WestJet 737-700 simulator

This week I was lucky enough to visit WestJet headquarters in Calgary. As part of my trip they treated me (and @AbFabSkyLife and @SarahDeveau) to some play time in a 737-700 simulator. This was my first time in a simulator and it was fantastic. It took a while to get to grips with the beast – sweaty palms didn’t help! I found getting a feel for the delay when banking especially tricky. I must have heard the “bank angle” prompt a hundred times. We got to experience flying in and out of YVR and HNL; by day, by night, in clear and overcast skies (aka flying blind) and with some interesting turbulence that caused an iPhone to go AWOL for about 5 minutes. When I win the lottery this Friday, CAE will definitely be getting a call from me. Thanks again to the entire @WestJet team!

The outside of the beast

Runway 26L at YVR

HNL approach info

Two Qantas 747's parked side by side at Heathrow

Qantas has announced an overhaul of its international operations to try to right the ship from the tough position it currently sits in. These changes were announced in a document entitled “Building a Stronger Qantas” released to investors on August 16th. Having read the document (twice) my outsider’s assessment is that there appears to be a bit of a lack of coherent focus.

Qantas services to London Heathrow will be dropped to two daily flights via Singapore. Existing services via Hong Kong and Bangkok will terminate in those cities. Passengers will transfer onto flights operated by British Airways. Not too long ago there was talk of Heathrow becoming an all A380 station for Qantas. The newly released document now states Heathrow will be served by “A380 aircraft or equivalent product.” This, I presume, is in reference to the 9 747s Qantas plan to retrofit to “A380” standard.

Sydney – Buenos Aires flights will be dropped in favour of a Sydney – Santiago service. This makes sense. Santiago is alliance partner, LAN’s biggest hub. This switch makes numerous places in South America accessible with a single stop. Add to this the fact that Aerolineas Argentinas is destined to join Skyteam, SYD-EZE makes less sense than ever.

Delivery deferral of 6 A380s by 5 years (FY’14 to FY’19) This decision was likely based on a simple total cost of operation calculation. There is no doubt that the A380 is the sexier offering but the fact that the 747s are paid off make them more viable at this time.

Qantas will focus on Premium International Travel ex-Australia. Given the lower cost of labour and (perceived?) better service on the numerous Asian carriers that service Australia, is this wise? Qantas is no slouch but topping titans like Singapore Airlines is not going to be easy. I fear that this may be too big a hill for Qantas to climb.

The document also indicates that Qantas will set up a “new premium, full-service airline based in Asia under a new brand.” At the time of writing, no “base” has been chosen. I would imagine any base would have to be chosen with some synergies with Qantas and/or its OneWorld partners in mind. This would suggest that it would have to be Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. Given the scale back in both Hong Kong and Bangkok, neither of those appears to be the frontrunner. Singapore is already quite a ferocious market and I have a hard time believing Qantas has the stomach for it. This leaves Kuala Lumpur. Geographically speaking it’s well placed to serve most of Asia but given that it’s in a region with an appetite for LCC flying isn’t this too a bloodbath waiting to happen?

In addition, Qantas plans to launch Jetstar Japan in 2012. Japan is not an easy marketplace at the best of times but the current economic climate and the fact that the key partner in this venture is JAL – a carrier with deep problems of its own – really make me wonder if this is ever going to be anything more than a pipe dream.

Good luck Qantas, you’re going to need it!

In the absence of detail, I have elected to offer conjecture:

The two carriers this affects the most are Air Canada and TAM. Air Canada is the only carrier from either country that operates regular flights between the two countries – a daily 777-300ER service between Toronto and Sao Paulo with a TAM code share. Assuming the agreement permits fifth freedom traffic rights, I’m sure Air Canada will pounce and stick a tag-on leg onto this flight. After all having a 777 sit on the ground in Sao Paulo for 11 hours is hardly good commercial sense. Toronto-Sao Paulo-Buenos Aires jumps out a viable possibility. The Canada-Argentina  Air Transport Agreement permits Air Canada (as the designated Canadian carrier) rights to fly from any point in Canada to Buenos Aires via Lima, Santiago and two other yet-to-be-named  points (outside the USA and the Caribbean). Buenos Aires aside I can’t think of any desirable points near Sao Paolo that would make sense as an add-on. That is of course working on the assumption that the Brazilians did not agree to allow Canadian carriers to fly intra-Brazil.

