Emirates announces increased free baggage allowance

Dubai based Emirates airlines has announced an increase in its free baggage allowances provided to passengers travelling on or after May 4.

30kg for Economy Class passengers, 40kg for Business and 50kg for First. This excludes countries like in North America where a piece concept applies.

Gold and Silver Members of Skywards, Emirates frequent flyer programme are entitled to an additional baggage allowance of 16 kgs for Gold members and 12 kgs for Silver.

Unlike North American carriers who charge for checked baggage, airlines in other parts of the world are increasingly using baggage allowance as a means to draw customers. Indian value carrier SpiceJet has implemented a two piece concept for passengers connecting from international flights.

Image copyright (C) Bangalore Aviation

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Jet Airways Konnect no frills low cost service from Jet Airways

Jet Airways is trying its hand at the low cost game. It will introduce a new all Economy service, Jet Airways Konnect starting this Friday, on select routes in India, offering a no-frills, economy class service where guests will be offered attractive and competitive low fares on specific routes.

Using a dedicated fleet of two Boeing 737 and six ATR72 aircraft on sectors such as Chennai-Coimbatore, Chennai-Madurai, Chennai-Kochi, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Bhopal, Mumbai-Udaipur, Bengaluru-Pune, Bengaluru-Mangalore, the services will be delivered by Jet Airways staff, the only difference will be that travellers will have to buy their meals on board.

Passengers can book flights either on the Jet Airway's website or through the call centers or Jet Airways’ city and ticketing offices. Travel Agents can book the service using the global distribution systems (GDS). All guests using Jet Airways Konnect will enjoy the accrual and redemption of JetPrivilege’s mileage points.

A low cost carrier operation depends on frugality through the entire operation, I am wondering how Jet Airways, a legacy full service carrier, plans to achieve the required cost efficiencies? Please share your thoughts via a comment.

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Images and Video: Swiss Airbus A330-300 HB-JHA and new First Class

Late last month, SWISS took delivery of the first of its nine new Airbus A330-300 aircraft featuring the all new First Class. The aircraft registration HB-JHA is named "Schwyz" after the Canton in Switzerland, has a three class configuration; 183 seats in Economy, 45 in Business Class and 8 in First Class.

I hope you enjoy the video of the new First Class cabin and the high resolution images of the aircraft, one of which I got from a former Swissair staffer who now is at Bengaluru International Airport in Bangalore.



For more information including 360 degree views visit the Swiss website.

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Airbus cutting A380 superjumbo production to 14 deliveries in 2009 20+ in 2010

Airbus has confirmed it is further cutting down production rates for its A380 superjumbo from 18 to 14 for this year in response to specific customer requests for deferrals during the on-going economic crisis.

According to the new plan, Airbus expects to deliver 14 double-decker aircraft in 2009 and more than 20 aircraft in 2010

Airbus had already revised its A380 production plan for 2009 down from 21 deliveries to 18.

As per A380production, the airframes expected to be delivered this year will be:

Emirates: MSN017* (A6-EDE delivered), MSN023 (A6-EDF), MSN007 (A6-EDG), MSN025 (A6-EDH)

Qantas: MSN026 (VH-OQD Fergus McMaster), MSN027 (VH-OQE Lawrence Hargrave), MSN029 (VH-OQF Charles Kingsford Smith), MSN047 (VH-OQG Charles Ulm)

Singapore Airlines: MSN019 (9V-SKG), MSN021 (9V-SKH), MSN034 (9V-SKI), MSN045 (9V-SKJ)

Air France: MSN033 (F-HPJA), MSN040 (F-HPJB)

For a definitive Airbus A380 production list click here.

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Singapore Airlines drops Hyderabad Silkair takes over, SpiceJet adds six new flights

Singapore Airlines will discontinue its thrice a week service to Hyderabad/Shamshabad and hand it over to its regional subsidiary SilkAir will will increase frequency to five a week service from June 15, using an Airbus A320 aircraft.

