Supersonic to New York (again) – maybe 2021?
Airport Parking and Hotels (APH), the long-established travel extras experts, has put together a table telling us whether or not food and drink is included when flying and if not how much we can expect to spend onboard.
The research found the majority of airlines include a small snack and drinks on short haul flights. Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Qantas Group, Thai Airways and Virgin Atlantic provide a range of meal options, hot, cold and alcoholic beverages all inclusive in the price of a ticket. At the other end of the scale, bmi, easyJet, Flybe and Ryanair ensure that passengers pay for everything. Other carriers including Japan Airlines, Monarch and US Airways charge for snacks and meals but do provide complimentary coffee and tea.
On short haul Continental, Delta, easyJet and United include money saving deals in the form of snack boxes which typically include crisps, chocolate, crackers and cheese. Monarch offer an online discount if you order your meal online at least 24 hours before your flight. Vegetarian options are generally available.
The Unite union has confirmed that a vote by British Airways cabin crew to end their long running dispute with the airline has overwhelmingly come down on the side of a peace deal. The 18-month row certainly had an effect on the carrier's commercial performance which in some cases did lead to unsatisfactory on-board service.
Unite said members voted 92% in favour with a turnout of 72%. Staff travel concessions will be returned to crew members from whom they were removed during last year’s strikes.
In a two-year pay deal including productivity, staff will get a rise of up to 4% this year and 3.5% 12 months later. Lost in the dispute the initial cause of the industrial action was the removal of at least one crew member from most long haul flights. This has saved BA an estimated £63m per year.
Emphasising “Cloud”, and as predicted in AERBT, the SITA/Orange partnership grabbed the headlines at last week's Air Transport IT Summit 2011.
Celebrating ten years of partnership the two communications service providers are to build a global, high performance, managed Cloud computing infrastructure. Each will use their own system to deliver to the markets, with added global reach and reliability. Cloud, seemingly the way ahead in the world of IT, has been described as the use and access of multiple server-based computational resources via a digital network. Users in effect have dumb terminals. All processing and storage is maintained by the Cloud server.
With the case of SITA/Orange the computing infrastructure will be based on six seamlessly interconnected data centres in five continents, in Atlanta, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney. Each centre will cover their regional hemispheres and will be interconnected via Orange’s high-speed MPLS network. Over this infrastructure, Orange Business Services and SITA will offer their individual portfolio of Cloud including the platform, infrastructure, and software all as services. Both Orange Business Services and SITA will continue to own the contract relationships with their end users.
With their new Paris – Seoul route not due for introduction until September Korean Air was able to exploit an embarrassment for Airbus at last week’s air show giving great publicity for the future service.
Instead of the Airbus-owned development aircraft taking part in the daily flight demonstration it was Korean Air’s second A380 that took to the skies each afternoon creating a very favourable impression. We were told that the manufacturer’s own A380 had ‘technical problems’.
Each morning travel agents (and the media) were able to inspect what is the least dense A380 yet available, only 401 seats against Air France 538. The upper deck is given over entirely to Prestige Class (business class) just 94 lie flat seats. Also included are two lounge areas and Korean Air’s unique airborne duty free shop (one on each deck). It is 2+2+2 upstairs the aircraft decorated in pastel colours with the accommodation divided into three areas including a pair of lounges. It exudes comfort and style.
The iconic Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angles will re-open in October after 24 months of extensive refurbishment and redesign.
Part of the Dorchester Collection, which includes the nearby Beverly Hills Hotel, and The Dorchester and 45 Park Lane in London, it will offer 103 guestrooms and suites, featuring 12 new suites, built into the hillside offering sweeping canyon views, expansive sliding glass walls and spacious decks with private spa pools. There will also be seven individually designed speciality suites including the famed Grace Kelly Suite and a new Presidential Suite with 6,775sq ft of indoor and outdoor living space, offering private dining for 10, a chef's kitchen and a private pool.
New to the hotel is a 12,000sq ft Spanish mission style structure featuring a new bell tower, fitness studio, three unique ‘Loft guestrooms’ and a brand new 4,134sq ft Spa by La Prairie, set to be the biggest in LA.
The Paris Air Show was the venue for this year's Skytrax Airline of the Year announcements, the actual location the Musée de l'Air et de l' Espace at Le Bourget.
Overall the most important and prestigious award went to Qatar Airways as the Airline of the Year. Most improved was China Southern, and for the Best Leisure Airline, surprisingly Thomson Airways took first place.
This year Star Alliance was considered the outstanding airline grouping.
