China Southern Airlines is Set to Receive the Airbus A380 Superjumbo
Delivery of the China Southern Airlines A380 had been due to arrive just before the 2008 Beijing Olympics but was deferred- now it looks like the first of its five A380s will be delivered next year.
Airbus mounted the vertical tail on China Airlines’ first A380 superjumbo on Tuesday at the A380 assembly line in Toulouse. It takes about eight hours to install the tail, which is almost equivalent to the size of an A320 wing and when joined to the fuselage its tip stands 24 metres from the ground.
China Southern is the only mainland carrier to order the A380, with rival Air China insisting it has no plans to acquire the aircraft because it prefers the rival Boeing B747. It expects to receive its first A380 plane in 2011.
Asia-Pacific carriers who have ordered the A380 superjumbo include Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Korean Airlines, Kingfisher Airlines, and THAI Airways.
Business class travellers will be intereted to know that the carrier has announced a new premium economy class on flights to Australia. It has started rolling out Premium Economy Class service on its service between Guangzhou and Sydney using the all-new Airbus A330-300 aircraft.
China Southern Premium Economy travellers enjoy superior seating and cabin service from standard economy with special advance round trip fares.
From October 31st the carrier will offer the Premium Economy service on services from Guangzhou to Brisbane and Melbourne. The re-designed A3380-300 cabin offers 47 Premium Economy seats separated by curtains, and portable doors to guarantee travellers a discreet private space.
International Premium Economy Class on China Southern Airlines offers a premium travel experience and includes 40% additional space. The seat pitch has been extended from Economy pitch of 32 to 37 inches for expanded legroom. Special personal touches include newspapers, double-thick wool blanket and pillows; fresh seasonal fruits, noise-reduction headphones, private washing kit and savoury red and white Australian wines. At the airport there is an exclusive Premium Economy check-in counter where travellers can enjoy the special privilege of a private Premium Economy check-in counter and an extra luggage allowance of 15kg. They also benefit from priority baggage delivery upon arrival, boarding at passengers’ convenience and priority class upgrade (if Premium Economy cabin is overbooked). Sky Pearl Club members travelling in Premium Economy Class will earn 110% FFP mileage and through to December 30th, will receive an additional 3,000 bonus FFP miles.
China Southern has also 13 Boeing B787s on order.
Mokulele Airlines Forms Partnership with Canada’s Low-fare Carrier WestJet Airlines
Hawaii inter-island carrier Mokulele Airlines is partnering with low-fare carrier WestJet Airlines Ltd. to better connect the Hawaiian islands and Canada.
Kona-based Mokulele Chief Executive Bill Boyer says the alliance announced Monday will increase options for Hawaii residents who want to vacation in Canada, where the American dollar goes further.
Calgary-based WestJet says the deal will make it easier for its travelers to link to island flights served by Mokulele.
Both airlines will promote each other’s Web sites, and WestJet Vacations will sell sightseeing air tours on Mokulele.
Hawaii has experienced tourism declines this year from most major markets except Canada, although Canadian visitors only account for about 3 percent of all Hawaii tourists.
Airline Has Launched Cheap Flight Tickets Sales For Summer Season
Leading discount airlines have launched a new round of airfare sales for summer, but travelers may have to act fast and be flexible on dates to grab the best deals.
Sales from JetBlue Airways, Frontier Airlines and AirTran Airways end this week.
Frontier is touting fares as low as $98 roundtrip between Denver and West Coast cities including Long Beach, Calif., Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., and $78 to Albuquerque, N.M. Those prices cover trips through June 9 but don’t include taxes and fees, tickets must be bought at least 14 days before flying, and the cheapest seats are only available for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
JetBlue says through June 16 it has $58 round trips in California, including Long Beach-San Francisco and Long Beach-Oakland. On the East Coast, it’s offering $78 round trips between New York and Washington, and between Boston and New York or Baltimore. Long-distance flights include $238 roundtrip between Los Angeles and Boston and between Long Beach and Washington.
