Lufthansa begins 747-400 retirements
22 years and 7 months after entering service ship D-ABVA is being decommissioned and will soon be sent to the scrapyard. During its tenure the aircraft has amassed just over 112,000 hours of flight time and 15,724 cycles. What’s surprising is that she looks as good today as she did on day one – a...
The new and improved WestJetVacations.com
A year ago I was invited to Calgary to participate in a prelaunch preview of the revamped WestJet.com. After the session I was asked if I would be interested in coming back for future previews including that of the WestJet Vacations site. As I was saying yes to the question I realized that I had...
LOT Boeing 767 makes an emergency landing in Warsaw
Chances are excellent that if you’re an aviation nut you have already seen this; yesterday a LOT 767 with 230 people on board made an emergency landing in Warsaw after crossing the pond from Newark. Dramatic stuff – tragedy averted by excellent airmanship.
Qatar Airways to start domestic operations in Iran
In a move that few saw coming, it was announced this week that Qatar Airways had been granted 9th freedom permissions to fly domestic air routes within Iran. Iran – it seems – has found a silver bullet to its domestic air travel woes and Qatar Airways have blown the doors off a new market....
The 787′s maiden commercial flight
After what seems like an eternity of delays, endless press releases and sheepish apologies the Boeing 787 finally entered service today with Japanese carrier ANA. NH7871 today was operated by JA801A and touched down in Hong Kong around 15:50 local time. As you might expect the flight was welcomed by a water cannon salute and...
Massive overhaul at Qantas
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...
Canada and Brazil sign open-skies-like agreement
As expected, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office announced on August 8th that a new treaty bringing greater liberalization of air ties between Canada had been signed. Initially I assumed that this was an open skies agreement and that we might see an interesting flurry of aviation activity between the two countries. I did some...
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...
New LOT livery unveiled
To celebrate the fact that they will be the first European carrier to receive the 787, LOT has rolled out plans to update their livery and the results are terrific. There is always the temptation at airlines –particularly those with drab liveries –to make a big splash and go wild when redesigning. Rather than take that route,...