In total there are 63 awards and we will not list them all here, suffice that Air New Zealand won the hotly contested Best Airline Premium Economy Class (which we can vouch for) and Oman Air for Best Business Class seats (which again AERBT would agree with). Asiana won for its Economy Class product. There is a class for most services and areas, JetBlue winning the category for Domestic Airline in North America.
The combined Continental and United airlines operation is pushing ahead with a number of new routes. At the same time the usual Continental spot at last week's Business Travel Market became a total United Airlines sales pitch devoid of any mention of the space's former tenant.
Counted as a domestic sector, in spite of its five-hour plus duration and one of the world’s longest internal flights, the very recently introduced daily Continental 737-800 Hilo – Los Angeles service now links for the first time the Hawaiian island with the United States mainland. Continental is also flying weekly San Francisco – Hilo. Other new San Francisco routes include Guadalajara (Mexico), a daily service operated by Continental Airlines. Also from ‘Frisco, Idaho Falls gets a daily United Express operation flown by SkyWest Airlines.
Skyscanner came to London last week. The Edinburgh-based flight comparison site essentially was in town to launch version 2 of its ‘All flights, everywhere’ flight search app but it proved a fine opportunity for co-founder Frank Skivington, Sales Marketing Director, to outline the company's history, talk about the future, and introduce the new product.
Unlike other flight search creations Skyscanner links direct to the airlines and is only selective as regards price. On any sector it lists every carrier using as a basis of its operation the OAG database. Well thought out, you enter the airports you wish to travel from and to and date of travel from pull-down menus and then the system lists all the available flight options and prices. Hotel and car hire are shown too. There is also a map of the destination. For the future Skyscanner plans to offer train services. There are no booking fees and revenue is generated via commission paid by the airline or service.
With the lead 747-8 Intercontinental proudly sitting outside its chalet Boeing were able to announce at the Paris Air Show 17 firm orders for an aircraft which in an earlier life first flew in 1969. No customers were actually disclosed, which seems to be the way of things at the moment (see Bombardier) but one airline is taking 15 whilst the other will receive two. At the show Air China confirmed a commitment for five of the aircraft which brings the order book up to 126 including 76 of the freighter variant.
The 747-8 is in many ways a completely new aircraft featuring 787-technology GEnx-2B engines. It is 18ft 4ins longer than the 747-400 and provides for 467 passengers in a typical three-class configuration.
Charles Gurassa, once tipped to run British Airways, has joined the board of easyJet as a Non-Executive Director and becomes Deputy Chairman from 1 September.
Gurassa’s long experience in the airline and travel sector includes spells with Thomas Cook, the Thomson organisation (in its Britannia Airways days), and TUI, its present owner, plus senior positions with British Airways and its subsidiaries.
At the Business Travel Market last week easyJet used the opportunity to introduce its new sales team tasked to attract corporate clients and closely follows the launch of its Flexi Fare. The sales team members, known as Business Partners, will work with all elements of the business travel market to help deliver efficient travel policies for today’s cost conscious companies.
British Airways Airbus A318, Business Class only, non-stop service from New York Kennedy has introduced a courtesy arrivals service. The airline has partnered with the 4-star deluxe Radisson Edwardian New Providence Wharf hotel to provide customers with a high-class facility so they can freshen up for the day ahead.
Customers at JFK can pre-book at check-in, the Galleries Club lounge or at the boarding gate before departure. No doubt a pda version will also be available soon.
Upon arrival in London they are escorted to a chauffeur-driven executive car and driven to the Radisson Edwardian New Providence Wharf. Journey should take no more than ten minutes. Once at the hotel BA customers are directed to the East River Spa to take advantage of private treatment rooms with complimentary toiletries and access to the gym and relaxation rooms. Breakfast is provided for those who have slept though the pre-landing mealtime.
Burkina Faso (formerly French and once called The Republic of Upper Volta) and its capital of Ougadougou, is to gain connections to East Africa with news that Kenya Airways is to introduce a twice weekly Boeing 737-800 service starting 15 July. Burkina Faso borders Nigeria to the south and air services at Ougadougou are limited to other capitals in the region, plus twice weekly flights from Brussels and daily out of Paris alternating between Charles De Gaulle and Orly.
The new route, Kenya Airways 55th global destination, is operational via Cotonou, the capital of Benin.
The Paris Air Show would not be complete without a story regarding supersonic travel to New York. This time around it was a British company, HyperMach Europe Aeronautics, who announced the SonicStar which they claim will achieve the speed of Mach 3.5, while meeting requirements for high thrust to weight ratio engine designs, reduced emissions and a dramatic reduction of sonic boom overland.