Given the statistics being put out by the Canadian Tourism Commission, I feel that there is likely enough (business and tourist) traffic to start either a Toronto–Rio de Janeiro or a Montreal–Rio de Janeiro service. While doing some research I stumbled upon the fact that YYZ-GRU and YUL-GIG are exactly the same great circle distance – 5075nm – well within the reach of a 767-330, A330-300 or a 777-300ER. All three of these models are operated by both TAM and AC. It really just becomes a question of aircraft availability and will. I predict it will be AC who pursues this first – with a TAM code share of course.

The most expensive drink Air Canada has ever served

It wasn’t cognac. It wasn’t scotch. It wasn’t champagne. It was lemonade. Yes lemonade. On Wednesday Federal Court Justice Marie-Josée Bédard saw fit to award an Ottawa man $12,000 dollars in damages and a formal apology for the “pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of their vacation” caused by having to order a drink in English rather than his preferred language – French. I say preferred because the complainant is a fluent speaker of both English and French.

Since its privatization in 1988, Air Canada has been forced to continue to operate in both French and English as a subject of the Official Languages Act. In addition Air Canada is required to maintain its head office in Montreal. In my opinion it is patently ridiculous that a private corporation can be held to different standards than its competitors. Wasn’t the whole point of deregulation to move towards market driven corrections and market determination of services? Surely it’s time that these additional burdensome requirements on Air Canada were put to bed?

What’s totally laughable is that this saga centers around an incident in 2009 in which the complainant in question – Michel Thibodeau  – asked for a 7Up in French but received a Sprite. (No word on if he said sept or seven.)  So what’s the real issue here? I don’t believe Air Canada carries Pepsi products, so he wouldn’t have been able to get a 7Up had he received service in French, English or Swahili for that matter. Was it just such a huge burden to have to ask in English? I think not.

Whether you agree with Air Canada being bound by the official languages act or not, the simple fact is that they are and they did come up short. They should be fined and those monies should be made available to organizations promoting French language and culture. By handing this money over to – let’s face it – an ambulance-chaser masquerading as a language martyr the court has declared open season on Air Canada for a battery of similar suits.

Air Canada Express - Q400

Last week Air Canada announced that in an effort to harmonize flying farmed out to regionals they would be unifying under the aegis of a new name – wait for it – Air Canada Express. I’m not suggesting for a second that creativity and uniqueness are always important but simply tacking on Express to an existing brand is just tired and a little bit lazy. South of the border there is already United Express and US Airways Express. A number of other carriers globally have used the same treatment, brand + Express. Granted the fact that Air Canada is a transportation company does earn it some respite. That is to say it’s not as stupid a name as say Holiday Inn Express but come on, Air Canada you’re better than that.

I understand the need to use a word that works in both French and English and I realize that a number of those have been used up over the years – Tango and Zip come to mind – but I refuse to believe that there is not something a little less tired than Express out there. I understand there would have been complications using the Jazz brand on flights operated by Sky Regional but I think the amount of effort it would have taken to resolve that would have been worth it. After all the Jazz brand has been built up quite strongly over the last ten or so years. Surely it’s wasteful to let it fade away? This whole exercise leads me to believe there is a concious separation being orchestrated here between the powers that be at AC and Jazz. But to what end I wonder?

MSNBC: Photographers surround damaged fuselage skin from Flight WN812

Three days ago Southwest grounded 81 of the almost 550 737’s in its fleet and the North American media simply lost its mind. I’m sure that those on board flight WN 812 were very, very scared – and with good reason – but the way the media has played this story and driven home messages laced with fear and doomsday scenarios is nothing short of ridiculous.

