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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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Airbus Fire Sale: Discounting New A220s Up to 72%, Hurry Buy Now

by Gary Leff

swiss plane
Jul 14 2018

When aircraft manufacturers like Boeing or Airbus sell planes, media report the value of the orders based on ‘list prices’ but those are made up numbers. No one pays list prices. Roughly speaking you can usually assume that airlines pay about half of list pricing.

Airbus has taken over marketing the C series and now they’re ‘Airbus A220s’. The first sale they’ve made is to JetBlue for 60 planes and to get that done they were reportedly willing to knock 72% off of list prices.

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American Pilot Landed With Cracked Windshields, Smashed Nose Cone, and “Turbulence Like a Roller Coaster”

by Gary Leff

nose of airplane crushed
Jun 04 2018

American Airlines flight AA1897 from San Antonion to Phoenix ran into strong storms over New Mexico. It was pummeled by hail.

The Airbus A319 with 130 passengers onboard had its nose cone smashed and windshield cracked. One of the pilots couldn’t see out. But they managed to get the plane on the ground safely in El Paso last night.

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New World’s Longest Flight: Newark – Singapore Launches October 12

by Gary Leff

globe map
May 30 2018

Singapore Airlines used to fly the world’s longest flight, Newark – Singapore, along with what at the time was the second longest flight Los Angeles – Singapore. They held the title from June 2004 through November 2013, operating these services with flying gas cans Airbus A340-500s. It’s hard to make ultra long haul flying work. A flight scheduled at over 18 hours is going to require a dedicated aircraft in each direction, and fares are going to have to cover that plane’s full costs. With fuel prices up that’s even more difficult since they burned over 58,000 gallons of fuel in each direction. The flight used 14 cabin crew and six pilots to make the journey. Singapore initially offered 64 business class and 117 extra legroom coach seats but moved to an all business class…

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Airbus A330 Landed Without a Nose Gear, Sparks on Runway and Passengers Evacuated

by Gary Leff

flight map
May 21 2018

Saudia flight SV3818 from Medina, Saudi Arabia to Dhaka, Bangladesh reached 37,000 feet when the crew diverted to Jeddah. It made a go-around on its first approach because a landing gear hadn’t gone down.

Then the aircraft circled for an hour while it worked through emergency checklists. Ultimately they decided to land without the Airbus A330-200’s nose gear deployed.

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Video Shows Military Storming Plane and Freeing Captive Flight Attendant

by Gary Leff

captive flight attendant
Apr 18 2018

The passenger continued to hold the flight attendant in the galley even as the plane touched down, and even after all of the rest of the plane disembarked. Negotiators came on board while the military prepared to storm the plane.

Eventually the military came in through the cockpit’s escape window, entered the cabin through the cockpit door, and took down the passenger. The mission was a success because they managed to take the man without the flight attendant being harmed.

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