EgyptAir, foundation to treat children with cancer

It is good to know about the involvement of EgyptAir in humanitarian activities. However, it is equally important for EgyptAir, obviously for commercial reasons, to care about its paying customers. At least, they are paying to get a reasonable amount of the airline's attention. Otherwise, they might decide to give their business to EgyptAir’s competing airlines. That hypothetical situation would definitely affect EgyptAir’s capability in providing humanitarian activities.
Date: 12 December 2013 commenting on http://www.thisdaylive.com/

Prosecution renews Ultras Ahlawy members’ detention

How sad for a group of fans supporting a specific sporting club to be involved in vandalism and thuggery!
However, and irrespective of their reasons, there is no excuse whatsoever for anyone to disturb the public order especially around sensitive areas like the airport.
Having said so, I would add that 15 days are not enough. What about 15 years instead?
Date: 26 October 2013 commenting on http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/

Gambia Bird Airlines selects airRM as its revenue management system

I wrote almost a year ago about my worries for Gambia Bird having a possible schedule disruption resulting from depending on one aircraft to serve the carrier’s entire network.
Now, the airline acquired one more A319. Thus, there are fewer worries about possible schedule disruption, even with the increase the airline’s network of destinations.
The decision of the airline to acquire an automated revenue management system is a commendable step into the future for the fledgling national airline of Gambia. I am thinking that the airline got a good deal from the Revenue Management Systems Inc because of being the vendor’s first customer in Africa.
Date: 13 October 2013 commenting on http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/

Broken toilets, other glitches ground Japan Airlines Dreamliner

Those things are happening as if we have no other aircraft type commercially operating nowadays. It is one more episode of B787 and its endless course of headache-causing operation.

Turning back two hours after departure is an operational loss but almost a must. I can not imagine that flight continuing the trip to Tokyo with a fuselage-long queue of passengers who are waiting to use the only one functioning toilet available on-board.

The name given to B787, Dreamliner, is not realistic anymore. What about nightmare-liner, as a realistic alternative?
Date: 13 October 2013 commenting on http://abcnews.go.com/

The best way to find a cheap airplane ticket according to two guys who set fares

The Oscar goes to revenue management systems.
Those systems can not beaten by a non-specialized article.
The revenue systems are mostly influenced by the buying behaviors of passengers. The reaction of the revenue system could be either accepted or rejected by the revenue analyst controlling the flight.
So, any advice is somehow useless as long as passengers can not unify their buying behavior toward a specific flight.  
Date: 26 September 2013 commenting on http://www.businessweek.com/

NJ Senate OKs bill banning some laser pointers

Thumbs up for New Jersey Senate!
The fine of US$ 500 may be enough for the first offense. However, the fine of US$ 1,000 for subsequent offenses is not strong enough to deter those careless individuals.
The fine is supposed to be doubled progressively without limitations. Thus, the fine for the second offense would be US$ 1,000, and the fine for the third offense would be US$ 2,000, and so on.
The result of using those laser beams could be catastrophic and as such should be the penalty. Fair enough?
Date: 21 August 2013 commenting on http://www.fortmilltimes.com/

Class action petition sent to Aeroflot

Established and operating most of its lifespan under the Soviet umbrella, Aeroflot still lacks some skills needed for offering appropriate customer services.
Despite the fact that the flight delay was beyond the control of Aeroflot, the airline was supposed to offer its passengers a timely update about the situation as well as on-site proper compensation.
Welcome to the era of doing business the customers' way, not the providers' way.
Date: 12 August 2013 commenting on http://www.themoscowtimes.com/

Civil Aviation awaits the approval of the Cabinet to start the project of aero-city

Are you serious about (مساحة 220 ألف فدان حول مطار القاهرة)?
Do you know the equivalent of that huge area if converted into square meters?
The feddan is about 4,200 square meters.
Thus, 220,000 feddans will be equal to about 924,000,000 (220,000 X 4,200), which is equivalent to 924 square kilometers.
So, we are talking here about a circle which has a radius of more than 17 kilometers.
Date: 09 August 2013 commenting on http://www.alborsanews.com/

Proposed quota on foreign pilots splits government

What could be the reason for placing a maximum limit on the number of foreign pilots to be hired yearly by various Russian airlines?
Hiring foreign pilots will not negatively affect employment chances of Russian pilots because of the current shortage of pilots suffered by the Russian airline industry.