To recap, WN812 was en route from Phoenix to Sacramento when the fuselage ruptured, leaving a sizable hole leading to sudden depressurization in the cabin. The plane was diverted to Yuma where it landed safely with only one person on board sustaining minor injuries.

In the days since then Southwest and other carriers have performed vast amounts of inspections and have treated the matter with seriousness and professionalism. The media however has not handled this all that well. The sheer volume of conjecture and baseless statements is astonishing.

Let’s consider a couple of the headlines that have surfaced:
FAA Requires Boeing 737 Checks After Southwest’s Midair Split
Mid-air split, are you kidding me? Did the plane snap in two leaving all on board to plummet to their deaths?

Older Boeing 737 Jets Are at Risk for Cracks
We’re talking about a sophisticated, multi-million dollar piece of equipment not a wheel of brie, it doesn’t just go dry and start cracking with age. To gloss over the science – pressurization cycles – for the purposes of getting eyeballs to news pages is highly irresponsible. To then table the possibility that all “older” 737’s are unsafe is simply ridiculous. The 737 family has proven its worth for decades; to use such a broad brush based on one incident is simply not acceptable.

Television media has been equally irresponsible. Forget what The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg have to say, I was watching local news from a Seattle area channel last night and the anchor was rattling off all of the major 737 operators in the US – even though they all have different maintenance practices and fly different variants of the 737. The cherry on top was “the threat this poses to Boeing jobs” which was of course “after the break.”

The media should not understate the seriousness of what happened to ship N632SW – or indeed what could have happened – but to start belching out ideas with little basis in fact is patently ridiculous and needs to stop.

The flight attendant-passenger charter: Time for a truce

Passengers love to complain about flight attendants and flight attendants seem to love to reciprocate. Spend just two minutes searching aviation keywords on the net and I guarantee you will find endless complaints by both parties. While this attrition is never going to go away entirely, there are things both sides can do to minimize the angst. I give you the passenger-flight attendant charter.

Electronic Devices
Passengers: Switch off your electronic devices when asked to do so. If you (and the emails some of you idiots insist on sending during the take off roll) were that important you would not be flying commercially, you would be on Air Force One.

FA’s: You constantly remind us that you are there for our safety and comfort, in that order. With that in mind, announcements pertaining to safety should be textbook every time – do not ad-lib! On a recent hop the FA asked that passengers “turn off all handheld devices, Nintendos, Game Boys, Game Gears, pagers, beepers, cell phones, Blackberry’s, blueberries and any other electronic fruit.” Should I also switch off my time machine that I’m using to play my Game Gear? As for the Blackberry joke, please no.

Manners
Passengers: I get it, you’re tired and jet-lagged. You had to take an extra-stupid connection to make the flight you’re on. Your last flight left late because of some drunken imbecile and was full of screaming babies. All of the above does not give you license to be rude to FA’s – smiles and the terms “please” and “thank you” go a long way.

FA’s: I get it, you’re overworked and underpaid. You had to dead-head like a fiend to make the flight you’re on. Your last flight left late because of some drunken imbecile and was full of screaming babies. All of the above does not give you license to be rude to passengers – smiles and the terms “please” and “thank you” go a long way.

The FA call button
Passengers: Hammering at the FA call button as if you’re trying to communicate your request via Morse code is not cool. Simmer down, you will be tended to. Also please realize that you don’t always need the flight attendant. I know we live in an increasingly impersonal society but you might want to consider asking your seatmate what the flight number is or perhaps read your boarding pass you moron.

FA’s: Reasonable passengers like myself know it’s a call button, not the bat signal. I don’t expect you to appear out of the seat pocket in front of me with a beaming smile and an oven-fresh cupcake but casually sauntering past and giving me the “talk to the hand” and “one minute” gestures is not cool.