However, dates are limited, there’s a 14-day advance-purchase requirement, there are blackout dates that vary by city, and the cheapest seats are offered only for travel on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
AirTran’s sale resembles one it ran earlier this month and covers travel through Nov. 16 – an unusually long span. The lowest prices apply for flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, but there are 28 blackout dates including around the Easter, Memorial Day and July 4 holidays. Tickets must be bought 10 days before travel.
AirTran’s lowest price is $88 roundtrip between Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., with other fares including $188 roundtrip between New York and San Francisco, and $258 between Atlanta and Los Angeles.
As usual with these types of fares, the airlines don’t say how many seats they’ll sell at these prices, and fare watchers say some airlines are already blocking out much of July, when they expect to command a premium for tickets.
JetBlue’s sale ends Wednesday; AirTran’s on Thursday; and JetBlue’s on Friday.
Those sales fit this year’s unusual pattern – many midweek sales that often run just a day or two – says Tom Parsons, CEO of discount travel Web site BestFares.com. The best prices are also for midweek travel, he says.
“There is some strategy this year,” Parsons says of shopping for deals. “Be flexible. If you can fly midweek, odds are better you’ll get one of the cheaper fares.”
Parsons also says it pays to buy tickets midweek, after competing airlines have matched the fare sales launched by discount carriers. Fares sometimes rise by $100 or more over the weekends, he says.
28 Airlines Flight Destroyed By Animal Strikes Since 2000
Airplane collisions with birds or other animals have destroyed 28 aircraft since 2000, with New York’s Kennedy airport and Sacramento International reporting the most incidents with serious damage, according to Federal Aviation Administration data posted for the first time Friday. And the problem appears to be growing.
The FAA list of wildlife strikes, published on the Internet, details more than 89,000 incidents since 1990, costing 11 people their lives. Most incidents were bird strikes, but deer and other animals have been hit on runways, too.
The situation seems to be getting worse: Airplane collisions with birds have more than doubled at 13 major U.S. airports since 2000, including New Orleans, Houston’s Hobby, Kansas City, Orlando and Salt Lake City. Wildlife experts say increasingly birds, particularly large ones like Canada geese, are finding food and living near cities and airports year round rather than migrating.
The figures are known to be far from complete. Even the FAA estimates its voluntary reporting system captures only 20 percent of wildlife strikes. The agency, however, has refused for a decade to adopt a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation to make the reports mandatory.
Friday’s first disclosure of the entire FAA database, including the locations of strikes, occurred largely because of pressure following the ditching of a US Airways jet in the Hudson River after bird strikes knocked out both of its engines on Jan. 15. Within days, The Associated Press asked for the database under the Freedom of Information Act.
All 155 people aboard survived that incident as pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger ditched the powerless jet safely. That plane had at least seven earlier collisions with birds since February 2000, including one in March 2002 at Orlando International Airport when it sucked a red-tailed hawk into an engine during a night takeoff. The plane returned to the airport immediately with a damaged engine.
The data revealed one positive trend: strikes that caused major damage dropped noticeably in 2007 and 2008. In 2000, pilots reported 178 such strikes; in 2007 there were 125, and in the first 11 months of 2008 only 85. December 2008 numbers are not yet listed.
There was no immediate explanation from the FAA for the decline in major damage, but the agency tightened engine design standards in 2004 to better withstand bird strikes, and more and more airports engage in wildlife management.
Topping the list of airports where planes were either substantially damaged or destroyed by birds since 2000 were John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York with at least 30 such accidents and Sacramento International Airport in California with at least 28.
Kennedy, the nation’s sixth-busiest airport, is located amid wetlands that attract birds. Ron Marsico, spokesman for the port authority that owns JFK, said it has been protected for years by aggressive wildlife management that includes habitat disruption, fireworks and the “killing of thousands of birds each year.” He said the agency recently added a wildlife expert to increase vigilance.