It is inaccurate to say that hiring foreign pilots would lower the safety level as pilots allover the world are generally complying with the same ICAO stipulations.
Date: 08 August 2013 commenting on http://www.themoscowtimes.com/

Some flights cancelled to Egypt, others half-empty

Security and safety are the two most important keywords relevant to the above situation.
It is fairly justified to say that Egypt as a touristic destination is a fact belongs to pre- January 2011.
Who would be interested to visit an almost lawless country where thugs have the upper word and the security forces lack the necessary plans and skills required to tackle the deteriorated level of discipline?
Having said so, it is natural for the incoming traffic to decrease like that. However, the outgoing traffic may be better because of more Egyptians and foreigners leaving the country for better place away from Egypt.
Date: 29 July 2013 commenting on http://www.fresnobee.com/

Egypt's Air Memphis resumes MD83 ops as doubts arise over Iran flights

The code E9 of Air Memphis is highly questionable.
Air Memphis has been resurrected for merely one reason which is taking care of air passengers between Egypt and Iran. Ultra-orthodox Islamic Egyptians were totally against the idea of receiving Iranian tourists in Egypt and against the fledgling air connection of Tehran-Egypt.
Putting politics aside, the disapproval of the Iranian regime is irrelevant if operating that air link is feasible enough.
Date: 19 July 2013 commenting on http://www.ch-aviation.ch/

Aeroflot sees common problems for airline alliances

Seemingly, Aeroflot is holding something for the SkyTeam.
Aeroflot is applying the tactic of splitting the board of directors into two groups for maximizing the exposure of their semi-hidden, semi-declared agenda. The first group to release some news while the second to deny it. Kommersant relayed what the first group has said about SkyTeam. Mr. Vitaly Savelyev was representing the role planned for the second team. He used the media exposure already available to cover the sponsorship agreement of Aeroflot to Manchester United to dilute what has been leaked by the first team.

The irrelevance and weakness of those reasons mentioned by Mr. Vitaly Savelyev about SkyTeam are just another proof about the seriousness of Aeroflot’s intentions toward SkyTeam.
Date: 19 July 2013 commenting on http://www.themoscowtimes.com/

Cathay Pacific expands in Russia

It is advantageous for Cathay Pacific to put its code on S7 Airlines’ flights between Hong Kong and the two eastern Russian cities. S7 operates nonstop flights from Hong Kong to those two destinations.
It is also advantageous for Cathay Pacific to put its code on S7 Airlines’ flights between Moscow and St Petersburg as those flights are almost a natural extension of Cathay Pacific flights between Hong Kong and Moscow.

Dissimilarly, the codesharing on the sectors of Hong King-Bangkok and Hong Kong-Singapore represents a time wasting for passengers as they have to travel longer distance when they fly through Hong Kong.
Let us check the mileage to illustrate my viewpoint.
Flying indirectly Moscow-Hong Kong-Bangkok is 5,490 miles while flying directly Moscow-Bangkok is 4,380 miles only.
Similarly, flying indirectly Moscow-Hong Kong-Singapore is 6,030 miles while flying directly Moscow-Singapore is 5,230 miles only.

Chiang Mai is a city at the north of Thailand. In case of no direct flights available, the best way to fly to that city is through Bangkok which is the main gateway of Thailand.
Having said so, let us check the mileage in case of using Hong Kong as a connecting point instead of Bangkok.
Flying Moscow-Hong Kong-Chiang Mai is 5,440 miles while flying Moscow-Bangkok-Chiang Mai is 4,733 miles only.

