Aircraft

Category Archives for Aircraft.

American Airlines Five Star Adds Blade Helicopters and LAX Private Suite Experience, Now Sells Flagship Lounge/Dining

by Gary Leff

Feb 19 2019

More premium services on offer are better and American Airlines just announced several. It can be better to buy LAX private terminal access via American, in conjunction with a premium flight, than to buy it direct. Whether helicopter transfers represent a deal is more questionable. Both offerings have been done by competitors over the past two years.

The more innovative piece is monetizing access to their excellent Flagship lounge and dining products, which is a nice perk for those interested in paying the freight. The only downside here is increased usage.

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Avatar Airlines Has a New CEO and is Looking to Source 14 Boeing 747s on Social Media

by Gary Leff

Feb 18 2019

Family Airlines started about 27 years ago. The idea was fly 747s between Las Vegas and Los Angeles as well as Newark, later adding cities like Miami and Honolulu.

The government refused to process an application for service, reportedly insisting that founder Barry Michaels give up control of the project. Nonetheless, he continued raising money and the SEC filed suit over a securities offering.

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How American is Planning to Use Their Boeing 787s, in Philadelphia and Beyond

by Gary Leff

american plane
Feb 17 2019

Last month American said that they’ve got too much Boeing 787 capacity because Europe is seasonal, they cancelled 787 flights out of Chicago, and because they keep waiting for their joint venture with Qantas to be approved which would allow them to deploy more 787s on South Pacific routes.

Last year though American ordered 47 more Boeing 787. So what are they going to do with them?

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United Adding Tons of Premium Seats to Airbus Narrowbodies, 767s, and New “CRJ-550”

by Gary Leff

people in airplane aisle
Feb 06 2019

United has been moving towards a premium-heavy strategy. The offer more international business class seats than peers using similar aircraft, and they’ve invested in really nice international business class lounges. Their Polaris business class seat allows them to do this because it gives them a fully flat product with direct aisle access without taking up more space in the cabin than their old six-abreast seats. It’s a “good enough” seat that isn’t quite as nice as American’s B/E Aerospace Super Diamond or Delta’s new Suites, but that doesn’t require actively avoiding flying business class on United. United has announced a doubling down on the premium heavy approach adding even more business class seats to a subfleet of 767-300s, as well as adding first class seats to Airbus A319 and A320s where they’ve had fewer seats…

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At Least 200 American Airlines Regional Jets Will Get Seat Power This Year

by Gary Leff

american eagle plane
Jan 12 2019

Over the last couple of years American Airlines has been aggressively adding seat power and satellite internet to their fleet. They’ve made a strategic decision not to offer seat back video on demand the way that Delta does. Since customers need to use their own devices for entertainment, they need to power those devices.

And with the mainline fleet well underway for these modifications, the airline is now in the process of add seat power to two-cabin regional jets — Embraer ERJ-175s, Bombardier CR7s and CR9s.

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60,000 Marriott Points for Europe in Business and Free Private Jet Flights is Bad Business, Who Knew?

by Gary Leff

Jan 12 2019

News and notes from around the interweb: Looks like all your can jet private flight app company JetSmarter is imploding. In the beginning they offered amazing deals (and burned tremendous cash). I only ever used them when they gave free trial memberships to customers with elite status and big mileage balances. The LAX Tom Bradley Terminal finally has PreCheck Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on flying coach: When speaking to the Royal Aircraft Association back in 2002, Prince Philip commented on the British royal family’s air travel conditions. “If you travel as much as we do, you appreciate the improvements in aircraft design of less noise and more comfort,” he said, “provided you don’t travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.” Pan Am 103: Robert Mueller’s 30 year search for justice bet you…

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Air Zimbabwe Is Shutting Down For Several Days Because They Have No Planes That Can Fly

by Gary Leff

Jan 12 2019

Air Zimbabwe is shutting down for several days because they have no aircraft suitable to operate.

On December 30 their Boeing 737-200 went out of service. It reportedly needs 45 days of maintenance, though may not return to the fleet. Their only other aircraft, a Boeing 767-200, needs maintenance that’s expected to take several days.

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American’s New Airbus A321neo Will Load Into Their Schedule Tonight – And Cram In 15 More Seats

by Gary Leff

american plane
Dec 15 2018

American Airlines has 100 A321 ‘neo’ or ‘new engine option’ planes on order (22 of these deliveries have been deferred). Back in August we learned that American would take delivery of its first neo in January. It would be a new ‘dense’ configuration with more seats than the airline has ever put into an A321 before. And that it would become the template for going back and adding seats to existing Airbus A321s as well.

This new Airbus A321neo aircraft is going to be loaded into American’s schedule overnight tonight and the first flights will be bookable starting Sunday.

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