CAUTION: Give your children sugar on a flight at your own risk

Definitely, the cabin crew is supposed to take whatsoever measures to maintain the safety of the flight.
Similar to the possibility of alcohol abuse by adult passengers, the sugar abuse is the parallel case for children.
Adults can get alcohol drinks as long as they are sober or otherwise they could endanger other passengers. By analogy, minors can take sugar-contained foodstuff as long as there is a guarantee that they can behave themselves especially if they are not accompanied by an adult.

Date: 23 July 2009 commenting on http://www.theflyingpinto.com/

Ryanair’s step too far?

With enough demand to make Ryanair sure of serving 67 million passengers in 2009 instead of 59 million passengers served in 2008, it is not strange anymore to expect Ryanair inventing more silly ideas:
• Asking the passengers to fly in their underclothes or otherwise, they have to pay for the weight of their outer-garments.
• Asking the passengers to fly standing. There will be ancillary charge for those passengers who are interested to fly sitting on bamboo stools, and even higher charge for upholstered seats. Oh goodness, it is horrible to think of the extra charges which are supposed to be paid by passengers who require stretchers due their medical conditions.

I proposed some more silly ideas to Ryanair in my article posted on 28 February 2009.
We will see if the passengers are willing to go for one more jump over the equation of supply and demand.

Published at http://www.forbes.com/

United Breaks Guitars

It is a big mistake for the customer service representatives, who handled the case of the damaged guitar, to think that they have the final word for the cases which might affect the image of United Airlines. They were supposed to refer the case to the Public Relations Department before it is too late.

Unfortunately, airlines nowadays tend to hire untrained persons to handle the phone calls, enquires, and complaints of the passengers. Ms. Irlweg exacerbated the situation by ignoring the possibility of harming the image of United Airlines. Unknowingly, she did not think of Dave’s options. By keeping himself calm (but active) for about nine months, he deserves the current free-of-charge publicity.

The story imposes a new practice whereby the Public Relations Department should have the upper hand for all complicated issues handled by customer service representatives.

Published at http://www.planebuzz.com/

The Missing Black Box

It seems that the idea of aircraft’s black boxes is not serving its original purpose. The argument is especially valid in case of crash into deep waters. The black box is a storage medium for recording essential data about the operation of the aircraft. The recoded data is extremely important for analyzing the reasons which are behind the malfunction or the crash of the aircraft.

Obviously, it is not a good idea to keep that crucial information in such easily mis-located medium. It seems that the concept of the block box needs to be revised to offset its current vulnerability. What about a tangible backup system on the ground? Personal computers are often backed up into external storage devices. By analogy, the information from the aircraft could be transmitted through a satellite-based communications system to a reliable data recording system.

Having a back-up of the black box data might have saved a lot of energy and resources wasted in locating the flight recorders of AF 447’s crashed in the Atlantic Ocean early June 2009.

Published at http://rate.forbes.com/comments/CommentServlet?StoryURI=2009/07/02/air-france-box-markets-equity-aviation.html&op=save&sourcename=story

Orrin Hatch is taking you to Turkmenistan, and you will darn well like it

It is a good analogy relating BCS alliance to SkyTeam alliance.

A key element of the SkyTeam global network is the hub-and-spoke system, which provides unparalleled connectivity and an easy way for customers to travel using members of the same alliance from their departure city to any location in the world.

The SkyTeam, with its 11 member airlines and 3 associate airlines, is dedicated to make travels smoother, simplified, and informed. SkyTeam offers a worldwide system of 16,787 daily flights covering 905 destinations in 169 countries.

Published at http://rivals.yahoo.com/

Captain Piccard unveils Solar Impulse HB-SIA solar-powered plane

Adventuring is not only for fun.
Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur) made a breakthrough by their invention of the three-axis control to the airplanes in 1903.
About 110 years later, Captain Piccard will add another breakthrough by using the solar power to fuel his air trip around the world.
I wish I have more than two thumbs to bring them up for that savior of the Mother Earth.
Kudos to Captain Bertrand Piccard!

Published at http://www.engadget.com/

A dark and windy night

The article is simply saying that all fingers should be pointing away from Airbus. This is true considering the statistical track record of its airplanes. Airbus, especially after the recent two crashes, should be so grateful for such objective, non-feverish article.
Despite the great concern about the safety of the international civil aviation, there are still some airports, airplanes, and operators acting against the trend. Some more concrete regulations/ actions should be in place to ensure the safety of the innocent airline passengers.

It is true that some Russian airlines have some operational problems. However, I think that talking about Aeroflot was totally out of context in the article for the following reasons:
• The aircraft is non-Russian made.
• The aircraft is operated by Yemenia.
• Departure and arrival airports of the flight are non-Russian.
• No Russian citizens were reported among the crash victims so far.
• The updated list of banned airlines by EU does not include Aeroflot (http://bit.ly/xs3ps).
• Aeroflot has a daily flight to JFK which simply means that it is not banned by US aviation authority.
• The same source quoted in the article (Aviation safety net) is also saying that USA has the highest rate of civil casualties (http://bit.ly/QJFA2).
• Aeroflot has achieved TRUEngine status for its CFM56-5B engines which are powering its Airbus family aircraft (http://bit.ly/13smLI).

Date: 02 July 2009 commenting on http://blogs.reuters.com/ & http://trueslant.com/

Aeroflot terminal to open in winter

The Russian Federation is eagerly waiting for the opening of Sheremetievo Terminal 3 for the sake of facelifting the international image of the airport.
According to Russia’s Transport Clearing House, Sheremetievo Airport handled 15,066,354 passengers during 2008. Considering the fact that the new terminal will be able to handle 12 million passengers a year, are we expecting congested operation during the early years of airport life? 

Date: 01 July 2009 commenting on http://www.iflybusiness.com/

Exclusive photos: Inside the Boeing 787 Dreamliner cabin

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner unveiled during the world premiere in Everett, Washington on July 8, 2007 is truly a dream. The question is about its materialize-ability considering the repeated delays. Was the delay announced on the 23rd of June the last one?
The mother Boeing is seemingly facing hard time delivering the baby B787.
Will it be a natural delivery or do we need a cesarean section?
The pregnancy term has been extended already many times. Is the fetus still alive?

Date: 01 July 2009 commenting on http://simpliflying.com/