In conclusion, passengers of Cathay Pacific would get more comfortable options resulted from the codesharing with S7. However, passengers of S7 would get less comfortable options resulted from the codesharing with Cathay Pacific.
Date: 28 June 2013 commenting on http://www.traveldailymedia.com/

EgyptAir re-launches in Zimbabwe

It seems that the Egyptian Ambassador to Zimbabwe needs to learn more about the geography of Africa, or about the basics of airline industry, or about both.
What did he mean exactly when he said that the air link would provide a direct link with east Africa?
Did he mean Cairo (Egypt) or Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania)?
Cairo is not in east Africa for sure. So, we can safely conclude that Dar Es Salaam is the destination located in east Africa.
It is true that EgyptAir flights stop in Dar Es Salaam before reaching Harare. However, EgyptAir did not say that it has traffic rights between Harare and Dar Es Salaam. That simply means that EgyptAir can not carry passengers between those two cities. Obviously, the re-launch of EgyptAir flights does not provide any link between Harare and east Africa.
Of course, we can run the same logical steps if he thought that Cairo is in east Africa.
Date: 14 June 2013 commenting on http://www.herald.co.zw/

Egypt’s aviation loses over $429,000 to workers strike

It is a jungle out there at Cairo Airport.
The scene of repeated threats from workers complaining about work conditions or demanding more monetary benefits became an ugly eyesore. This is in addition to the chaos of traffic around the airport terminals and the mafia of taxi drivers in cooperation with corrupted policemen.
Sure, it is nuisance for passengers to deal with that. However, the story is totally different when it comes to safety and security of airport operations. A strategic place like the airport is supposed to be governed by more stringent measures. The airport is not supposed to be a playground for those careless individuals.
I have my own doubts about the amount of losses released by the airport management. Being a part of the problem itself, the airport team would exaggerate the level of wrongdoing of the other side.
Frankly, the airport needs a real administrative, technical, moral revolution to eradicate the multilayered obsolete management mentality.
Date: 08 June 2013 commenting on http://www.ventures-africa.com/

Striking workers at Cairo airport dismissed

Dismissal of 15 workers is not a smart thing to do. What kind of naive minister is that? He is actually complicating things as dismissal without proper legal procedures would give those workers the chance to take the case to the court. They could end up returning to their jobs and be appropriately compensated for what happened to them.

I would interrogate all of them and then fire without any severance pay or financial benefits all those who are actually involved in that stupid action. Airport operation is not a toy for some careless individuals to play with everyday like that.

On the other hand, I know that the airport’s management team, which is headed by the Minister of Civil Aviation himself, may be the source of those reasons which trigger the employees’ demonstrations and strikes.
Date: 07 June 2013 commenting on http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/

New Yorkers plugging ears stall FAA replacing radar

The point is that those residents have the right for a quiet life and the airports are definitely needed by people who want to fly, including those who live under the flight path during either takeoff or landing.
Unsolvable dilemma? Definitely, no.

First, the airport has to be there no matter what irrespective of the noise-related complaints. The residents who live at the flight path are divided into two groups:
•    The residents who live at the area before the establishment of the airport can be monetarily compensated to live in quiet areas.
•    The residents who started to live at the area after building the airport have no right to complain and consequently no compensation whatsoever.

Is that fair? Well, we have to think of something out of the box as long as there are no passenger airplanes which can land vertically like helicopters.
Date: 05 June 2013 commenting on http://www.bloomberg.com/

EU seeks delay in air passenger data sharing with Russia

The bottom line is to make sure that the information will not be misused by anyone or any country.
What could be the reason for an EU-Russia data-sharing deal to take years to finalize?
The fact is that the information is already available with someone. It is a matter of formalities to make it available to someone else. What could be the reason to be suspicious about the intentions of the second entity as long as we do not guarantee the impartiality of the first entity?
Date: 05 June 2013 commenting on http://www.themoscowtimes.com/

Moms want more from airlines

Business travelers, vacationers, child passengers are just various groups of air passengers. Sure, they have somehow equal rights. However, airlines are pampering business travelers more than any other passenger group. Business travel is the bread and butter of the airline industry. Thus, it does not make that much sense for the airline to treat all those groups exactly equal.
So, moms can ask the airlines for more. However, the airlines will answer with a biased mindset toward business travelers.
Date: 02 June 2013 commenting on http://www.eturbonews.com/

EasyJet's Egypt deal remains up in the air

The deal is up in the air and it will be so for almost forever unless the mentality of the current bureaucrats controlling Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority will be exposed to a thorough brainwash.

