As 787 Dreamliners return, passengers face economy class discomfort

As its much vaunted state of the art jetliner, the 787 Dreamliner returns to the skies, US airframer Boeing faces a dilemma. On the one hand Boeing has incorporated many improvements in the composite fuselage aircraft, which was meant to improve passenger comfort.

These include

• Windows that are about 30% bigger, allowing more natural light.
• Windows also feature an electronic dimming system
• Cabin pressure being maintained at a lower altitude of 6,000ft MSL rather than the traditional 8,000ft, thus reducing passenger fatigue.
• High cabin humidity reducing passenger dehydration
• The air-conditioning system is fed with air from scoops rather than engines, thus much cleaner
• The computer controlled LED lighting system that simulates the rise and ebb of natural light through the day, thus helping passengers better adjust to time zones.
• High ceilings, bigger over-head bins, and the cabin derived from the Boeing Sky Interior which gives passengers a bigger sense of space
• External to the cabin, the aircraft has an anti-turbulence system that makes for a smoother flight and much quieter engines.

Yet, despite all these improvements, with the exception of the two Japanese airlines All Nippon and Japan Airlines, all the other 787 operators have opted for the ultra-tight nine abreast 3-3-3 configuration in economy class that leaves the seats around a bone crushing 17" width. Fine for a short 737 flight, but extremely uncomfortable for the longer eight to twelve hour flights envisaged in the Dreamliner.

Even British Airways which recently revealed its 787 cabin layout has chosen the narrow 3-3-3 configuration for its World Traveller (economy) class.

One has to wait and see what configuration will "premium" carriers like Singapore Airlines choose.

So unless you are a zero sized petite Bollywood, Hollywood model, you might be well advised to leave the Dreamliner in your dreams. On the flip side, since most airlines have chosen not to have a first class in their 787s, if you have the big bucks or frequent flier miles to afford the Business Class, then the Dreamliner will truly live up to its name in its pampering.

Talking about frequent flier miles, I have just returned from one trip covering the US and Europe and had a chance to experience the new business class aboard Lufthansa's 747-8i's and the BusinessFirst "Pods" aboard Air Canada's 777s and 767s. They were both good experiences and I request you to please await my trip reports.

Unfortunately, I am going back to the US. Will be in the air when this publishes. While I am a charter member of Masochists-R-Us, but, after a long long time, I am flying Singapore Airlines, in their 777 economy class, considered the best in the world. Stay tuned for that trip report too.

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Opinion: Jetihad deal means India's international market belongs to the MEB3

by Vinay Bhaskara 

When Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airlines announced in late April that it had acquired a 24% stake in Mumbai

Will the MEB3 hold sway?

based full service carrier Jet Airways for $379 million, it marked a paradigm shift in the state of the Indian air travel market. The newly formed “Jetihad” partnership would hold a nearly 18% share of international passenger traffic to and from India, versus 13% for Emirates, and 12% for Air India based on statistics from 2011-2012. However, the recently re-written India-UAE bilateral more than trebles the weekly seating rights to Abu Dhabi, which means that Jetihad will likely hold close to 20% of India’s international passenger traffic by 2017.

When combined with Etihad’s gulf rivals Emirates and Qatar Airways (the so-called Middle Eastern Big 3 carriers), Middle Eastern airlines are will effectively control 40% of India’s international passenger flows, and closer to 70% of westbound international traffic.

In practical terms, this is a net positive for Indian air travelers. Middle Eastern carriers are able to offer lower fares than Western and Indian airlines, thanks to favorable labor conditions and the economies of scale offered by their massive super-hubs (larger operations have lower cost per enplanement because fixed costs like terminal rent and ground services are spread over more flights and passengers). The MEB3 carriers offer the most competitively priced westbound international tickets in the Indian market, and the expanded access thanks to the Jetihad deal will only increase the supply of such tickets.

