Aviation Report

THIS is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard Economist flight DEC20 to London. Today's in-flight entertainment is an infographic of the longest commercial flights—“ultra long-haul” routes that last more than 12 hours. We regret to announce that the lengthiest—Singapore Airlines’ flight from the city-state to Newark Airport near New York, at 15,263km—was discontinued last month. That now makes Qantas’ Sydney to Dallas flight the longest, at 13,790km. For those travelling during the holidays, spare a thought for passengers strapped into their seats for around 16 hours, the journey time for these flights. That’s double the duration it took Concorde to complete a similar distance (going round trip between London and Barbados). In the chart below, scroll down to see how these ultra long-haul flights compare. And thank you for choosing The Economist. We appreciate that there are other chart providers and we hope to serve you again for all your infographic interests. Source:  http:/

To coincide with its latest 'To Fly. To Serve' campaign, British Airways has calculated the essential people involved in the customer journey in order to fly from Baku to London. It includes 96 different roles, across 18 different departments, using over 11 external suppliers in the process. The figures rise to 107 roles for premium customers - which can include the additional benefits of fast track boarding, lounge access and personal meet and greets, the company said today. And following the findings that it takes 96 people to get each customer in the air, British Airways is launching special fares to the UK, Europe, USA and Canada across all cabins, until 26 November for travel until 31 July 2014. Seats are available to London from EUR 476* in World Traveller, and EUR 1767* in Club World. Paolo De Renzis, British Airways commercial director, Middle East and Central Asia, said: "Customer experience is at the centre of everything we do, although when you take a step

One of the big selling points of digital billboards is interactivity -- and the definition grew wider this week thanks to British Airways, which unveiled new outdoor ads that interact with planes overhead. The BA campaign, running on Clear Channel’s new “Storm” digital out-of-home network in London, uses surveillance technology and flight schedules to determine when there is a BA plane overhead. When a plane is detected, it triggers an image of a child pointing up at the aircraft, along with a message containing the flight number and departure city -- e.g., “Look, it’s flight BA430 Amsterdam.” That’s followed or accompanied (in installations with more than one sign) by a second message, e.g. “Amsterdam, one of 34 city break destinations.” Other complementary messages highlight things like low fares or the current temperature at the destination. The ads are running on Storm displays in Piccadilly, in Central London, and the West London neighborhood of Chiswick, whose positions

Consumers are not the only ones happy about the FAA’s recent decision to let passengers use electronic devices during nearly all phases of the flights. Amazon is marking the occasion with a one-day marketing ploy to offer consumers a discount on various e-reader devices. In a Monday morning release, Amazon said “thank you” and offered a 15 percent discount on various versions of the Kindle Fire, as well as knocking $10 off its $69 basic Kindle. “We’ve been fighting for our customers on this issue for years, and we are thrilled by the FAA’s recent decision,” said an Amazon executive in a statement. The decision, announced on Friday, means an end to seemingly arbitrary rules that required passengers to power down their devices during take-off and landing, despite any evidence that devices like Kindles or iPads have any effect on planes’ navigations systems. As my colleague Kevin Tofel explains, the new rules mean passengers can pretty much use their devices as they like (excep

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Michael Huerta today announced that the FAA has determined that airlines can safely expand passenger use of Portable Electronic Devices (PEDs) during all phases of flight, and is immediately providing the airlines with implementation guidance. Due to differences among fleets and operations, the implementation will vary among airlines, but the agency expects many carriers will prove to the FAA that their planes allow passengers to safely use their devices in airplane mode, gate-to-gate, by the end of the year. The FAA based its decision on input from a group of experts that included representatives from the airlines, aviation manufacturers, passengers, pilots, flight attendants, and the mobile technology industry. Passengers will eventually be able to read e-books, play games, and watch videos on their devices during all phases of flight, with very limited exceptions. Electronic items, book