Egypt is fully supporting its spoiled child EgyptAir and it will not allow any foreign or even Egyptian carrier to compete with it. Egypt does not have any foreseeable intention to change its protectionist policy despite the current flaccid status of EgyptAir.
Date: 25 May 2013 commenting on http://www.aljazeera.com/

Want your new route to make headlines? Bring Richard Branson onboard

Irrespective of the deal between Tony Fernandes and Richard Branson, It would be better for Sir Richard Branson to be himself while performing the duties of an air hostess.
I have a big doubt that the idea of cross-dressing added anything valuable to the event or to Branson himself. Passengers, who know Richard Branson beforehand, would be really honored to have him around, and would be starstruck to be served by him. On the other hand, passengers, who do not know him, would prefer a real air hostess than an ugly buffoon.
Date: 14 May 2013 commenting on http://simpliflying.com/

Aeroflot transfers some flights from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Vnukovo

It is quite strange to start talking about infrastructure limitations after only 4 years of operations. Terminal D of Sheremetyevo was inaugurated in 2009 exclusively for Aeroflot.
It is just 4 years into the life of the terminal and the passenger traffic is already more than 45% of its maximum capacity. It is totally safe to conclude that the forecast of passenger traffic was inaccurate.
Moving some of Aeroflot flights, which are serving leisure destinations, to Vnukovo would negatively affect the passengers of those flights. The idea that those flights are not connected with other flights is definitely a wrong assumption.
Date: 09 May 2013 commenting on http://atwonline.com/
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http://www.ch-aviation.ch/

Man who pointed laser at aircraft lands a 30-month prison sentence

It is too funny for the lawyer to argue that the teenager had no intention to put anyone at risk.
This is a solid proof of the distorted mentality of both the lawyer and the defendant.
I would say that the sentence is not strong enough to deter those careless individuals. Those actions are supposed to be treated like sabotaging an aircraft and risking the lives of innocent passengers.
Date: 07 May 2013 commenting on http://edition.cnn.com/

Cargo plane crashes in Afghanistan, killing 7 Americans

It is a big irony for Glen Joerger, the president of National Airlines to say "Safety is always our top priority at National Airlines” just immediately before adding "This is a devastating loss."
It seems that top priority is not enough anymore.
Away from that, my sincere thoughts and condolences are with the crew members and their families.
Date: 01 May 2013 commenting on http://edition.cnn.com/

Southwest sets implementation date for no-show policy

Simply, either use it or lose it.
This is an example of forcing the passengers to respect the business of any airline company.
Actually, it is not only respecting the airline business, but also making the product available for other passenger to possibly use it.
Personally, I strongly support the new no-show policy. However, cases like death of immediate family members should be considered as valid reason for exemption.
Date: 29 April 2013 commenting on http://www.travelweekly.com/

FAA pegs cost of 787 battery fix at $465,000 per plane

The amount of 464,678 US$ will not be the cost of fixing the batteries of B787, but it would be the cost of carelessness and wrong technical assumptions.
Boeing should compensate B787 operators for their financial losses incurred during the period of grounding the aircraft.
For example, Air India was having high hopes for using the advantage of B787’s fuel efficiency in its long-haul flights. However, the carrier has invited bids for the sale and leaseback of all its newly acquired Boeing 787 aircraft from prospective lessors by the first week of February. 
Date: 28 April 2013 commenting on http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/

Gulf Air at a crossroads

The dilemma of Gulf Air is a recurring issue facing the corrupted airline for a quite long time.
I, myself, witnessed a case about 25 years ago which clearly indicated that the airline has started to go down the tubes.
Who can imagine that Gulf Air was the national carrier of Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Sultanate of Oman?
Who can imagine that the mediocre Gulf Air is the stepfather of the award winners Qatar Airways, Etihad, Emirates Airlines, and Oman Air?

Date: 28 October 2012 commenting on http://oussamastake.blogspot.com/

Airlines go back to boarding school to move fliers onto planes faster

Why trying to invent the wheel? It is almost there.
What about following a sequence which is already in place? It is something fair for everyone. Who check-in first will board first. There is a sequence number assigned automatically by the departure control system when the passenger checks in. That number could be used as a basis for boarding the passengers.
Regarding the congestion in the aisle, restrictions should be in place to prevent those who have bulky or overweight carry on items.