According to HyperMach the aircraft incorporates revolutionary aerodynamics and propulsion technology to overcome the environmental and economic challenges that have stopped the development of supersonic aircraft in the past.
Even John Leahy, Airbus super salesman, will have problems next year. How do you top that? Orders announced by both Airbus and Boeing at the Paris Air show last week guarantee work until 2020, and far beyond. Whilst both are looking over their shoulders at new emerging constructors in the East and Russia they have seen it before. The Soviets attempted, and failed, to get into international civil aviation, and it is an industrial area where the Japanese have disappointed. Convair, Lockheed, McDonnell-Douglas, BAe, Dornier, Fokker, Saab, and others have all disappeared in the last three decades.
Airbus came away from Paris with orders and commitments said to be worth US$72bn including 667 pledges for the revamped A320 called Neo (New Engine Option, or now perhaps “New Environmental Obligation”). Boeing says it has made no decision regarding its future short/medium haul commitment but an interesting aside from Jim Albaugh, President of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, noted that a twin aisle 150/200-passenger capacity aircraft would add 2/3% to fuel burn, a significant figure but less than expected.
With a total of 133 firm commitments Bombardier is now well on the way with its 110 to 145-passenger C Series aircraft. It sits in a niche of its own, smaller than the best selling of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 products (and clearly more economical than the A318 and Boeing 737-600). First flight is now predicted as late 2012 with deliveries from one year later.
During the Paris Air Show, Bombardier announced a number of orders without being specific about the customers. What is clear is that a European airline had committed itself to ten aircraft, a first time Bombardier order for the anonymous carrier. Air France and British Airways meet this criteria and the announcement knocks out Alitalia and SAS.
Boeing’s Jim Albaugh hinted at a press conference on the Monday of last week’s Paris Air Show that something was up regarding the Chinese and their C919 project. On the Wednesday morning it was Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, not a Le Bourget regular, who stole the headlines.
In what is a typical O’Leary cost nothing (or maybe he is being paid) mission Ryanair is ‘advising’ the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) on its C919 project, a direct competitor to the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. O’Leary has been hinting that he needs new ‘planes for later on in the decade. A Boeing patron of long standing, noises towards Airbus have always seemed questionable. As a lead customer for the C919 Ryanair and its high intensity operation does seem problematic, but you never know. A more likely scenario is O’Leary taking the last of the 737s at heavily discounted prices.
Passengers at Heathrow will benefit from a £500,000 investment to modernise and improve the bus service between all of the terminals and the long stay and business car parks. This includes the introduction of GPS tracking technology and new passenger information screens.
An LED screen has been installed at each of the 30 bus stops en-route to provide greater clarity and peace of mind to passengers by giving live updates on when the next bus will arrive and where it is going. Audio technology will also be enabled in time for the summer holidays so that the information is read out to passengers as well.
In addition, the buses that cover the routes have received a make-over with new flat screens inside to provide journey information, while the LED screens on the front will now update automatically.
The Wellesley, 11 Knightsbridge, has set a date of November 2012 to open as a unique 36-guestroom boutique rendezvous. It claims it will be London’s first 6-star property.
Named after the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley – whose London home is directly opposite, across Hyde Park Corner) the property was originally a Piccadilly Line Underground station booking hall built in 1906. The Leslie Green-designed station building is notable by its ox-blood (protected) coloured tiles.
Tomorrow (28 June) is a big day for Mandarin Oriental when the celebrated hotel group, part of Jardine Matheson, opens its first Paris hotel at 251 rue Saint-Honoré, between Place Vendôme and Place de la Concorde, in the city's first arrondissement. Close by is the Garnier Opera, the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens, the original magnificent Art Deco façade of the property has been retained in a multi-million makeover.
Mandarin Oriental, now Bermuda based, never seems to do things in a simple way. The hotel’s 138 rooms are the height of luxury. Outstanding is the vast indoor garden of oriental inspiration. Dining facilities include two restaurants, a live cooking counter, a bar and cake shop. Sur Mesure par Thierry Marx, a gourmet restaurant seating 44, is an intimate, light filled haute-couture cocoon. Open all day, Camelia serves authentic cuisine with seating for 70 people and a further 25 in the indoor garden.
Amtrak, America’s passenger rail is celebrating its 40th anniversary during a period of long-term growth that has seen the company set annual ridership records in seven of the last eight fiscal years, including more than 28m passengers last year. Amtrak is on track to set a new record in 2011.
Forty years ago, on 1 May 1971, Amtrak operated its first intercity passenger train. For four decades, through periods of opportunity and challenge it has connected America, its intercity passenger rail provider and only high-speed rail operator.