Saturday, September 1st was a blustery and rainy day at New Delhi’s IGI airport. However, the excitement and warm hospitality by the team members of Vistara and their agency Avian, removed any gloom from the minds of us aviation geeks and press present for the occasion. Vistara, the brand of the Tata SIA Airlines joint venture of the Tata Group …
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Spicejet launches training academy for flight crew
Low cost carrier SpiceJet has launched a training center called the Spice Star Academy. The academy will offer students cabin crew training through a six month classroom program and a online course for a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Amity University. The airline has stated it will offer placement to all students trained under this program. Spicejet is planning …
Read More »Airlines scramble to change crew rosters after Trump’s travel ban
Airlines across the world, particularly the middle eastern and gulf majors scrambled to change their crew rosters to comply with the executive orders passed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday, which suspends the entry of citizens of seven nations, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, in to the United States. All crew already need a special visa …
Read More »Indian boy makes Lufthansa’s first in-flight ‘announcement by a kid’
Yashas Dassani, the nine-years old boy from Mumbai, who won the global ‘Your Announcement Contest‘ sponsored by German flag carrier Deutsche Lufthansa, made his first live announcement aboard a flight. Dassani performed the announcement as a Lufthansa cabin crew on-board flight LH756 from Franfurt to his home-town, Mumbai, in front of over 350 passengers. Prior to his flight, young Yashas …
Read More »Singapore Airlines to open restricted SIA Training Centre to public on July 25
On any other day the SIA Training Centre is a fortress. Restricted, where visitors are admitted only after a specific invitation and a thorough security checking. But, only July 25, 2015, Singapore Airlines is throwing open this secretive centre open to the public as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the island nation’s founding. Called the SIA Open House, …
Read More »Singapore Airlines launches TCS Mobile Solution
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has launched TCS CrewCollab, a tablet based digital flight-bag solution developed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) The application has been developed through a collaboration project by the airline and the software giant, leveraging SIA’s strength in service excellence and TCS’ strength in digital technology development. The airline is the launch customer for the TCS CrewCollab Solution and …
Read More »Tata-SIA airlines unveils its brand Vistara – an analysis
The Tata-SIA Airlines Ltd. (TSAL), the 51:49 joint venture between the Tatas and Singapore Airlines officially unveiled Vistara as its airline brand yesterday. Drawn from the Sanskrit word Vistaar which means limitless expanse. The logo is derived from a ‘yantra’, a perfect mathematical form that reflects the unbounded universe. Its fluid interconnecting lines reflect the seamless experience the airline wants …
Read More »Questions for the hypocritical Air India cabin crew union
The fact that the cabin crew and their unions are a law unto themselves running roughshod over national carrier Air India is a well known fact. The political power and connections of the crew and its union is demonstrated by the fact that the airline management meekly submits to them, and terminations are practically non-existent even in the most glaring …
Read More »Expect to use some portable electronic devices during the entire flight very soon
by Devesh Agarwal The United States’ aviation regulator the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has today allowed airlines to relax rules regarding the use of portable electronic devices (PEDs) on-board flights below 10,000 feet. In a release the FAA said Passengers will eventually be able to read e-books, play games, and watch videos on their devices during all phases of flight, …
Read More »In-flight review: Air France business class: A330-200: Bangalore Paris Mumbai
Until recently, like many others, I was under the opinion Air France was a stuffy airline, an uncaring crew, and one I was not likely to fly any time soon. Recently, I was a guest of Air France to attend the launch of their new “Best and Beyond” campaign in Paris, and had the opportunity to fly the airline in …
Read More »Air India’s Boeing 787 promotional video
by Devesh Agarwal Through non-official channels a promotional video by Air India of their new Boeing 787. Now that the airline has a new toy to play with, all the 777s procured just a few years ago lie forgotten and rotting on the tarmac. Read my op-ed piece here. You can also see our cabin walk-though pictures and video here.
Read More »Video: Cathay Pacific fashion show – flight attendant uniforms through the years
Enjoy this video showing off the various uniforms of the cabin crew of Cathay Pacific Airways through the years. From the very militaristic style post world war II, to the mini skirts of the 1960s, the 1970s introduction of designer uniforms from Pierre Balmain, to Hermès, and Nina Ricci.
Read More »Airbus announces crew for A350 XWB first flight
Airbus S.A.S. has announced the six person crew which will go aboard the first flight of the first A350 XWB to fly, known as MSN1. Two test pilots and the project test flight engineer will be seated in the cockpit: Peter Chandler, an Experimental Flight Test Pilot with Airbus since 2000 and Chief Test Pilot since 2011; Guy Magrin, an …
Read More »AirAsia India commences recruiting flight attendants
AirAsia India will be hiring cabin crew for its flight operations in India which is planned to be based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The airline is inviting aspiring flight attendants to attend its walk-in interviews to be held on Saturday 13 April 2013 at Chinmaya Heritage Centre, 2, 13th Avenue, Harrington Road, Chetpet in Chennai, from 9am to 3pm. Successful …
Read More »Videos: Emirates promotes its multi-lingual crew with colloquial idioms videos
by Devesh Agarwal “You are the cat’s whiskers” is an English idiom meaning “you are perfect” or “you are someone special”. These are just some of the 29 colloquial idioms Dubai-based Emirates airline is advertising to showcase its global network and multi-lingual and multi-ethnic crew. Watch the videos below, and remember, if you want to romance an Italian Madonna, tell …
Read More »Video: IndiGo continues chic look with new pilots’ uniforms
A little more that two years ago, India’s largest domestic airline, IndiGo, updated its stewardess’ uniforms to reflect a hot, chic and youthful look (see photos here). Now, IndiGo, has unveiled an equally chic and youthful look on its pilots. The new uniform, designed by famous fashion designer Rajesh Pratap Singh, has a navy blue bomber jacket, while shirt, and …
Read More »Hooray for the courts. Drunk IndiGo passenger gets life term for hijack threat
Early in February 2009, Bangalore Aviation had advocated a strong “zero tolerance” approach to drunk passengers in Indian skies, specifically citing the case of Jitendra Kumar Mohla, a Chartered Accountant, and son of a former Air Commodore of the Indian Air Force, who boarded an IndiGo flight 6E-334 from Goa to New Delhi, in a drunk condition. Today, we are …
Read More »In-flight review: Lufthansa new Business Class: Boeing 747-8i and Airbus A330-300: Mumbai Munich
Following an excellent trip in India, I started off on my return flight to the US. I got to Mumbai Airport around 22:20 (10:20pm) for my flight to Munich at 01:07. Mumbai airport – A series of bottlenecks Right now Mumbai Airport is in a bit of a transition phase as they construct the new integrated terminal so I suppose …
Read More »Lufthansa faces cabin crew strikes and flight disruptions after talks fail
[Note: Most of the links are to web pages in German. Use a translation tool or a web browser with built in translation like Google Chrome.] German national carrier Deutsche Lufthansa AG faces multiple flight disruptions after talks with the union representing over 18,000 cabin crew failed. The failure of the 13 month old talks has been acknowledged by both …
Read More »Video: Om Shanti Om – Finnair crew dances onboard flight celebrates India’s Republic Day
A group of Finnair cabin crew sent their greetings to India on the eve of the nation’s 63rd Republic Day with a “Take OFF to Bollywood” dance aboard the carrier’s flight AY021 from Helsinki to New Delhi. Ms Helena Kaartinen a cabin crew of Finnair and a group of her colleagues came aboard the aircraft after the passengers were boarded, …
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