The current schedule is :
MI478 Departing Singapore 21.00 arriving Hyderabad 23.05 except Tue, Thu
MI477 Departing Hyderabad 00.05 arriving Singapore 07.25 except Wed, Fri

Clearly the focus is on increasing frequency as Singapore Airlines simply did not have enough passengers to fill its Boeing 777s which SilkAir with its smaller A320s can. Service is planned to be increased to a daily frequency from October 26 2009.

Hyderabad will the the fourth destination in India for SilkAir who is currently operating to Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, and Coimbatore.


SpiceJet has done some fleet utilisation and efficiency improvements and has introduced six new flights on the Delhi Ahmedabad Mumbai Kochi and Kolkata sectors.

SpiceJet now has six daily flights between Delhi and Mumbai; three daily between Delhi and Kolkata; three daily between Delhi and Ahmedabad; and two daily connections between Delhi and Kochi.

The new flights are:

Ahmedabad Delhi 10.05 - 11.30
Delhi Ahmedabad 21.40 - 23.05

Delhi Mumbai 12.10 - 14.05
Mumbai Delhi 19.55 - 22.05

Mumbai Kochi 14.55 - 16.50
Kochi Mumbai 17.30 - 19.25

Delhi Kochi flight will be a connection via Mumbai.

Kolkata Delhi 12.05 - 14.25
Delhi Kolkata 14.15 - 16.25

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Turkish Airlines THY places order for five Boeing 777-300ERs

The Boeing Company and Turkish Airlines (called THY for Türk Hava Yolları) have signed an order for five Boeing 777-300ER (Extended Range) airplanes valued at $1.36 billion at current list prices.

This is the first time Turkish Airlines has purchased new 777s directly from Boeing. The airline currently operates a fleet of 65 Boeing airplanes including Next-Generation 737s and 777-300ERs leased from Jet Airways of India.

Turkish Airlines carries approximately 20 million passengers a year, with direct flights to 108 international and 33 domestic destinations. The airline was founded in 1933 with a fleet of five airplanes that carried a total of 28 passengers. The airline made its first domestic flight in 1933 and the first international flight in 1947.

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Low air fares offer: Lufthansa 50% discount, Jet Airways to London Heathrow

Today seems to be the day for special international air fares offers.

Lufthansa special 50-50-50 promotion.
Lufthansa is offering special fares to celebrate 50 years of operations in India.

For 50 hours, until May 8, 2009, Lufthansa is offering up to 50% discount on both business and economy class fares across Lufthansa's network of 35 destinations in Europe and North America from any of it's seven gateways in India.

To obtain full details and to avail the special offers passengers need to book tickets ticket via Lufthansa website for travel until October 31, 2009.

Economy class fares start at Rs. 13,900. Some sample fares I observed from Bangalore on the special offers page:

• New York JFK from Rs. 23,900*
• Boston or Washington DC from Rs. 24,900*
• Atlanta or Denver or Dallas/Fort Worth or Los Angeles or Miami from Rs. 27,900*

Other sample fares

• Bangalore - Atlanta (Business Class) Rs. 108,500*
• Bangalore - Amsterdam (Business Class) Rs. 74,900*
• Delhi - Frankfurt/Main (Business Class) Rs. 74,900*
• Chennai - Chicago (Economy Class) Rs. 24,900*
• Delhi - Los Angeles (Economy Class) Rs. 27,900*

The * means taxes and surcharges extra and terms and conditions apply.

Jet Airways special fares to London Heathrow
Jet Airways is offering special return fares to London which are available for sale with immediate effect. Passengers must complete their booking by May 31, 2009 and their travel from May 11, 2009 to June 30, 2009. The usual chestnut of taxes and surcharges being extra and special terms and conditions apply. Full details are at the Jet Airways website.

Economy class
From Mumbai (direct) or Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Pune (via Mumbai) for Rs. 11,990.

From Goa, Nagpur, Rajkot, Trivandrum, Kochi, Coimbatore, Jaipur (via Mumbai) or from Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur (via Delhi) for Rs. 12,500.

