Category Archives for Aircraft.
The Boeing 737 MAX is ungrounded. Part of moving on, though, isn’t just getting regulators to sign off on the plane. It’s making things right with the families of people who lost their lives. Boeing paid out a substantial settlement, but Lion Air 610 families say their lawyer – made famous by the movie Erin Brockovich – stole the money to support himself and his reality star wife.
In 2013 Airbus warned of fume events from failure to clean environmental systems following leaks, and suggesting “A clean APU means clean cabin air.”
There are scores of Airbus narrowbody fume incidents across diverse carriers — including some fume occurrences leading to flight diversions and hospitalized passengers and crew — across JetBlue, Austrian, British Airways, American Airlines, Spirit, Lufthansa, easyJet, Aer Lingus, Jetstar, Germanwings, Turkish, Air France, Delta and others. And regulators may not be doing enough about it.
SpaceX launched its Starship SN8 prototype today and flew it to 40,000 feet. It appeared to be a successful test. Elon Musk had given a 1 in 3 chance of the rocket landing in one piece, and the odds worked against him. This was an uncrewed mission so nobody was harmed.
President Trump has been flying Air Force One for the past four years, but still owns a Boeing 757-200 known as ‘Trump Force One’ that he acquied in 2011. The seatbelts, and everything else, are gold plated. It’s currently stored in New York and needs maintenance.
The FAA administrator has signed the ungrounding order for the Boeing 737 MAX. That will allow it to return to the sky, once an airline’s training program has been approved, software has been updated in aircraft, and pilots are trained on new procedures.
U.S. frequent flyer programs aren’t the most valuable. In fact some airline programs seem almost allergic to the idea that some consumers somewhere might actually benefit in an outsized way from what they offer. United and Delta have actually devalued their award prices for travel on partner airlines during the pandemic. And when we see promotions they aren’t especially rich – either it takes a lot more from the customer compared to what the program is willing to give, or earning is capped at very low levels.
The real value comes from airlines around the world who won’t so quickly devalue, and whose airlines will begin to ramp up service perhaps before demand fully returns. Expect to see a lot of award seats available on Emirates, whose planes like Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s are too big for many routes at least for awhile.
Rules that limit the size of gatherings are imposed at the city, state, or national level – and don’t apply to the sky. So if it’s illegal to gather with 20 or 40 of your closest friends because of the global pandemic, why not hold your get together in the sky?
Not only is it a way to hold events that’s legal in places that restrict getting together with those outside your immediate household due to Covid-19, but it’s also a way to look after the safety of your guests and reduce the likelihood of spread.
Chinese state media shared a time lapse video showing ‘how a passenger plane is assembled in China.’ Except the footage is from Boeing’s factory in Everett, Washington.
While the FAA hasn’t signed off on the plane yet, Europe’s safety regulator has gone ahead and publicly stated it is approving it first. That’s huge.
Given the embarrassment of the FAA over the past year and a half over how the MAX was initially approved, and their resulting decline in international prestige, it’s important for world acceptance that the FAA isn’t the only one approving the plane. It’s an even bigger deal that they aren’t even first to say they’ll do so.
Star Alliance member Scandinavian Airlines has a shareholder program open to anyone who owns at least 4000 shares in the carrier. What’s most interesting is the benefit for those who own 100,000 shares, that those shares cost just 27 cents apiece, and that they’ve already received a government bailout which may protect downside.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
