"Ladies and gentlemen, from the flight deck, ....... we advise you to always keep your seat belt fastened when seated, even when the 'fasten seat beat' sign is switched off"

How many times have we heard this advice during our flights ?

How frequently do we follow this advice ? The road warriors, and frequent fliers will probably say they do, but most of us do not.

Just as most of the 285 passengers of a Northwest Airlines Airbus A330-300, flight NW022 from Tokyo Narita, Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii, USA on January 22, 2009. The aircraft experienced severe turbulence for about 20 seconds while en-route near the Midway Islands.

One flight attendant received serious injuries, three passengers minor injuries. The flight attendant suffered serious head and neck injuries and was delivered to a hospital in Honolulu after the flight crew elected to continue and land safely. Two passengers with injuries, one to the hip, the other with neck and arm injuries, were also delivered to a Honolulu hospital, a third passenger was treated at the airport.

In the din of geese and a water landing, most of us missed this incident, one that occurs with far more frequency than bird strikes, and unlike bird strikes, this is something, we passengers can protect ourselves against.

One of the worst incidences of Clear Air Turbulence occurred on December 28, 1997. A Boeing 747-100 performing United Airlines flight UA826, and flying the same route as NW022, from Tokyo, Narita to Honolulu. Two hours into the flight, at 31,000 feet, the plane received reports of severe clear-air turbulence in the area and the seat belt sign was turned on, but before passengers could fully react, the aircraft suddenly dropped around 100 feet, seriously injuring many passengers and causing damage to the aircraft. The plane turned around and landed safely back in Tokyo, but was not put back in service. One passenger died of her injuries after landing in Tokyo. (Read NTSB press release of the incident).

Do you fasten your seat belt for the duration of the flight ? Share your thoughts via a comment.

The proposed merger of British Airways and Iberia are threatened, and may be heading for the rocks, after the UK carrier warned it was not prepared to merge with its Spanish counterpart on the basis of current market valuations for the airlines.

Thanks to good performance by Iberia shares, poor performance by British Airways shares, and the sharp decline of the British Pound against the Euro, the market value of Iberia on Thursday exceeded that of British Airways for the first time since the carriers began merger negotiations in July 2008, to form Europe's third largest airline behind Air France-KLM and Lufthansa-Swiss-Austrian-Brussels.

When the merger talks between the two began at the end of July, the respective market capitalisations indicated a share exchange ratio of 65 per cent for BA and 35 per cent for Iberia. The ratio has plunged to only 49.6 per cent for BA and 50.4 per cent for Iberia.

During a visit to Hyderabad, BA CEO, Willie Walsh said

The present valuation was unacceptable. Our shareholders would not accept it; The Iberia share price had "performed well in recent times", I would argue it is overpriced. We will look at this in the negotiations. That work is still to be done. I am not at all concerned about not doing a deal with Iberia. I would walk away if it does not make sense.

Bangalore Aviation readers will recall that valuation disagreement, was a dominating reason for the recent collapse of merger talks between British Airways and QANTAS.

The rising deficits in BA's pension scheme is also a cause of concern for Iberia, and it is due to receive a report by financial consultants, Mercer, by the end of the month.

Iberia executives are realistic, and acknowledge that the recent shifts in market valuation are not reflective of the true values, of the two airlines, but simplest corporate governance demands them to take fullest advantage of the situation, and get a good deal.

The talk from Willie Walsh may be tough, but British Airways is in a tight spot. It is rapidly falling behind in the airline consolidation race; a crucial strategy during these bleakest of times. Their anti-trust waiver requests with American Airlines, are far from through, and if the merger with Iberia fails, I do not see many available options for them.

Qantas' problems on their Airbus A330 fleet just don't seem to end. This time a Qantas A330 aircraft from Auckland to Melbourne was grounded. The reason -- a distressed pet dog escaped from his kennel in the cargo hold, and chewed up the wiring. Must have been a big dog, and extremely distressed to chew through the panel covers to get to the wiring.

As a dog lover, I read this story from the Courier Mail with amusement and a little apprehension. I just hope Qantas does not take punitive actions in transporting pets.

I wonder if the dog owner will or should be made to pay the repair bill ?

As usual your comments are always welcome.

Frankfurt airport, one of the busiest in the world, was shut down for 50 minutes this morning, due to a technical glitch in its Air Traffic Control.

The airport, was shrouded in fog, and the data transmission from the German weather service and the ATC broke down between 0635 and 0725, as per a spokesman for air traffic control.

