@ strfyr51 Wasn't the 777-9 tailored to his and the other ME airlines? That seems as close as he will ever get to 'tailor-made'. With his habit of ordering and cancelling, I can't see Boeing or Airbus doing too much tailoring for Sir Tim in the future; pity for him that the 777-9 is so late.
Jump to postIn addition to all the benefits (QF789), having A350s on PERLHR would mean only needing one type of aircrew and maintenance requirements. It would also give more flexibility in case of delays.
Jump to postPer news story today, the CAA expanded their investigation and reviewing Lufthansa Technik and SAA Technical, who perform maintenance for the Comair/Kulula fleet. https://iafrica.com/caa-probes-lufthansa-and-saat-which-maintain-comair-planes/ It nows appears that the SACAA has suspended Lufthansa T...
Jump to postComair will be in interesting business case study. They were very well respected and profitable for 60+ years straight. Then 2019/2020 came and everything fell off the rails fast. Next thing they are filing for the SA version of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and having mx/safety issues. How did the carrier...
Jump to postTwo more BA 777's NASLHR and MIALHR went around, not a pleasant day to fly.
Jump to post@TC957 Yes, that is what I thought. A very long way on one engine. Absolutely no possibility of a 'Sully type landing' in the Southern Ocean.
Jump to postThanks 'RyanairGuru'; that is then EDTO330 = 5 hours 30 mins on one engine over the Southern Ocean? WOW! Midway on the route, what would be the alternate airports, do you know?
Jump to postI am pleased to see the reintroduction of services between Johannesburg and Sydney, which now operates with a 789, as they no longer use the 747. Looking at the routing on flightawire.com, the flight takes a Southern routing over the Southern Indian ocean. Previously some years ago, Virgin Australia...
Jump to postDoes anyone know exactly how many aircraft SAA current have? One sees conflicting information, possibly 3 x A340-600's and 3 x A340-300's. Also, maybe a few A319/320's. The 737's at their subsidiary Mango appear to be all leased. They plan to restart operations, which they have suggested will start ...
Jump to postI flew Concorde CPTROBLHR in April 90 on a leg of an RTW charter. The trouble is as mentioned it didn't have the range for non-stop and I doubt it could do JNBROB because of the altitude in Johannesburg. Also politically it couldn't overfly African countries, but that would have been sorted around 1...
Jump to postI suspect many of those parked planes will stay exactly where they are. Between COVID19 and the public's likely unwillingness to fly the plane, only a handful will be back in the air any time soon. The idea that the majority of the flying public (who are not avgeeks) actually know what they are fly...
Jump to postI think we will see many new startups in the next year or so throughout the world. With the plentiful availability of aircraft, crew and slots, these will need to be filled by desperate owners. I don't expect this to really happen in a big until sometime next year. The situation in South Africa is s...
Jump to posthttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-19/south-africa-starts-talks-with-potential-buyers-of-state-airline The South African government has started talks with potential investors/partners for the airline ...and the CEO of low-cost division Mango just resigned. Would be interesting to know ...
Jump to postAll that article says is that they are trying to balance out opportunities - the comments above about the loss of all sorts of senior pilots seems to support that need to re-dress an imbalance of opportunities? How can there be an imbalance of opportunity if SAA has trained and hired almost every B...
Jump to postComair/kulula will in all likelihood be liquidated, they failed to raise the funds for the business rescue process. They have been denied access to their aircraft and may not reposition them since they owe the maintenance company too much money. Their assets will likely be sold to pay their debt. W...
Jump to postWait a while and you will probably be able to get 787's at very low lease rates together with many willing cheap crews.
Jump to postI expected the RR share price to take a hit with this but, apparently not, which is good news.
Jump to postI suspect that the A350's will only be used on the North American routes as that as what they were originally intended for and Other routes will use A340's until the airline is more financially stable and is ready to update or expand its network with newer aircraft Aren't those two A350s also lease...
Jump to postI can't find the news article but the BBC were reporting that the private equity loan is being secured against the landing slots at LHR. The Sunday Times reported that Davidson Kempner Capital Management, the American hedge fund putting almost £200m of debt into the airline, would provide the cash ...
Jump to postThanks for the excellent links they bring back memories of the time I worked for TWA in the early 70s. It was a very proud and excellent airline then, top class service all over the world.
Jump to postIt appears as though the patient has been dripped some morphine but I doubt the patient will survive Covid-19 and the coming depression in air travel.
Jump to postCarriers did weird things before ULH range was readily obtained with 747-400s. Pan Am AKL-PPG-HNL-LAX on a 707, anyone? Well if a 707 didn’t have the range to fly AKL-HNL then it makes sense, NAN/PPT were used by different airlines to, I see PA did NAN-SYD. So many variations to routes. I flew AKLH...
Jump to postI was told when I visited Pima Museum in Tucson that it wasn't just the climate which made it an ideal storage place. Apparently the soil is so firm and even stays firm after being rained upon. One can see very large heavy aircraft sitting on unprepared soil, no tarmac of concrete required. Perhaps ...
Jump to postAs many have predicted the South African government won't let SAA die, here is the latest restructuring proposal. https://tinyurl.com/yaqscp6l The following link has a little more detail on the proposed fleet make up. https://www.travelnews.co.za/article/business-rescue-plan-sees-saa-flying-again-so...
Jump to postIshrion wrote:Apparently Emirates’ first A380 with premium economy is in Toulouse “ready to go”.
https://mobile.twitter.com/MaxK_J/statu ... 3796232192
Can you provide more details about the exact sort of government corruption that helped doom SAA? Was it interference in business planning, such as forcing them to fly certain unprofitable routes? Or overstuffing the company with do-nothing patronage jobs for key ANC vote-hustlers? Or outright theft...