Business Class
From Mumbai (direct) or from Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata (via Mumbai) for Rs. 89,000 or from Delhi (direct) for Rs. 1,06,000.

First Class
From either Mumbai or Delhi (direct)) Rs. 1,71,000.

One thing which confuses me is the offer for Delhi passengers in Economy class via Mumbai. I cannot think of too many Delhi-ite's flying via Mumbai to go to London.

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Emirates Boeing 777 delivery deferrals: We will!! We will not!!

The last two days has been abuzz about the deferrals of deliveries of Boeing 777s by Dubai's flag carrier Emirates Airlines.

En-route to over-taking Singapore Airlines to become the world's largest Boeing 777 operator, Emirates recently took delivery of it's 75th 777.

Abdullah al Shams, a fleet manager at Emirates based at the Boeing factory in Washington, USA, was recently reported in the media as indicating that Emirates was going to defer 777 deliveries original scheduled from 2010 onwards, this following reports of Maurice Flanagan, the executive vice chairman of Emirates Airline and Group, saying there had been a “slight rearrangement” of deliveries next year.

Just a few minutes ago, the Los Angeles Times quoting a report by the AP, reported that Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, Emirates' chairman and chief executive says the carrier will not delay any of its orders for new aircraft through at least 2011, and will post a profit for the fiscal year ended March 31, even as the global recession drags down global air travel.

When the economy and airline industry recovers international legacy carriers all over the world are surely going to feel the effects of the expansion of Emirates airlines as many of them are already feeling in India.

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Virgin Atlantic codeshares on Jet Airways' Mumbai London Heathrow route

Virgin Atlantic who recently withdrew their services on the Mumbai London Heathrow route, has entered in to a codeshare agreement with Jet Airways effective May 6 2009, allowing guests to book with Virgin Atlantic but travel with Jet Airways on their double daily service between Mumbai and London Heathrow.

Virgin Atlantic will place its code on Jet Airways flights as follows:-

Jet flight	Virgin flight	Sector	Departure	Arrival
9W 119	VS9119	Heathrow–Mumbai	09:30	22:50
9W 120	VS9120	Mumbai–Heathrow	01:45	06:45
9W 117	VS9117	Heathrow–Mumbai	21:25	11:00
9W 118	VS9118	Mumbai–Heathrow	12:55	17:55

The codeshare agreement will be particularly useful for passengers travelling between many points on Virgin Atlantic’s worldwide network and Mumbai who will be able to make convenient, same-terminal connections at London Heathrow’s Terminal 3.

The two airlines will however compete on the New Delhi - London Heathrow sector where Virgin and Jet each have a daily service.

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Finnair to resume Mumbai Helsinki service in October upgrades Delhi to A330

Finnair who are withdrawing their Mumbai services for the summer, has decided to resume its Mumbai operations from October with it's newly inducted Airbus A330-300 fleet.

Kari Stolbow, director for the Indian subcontinent has indicated to IANS the carrier will re-start Mumbai services from October 18, 2009. For the first week, Finnair will operate the older Boeing MD-11, after which they will deploy the A330-300 aircraft.

On May 1, Finnair upgraded the five times weekly Delhi-Helsinki-New York service with the recently inducted A330-300's. Finnair is targeting the India-US traffic with a total flight time of 16 hours and 45 minutes, just one hour more than a non-stop flight, which includes a 40 minute transit time at Helsinki. The Delhi services are expected to be increased to a daily by August.

With a morning departure, Stolbow positions the Delhi flight saying

You can have breakfast in Delhi, lunch at Helsinki and tea in New York

India was the top growth market for Finnair in Asia, which accounts for 40 percent of its revenues. The recent signs of revival in the Indian economy has obviously rubbed off positively on the airline's thinking.

In the past, Stolbow has indicated the carrier's desire to commence services to Bangalore and other southern Indian cities like Chennai, which is the base for Finnish telecom major Nokia, but the airline was being hampered by a lack of aircraft and limitations of Finalnd's bi-lateral agreement with India.