This forced a cancellation of all flights in and out.

Airport operator Fraport reports 38 departing flights and 37 arriving flights. 25 flights already in the air, mostly long distance flights en-route to Frankfurt, were diverted to Cologne and Stuttgart airports.

The stoppage, caused significant downstream disruptions which took almost half the day to clear up.

Singapore Airlines took delivery of its first Airbus A330-300 aircraft, 9V-STA, today, and also unveiled the cabin product.

Acquired under a lease agreement with Dublin-based AWAS, and powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines, the aircraft was handed over to the airline at a ceremony in Toulouse today attended by Mak Swee Wah, Executive Vice President Operations and Services, Singapore Airlines, Frank Pray, President and Chief Executive Officer of AWAS and Tom Enders, President and Chief Executive Officer, Airbus.

The A330 joins an existing Airbus fleet at Singapore Airlines, that includes the double deck A380 and the ultra-long haul A340-500. The carrier has also selected the all-new A350 to meet future requirements in the mid-size wide-body category, with the delivery of 20 aircraft on firm order due to begin in 2013.

The airline is configuring its A330s in a high comfort layout seating 285 passengers in two classes, with accommodation for 30 in Business Class and 255 in Economy. See the cabin layout and seat map here.

In an industry first, the economy class features interfaces for passengers to plug in their iPods and iPhones and listen or view their own music and videos, on the large 26cm (10.2 inch) monitor in addition to the inflight entertainment system.

The economy seats are of a new ergonomic design increasing comfort, personal space, and legroom.

Regular passengers of Singapore Airlines, will recognise the A330 Business class seats as an improved version of the original "Spacebed" inclined lie-flat seats. I just love the colour.


For details of the planned deployment of the A330 by Singapore Airlines read my earlier article.

Delta Airlines which recently commenced its Atlanta - Mumbai non-stop is feeling the pinch of the economic slowdown affecting India's IT industry.

Effective March 29, it will reduce the frequency of its service from a daily to five flights a week.

The service will not operate on Tuesdays and Sundays ex-Atlanta, and Mondays and Wednesdays ex-Mumbai. In my opinion, it is a very sensible move. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are the slowest days of the week.

Service will continue to operate with the ultra long range Boeing 777-200LR.

The Mint is reporting that GoAir recently started offering uniform fares, inclusive of surcharges and other taxes, for purchases made 21 days in advance.

For short sectors, defined as less than 750 kms travel distance, the airline will charge Rs 1,700 a ticket and Rs 2,700 for distances greater than 750 kms. According to the company statement, in effect a Mumbai-Delhi ticket bought 21 days in advance will be for Rs 2,700 instead of the base fare of at least Rs 1,000 plus Rs 2,925 of surcharges and airport fees.

GoAir’s new offer is in reaction to the introduction of Rs one fare by IndiGo on certain routes and SpiceJet Ltd.’s Rs 99 base fare for tickets booked at least 21 days before travel.

The quarter ended December 31, 2008 witnessed an 18 per cent decline in domestic passenger growth, and has prompted all major airline groups in India to resort to price cuts in order to stimulate passenger demand.

Jet Airways, and its low cost subsidiary JetLite, were one of the early adopters of the 21 day advance fares also called APEX fares. Jet Airways also recently offered Rs 250 base ticket fares, while JetLite started Rs nine base fare for travel during this month. It has similar schemes for its Business-Class too. Jet Airways is expecting a 15 per cent increase in passenger traffic.

Jet's alliance partner Kingfisher Airlines also slashed fares between 21 per cent and 65 per cent on various routes earlier this month while the state-owned and operated National Aviation Company of India Ltd. (NACIL), which runs Air India, also announced an average reduction of 52 per cent in basic fares for domestic travel on 20 major routes.

Agence France-Presse is reporting, the entire crew of a South African Airways flight from Johannesburg to London Heathrow, were arrested Tuesday after about $450,000 worth of cannabis and cocaine were found in their suitcases, by British customs officials.

As per officials, British customs agents found 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of cannabis, worth about $210,000, and 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of cocaine, worth about $240,000, in three suitcases, when the crew was passing a customs clearance point at London Heathrow airport, around 8AM.

The agents first found the cannabis in the suitcases, and additional searches revealed a white powder that tested positive for cocaine. All 15 members of the plane’s flight and cabin crew, 10 women and five men, were arrested.

