30 seconds with Vietnam Airlines

Sure, the quality of service in Sheremetyevo Airport is far less than its rival Domodedovo Airport. Moreover, Domodedovo takes the lead if we are talking about domestic connectivity. Considering the hardship of transfer between Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo, staying with Domodedovo is definitely a good idea. However, Vietnam Airlines is creating a gap in the vision of SkyTeam by flying to Domodedovo while its SkyTeam’s Aeroflot operates from Sheremetyevo.

Date: 15 December 2011 commenting on http://www.anna.aero/

EgyptAir owes Petroleum Ministry LE1 billion, says minister

Is Mr. Massoud confused between his old position in EgyptAir and his new one in the Ministry of Civil Aviation? Why is he talking on behalf of the new EgyptAir chief?
If the dues have been paid regularly since July, what would be the reason behind accumulating one billion pounds?
Having an initiative of applying some austerity measures is definitely a good idea. However, the transparency about the initiative and the ministry’s current losses is more important than the initiative itself.
Unfortunately, the minister incorrectly linked the capability of eliminating the deficit with the level of security and stability. Is he trying to tell us indirectly that the ministry’s share form the Egyptian budget has been decreased? If that would be the case, does he really plan for an austerity program or is he just trying to cope with budget cut?

Date: 15 December 2011 commenting on http://www.almasryalyoum.com/

Vladivostok Avia connects Russia’s two biggest cities with A320 service

Four flights a week?
For any airline to be competitive with the other air operators on a specific city-pair, it has to operate at least twice daily (i.e. 14 flights a week).
The limited options offered by four flights a week makes Vladivostok Air unfavorable compared with the major players of Moscow-St Petersburg corridor. 
However, the position of Vladivostok Air is different as its flights bound for St Petersburg originate from Vladivostok. In other words, the airline is mainly serving St Petersburg with one stop en route in Moscow. We can safely say that the airline is not competing with the other operators in Moscow-St Petersburg market. Thus, any traffic picked up from Moscow to St Petersburg will be a plus on the airline operating figures.

Date 11 August 2011 commenting on http://www.anna.aero/

Air traffic controllers who can’t be fired

Are they untouchable?
The job nature and its requirements are well known in advance before the hiring process. There is no room for excuses available to those who accepted the job and its responsibility.
The job requires a high degree of concentration along with minimum or no distraction at all. The lives of thousands are at the hands of air traffic controllers.
It is irresponsible to treat air traffic controllers the same way like other federal employees. If federal employees could be fired due to their carelessness in doing their jobs, firing air traffic controllers would not be enough. They are supposed to face criminal charges as well.

Date: 01 August 2011 commenting on http://www.businessweek.com/

Man seized in Moscow for blinding jetliner pilots

How naive!
Did they believe him so easily?
Did they confiscate the laser light only? They were supposed to confiscate his freedom as well.
Playing with laser light has become a serious issue all over the world, not only in Russia. Considering the fact that such simple toy could turn into a tool with a catastrophic effect, there should be some serious measures to deter those careless individuals before messing up with airplanes like that.

Date: 29 July 2011 commenting on http://www.kyivpost.com/

Flight attendants flying high and on TV too

I can not agree with you more.
In-flight service is an extremely important component of the airline brand. However, the integrated concept of airline branding has a long way to go before being the norm. Unfortunately, some airline executives still look at the airline industry as a cash cow.
On the other hand, considerable number of today’s passengers has humble idea of what a good in-flight service is supposed to be. Putting extreme cases aside, those passengers - mostly from the third world countries - will be satisfied with the service they receive most of the time.

Date: 27 July 2011 commenting on http://christinenegroni.blogspot.com/

Civil aviation workers prepare for mass protests on Monday

Workers versus management, who would win when it comes to head-on confrontation?
Generally, workers are right with their request regarding the ex-military air force senior officers. Moving to civilian aviation field is not supposed to be the de facto retirement path for military air personnel unless they have really higher credentials than the senior staff of the civilian aviation companies in question. In other words, the workers have to accept the decision of appointing ex-military personnel if the latter are meticulously superior in their credentials.
On the other hand, the protesting workers have to be careful not to cause interruption to the operation of their companies. Otherwise, they might find themselves on the street suffering from the plague of unemployment. After all, they have been hired to do specific tasks, and demonstration is definitely not one of them.

Date: 25 July 2011 commenting on http://www.almasryalyoum.com/

Singapore Airlines and Transaero Airlines agree to codeshare

It is a more advantage to Transaero Airlines to have such a codeshare agreement with Singapore Airlines.
The codeshare sector of Domodedovo-St Petersburg is really the most attractive for Singapore Airlines while the two sectors offered by Singapore Airlines - to Singapore and Houston - are of extreme importance to Transaero Airlines.

Date: 19 July 2011 commenting on http://www.airlinesanddestinations.com/

United Airlines takes on United Airways – Can we guess the victor?

Guessing the victor is not a hard task at all.
It is an obvious issue of trademark violation. The intruder has to come up with a non-violating name and withdraw from the scene.
Away from resolving the issue, what could be the reason for United Airways to use a detonatable name like that?
Is United Airways aware of branding issues and their importance in today's marketplace?
Did they think of the cost of repainting their fleet?
I would say that they thought that the name would give the airline the initial momentum needed to help it during the early stage of operation. So the question is - did they manage to use the name of the humongous rival to their advantage? Did they achieve enough profit to pay for the repainting job and the possible monetary compensation payable to United Airlines?