Date: 27 July 2011 commenting on http://online.wsj.com/

Airlines granted more time on defective seats

How transparent!
The seats manufactured by Koito Industries are either complying with the mandatory safety standards or not. If they are unsafe, what could be the meaning as well as the potential effect of such long grace period?
It is strange that the airline industry has been worried about confronting a potential multibillion dollar price tag. Why is that? Who is supposed to pay that amount of money, Koito or the airlines victimized by the defrauding Koito?
What could possibly be the expected regulatory steps of both FAA and EASA? They know almost everything about the issue but they are not addressing the only culprit.
There was a marriage between dishonest polygamous Koito and innocent airlines. Why are we asking the innocent airlines to take care of the deformed children resulted from that marriage?

Date: 10 June 2011 commenting on http://online.wsj.com/

U.S. probe into GDSs could last months

Airlines and other providers associated with travel and hospitality depend on Global Distribution Systems for delivering their products to travel agencies and other travel sales outlets. Those clients pay GDS providers rather high for making their products available through nonbiased environment. For question marks to start wrapping that trust simply means that those clients have to think of someone else to handle the task for them, maybe a new Global Distribution System.

Date: 08 June 2011 commenting on http://www.travelweekly.com/

With deadline up, Sabre says it will not immediately bias American Airlines flights

As a rule of thumb, display biasing issue of flights and fares is not supposed to be there.
Did we forget that the whole idea of GDS is avoiding the unintended bias of its old counterpart CRS?

Date: 02 June 2011 commenting on http://www.tnooz.com/

Aeroflot renames Kaliningrad into Königsberg

This is quite unusual. The discrepancy between in-flight announcements and Aeroflot’s own website does not make any sense.
Did the cockpit crew manage, in cooperation with cabin crew, to form a contemporary fifth column?
Are they planning to re-annex the city to Germany?
Are flights between Moscow and Kaliningrad still domestic flights? or international flights between Russian Federation and Germany?
By switching to the old name of the city, do Russian passengers need entry visa to travel to Königsberg?

Date: 15 May 2011 commenting on http://www.russia-ic.com/

Deadly blast comes at sensitive time for Russia

The airport is claiming that it was the first passenger airport terminal in Russia to be certified under ISO 9001:2000.
ISO for what? For sloppy security standards?
Ironically, Domodedovo Airport spokeswoman rejected the words of President Medvedev about the responsibility of the airport management toward that serious security breach.

Date: 25 January 2011 commenting on http://www.nytimes.com/

Close shave for flyers on Nagpur flight

Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) normally maintain high levels of aircraft block hours and consequently, they have high levels of aircraft utilization. In fact, aircraft productivity (i.e., aircraft utilization) is a core operational issue for the business model of LCCs.
Having said so, it seems that the airport agents of Air Arabia in Nagpur have strict instructions about speedy boarding of passengers for outbound flights because they did so despite their awareness of the technical snag reported earlier at the touchdown of the very same aircraft at Nagpur Airport.
If airport gate agents will not allow the passengers to board the aircraft before getting the green-light from the cleaning crew, is it less important to board the passengers before receiving the go-ahead from the technical crew?
Will it make sense that speedy boarding of passengers is more important than the technical condition of the aircraft, and accordingly the safety of the passengers?

Date: 11 January 2011 commenting on http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

   

Zambian President Banda foreign trips justified

Are we supposed to believe that EgyptAir would operate 4 flights a week between Cairo and Lusaka for the sake of President Banda and his visits?
The reality is that EgyptAir will operate those flights because of some commercial benefits. It is true that Zambia will benefit from the EgyptAir’s network but EgyptAir’s benefits outweigh Zambia’s.

Date: 27 December 2010 commenting on http://www.ukzambians.co.uk/

The consolidation of the LCC market

The airline business model does not congenitally have geographic restrictions on its own. Airline companies are free to choose their operational models as long as they can successfully operate. The so far success of Air Arabia in applying the LCC model does not necessarily mean that Sama can comparatively succeed applying the same model.

Sama’s management was fully aware of the applicable rules of the Saudi Civil Aviation from the beginning. Considering the fact that there was no significant change in those Saudi rules, Sama’s management team was gambling by mainly depending on the possibility of changing those rules.

What was the plan of Mr. Bruce Ashby, the CEO of Sama by searching for more finance? Was he planning to use the same management culture in utilizing the new funds? Was he simply planning to eventually run out of cash again?

