Read More »A380 production updates: MSN027 & MSN029 for Qantas, MSN023 & MSN017 for Emirates
Some updates on the production progress of the Airbus A380 superjumbo, courtesy of the A380 production forum. MSN027 (F-WWSY) the fifth for Qantas (VH-OQE Lawrence Hargrave) came out of the Final Assembly Line (FAL) hangers and made its taxi tests. MSN029 (F-WWSA) the sixth for Qantas (VH-OQF Charles Kingsford Smith) has been outside since it came out of the FAL …
Read More »Airbus updates: Emirates A380 MSN017, 500th A321, Korean Air A330 order
A380 MSN017The 5th A380 for Emirates Airlines, A6-EDE, is on the flight line at Hamburg and expected to be delivered in April. Thanks to the folks at the Hamburg Airport forum, enjoy the picture. Given the slowdown at Singapore Airlines, there is some debate on whether the next A380 out will be MSN026 (Qantas’ 4th A380 VH-QQD) or MSN019 (Singapore …
Read More »The best wine cellars in the sky
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 …
Read More »Emirates’ expansion goes for the jugular
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 …
Read More »Air France withdraws Paris Chennai flight
From the Summer 2009 schedule which commences end March, Air France will suspend its thrice weekly flight between Paris Charles De Gaulle and Chennai Anna International, and withdraw from Chennai. I strongly suspect this move is partly as a result of the relentless capacity expansion by Emirates Airlines across India. With its non-stop connectivity to both the coasts of the …
Read More »Emirates to commence A380 service to Seoul in November 2009
Dubai based Emirates Airline will commence operations of its Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport in November 2009. Emirates currently operates daily flights to Seoul using a Boeing 777. Trade ties between South Korea and Dubai have been growing steadily, and major Korean corporations are active in the Dubai business arena. The Korean government is also positioning …
Read More »Singapore Airlines prepares to fly its one millionth A380 passenger
A mere 16 months after launching services with the Airbus A380 superjumbo, Singapore Airlines is expecting to fly its one millionth A380 customer in February 2009. Singapore Airlines was the first airline in the world to fly the Airbus A380 super-jumbo, the world鈥檚 largest passenger aircraft, when it began commercial services between Singapore and Sydney in October 2007. The Airline …
Read More »Gulf Air to lease four Jet Airways Boeing 777-300ERs
Jet Airways procured ten ultra-luxuriously appointed Boeing 777-300ERs for its ambitious international expansion. It even won awards for its international first class, featuring private suites. Now those plans are in tatters, and Jet has abandoned its international ambitions, at least for the foreseeable future. Recently TravelBizMonitor reported Jet Airways, has dropped its expansion plan, especially plans of expanding overseas informed …
Read More »March of Emirates across Indian skies
On 16 October 2008, Emirates Airlines, moved all operations at Dubai International Airport to Terminal 3. Terminal 3 is over 1,500,000 m2 (370 acres) in size, the single largest terminal building in the world, and is dedicated exclusively to Emirates Airlines. The move demonstrated the meteoric rise of the airline since its inception on May 25, 1985 with just two …
Read More »