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Video: Southwest Airline's new LIFT(TM) coffee

The video says it all. If you have tried the new coffee, please post your feedback via a comment.

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Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA001 N787BA moves to the flight line

Image courtesy Boeing. Click on image for high resolution.

A major step that many around the world have been waiting a long long long time for.

The first prototype of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner designation ZA001 registration N787BA is finally "shop complete" and has been moved to the flight line. See video.

Fuel testing, the first in the series of extensive checks the airplane must undergo, will begin in the next few days. ZA001 will then undergo additional airplane power and systems tests as well as engine runs. After completing final systems checks and high-speed taxi tests, the airplane will be ready for first flight, which is on schedule for later this quarter.

ZA001 completed a rigorous series of tests including build verification tests, structures and systems integration tests, landing gear swings and factory gauntlet, which is the full simulation of the first flight using the actual airplane. With Chief Pilot Mike Carriker at the controls, the simulation tested all flight controls, hardware and software. The simulation also included manual and automatic landings and an extensive suite of subsequent ground tests.

All structural tests required on the static airframe prior to first flight also are complete. The final test occurred April 21 when the wing and trailing edges were subjected to their limit load - the highest loads expected to be seen in service. The load is about the same as the airplane experiencing 2.5 times the force of gravity.

Ground vibration testing, which measures the airplane's response to flutter (experienced during extremely high speeds like dives), are also concluded on the second flight-test airplane, designated ZA002, at the end of this week. All the necessary structural tests required prior to first flight now are complete.

Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 Dreamliner program says

"These results give us confidence in our ability to move into further gauntlet testing using either ground power or the airplane's engines or auxiliary power unit. This is a significant milestone on the path to first flight,"

For airplane lovers and followers, moving a new model airplane to the flight line is a big and exciting moment. I am sure all the folks at Boeing and their partners have put significant efforts to recover from the blows of the last year. I offer my congratulations for a job being well done and best wishes for the future, but the job on ZA002-ZA006 is still on, and the team at Boeing will echo the words of poet Robert Frost "But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep,"

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Video: Boeing's first 787 Dreamliner rolls out to the flight line

Boeing's first 787 Dreamliner ZA001 N787BA rolled out on to the flight line at Everett yesterday and Liz Matzelle captured it on video. Hope you enjoy the video. Do visit Liz's Vimeo page. There are other great Boeing related videos. Thanks Liz.


Two other blogs I recommend visiting are Randy's Journal and FlightBlogger.

Randy Tinseth who is vice president marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, always has some great inside information and pictures, and Jon Ostrower has, in my humble opinion, the best information on the Dreamliner.

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A lady First Officer in an Arab airline. Congratulations Qatar Airways.

I received a press release from Qatar Airways about the pro-active and precautionary steps they are taking to protect their crews in the wake of the H1N1 Influenza A pandemic, better known as "Swine Flu".

Along with the release I received this picture, and it floored me.


Generally, and I mean by and large, the middle east is not known for the rights and equality of the fairer gender. In some countries women do not even have the right to drive a car, forget flying an airplane.

A lady as a First Officer in a middle east airline?!?! Most commendable of Qatar Airways, which serves to highlight the progressive thinking not only of the organisation, but of the country as well.

Congratulations Qatar Airways, and congratulations to the lady. Hope to see four gold stripes on that epaulette very soon.

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Images: Boeing 737 Next Generation new cabin interiors

Boeing recently displayed a mock-up of the cabin interiors of the new 737 next generation aircraft. Passengers of these airlines will be the lucky ones to fly the new aircraft.

• FlyDubai - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Continental Airlines - Houston, United States
• Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA - Fornebu, Norway
• Malaysia Airlines - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• TUI Travel PLC - London, United Kingdom
• GOL Airlines - Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Lion Air - Jakarta, Indonesia

Point the mouse over each image for a description, and click on it for a larger view.

