Aviation Report

AFTER a lot of noisy cross-fire, on May 15th the smoke cleared from the battleground that is the European Union’s policy on airlines and climate change. Twenty-six countries have fiercely opposed a move by the EU to charge airlines using its airports for their carbon emissions. Yet it turns out that only those of China and India, ten carriers in all, are failing to comply with the scheme. That is ten more than the EU’s climate policy wallahs recently claimed. Downplaying the recent protests, in which America and Russia are also prominent, they insisted that all airlines were abiding by the EU’s new rules. For now, these cost them nothing: under the terms of the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)—which the airlines were included in at the beginning of the year—they are supposed merely to provide data on their 2011 emissions. In April 2013 they will then have to obtain tradable ETS permits to cover their 2012 emissions, 85% of which they will have for free. That the Chinese and In...

JEJU, on the South Korean island of the same name, is not one of the country's 20 biggest cities. Yet the island's allure as a domestic tourist destination resulted in 9.9m passengers flying between Seoul and Jeju (in either direction) in 2011. This makes it the busiest airline route in the world, according to Amadeus, a company that provides technology to the travel industry. It measures the cities where passengers start and finish their journeys, so while the busiest actual flight corridor in America is New York-Chicago, it only counts as the third-busiest American route because many of the passengers are connecting to other destinations. It comes just behind New York-Fort Lauderdale (3.1m) and New York-Los Angeles (3m). The number of people travelling between Asia and North America, and between Asia and Europe grew by 9% from 2010 to 2011, but as the chart shows the busiest routes are still domestic. The most popular international route is Hong Kong-Taipei, followed by Se...

Talk about authentic and unique travel experiences? United Airlines was running a flash sale today for loyalty program members, enabling them to bid their miles toward winning a roundtrip flight, a one-night hotel stay and then a training session in a United Flight Training Simulator. Limited-time-only auctions of these types for MileagePlus members are part of MileagePlus Headliners , a holdover from a Continental Airlines program before the merger. As of this writing — and there was more than a day to go before the auction ended — there were 75 bids, with the highest being 205,000 awards miles, for the United Flight Simulator Experience. There would be only one winning bid for the package. Here’s how United described the experience, scheduled for June 1-2, 2012: For those who have ever dreamed of being in the cockpit and having the incredible experience of flying a United airplane, this is your dream come true. You and your guest will fly to Denver on June 1st,...

In an effort to connect with their communities of customers, Airline companies are offering behind the scenes tours  of their businesses. Delta Airlines published a video about the journey of a bag from check in to arrival. It is a a promotional video for their new  mobile tracking of luggage app . The company is very good at marketing for the 21st century and it's sponsorship of  TED talks  was a very smart move in terms of brand positioning. On 26 and 27 April, Air France welcomed around forty members of FlyerTalk , the biggest community of online air travelers. This meeting was an opportunity to give its most connected passengers an insight into Air France behind the scenes.

JetBlue is on track to revolutionize inflight connectivity. In partnership with ViaSat, the company is creating its own broadband connectivity solution. Using ViaSat's innovative satellite technology, it will bring customers high-capacity broadband functionality that can deliver real-time two-way communications aboard their fleet of Airbus 320 and Embraer 190. In fall 2011, the company introduced the technology with the launch of the ViaSat-1 satellite. This satellite will bring JetBlue customers exponentially more bandwidth than any other product in commercial aviation today. The next phase is securing FAA certification for the system and installing it on aircrafts. They expect the first aircraft with Wi-Fi to be flying by mid-2012. Jetblue:  http://www.jetblue.com/flying-on-jetblue/wifi/ Viasat:  http://www.viasat.com/

Gogo provides in-flight broadband Internet service, streaming video and other connectivity services for commercial and business aircraft. In June 2011, the company formally changed its name from Aircell to Gogo as part of a rebranding effort. Prior to the rebrand, Gogo's commercial air service was known as "Gogo Inflight Internet." Aircell remains the name of the company's business aviation division. Gogo allows airline passengers to connect to the Internet through a system of cell towers on the ground. Their Air to Ground (ATG) system is a 3G wireless technology that utilizes EV-DO Rev. A. Gogo owns more than 100 towers, which together form a network over the continental U.S. and parts of Alaska. The towers are cellphone towers that have been outfitted to point their signals at the sky rather than along the ground. The aircraft picks up the signal through a receiver installed on its underside. When it reaches the aircraft, the data signal is distri...

Three successful testing of the world’s first broadband connection between an airborne passenger plane and a ground-based LTE network Early step toward future commercial implementation of wireless offerings to help travellers stay connected The fourth generation mobile broadband access technology LTE (Long Term Evolution) provides high-speed mobile Internet connections for people on the road and, in the future, it will provide that connection for air passengers when in flight. Deutsche Telekom, Alcatel-Lucent and Airbus have successfully tested direct data communication - using LTE technology, a commercial wireless radio solution - between an aircraft and a wireless network on the ground. When commercial, this solution will be able to provide in-flight mobile voice and broadband data communications services cost-effectively. These tests represent the first steps on the road toward future commercial implementation of in-flight wireless services for passengers over con...

Icelandair's business strategy is based on the geographical position of Iceland, midway between North Europe and the eastern coast of the USA. By uniting  on one aircraft, passengers traveling to and from Iceland, with passengers crossing the Atlantic via Iceland, Icelandair has expanded and reinforced its network continuously over the last decades. Icelandair connects 15-20 cities in Europe with 5-8 cities in North America, through Iceland as a hub. The network is based on 24-hour rotation, with connecting flights leaving Iceland in the mornings and afternoons. The fleet is exclusively made of B757 aircrafts with a capacity of 200 to 289 passengers. Source:  https://www.icelandair.us/information/about-icelandair/icelandair/

It's roomy for passengers, a delight for pilots, but on a promotional flight, some of the more-hyped features of the 787 were hard to detect. And my, how those wings can flex. Looking out the unusually large windows of a 787 Dreamliner in flight Friday, the distinctive upward flexing of the slender carbon-fiber plastic composite wings that's visible from the ground was too gradual to see. Yet when we hit turbulence in flight, those sleek-as-scimitar wings moved dramatically, almost alarmingly. The pilots, though, were not perturbed. In the exceptionally quiet cockpit, they raved about how the new jet makes their jobs easier. They demonstrated that even with one engine shut off, the plane virtually flies itself, hands-free. Meanwhile, in the back of the plane, passengers enjoyed lots of overhead space, more light, and, with the latest seat designs, more knee room — all combining to give the cabin a much-less claustrophobic feel than on other airplanes. On a three...

The crash site of the Sukhoi Superjet-100 (SSJ-100) that disappeared in Indonesia on May 9 has been found. It had crashed into a mountain. However, the tragic end of the demo flight does not spell the end of this Russian civil aviation project. Steep slope The Russian Superjet 100 airliner, serial number 95004, disappeared from radar screens while performing a demonstration flight in Indonesia, south of Jakarta. The aircraft was returning to the airfield when contact with it was lost. The plane’s emergency beacons were dead. Therefore, several versions of the incident were investigated, including hijacking. This was the only hope left when the aircraft ran out of fuel. All hope was lost on the morning of May 10 when search and rescue helicopter spotted scattered debris on the steep wooded slope of the Salak volcano. The plane seemed to have been pulverized. According to latest reports, there were 45 people onboard the aircraft, of whom eight were Russians, including crew m...