Customs spokesperson Mr. Gaiger said

“Interviews will be taking place and will probably go into tomorrow, and then we will decide whether we are going to charge anyone,”

My post The world's most delayed and most punctual airports, seems to have ignited a media frenzy within India.

Times of India carried snippets from the article Sunday 11th January, which became a national story, and was picked up later that morning by the TV networks.

A lot of Bangalore Aviation readers have been asking me questions relating to the article.

Why are Mumbai and Delhi airports at the top of the list of delayed flight arrivals?

It is actually very simple. At both airports the number of flights arriving per hour exceeds the capacity of the runways. At Mumbai, there are two runways, but they cross each other in an X shape. There are also limitations of taxiways, but, I will not go into such a high level of detail.

Bottom line, the capacity of Mumbai airport is 30 landings per hour, but with a little juggling and using the crossing runway, the Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) is able to push the number up to 36 per hour. But the demand is even higher.

It's a similar situation with Delhi airport, which inaugurated a new third runway, plagued with problems. Drainage, non-functional aeronautical aids, and to top it off, some faceless bureaucrat, probably encouraged by a narcissist politician, allowed a 40 feet (4 storey) tall statue of Lord Shiva along the path of the runway. Now the new runway cannot be used by the Airbus A380, the very aircraft it was specifically built for, till that statue is removed. And we all know, how very impossible that is, in a religiously charged India.

Add to this excess demand and weather. Fog in Delhi, and rains in Mumbai. The system is so over-capacity that it provides the ATC absolutely no room to manoeuvre during bad weather, and flights get even more delayed.

If Mumbai and Delhi are at the top of the list for delayed arrivals, why are they not at the top of the list for delayed departures?

The clock gets reset to the revised departure time, due to the late arrival of the incoming aircraft. The departure time is measured when the airplane doors are closed. Airlines get their passengers on board, close the doors, and then wait for taxi clearance. Due to the traffic jam in the skies, you will find that your aircraft will taxi, and then wait in line, for a long time, to take-off.

Why is Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) at rank 4 in the Top 5 list of most delayed arrivals? Is it not an efficient airport?

BIA is an efficient airport, no doubt. I suspect three reasons. One is thrust on to BIA, one is temporary, and one needs to be addressed.

One, and this is the biggest reason, as the airport spokesperson said, Bangalore's dependence on trunk routes. i.e. Bangalore-Mumbai, Bangalore-Delhi, and more especially after the increase in fares, which dropped the bottom out of regional flights. Flights from Mumbai and Delhi, may leave their gate/stand on time, but get delayed in take-off. So the blame lands up on Bangalore's door-step for the late arrival. It is unfair.

Two, last year, when the new airport opened, there was massive disruption for about a month. I suspect this brought down the overall performance of Bangalore. On the positive side, everyone at BIA have been working very hard, and the kinks have been solved. I suspect Bangalore will be off the list in 2009.

Third, and I have highlighted it in my original post, is weather. Bangalore suffers from fog, between 15th November to 15th February, typically between 3AM and 8:30AM. 6AM to 10AM is peak period, and the fog impacts the performance of arriving and departing aircraft. While fog is limited to a short period in the year, the disruptions are significant enough, to lower the overall annual performance.

The Instrument Landing System at BIA, has been installed incorrectly. Despite being CAT-II capable, which will permit operations in poorer visibility conditions, the equipment is forced to function at CAT-I level. (For a better understanding of CAT levels please read this Wikipedia article).

How, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which is responsible for the equipment, and has installed over a hundred ILS systems, managed this blunder, is beyond me. Repairs of the installation were to have been carried out during the first six months of operations, i.e. by end November 2008, but given the delays this winter season, they obviously have not.

What is the solution?

We all want to fly during the peak hours of 6AM and 10AM and 5PM and 7PM.

While domestic traffic has declined, the demand during peak hours is sharper. Now that the economy is in the tank, we want to reduce our costs and try and complete all our work in a day trip, or at least not waste the working hours, flying.

Mumbai and Delhi are still way too overloaded, especially during the peak period.

With overall reduction in air traffic and shrinking incomes, there is pressure from the private airport operators MIAL and DIAL, on the ATC to accommodate more flights, as they scramble to earn more income. I cannot fault them. They are in business for profit, not charity, but this adds to the problem.

This economic connection, is the single path to solutions.

The first part of the solution lies with the Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA). It is time they woke up from their slumber, audit the airports, and allocate the maximum number of flights per hour. Any airport scheduling more flights than capacity pays a hefty fine, and is open to punitive law suits from delayed passengers for permitting flights greater than capacity.