Date: 30 August 2010 commenting on http://oussamastake.blogspot.com/

FAA issues cockpit-window safety mandates

Bureaucracy, bureaucracy, bureaucracy!
The relation between fires/ smoke incidents and certain cockpit windows had been established in 1980, why did Federal Aviation Administration wait for about 30 years to issue a safety mandate?
Moreover, what could be the reason for more time before issuing a maintenance directive for Boeing 747?
Were they just waiting for that safety issue to be publicly highlighted last May before going ahead with a revised safety mandate?
Questionably, the latest directive affects the forward-looking cockpit windows, rather than all cockpit windows as if side cockpit windows are for decorative purpose only. 

Date: 13 July 2010 commenting on http://online.wsj.com/

Royal Jordanian… Exciting times

The times are rather critical than exciting for Royal Jordanian. RJ is currently taking care of those measures to improve its position among its competitors.
Seemingly, Mr. Hussein Dabbas is in favor of merging with another carrier. However, he did not reveal which of the two carriers would benefit more from the potential merging.
Anyway, it is somehow unusual for a royal princess to be on the lookout for a suitor.

Date: 26 June 2010 commenting on http://oussamastake.blogspot.com/

EgyptAir to Copenhagen

The anticipated Egypt Air’s flights will make the carrier the only Full Service Carrier (FSC) operating between the African continent and Scandinavia
Considering the fact that Egypt Air canceled its flights to Copenhagen in 2004 due to poor operating results, and the fact that Egypt Air will be the only legacy carrier linking Copenhagen and Cairo nonstop, are we in a position to assume that Egypt Air is quite sure about the potential viability behind the comeback?

Date: 01 June 2010 commenting on http://newsodrome.com/

Egypt Air Airbus A340-200 SU-GBO landing at KIX (Osaka)

Smooth landing! However, pilots are supposed to land that way. Otherwise, we will be talking about an air hostess landing the aircraft instead of the captain in case of emergency landing.
What is more remarkable is catching that particular landing on tape. Good job!

Date: 04 April 2010 commenting on http://www.youtube.com/

The “Jetstar-isation” of Qantas is not over yet

The fact that Impulse Airlines started to operate as LCC in June 2000 after acquiring its fleet of Boeing 717 (the joint production of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas), makes us believe that Qantas decided to consider low cost operation when it purchased Impulse Airline in November 2001. What happened in 2004 is that Qantas only re-branded its Impulse into Jetstar.

Date: 23 February 2010 commenting on http://simpliflying.com/

Air France warns pilots on safety procedures

The manufacturer’s manual and operation instructions should be fully respected and strictly followed by all pilots.

The Airbus A330 operating AF447 was assumably in a perfect flying condition at the end of the assembly line. Keeping that perfect condition is the responsibility of the maintenance teams. They are supposed to handle all periodic checks of the aircraft. In that respect, field remarks from the pilots should be seriously dealt with by maintenance teams. Both maintenance teams and pilots are the human tools of any airline to keep the fleet up. Definitely, we are not expecting the managing directors of AF to check every single aircraft themselves.

Having said so, we are not excluding the possibility of Airbus to be the reason behind the June crash of A330 in the Atlantic Ocean.

Regarding the idea of having a more dependable medium for the flight information, I reached the same conclusion of having a backup system on the ground on my posting of 08JUL 2009 which can be found here: http://airlinologist.blogspot.com/2009/07/missing-black-box_08.html

Date: 26 October 2009 commenting on http://online.wsj.com/

BA all-business flight grounded by engine fault on second day

What a joke! What a bungled promise!
Did we hear about sacking someone for the job badly done?
They can make only noise without delivering something tangible.
They forgot to advertise that the service is intended for business passengers who prefer to waste their valuable time waiting at the business lounge.
Sir Richard Branson is definitely lucky to compete with such an inefficient management team.

Date: 01 October 2009 commenting on http://www.thetimes.co.uk/

Best airline branding ever? Virgin America

Yes, Virgin America offers a distinctive flight experience from/ to California. It has a brand of its own.
It is no wonder that they have received many quality travel awards in its relatively short life of about 2 years.
Its success, especially in Alaska, might be the reason for the continuous efforts of Alaska Airlines to challenge the US status of Virgin America.