Curtains
Passengers: Stop trying to peer through the curtains into the cabin ahead of you. It’s simple, the cabin in front of you has more space, better booze and a better passenger to FA ratio. That’s it, that’s all. You’re not missing out on the second coming of Christ, leave it alone.

FA’s: Try not to look so smug when you’re drawing the curtain. Let’s not forget that you’re working the more exclusive cabin, not enjoying it.

The aisles
Passengers: Even if you have an aisle seat, the aisle does not belong to you! Resist the urge to sprawl out and keep your legs and elbows to yourself.

FA’s: The aisles are supposed to be kept clear, but guess what, people fall asleep and droop over. Resist the temptation to drag race carts back to the galley, it will save somebody a lot of pain and will save you from having to double back with the first aid kit.

Happy flying!

Tunisia

During the recent uprising, a remarkable story unfolded. A pilot by the name of Mohamed Ben Keylani refused to takeoff with members of then President Ben Ali’s family on board. While that may have been foolish and might have cost him his life, this action shows the guts of some of the men and women that sit up front. He has gone on to become something of a hero in Tunisia.

Ben Ali's Personal A340-500. Photo by Terence Li.

Following the fall of Ben Ali, Tunisia’s government put up for sale an Airbus A340-500 destined to become his VIP transport. While I’m not against heads of state (legitimate or otherwise) having executive aircraft, there is a line. Ben Ali already had a BBJ capable of flying from Seattle to Jeddah. That 6548nm range could put him almost anywhere on earth in a single hop from Tunis.

6548nm range from Tunis

List prices of these aircraft sit at $261M for the A340-500 and $50M for the BBJ. While manufacturers tend to discount heavily, it should be noted that these are “green bean” prices – no livery, no interior, nothing. Spending $311M dollar on toys while your citizens earn on average $3,851 a year is simply unconscionable. Then again, when you’re showing up to meetings of the Arab League it’s important to not look out of place.

Egypt

Numerous world governments learned from how they (and others) mishandled evacuations in Tunisia and just weeks later staged a significantly better pullout from Egypt. This may seem like a non-story but when you consider how cumbersome and un-agile governments tend to be it’s a pretty rapid turnaround.

As things started to come to a head in Egypt the writing was on the wall even before Mubarak’s resignation. Al-Jazeera carried reports of wealthy Egyptians fleeing en masse on private jets.

Egypt Air is looking to lease out some 777's. Photo by SparkyMark

Following the mayhem and the demise of Mubarak it appears that things at Egypt Air are not too rosy. Despite massive fleet renewal and updates to hard and soft product it appears that the dip in tourism – amongst other factors – is forcing Egypt Air’s to lease out 25 of their aircraft to keep the books ticking over.

Libya

In another unexpected turn of events two high-ranking Libyan air force pilots fled to Malta in their French-made Mirage F-1′s. They told Maltese officials that they fled the country rather than execute their orders – to bomb civilian protesters.

Yesterday another interesting episode occurred; a civilian ATR-42 believed to be carrying Gaddafi’s daughter was denied landing in Malta. I realize that this represents but a small bump in her road to fleeing Libya but the statement was important.

Perhaps the biggest, but as yet unsubstantiated, story came from the lips of Libya’s Justice Minister, Mustafa Mohamed Abud Al Jeleil, who on Wednesday told a Swedish newspaper that the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie that killed 270 was ordered by Gaddafi himself. “I have evidence that Gaddafi ordered the Lockerbie bombing,” Al-Jeleil said to Expressen. “To hide this, he did everything in his power to get Megrahi back from Scotland.”

Over in Bahrain and Yemen there has not been much in the way of aviation related stories but neither of those two nations has yet had its day in the sun – figuratively of course.

The above tidbits definitely serve to illustrate points in other (bigger) stories and to me validate my belief that every major news outlet should have an aviation correspondent. In the same way that following money and paper trails unveils things, so does following contrails.