To help the airports demand the needed reductions from the airlines, the second part of the solution lies in changing the system of flight slot allocations. India follows a system of "historic rights", i.e. once an airline gets a slot, then they continue to get that slot, till such time they revoke it. Which no airline ever does. Move to system of performance based allocation :

• If a flight gets delayed, they loose their place in the queue. Similar to an appointment at the doctor, wait for the next appointment to open up, rather than delaying everyone in the queue behind you.
• Mr. Airline you want a premium landing or take-off slot, pay a premium for it. Hey, but that is unfair to the low cost airlines ? Sorry, but life is not fair.

The airlines can recover the premiums they pay for the slot, from the passengers as a higher fare. They used to charge Rs. 150 ~ Rs. 300 "congestion surcharge", in any case. We passengers who are flying during peak hours, are already paying for them benefit.

Third, and this is partly under way, optimise the air traffic control system. Implement Gagan and the GBAS systems fast. Encourage airlines to use Performance Based Navigation (PBN), and reward those who do.

In the mean time, force the air traffic controllers and pilots to perform efficiently. Right now, the system calls for a two minute separation or 5 nautical miles (10km). World over airports function with a 90 second separation, some even at 60 seconds. A 25 per cent reduction in separation from 120 seconds to 90 seconds at the major airports, will result in a 50 per cent increase in capacity from 30 movements to 45 movements.

Pilots don't react fast enough in the sky, SPIN 'EM. They can land nice and easy sometime before the day is out. Foreign pilots cannot speak English fluently, DE-CERTIFY 'EM. They can fly in less congestion countries. Controllers cannot cope, TRANSFER 'EM. Let them go to nice and easy Jabalpur, Guwahati, or one of the smaller airports in India.

We risk a future similar to La Guardia airport, where the US Department of Transportation is forcing slot reductions, since the system cannot cope any more.

It is time for some radical solutions to this creaking system.

Lufthansa has opened its new design, super lounge for its premium passengers, in Terminal 1 at New York's John F. Kennedy airport. The new lounge is spread across 3 levels and has a total area of 1,500 square meters (about 16,000 square feet).

The highlight of the new lounge is the First Class area for HON Circle members and First Class passengers, located on the third level. The first outside the Lufthansa and SWISS hubs at Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich, it features an exclusive atmosphere, where First Class passengers and HON Circle members will find all the amenities they need in order to refresh themselves and unwind; or they can simply sit back and be spoilt by the attentive staff. The area has its own large reception desk, where guests are welcomed, and 27 comfortable chairs. In a separate pre-flight dinner area, guests can have a meal before their flight departs so that they can then sleep or relax on a night flight without any interruption. Generously proportioned shower rooms are also provided so that guests can freshen up before their flight.

The Senator Lounge on the second floor, which also reflects the elegant new lounge design, has 124 seats. Comfortable relaxing armchairs invite guests to unwind and recharge their batteries. In the bistro area, snacks, a choice selection of German wines, beers and spirits are served. The Senator Lounge also has comfortable bathrooms with bathtubs and showers.

On the lower floor, the completely renovated, spacious Business Lounge will accommodate up to 171 guests. It has a bistro and bar area offering a choice of snacks and drinks, a lounge area with groups of comfortable leather easy chairs and televisions and a separate work area with workstations for business travellers.

Oliver Wagner, Vice President Global Airport Products and Services at Lufthansa said

“The lounge at John F. Kennedy Airport is a walk-in advertisement for Lufthansa on the American continent and is an important component of our 150-million-euro investment programme to upgrade our lounges worldwide,” “In the first three months of this year alone, we will open seven lounges, including in Mumbai and Paris.”

Access to the Lufthansa lounge at JFK is directly behind the security checkpoints to minimise the distance lounge guests have to walk to the departure gates.

Lufthansa currently operates about 60 lounges worldwide with a total floor space of over 22,000 square metres. One entirely new facility is the first Lufthansa Welcome Lounge at Frankfurt, Lufthansa’s largest hub.

Until 2013, Lufthansa will be investing about 150 million euros in constructing new lounges and refurbishing existing ones in order to further expand and enhance its airport lounge facilities for customers.

In its Summer 2009 time-table, effective March 29, Singapore Airlines will revert back to servicing Bangalore Singapore with the Boeing 777-300, an upgrade from the existing Boeing 777-200.