Date: 10 September 2009 commenting on http://bukes.blogspot.com/

Tail of Aeroflot-Don B737 strikes upon landing at Chelyabinsk

What are we expecting from Aeroflot Don which was on the verge of going bankrupt last month?
The airline needs a complete corporate cleanup. There will be no significant improvement if thy will go on with their current operational mentality.
We have to respect the seriousness of handling H1N1 flu. However, two hits at the heads of the passengers (the hard landing and the medical procedures) apparently tell us about Aeroflot Don’s idea of customer service.

Date: 27 August 2009 commenting on http://avherald.com/

Blogs: A way to learn business

This is definitely a good idea for evaluating their newly acquired business skills.
Creating a blog and maintaining it would be treated as a graduation project. At the beginning, it might be more suitable to give the students the option of choosing between creating a blog or participating in one of any other existing projects.
For the students to discuss points of both strength and weakness could further enhance the idea for their classmates as well as the general public.
Since we are driving the highway of “new ideas,” what about the idea of creating and maintaining a Twitter account? Twitter is a micro-blogging tool; and it might be allocated for heavyweight challenging students only.

Date: 25 August 2009 commenting on http://aatir.wordpress.com/

Roasted in the social media

Only roasted? United Airlines has been already charred. It has become no longer edible.
With the ever-increasing role and effect of social media channels, the only way for all kinds of businesses is to go back to basics. I am quite sure that the current economic crisis is a result of forgetting the basics and switching to greedy patterns of business. Mr. Madoff, who scammed the whole world, is just an example.
United Airlines was aware of the case from the beginning as its careless employees were carefully playing all major roles of the customer service drama. United Airlines failed to assess the potential damage when the case was totally under its control before pushing the passenger to the point of no return.
Obviously, social media is recreating the rules of the game. Are we expecting to see social media channels added to the list of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)?

Date: 14 August 2009 commenting on http://www.aviationbusinessconsultants.com/

Cairo Airport to cut back on night time operations from June 1

What happened to the ambitious plan of building more terminals for Cairo Airport?
What are we expecting if the trends of both business and tourism are sharply going down? The current atmosphere is totally unhealthy for business and tourism to flourish.
The problem is that partial closure of the terminal one has not been decided as a part of a comprehensive plan of meeting the ugly condition of tourism in Egypt and consequently the deteriorating situation of airline business in Egypt.
Taking reactive decisions will not provide long-term solutions. Did they hear about proactive approach? What about trying one now?

Date: 05 April 2013 commenting on http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/
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Date: 06 April 2013 commenting on http://www.ch-aviation.ch/

EgyptAir terminates all flights to Japan

This is an example of the mediocre management of both EgyptAir and Egyptian Civil Aviation.
What is the reason for EgyptAir to wait for the situation to be deteriorated to the level of incurring massive economic losses?
What kind of support expected to be offered by either Japanese or Egyptian government? Well, Japan Airlines terminated its flights to Egypt long time ago because of no or limited commercial viability. Will it make any sense for the Japanese government to subsidize EgyptAir flights while it did not support the flights of Japan Airlines in the past? More importantly, it seems that EgyptAir management is not aware of the ongoing free market economy.

It is equally funny for the Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation to admit that the loss of 6 billion Egyptian pounds only warrants for flight reduction. Why is he ignoring the idea of restructuring EgyptAir?
Considering the current economic situation of Egypt, the government will not be able to support the lousy non-economic operation of EgyptAir for a long time as it has some other aspects with higher priority.

Date: 29 March 2013 commenting on http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ 
Date: 30 March 2013 commenting on  http://www.japantoday.com/

Five airlines apply to fly into Zimbabwe

Currently, there are limited economic ties between Egypt and Zimbabwe to justify operating air service between Cairo and Harare.
I understand that EgyptAir’s interest to fly to Zimbabwe is to carry passengers neither originating nor destined to Egypt. EgyptAir plans to utilize its route network, mainly European, to feed its Zimbabwe flights through its hub at Cairo Airport. The problem is the mediocre service level available for transit passengers in Cairo. Unfortunately, both EgyptAir staff and Cairo Airport personnel have no idea about the notion of customer service.
Here is a link to a similar situation for the passengers of EgyptAir’s Juba flights upon transiting Cairo Airport.

Date: 26 February 2013 commenting on http://allafrica.com/