Google’s Nikesh Arora, chief business officer, recently told analysts the company is happy with its Google Flight Search product and ITA Software, acquired for $700 million in 2011. There probably isn’t a hotter segment of the travel business these days than metasearch, or price comparison, with Kayak, Skyscanner, Trivago, and TripAdvisor all involved in high-profile mergers, funding transactions, or product launches this year. But by all accounts, the flight comparison product Google Flight Search has hardly made a dent in the market since its much-feared debut more than two years ago. Companies such as Priceline and Expedia have repeatedly said they haven’t felt an impact from Google Flight Search. Henry Harteveldt, Hudson Crossing’s travel industry analyst, recalls a recent conversation with an airline executive who, referring to Google’s flight metasearch product, said that sometimes the airline forgets that it even exists. There are lots of theories about why Google Flight Sear

You could call it the sale of the century, but it's becoming a monthly occurrence. United Airlines, due to a website glitch, is selling plane tickets for nearly no cost. One of our readers, who asked to remain anonymous, called the situation to our attention Monday afternoon, and gave us explicit instructions on how to exploit the glitch. We successfully tested the steps, but stopped one click short of purchasing the tickets — a roundtrip flight from Newark, N.J., to Dublin for $49.40, just the cost of taxes and fees. Exploiting the glitch involved setting up a "MileagePlus" account and essentially tricking the site into thinking you had enough frequent flier miles to cover the cost of a flight by setting up the purchase in two different tabs. The entire process took less than 10 minutes and, at time of writing, was still functioning. United, however, declined to comment on how many people have tried to take advantage of the loophole. United had a similar pr

Efficiency is measured by the ratio of travel miles provided (Available Seat Miles ASM) divided by operating expenses. Yield is measured by the ratio of the revenue per mile provided (Revenue Passenger Miles RPM) relative to total revenue. A line captures most airlines except one outlier: Southwest. Southwest has been able to achieve a higher level of productivity compared to the legacy carriers and thereby has been able to shift the frontier. You can also notice that Hawaiian has been able to achieve a similar level of productivity, largely because of their small network, but has not been able to command high prices relative to Southwest. You notice that the frontier has changed dramatically. Southwest, that had been known for charging the lowest prices is now charging the highest prices in the industry. Yet they had to sacrifice on the productivity side and have been overtaken on that side by companies like jetBlue and Virgin America.

Boarding airplanes has slowed down in recent years, and lately there’s been a lot of chatter about whether airlines can find ingenious, creative, and algorithmic ways to speed up this anxiety-producing process. The problem is, none of them really work. Boarding every other window seat first, then middle, then aisle; or the back of the plane first; or from the front and rear at the same time. These solutions are lipstick on a pig. But lipstick doesn’t make a pig fly. Why? Because speeding up the slow boarding process isn’t about tinkering with the order in which you let people on the plane. It’s about the amount of time passengers spend in the aisle, hefting their bags into the overhead compartments, and stowing them under the seats. The more and bigger bags people bring on, the slower the line moves. It doesn't help that many carriers now charge $25 for the first checked bag on domestic flights, and more for a second. That amounts to inviting people to carry on luggage i

The @UnitedAirlanes parody account was created in May 2012 and tweeted for a month before going silent. Via  Twitter: @unitedairlanes On Wednesday, more than a year later, the creator of the account realized something glorious. Via  leonsbuddydave.tumblr.com 1. Robert Gillespie @ nffc65 Follow This  @unitedairlanes  flight crew is incompetent can't load the; plane horrible service 3:01 AM - 28 Jul 13 Reply Retweet Favorite United Airlanes @ unitedairlanes Follow .  @nffc65  You should see our crews load a t-shirt bazooka though - Ralfio can in seconds. He can even hit business class from the cockpit! 9:54 PM - 30 Jul 13 Reply Retweet Favorite 2. Sarah Dobson @ sarahlouisedob Follow @unitedairlanes  is the true meaning of cattle class. Delays with no explanation. Food you should feed to the dog and staff that don't care! 7:40 PM - 20 Jul 13 Reply Retweet Favorite United Airlanes @ unitedairlanes