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Some Friday trivia for you to ponder. Can you name the world’s longest non-stop flight by a commercial airliner ? Longest in terms of distance and in terms of time ? Send in your answer via a comment. And while you are pondering the answer, enjoy this rather unusual angle on a Jet Airways Boeing 737-800 Next Generation series VT-JGV.

From March 29, 2009, the start of the summer time table, Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines will deepen their cooperation and expand their existing partnership, ahead of Lufthansa’s plans to take a 45 per cent stake in Brussels Airlines (subsequently to be raised to 100 per cent), and Brussels Airlines’ entry in to the Star Alliance. Codeshare flights on cross-border routesFrom …

Follow Bangalore Aviation on Twitter For quite some time the rumour mill had it that the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) was going to scrap the $550 million tender for 22 attack helicopters. Earlier today this rumour was confirmed. According to a spokesman the tender had to be cancelled since ‘the remaining three companies still participating in the tender were …

An Indian Navy Kamov Ka-28 “Helix-A” helicopter crashed in the Arabian Sea, 22 nautical miles off the coast Goa, earlier day, but the three crew escaped unhurt. The Ka-28 is the export version of the Ka-27Pl Image courtesy Wikipedia The helicopter had taken off from the Indian Navy base at Goa INS Hansa at 11:00 (05:30 UTC) on a routine …

Effective March 29th, Gulf Air is withdrawing its flights from Bahrain to Bangalore and to Hyderabad. No explanation has been provided by the airline, but I suspect that they have been crowded out by the far more aggressive Emirates Airlines. Gulf Air flies a small Airbus A320 to Bangalore daily and a slightly larger A321 to Hyderabad four times a …

Kingfisher Airlines recently released its Summer schedule which comes in to effect from March 29th. Some of the highlights : Introduction of double daily flights between Mumbai and Vadodara. Introduction of direct daily flight between Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram. Introduction of direct daily flight service between Aurangabad and Hyderabad to ensure Aurangabad is connected to Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore via Hyderabad. …

The New Tokyo International Airport at Narita opened its main runway earlier this morning at 09:10 local (00:10 UTC) following yesterday’s accident and crash of a FedEx Boeing MD-11 freighter which claimed both the crew and the aircraft. The crash has shut down the 4,000 meter (13,123 ft) long main runway 16R/34L. The airport was forced to rely on the …

Follow Bangalore Aviation on Twitter On March 12th, I had written about the “urgent” safety recommendations by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) regarding the Rolls Royce Trent 800 RB211 engines which are used by many Boeing 777 operators. It is estimated that there are currently about 220 Boeing 777s powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines in operation with …

Virgin Blue’s international airline V Australia and Delta Air Lines have negotiated and signed an Australia-U.S. interline agreement on the networks of each carrier and across the trans-Pacific route. An interline agreement allows the partner airlines to carry passengers or freight on behalf of each other and also enables luggage to be checked through. Effective immediately, the agreement allows travellers …

Follow Bangalore Aviation on Twitter First posted – March 23, 01:00 GMT A FedEx MD-11 freighter registration number N526FE performing flight 80, from Guangzhou, China crashed at Tokyo Narita International Airport in heavy winds, and burst in to flames. The two crew on board were killed. The main runway at the international gateway airport to Tokyo has been shut down. …

The crash of FedEx MD-11 freighter registration number N526FE performing flight 80, from Guangzhou, China at the New Tokyo International Airport at Narita has caused major disruptions in flight schedules. The crash has shut down the 4,000 meter (13,123 ft) long main runway 16R/34L. Map should not be used for navigation The airport is forced to rely on the secondary …

June 1, 2009 – The AF447 Rio to Paris story is here. Originally posted – 16:00GMT 21:30 local March 18 Something is in the air at the Bengaluru International Airport. For the second time in less than a week, an Airbus A330 is getting grounded at the airport with a technical fault. Following the five day grounding of a Dragonair …

Lufthansa is opening its Tower Lounge for First and Business Class passengers as well as customers with Hon Circle, Senator or frequent traveller status, at the Frankfurt airport by this month end. Located in the departures area above gate A65, the Tower Lounge offers the customary amenities in a floor area of 1,100 sq. meters (about 12,000 sq. ft.), big …

An Emirates Airlines Airbus A340-500, Emirates Airlines Airbus A340-500, registration A6-ERG performing flight EK407 from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with 225 people on board, damaged and decommissioned the main runway at Melbourne airport while taking-off. The aircraft ran off the runway 16 (length 3657 meters / 12,000 feet) around 22:30 local (12:30GMT) March 20, during its …

The entry of Air India in to the Star Alliance is delayed by at least one year to the first quarter of 2010. Star Alliance founder, Lufthansa was a sponsor for Air India joining the Star Alliance. Since 2004, Air India has operated code-sharing flights with Lufthansa between Germany and India. 18 months ago, the Government of India decided to …

At the start of Aero India in early February, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., announced it would make delivery of the first five of the Advanced Light Helicopters sold to the Ecuadorian Air Force using the behemoth Antonov An-124-100. On the night of March 18th the giant transporter came to the HAL airport to load up. I managed to catch her departure …

The sixth and final Boeing 787 Dreamliner designated for flight test is now undergoing final assembly in Everett, Wash. The airplane, designated ZA006, will be powered with General Electric GEnx engines. Boeing photo Progress continues on the fleet. The first flight test airplane, ZA001, is getting its paint touched up this week before finishing factory testing. Power was brought onto …

SpiceJet announced reduction of up to Rs. 600 per ticket on its already low fares, for all bookings made for 30 or more days in advance, across all its 119 flights in the new summer schedule. The airline’s Chief Commercial Officer Samyukth Sridharan claimed the fares will be comparable to IInd AC train fares. Clearly SpiceJet is targeting the summer …

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Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, is set to overhaul the schedule of its flights to India and provide increased long haul connectivity and better frequency. Etihad is also streamlining its services to key destinations in response to changing demands and will now operate all Indian flights as early-morning departures effective March 30, 2009. Currently Etihad …