Date: 05 July 2011 commenting on http://www.airlinereporter.com/

Egyptian minister disgruntled at not being searched at Cairo Airport

We trust you, Mr. Minister.
Take it easy on yourself Mr. Minister. We trust you. It does not make any sense for the security personnel to search you and your luggage while letting a low-rank policeman to go without searching. What I said so far does NOT mean that the security personnel at Cairo Airport are doing a great job. On the contrary, the applicable security system needs to be totally revamped.

Date: 10 June 2011 commenting on http://english.ahram.org.eg/

“Filthy” Cunard Queen Mary 2 fails inspection

Cockroaches? How disgusting!
Did Cunard forget all about the meaning of luxury?
Did luxury become a synonym of filth?
What would be the meaning of previously achieving 100% rating? It simply means once upon the time. It means history. A future similar to the history would be achieved if Cunard knows that excellence cannot be achieved by chance. It is rather achieved through real commitment and a set of deliberate actions. Being committed to carelessness is definitely the way down the tubes.

Date: 27 June 2011 commenting on http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/

Civil aviation minister criticizes calls for Cairo airport strike

They have the right to protest and he has the right to criticize and stop the protesters. Of course, the protest is not in the interests of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Irrespective of the current trend which is opposing the Minister of Civil Aviation, any other minster in his position would act the same way. Some keywords for resolving those disputes might be dialogue, openness, genuineness, and improvements.
The real negative aspect of those protests is that protestors do not consider the hardship facing Egypt nowadays. The truth is that the country has to stabilize first before being able to answer those and other similar demands.

Date: 06 June 2011 commenting on http://www.almasryalyoum.com/

Domodedovo: Another Russian IPO kicks the bucket

All problems of Domodedovo have started after the deadly blast of the airport in January 2011. In their pursuit to check the security measures applicable at the airport, the official Russian investigators had a problem tracing the chain of command at the airport, and consequently the exact ownership of the airport.
It seems that the terrorist, who detonated the explosives, unintentionally detonated another explosive at the future of the current airport ownership and created a big question mark about the airport.
It is strongly believed that the Russian Prosecutor General's report issued end of April 2011 has a negative impact on the idea of making Domodedovo Airport available for investors through IPO.

Date: 03 June 2011 commenting on http://www.ft.com/

EgyptAir battles to recapture market after revolution

What could be the meaning of “special offers and other juicy packages”?
When it comes to pricing, EgyptAir does not pay attention to various market forces. Understandably, EgyptAir has almost a monopoly in the Nigerian market as there are no other direct air operators between Egypt and Nigeria. However, its practice in other markets (like Russian Federation) proves my viewpoint.
Anyway, let us see the interaction of Mr. Mohamed Metwally’s statement and about 1,500 seats available on board of Egypt Air flights from Nigeria to Egypt.

Date: 30 May 2011 commenting on http://allafrica.com/

Icelandic ash cloud will not affect EgyptAir flights to Europe

How premature for the CEO of EgyptAir to be so sure about the possible effect of the volcanic eruption on EgyptAir’s flights to Europe. Did he forget the mammoth effect which resulted from the volcanic eruption of April 2010?

Date: 26 May 2011 commenting on http://english.ahram.org.eg/

Jazeera Airways to launch Cairo flights

It is quite strange that the website of Jazeera Airways did not say anything about the expected Cairo flights, and that the website of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority is no longer functional.
So, the airline “agreed to abandon its low-cost policy"?
If they failed to make money using the low-cost business model, will they be able to make it adopting legacy carrier business model?
Anyway, beginning of May is just around the corner. Let us wait and see.

Date: 21 April 2011 commenting on http://atwonline.com/

United drops planned move to Amadeus Altea

Understandably, United will make a one-time payment to Amadeus in consideration of the change in plans. However, that expected payment can not be compared with Amadeus’ potential profits resulting from servicing a big airline like United.

Date: 13 May 2011 commenting on http://atwonline.com/

Egypt Air Juba flight under fire

We can safely conclude that politics should be an integral component in route planning. Considering the flammable stance between northern Khartoum and southern Juba, Juba flights with en route stop in Khartoum represent an extremely sensitive issue. Can we imagine EgyptAir operating flight to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) with en route stop in Tel Aviv? It is entirely understood that Cairo-Tel Aviv-Jeddah example is unlikely to happen but Cairo-Khartoum-Juba version is a reality for almost 6 months. While there was no direct confrontational hostility between Saudi Arabia and Israel, there was a bloody military confrontation between Khartoum government and the southern part of Sudan.

Flights to/ and from airports which have operational restrictions, like Juba Airport, should be positioned and timed to avoid any possible service disruptions. With not-so-good on-time performance of EgyptAir, it is not a good idea to operate one-stop flights to Juba. By doing so, EgyptAir is simply increasing the contributing factors of service disruption.

The attitude of EgyptAir airport employees is not new for EgyptAir. After all, they are working in EgyptAir because of their connections, rather than their qualifications. I commented on the mediocre level of EgyptAir’s customer service last July. Ironically, the comments were about Juba flight.

Date: 11 January 2011 commenting on http://www.eturbonews.com/