Category Archives for Aircraft.
IATA, the International Air Transport Association – the international trade association for airlines – says airlines should not have to refund a customer’s money when flights are cancelled.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary believes a lot of controversial things and says them. I’ve often been skeptical that he even believes what he says – whenever he’s been out of the news for awhile he’ll talk about making customers of the European low cost carrier pay to use the lavatory, which I guess he believes entrenches the belief in customers’ minds that his airline is cheap.
However in a new interview he made made several claims only a couple of which are clearly self-serving.
Stealing inches out of the lavatory helps airlines cram another row of seats into the plane. The new smaller lavatories some airlines have been using on narrowbody aircraft have been called “the most miserable experience in the world.”
But what if there was a lavatory that was easier to get into and that was even expandable?
American Airlines flew the Boeing 737 MAX before it was grounded, and ordered 100 of the airplanes. They’re committed to the aircraft’s safe return to flying, and they’ve done polling to understand how customers feel about it today – and what will change their minds so that they’ll accept flying on the plane once it’s back in the sky.
A series of embarrassing emails have come out, following embarrassing text messages which were revealed in the fall. Some perspective is needed here, though.
Companies are frequently undone by emails. DNC emails certainly didn’t help Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Presidential election. Emails hurt Microsoft when the government prosecuted an anti-trust case against it for monopolizing the web browser market (gosh if everyone knew then what we know now). It amazes me that companies store past non-work related emails.
This just seems wrong: a children’s book Max, the Airplane that Couldn’t Fly. It’s about how we’re all different, and about overcoming challenges at Boeing.
In June Microsoft announced that they would introduce a new Flight Simulator game, something they haven’t done since 2006. It will come in 2020 for Xbox and Windows.
The game has entered a closed Alpha release. And now there’s leaked footage from the game itself.
OAG data shows that something interesting happened over the last decade. Boeing began dominant, with the 737 outpacing Airbus A320 aircraft in scheduled flights and time in the air – and several Boeing planes cracking the top 10.
At the end of the decade the A320 family was ahead of the 737, and both the Boeing 757 and MD80 had dropped out of the race for dominance in scheduled flights. The Boeing 777 became more popular, and 787s spend more time in the air than Airbus A350s. However the 767 is slowly fading from the scene.
Former conservative fourth circuit federal appeals court judge Michael Luttig, who resigned from the bench in 2006 to become Boeing’s general counsel, is being retired effective the end of the year.
In the fall an Airbus A320 got stuck under a bridge in Harbin, China. The quick thinking truck driver carrying the plane managed to break it free by deflating his tires.
Now images of a plane getting stuck in Durgapur, West Bengal, India are going viral and deflating the tires wasn’t enough. Officials were called in and they “had to get rid of the tyres” in order to free the plane and get the truck moving again. It had to be “pushed out with the help of another truck.”
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 »