However when one considers the strategic implications for India’s airline industry, the deal has a profound impact. Jet Airways was India’s premier full service carrier due to the demise of Kingfisher and the poor international reputation of Air India. And India’s government has at least verbally expressed its desire for India to develop both a world-class full service airline and a world class hub airport in Delhi, Mumbai, or one of the other metros.

And in pursuit of that goal, India’s dreams have suffered a major setback.  By default, Jet Airways was the one Indian airline that, had it pursued a sensible strategy and taken full advantage of the upcoming integrated terminal at its largest hub in Mumbai, could have conceivably fulfilled such aspirations (unless Air India is privatized – which the present government is unwilling to do). But with the Jetihad deal; Jet Airways’ position in the global airline market has shifted.

One need only consider the shift in strategy by Etihad’s previous equity investments to predict Jet Airways’ international network moving forwards. AirBerlin once had a worldwide long haul network with several destinations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Following Etihad’s investment however, they cancelled the majority of their eastbound long haul destinations (which can be served via connections through Abu Dhabi). A few core routes (Tel Aviv, Phuket, et. al, are still served on airberlin’s mainline platform, but the long haul network has shifted to focus on services to the America and Abu Dhabi. For Jet Airways, thus the path forward is clear. As far as standalone westbound long haul destinations are concerned, only London has enough demand to survive as a nonstop destination. A core network to the Gulf will likely stay in place because of the short distances, but services to the Americas and to the rest of Europe are likely to flow over Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, expect expansion of services to Asia and other international markets which cannot be easily served on Etihad code shares.

What this means for the strategic vision of an Indian hub is that Jet Airways’ operation in Mumbai will never turn into a massive connecting powerhouse in the vein of Singapore for Singapore Airlines or Frankfurt for Lufthansa. India will not, in the near future, have its own version of Thai Airways International, or even Vietnam Airlines for that matter. Westbound international travel will flow in volume over Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha with business traffic also being captured by the various alliances as well. Absent a significant change in Air India’s status, India’s international air travel market is now firmly in the hands of the MEB3.

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IndiGo modifies its seat pricing after ministry rap

by Devesh Agarwal

Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal. All rights reserved.

A chastened IndiGo airline, hurried modified portions of its much annoying seat pricing policy after facing the irritation of passengers and the rap of the civil aviation ministry.

A late night statement from the airline says

The feedback of our flyers is of utmost importance to us and as a result, with immediate effect, IndiGo will not charge for pre-booking of any of its middle seats (except for rows 1, 12 and 13)

About 11 days ago, the airline had announced a new seat pricing formula called IndiGo Seat Plus, after the aviation ministry had indicated their acceptance of un-bundling of additional services like baggage, food, seat pre-selection, etc, which helps drive ancillary revenue, a major income source for airlines.

Under IndiGo Seat Plus, passengers could pre-block seats for a premium. Rs 500 for sitting in Rows 1, 2, 12 and 13 on domestic flights and Rs 800 for international. For all other window and aisle seats the premium was Rs 200 and Rs. 300 for domestic and international flights respectively. However, what got the goat of almost everyone was IndiGo's Rs. 100 and Rs. 200 charge for booking of even the most unwanted seat in the aircraft, the middle seat.

Earlier today, reports indicated The Ministry of Civil Aviation has directed domestic airlines to limit the number of seats on their flights for which they charge passengers a fee which is over and above the cost of the ticket. Since IndiGo was the only airline charging for seats, quiet clearly it was in the cross-hairs of the officials.

Indian carriers would be well advised to take heed of the developments in the North American market, where airlines nickel and dime their passengers every step of the way. Last year, US airlines earned in excess of $6 billion (about Rs. 33,000 crores) in change fees alone. Change fees are normally charged for changing ticketed schedules.