Sacramento International, the nation’s 40th busiest, lies beneath the Pacific Flyway used by millions of geese, swans, ducks, cranes, raptors and other birds that migrate with the seasons and stop to feed on crops in the farms that abut the airport. Airport spokeswoman Karen Doron said that in 2007 alone the five airports managed by Sacramento County “used loud noises, distress calls and other techniques to disperse more than 53,000 birds from our runway areas.”
At Sacramento International on Friday, Dawn Holliman, a 51-year-old real estate agent from Placerville who was flying to Phoenix, said she felt the odds of being in an airplane struck by birds were relatively low. She was more concerned that the government previously withheld the information.
“It’s irritating they don’t let the public know about the risks,” said Holliman.
The FAA had long argued the public couldn’t handle the full truth about bird strikes, so it withheld the names of specific airports and airlines involved while releasing only aggregate data. The agency said the public might use the data to “cast unfounded aspersions” on those who reported strikes, and airports and airlines in turn might make fewer reports.
On Friday, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor cautioned “against comparing one airport’s bird strike numbers to another airport. If a certain airport is very diligent in reporting these kinds of events, its diligence could make it appear as if it has more bird strikes than an airport that isn’t as diligent.”
The most recent fatal bird-strike came in October 2007: A student and instructor pilot died when their twin-engine business plane crashed in Browerville, Minn., after it struck a Canada goose during a night training flight. The plane’s left engine had been damaged by a bird strike the day before and was repaired the day of the fatal crash.
All told, pilots reported striking at least 59,776 birds since 2000. The most common strikes involved mourning doves; pilots reported hitting 2,291 between 2000 and 2008. Other airborne victims included gulls (2,186), European starlings (1,427) and American kestrels (1,422).
A single United Airlines 737 passenger jet suffered at least 29 minor collisions with birds and one with a small deer – more than any other plane since 2000. Only one case produced significant damage – when the jet climbed out of Philadelphia International Airport into a flock of gulls at 1,000 feet the night of Jan. 30, 2006. The pilot declared an emergency after one engine sucked in a large gull and began vibrating badly. No one was hurt, but repairs cost the airline $37,000.
That same plane experienced incidents in San Francisco; Salt Lake City; San Jose, Calif.; Houston; Denver; Toronto; New Orleans; Chicago, Spokane, Wash, and most recently in Denver.
Since 2000, reported bird strikes have resulted in five fatalities and 93 injuries. The cost of repairs during that period was estimated at more than $267 million in inflation-adjusted dollars, but many of the incident reports contained no estimate of the repair cost.
The largest trade association of U.S. airlines hastened to note that bird strikes “are, of course, rare events,”
“The vast majority of cases result in little or no aircraft damage,” the Air Transport Association of America added.
An overwhelming majority of reported strikes – nearly 16,000 – occurred on approach for landing, the data showed. An additional 20,000 were split nearly evenly among takeoff, landing and climbing.
This week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood rejected a proposal quietly advanced by the FAA on March 19 to formally make the data exempt from public disclosure – even as other FAA officials were saying the AP would soon get the records in response to its Freedom of Information Act request.
With President Barack Obama promising a more open government and releasing secret Bush administration legal memos about harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects, LaHood said he found it hard to justify the FAA’s plan to withhold records about birds at airports.
Flight Market Analysist : Airlines Passenger Traffic Down 3% from November 2007
The North Dakota Aeronautics Commission says passenger boardings at the state’s eight commercial airports last month were down 3% from November 2007.
Interim Aeronautics director Mark Holzer says the severe winter weather was blamed on the decrease. He says the state should end the year with an increase in boardings over 2007.
Hozler says 54,203 people boarded airplanes last month in North Dakota. He says that was down 1,651 passengers.
Bismarck had the biggest decrease in boardings last month. The boardings were down at 1,135.
