Re: Potential accident involving AC 759 prevented at SFO.

I have been following this thread with great interest and what is abundantly clear is that a MAJOR accident could have happened, but didn't. This is absolutely the time to evaluate the situation and contributing factors just as if it had happened. What I can say is that it seems the emphasis on situ...

Re: Potential accident involving AC 759 prevented at SFO.

AirlineCritic wrote:

Scary situation. Is there ATC audio available?

Re: Aircraft/airline fun facts and metrics

CriticalPoint wrote:

When I got checked out on the 787 the LCA told me the 787 has a footprint of a full acre. Really brings into perspective taxing around an entire acre.

Re: Highly Common Fleets, vs Very Mixed and General Fleet Strategy

As was noted in the recent ET thread, I think they are an example of a fleet without direction, especially with their wide bodies.

Re: BOS TSA handcuff 20lb Lobster.

When I first saw this story, I was slightly amused with the picture. Then I read the articles and it made a lot of sense why the passengers were upset. I don't want TSA parading around my belongs, and the issue with how they were packed is valid. Heck, I am still upset about TSA taking a bag of Dori...

Re: Airlift to Ethiopia: deadline looms for illegal migrants

berari wrote:

The article was re: amnesty. You can lookup the flights by using any online tools including FlightRadar.

Re: Spice as a weapon on ET flights

I guess I understand the principle, although the application seems a bit odd. Pepper spray has the capsaicin liquidified and then modified for easy distribution. Many things have capsaicin in them. Could I bring on Tony's cajun seasoning? What about black pepper? Dried whole chili peppers? I mean ET...

Re: Airlift to Ethiopia: deadline looms for illegal migrants

There's currently a big airlift occurring from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia. The Saudi government granted a 90-day amnesty to residency, labor violators in Saudi Arabia, an amnesty that runs out on June 29. An estimated 750,000 Ethiopian migrants live in Saudi Arabia, among which a significant majority...

Spice as a weapon on ET flights

Earlier in the month I visited Addis for some consulting work. On my return, I was planning on bringing back several kilos of Ethiopia's best culinary items: home grown and roasted coffee, shiro (powdered chickpeas), and berebere spice. I was unsure the legality of it, and the coffee had a strong sm...

Re: Ethiopian Airlines' order of A350s and its future fleet+growth

ET has great planes, and it seems with the current and expected investments, that is only going to improve. The problem is that the further you get away from those planes the bigger the problems. ADD has some major issues and isn't even close to being on par with other major hubs in the area. Theore...

Re: Ethiopian Airlines' order of A350s and its future fleet+growth

Ethiopia has strong ties with the Chinese and it seems they are really investing in that connection. I see some European expansion as being tied to actually connecting China to Europe. As for their fleet, it seems all over the place. I regularly fly between JNB and ADD and have been on 767, 772, 773...

Re: Breaking: Bahrain, Egypt and KSA closed their airspace for Qatar

I could do a direct 15 hour flight, but have no problem 8hr + 14hr (often with a long layover) for the price and experience I get with Qatar and that is even with kids in tow. May I ask what the price difference is? It would have to be significant for me to go from non stop 15 hrs to a 24 hr + trip...

Re: Breaking: Bahrain, Egypt and KSA closed their airspace for Qatar

The way I see it, the biggest loss will be large number of regional routes that QR flies. Obviously those are lost as long as these restrictions are in place and I assume that would probably lead to a few of their narrowbodies being parked for a bit while they regroup (or wait for a reversal). I don...

Re: Breaking: Bahrain, Egypt and KSA closed their airspace for Qatar

Qantas has announced that Qatari citizens wishing to board flights to Dubai will not be able to do so. This means a Qatari passenger wishing to travel from SYD to LHR, for example, would not be able to do so on a Qantas flight. "UAE have banned Qatari nationals from transiting through UAE, so ...

Re: SAA's flights to the US

The 77L can have payload restrictions on JNB-ATL (westbound sector). The challenge with the 77L on the sector is that there is a speed restriction on the tyres which can limit the payload. This is how it was explained to me... the runway is long enough to allow allow twin-engines to reach a safe V2...

Re: TSA Testing REQ to Remove More Items from Bags

I was just through SJU and not only didn't have to remove anything (including liquids and laptop) from my bag, we also didn't have to remove shoes, and went through the metal detector instead of the body scan. This was just the normal TSA line. I had the same thing happened to me at JFK a few weeks...

Re: Airports with only one 747 pax service left

I was going to say JNB with the 748 from LH, but I am thinking BA has a less than weekly 747 in addition to the daily A380 they send.

Re: New airline in America?????

It is telling that in laying out their (incomplete) website, they have already identified "REFUNDS" as one of the main tabs.

Re: Ethiopian seeks 'heavy' cost cuts

ADD really needs a whole new airport probably far from the centre so it can be at a lower altitude. The Chinese are renovating and expanding ADD's terminal at the moment but ADD's bathrooms are still something from a horror movie. While I have not personally traveled through ADD, colleagues of mine...

Re: Ethiopian seeks 'heavy' cost cuts

I have flown with ET quite a bit the last few years and in my opinion they are all over the place. On their widebodies, their hard product is very good (not ME3 quality, but nothing to complain about in the region). Then on these fancy new planes, they show the most outdated safety video I have ever...

Re: Printed boarding pass vs. smartphone

When traveling -- especially internationally -- it isn't always easy to print your boarding pass. I personally prefer to check in early and then use a kiosk to print my boarding pass when I get to the airport, but I can completely understand situations where having a printed boarding pass isn't alwa...

Re: Emirates A380 diverted to Larnaca after birth of a baby on board #EK75

Why would they not land in Istanbul?

Re: Ultimate, Dedicated Long Haul Tech / Pit Stop Operations

I can see the theoretical advantage to a gas-n-go approach, but it seems the time to make it a full stop before continuing on isn't that big of a deal and has many advantages. I think of the JNB > IAD flights that either stop in DKR or ACC. Those stops are only scheduled for an hour and SAA is able ...

Re: UA EWR PAS SENT TO SFO instead of CDG

1. The passenger was supposed to travel to France and ended up remain in USA. Different countries have different rules for security of inbounding flights. While most of them are usually held to same high standard and differences among them do not usually matter, but there are also cases that for in...

Re: Countries/Cities with only 1 airline servicing that place

Manzini in Swaziland (formerly MTS, now SHO) only has Airlink flights to JNB. It's the only commercial airport in the country. There are plans for the new Swazi Airways to also serve SHO. They have two 737s, one of which is already in the livery. But, like the launch of SHO itself, it is experienci...

Re: Annoucement: Airliners.net has been aquired by VerticalScope

Sure, there are still some issues with the new format, but things have largely been resolved and/or improved. Anyone who prefers the old user interface to this one obviously doesn't visit other forums... the old A.net was a snapshot of the way things were on the internet at the turn of the millenniu...

Re: Swazi Airways debuts?

I recently had a quick exchange on Swazi Airways Facebook page. A couple things that I learned: "ZS-SPU is the one with Swazi Airways Livery and not ZS-VDP. Both aircraft are not in storage and are actually flying. I can assure you that we will share more details in due course." (I previou...