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Video: Behind the scenes at Finnair's network control centre

Finnair has always marketed itself as an airline offering fast connections. In India they target the India to US traffic, while from the far and near east they offer fast connectivity in to Europe. To achieve this, the airline needs a state of the art network control centre (NCC) that monitors developments across the world that may affect flight operations, both within the airline and external factors. Below are two videos that offer a brief glimpse of the many people who work behind the scenes to ensure smooth and trouble-free operations.

As with any connection based airline, Finnair needs to have all its flights landing and departing in a fixed time frame to ensure passengers can change their flights and connect. The second video shows how the Finnair NCC works through the night to handle the 'rush hour' traffic of the early morning at its hub and home airport in Helsinki.

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Team of Indian students emerge finalists for Airbus' Fly Your Ideas challenge

A student team from SRM University is one of the five teams selected by Airbus to compete in the third edition of the Fly Your Ideas (FYI) challenge. The other teams making the final are from Australia, Brazil, Italy and Malaysia. Team AVAS will now travel to France on June 12, 2013, to present their ideas to a jury of Airbus and industry experts at airframer's headquarters in Toulouse, France. The winning team will receive a prize of €30,000 and the runners up €15,000.

The winners will be announced at an exclusive ceremony at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris on 14th June 2013. UNESCO has given its patronage to the global competition which challenges students worldwide to develop innovative ideas for a more sustainable aviation industry for the future.

The finalists were chosen out of 618 teams from 82 countries and over 6,000 students. The proposals had to cover one of six themes identified by Airbus as key 21st century challenges for a greener aviation industry.

Team AVAS successfully passed through the eliminating rounds to get to the final with their proposal for reduced propulsion noise thanks to jet exhaust shape modification using intelligent materials, specifically, shape memory alloys. These alloys are energized by harvested electricity generated by advanced thermoelectric materials using engine heat source. The team is composed of three Indian students, Michael Thomas, Anita Mohil, and team leader Balakrishnan Solaraju Murali, all studying for a bachelors degree in Aerospace Engineering at SRM University.

The five finalists are:

• Australia - Team CLiMA, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, for the development of aircraft fuelled by a blend of sustainably produced liquefied biomethane and liquefied natural gas (Bio-LNG).
• Brazil - Team Levar, University of São Paulo, for a luggage loading and unloading system for airplane cargo compartments to reduce the workload of airport baggage handlers with an air cushion solution inspired by air hockey tables.
• India - Team AVAS, SRM University, for reduced propulsion noise thanks to jet exhaust shape modification using intelligent materials (shape memory alloys). These alloys are energized by harvested electricity generated by advanced thermoelectric materials using engine heat source.
• Italy - Team Flybrid, Technical University of Milan, for an electric/turboprop combination for hybrid propulsion in regional aircraft. This system uses batteries pre-charged on ground and not in-flight.
• Malaysia - Team Embarker, Universiti Putra Malaysia, for a self-sustaining aircraft cabin concept in which the excess body heat from seated passengers is used as an alternative source of energy to power small electronics in the cabin.

Throughout the competition, Airbus Mentors and Experts have worked with the teams to provide guidance and support with their projects in addition to a member of staff from their university. The teams are multinational and multicultural and the students are studying a wide range of subjects from mechanical and aerospace engineering to business and design.

In addition to the main challenge, there is a competition for the best Fly Your Ideas video which the public can vote for online at www.airbus-fyi.com. The shortlisted video teams are from Australia, China, Germany, Kenya and Spain.

For further details on the competition and the finalists, and to vote for the best video please visit: www.airbus-fyi.com

All the best to team AVAS.

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Video: First Airbus A350XWB rolls out of the paint hangar

The first A350 XWB emerged from the paint shop at the Toulouse, France plant with its Airbus livery on 13 May 2013, marking a new milestone toward this jetliner's maiden flight in the summer. Rumours abound that Airbus is trying to make the first before the Paris air show.

All that aside, what do you think of how the plane looks? The nose is a sharp departure from the bulbous noses its other Airbus siblings share.

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