Jump to postI reported this 3 weeks ago, but as ever I was accused of having an agenda etc. 40% btw is the low estimate, plans exists for 70%. I fully believes you emiratesdriver. You are super informed. Also, I heards too that the 70pc 380 reducing plans are alive but didn't postings as I don't have link to s...
Jump to postThe sound of the engines spooling up is awesome, but the loud droning noise it makes in cruise is horrible. Yes from the outside looking at the 777 it is fantastic but from the inside no so good. Give me a 787 or A330/340/350 any day, and the really quiet and comfortable one is the A380, it would n...
Jump to postIt is now reported the SRB is selling shares in Virgin Galactic to help support Virgin Atlantic and other group companies. This reminds me of when Pan Am sold Intercontinental hotels to keep Pan Am going. At the time it was said and subsequently proved that they should have sold the airline and kep...
Jump to postIt is now reported that SRB is selling shares in Virgin Galactic to help support Virgin Atlantic and other group companies. This reminds me of when Pan Am sold Intercontinental hotels to keep Pan Am going. At the time it was said and subsequently proved that they should have sold the airline and kep...
Jump to postI also saw a BA 77W on flight radar a few days ago as flight BA 56 inbound from JNB. It didn't appear on BA.com. Although it was operating the correct flight number for a JNBLHR flight (usually A380) it was operating as a day flight not overnight. Usually, a delayed or extra section has a four-digi...
Jump to postI also saw a BA 77W on flight radar a few days ago as flight BA 56 inbound from JNB. It didn't appear on BA.com. Although it was operating the correct flight number for a JNBLHR flight (usually A380) it was operating as a day flight not overnight. Usually, a delayed or extra section has a four-digit...
Jump to postI wonder if he holds or did hold Boeing stock? It would be interesting to see what he does with that if he does have it. The fact that he has sold the airline stocks at a loss says a great deal. Yes, I am sure he has made mistakes, most probably he would admit to his error to buy the airline stocks ...
Jump to postWould Branson have done better with his airline investments by buying BA shares when they were first floated? I think Branson has done very well with his investment in VS, up until the point when he became too greedy and cancelled the deal to sell to AF/KL. However, SQ and DL have lost their collec...
Jump to postWill not to be correcting in a year. No vaccine and flyers will be few and far between Precisely, this is going to be a massive shift in the whole travel and tourism industry. Peoples attitudes to travel and being in close proximity to others has changed. Without a vaccine and an effective way of p...
Jump to postI would be surprised if something of MK isn't salvaged. Tourism is still an important part of the Mauritian economy and a large employer of semi-skilled labour. As far as I can see the Mauritian Government through various identities, is the majority shareholder. Maybe a member closer to the story ha...
Jump to postSandyb123 an excellent summarisation. One point, not mentioned which I think will be relevant for long-haul leisure is the cross-subsidisation from the premium cabins. If long-haul business travel is reduced which seems to me to be a given this will probably result in higher economy fares. Unless of...
Jump to postEasyjet have just secured a £600m government loan. No reason Virgin couldn’t do the same. I don't think it is the same at all. Easyjet has been profitable for years, it has many assets as security and of course carries far more passengers. I also think it has a much larger British shareholding. Alt...
Jump to postShai Weiss has taken a 20% pay cut until the year end and the rest of the senior leadership team have taken a 15% cut for the same period. Hardly that generous when they will be on significant salaries, furloughed cabin crew and ground staff are getting 80%, i.e. a 20% cut on much lower salaries. I...
Jump to postI don't think things will get back to 'normal' very quickly due to the amount of damage done to the world economy. Therefore there will be spare aircraft, slots and willing trained crews needing employment, The owners of the aircraft (perhaps the owners of the repossessed aircraft) will be desperate...
Jump to postWith the significant drop in oil prices, this will reduce the urgency for airlines to replace some of their current equipment. It should help Boeing with compensation for the MAX where airlines are flying less fuel-efficient aircraft. It won't help the sales of the 777X or the 787 though.
Jump to postI work for a large investment bank. New policy emailed out to all employees earlier this week discourages all business travel to lots of places and makes clear personal travel to those places would not be a good idea. Haven't spoken to the travel dept, but I imagine spending right now is being cut ...
Jump to postNorwegian will cancel routes between Stockholm and Copenhagen to the USA and Thailand from March 29 2020.
I wonder what they will do with these 787's?
https://www.thelocal.se/20191127/norweg ... copenhagen
Yes, but can anyone honestly say that a 30-year-old well maintained 777 is as reliable and a 5-year-old one?
Jump to post22 years old and BA want to keep them until they are nearly 30! Does anyone drive a thirty-year-old car?
Jump to postAirbus press release for GECAS 12 A330NEOs and 20 A321XLRs firm order: https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2019/11/gecas-orders-12-a330neo-and-20-a321xlr-aircraft.html OK, I thought, it was already firmed prior the Airshow this month? Now I am a little bit surprised. OK, seems to have...
Jump to postI think people do have long memories when it’s a big enough issue. Anybody who was a teenager or older in the 70s will likely forever remember the Ford Pinto as the car that blows up when hit from behind. Things like this can haunt a company for decades. That said, I don’t think there will be much ...
Jump to postI always got the impression that the EK and ME3 started to consider themself as gods and more inportant then other for example European carriers. All new airplanes and new versions like 779 not adjusted with ME3 special directedcto their needs was not good enough. Airbus started to listen to the ot...
Jump to postSurely there must be benefits for AF/KL with a common narrow-bodied fleet? Certain A330 crew could convert quickly to the A320 series. After the MAX debacle, it can only be the most optimistic 737 supporters who will not concede that the A320/321 is now the most advanced narrow-bodied aircraft. The ...
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