Images courtesy Boeing

What are your thoughts of the new interiors ? Share your views via a comment.

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ATSB report and images of Emirates A340 tail-strike incident in Melbourne

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) released it's preliminary report along with detailed images and simulations in the tail strike incident of the Emirates Airlines A340-500 A6-ERG at Melbourne on March 20, 2009.

The jet with 257 passengers, 14 cabin crew and 4 flight crew on-board narrowly avoided disaster as its pilots struggled to take off from the end of Melbourne runway after wrongly entering a crucial number in a computer. As per the report, the pilots wrongly under-estimated weight data by 100 tonnes, which caused all their take-off performance settings to be computed wrong. As per the report

"While reviewing the aircraft's performance documentation in preparation for landing, the crew noticed that an incorrect weight had been inadvertently entered into the laptop when completing the take-off performance calculation prior to departure. The performance calculations were based on a take-off weight that was 100 tonnes below the actual take-off weight of the aircraft. The result of that incorrect take-off weight was to produce a thrust setting and take-off reference speeds that were lower than those required for the aircraft's actual weight."

Airlines routinely use less than full thrust take off throttle settings as a means to save engine wear and should not be taken as a contributing factor. ATSB aviation safety investigations director Julian Walsh says

"The reduced power take-off is standard international practice and almost all airlines doing these type of long-haul operations use these reduced power take-offs,"

"They've procedures developed by aircraft manufacturers and they're procedures that are not unique to Emirates and they're not unique to Airbus."

The Airbus A340-541 (MSN0608) aircraft which joined Emirate's fleet in November 2004, underwent an "A Check" only nine days prior to the accident on March 11, 2009.

The following photos are contained in the ATSB Transport Safety Report which can be downloaded here.

This image shows the aircraft attaining computed airspeed of 143 knots, ground speed 149 knots, corresponding to the 'V1' computed by the crew during take-off at 1,118 meters before the end of the runway. Observe the throttle position on the far right of the graphic at less than full.



The crew did not realise the error until they tried to lift the plane off the runway and it failed to respond because it was travelling too slowly. The captain calls "rotate" a second time and the first officer raises the pitch even more. The aircraft makes initial tail contact with runway. Pitch angle 9.8°, computer airspeed 156 knots ground speed 167 knots, 229 meters to end of runway. Captain then commands TOGA (Take-off and go-around thrust setting, the maximum the engines will supply).

Engines at TOGA, despite the plane's geometrical shape allowing a maximum pitch of 9.5°, desperate to take-off crew increased pitch to 13.7°. Computer air speed 161 knots, ground speed 172 knots, plane finally establishes positive rate of climb 292 meters AFTER end of runway 16. The report released shows the plane's tail hit the runway three times and the landing gear hit the localiser antenna array 300 meters beyond the end of runway 16.

Damage to the airplane extensive and is estimated in the millions of dollars. Due to the significant damage to the rear pressure bulkhead the aircraft cannot be pressurised and therefore cannot be flown out. One can safely assume repairs to be done at site in Melbourne where the aircraft is parked.

The two pilots have since resigned from the airline, and the ATSB is still continuing the investigation and will focus on

• human performance and organisational risk controls
• computer-based flight performance planning, including the effectiveness of the human
• interface of computer based planning tools.
• reduced power takeoffs, including the associated risks and how they are managed.

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Emirates receives it's fifth Airbus A380 and 75th Boeing 777

It has been an delivery filled last few days for Dubai based Emirates Airlines.

On April 24, Emirates took delivery of it's fifth Airbus A380 superjumbo. MSN0017 flew to Dubai as A6-EDE.


On April 30, Emirates took delivery of it's 75th Boeing 777, a Boeing 777-300ER. N5017V flew to Dubai as A6-ECQ. Emirates is set to soon overtake Singapore Airlines who with 77 Boeing 777s is the world's largest 777 operator.

Images courtesy Airbus S.A.S and Boeing

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