The slowdown in the global economy caused significant impact in the Information Technology sector, which constitutes a bulk of Bangalore's international traffic. In response Singapore Airlines had downgraded services from a daily Boeing 777-300 to a Boeing 777-200, and suspended its 3 times a week morning flights.

It appears, the airline is re-testing the waters progressively, by first re-introducing the higher capacity aircraft on a daily night service and may consider re-introducing the morning flight if market conditions significantly improve.

Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300 seat map
Unfortunately, these aircraft will not be the 777-300ERs featuring Singapore Airline's super spacious new Business class nor the upgraded First class, in the 1-2-1 configuration, and will not feature the lie-flat seats in either of the premium classes. The Business Class is in a 2-3-2 configuration and the First is in a 2-2-2.

The Bangalore Singapore flight is identical to the classic "red-eye" west coast flights in the US. Leaving Bangalore close to midnight and arriving at daybreak in Singapore. Since it is just under four hours in duration, sleep is at a premium. Most premium class passengers put their seats back and try grab some sleep as soon as the flight is airborne.

The regular seating on these 777-300s is geared for day flights, and just does not provide for desperately needed sleep. I hope some of Singapore Airline's senior management read this post and decide to put in aircraft with lie-flat seats.

It will be a hit, especially considering that Malaysia Airlines will be downgrading the Bangalore-Kuala Lumpur service to a Boeing 737-800 by June, and Thai Airways will continue with its old Airbus A300-600.

Update 1 - January 22
As per the latest update Singapore Airlines will revert back to a Boeing 777-200 from May 18th. What a pity.

An era came to its end as Australian carrier Qantas retired its last Boeing 747-300.

The fleet of six, which entered service between 1984 and 1987, clocked more than 524,000 flying hours.

Along with the retirement of the fleet, comes another retirement -- flight engineers. Modern airliners with their "glass cockpits" have eliminated the flight engineers' station. Qantas will no longer have need for flight engineers in any of its remaining aircraft's cockpits.

The last serviceable Qantas B747-300 VH-EBW, will depart Sydney today at 1900 local (AEDT) 0800 GMT bound for the jets graveyard in Marana, Arizona, USA, pending sale.

Farewell.

David Learmount at FlightGlobal has done an excellent analysis of the Global airline accidents. In the last ten years, 2008 is the second lowest, after 2004, in terms of fatalities.

Simple figures paint the picture: in 2003 there were 27 fatal airline accidents causing 702 deaths, and in 2008 there were 34 fatal accidents and 583 deaths. In the interim years the figures show that the trend for fatal accident numbers and the fatalities total are tracking the horizontal almost precisely. Although the number of deaths last year was relatively low at 583, the best result in the past decade was 466 in 2004.

One particular section regarding a breakdown in trust between pilots and their airlines is disconcerting.

The pilots at American Airlines and US Airways have both, independently, suspended their participation in their respective carrier's aviation safety action programme (ASAP), a voluntary incident reporting scheme intended to encourage the reporting of mishaps of all kinds that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.

FlightGlobal's complete list of all accident for 2008, in PDF format, can be downloaded here.

2008 was a torrid year for domestic airlines in India, as recently released figures by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) show.

Domestic passenger traffic for the year 2008 fell 5% from 42.58 million to 40.77 million (Fig. 1), driven by the increase in fuel costs, and the massive hikes in air fares, which are yet to fully retreat, and capacity reductions by the airlines.


The Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) Indigo, SpiceJet, and JetLite, improved their market shares at the expense of Full Service Carriers (FCCs) Air India, Jet Airways, and Kingfisher Airlines. IndiGo is the big winner this year with a four per cent market share gain. Air India (the former Indian Airlines), gave up a big three per cent share. (Fig. 2)

The notable exception is Go Air (now called No Go Air due to its numerous flight cancellations), and the former Air Deccan, now christened Kingfisher Red after their acquisition. Kingfisher Red lost five per cent market share, while Kingfisher Airlines gained only three per cent, resulting in an overall loss of two per cent market share to competitors. Clearly the strategy at Kingfisher is not working.


While most airlines and airline groups lost in actual passenger numbers, LCCs IndiGo, SpiceJet, JetLite (the former Air Sahara now a subsidiary of Jet Airways), and Paramount, gained passengers. (Fig. 3).

The capacity swapping at Kingfisher group is clearly visible, and when performance of both Kingfisher Airlines and Kingfisher Red is combined, actual passenger numbers went down 10.5 per cent, from 12.56 million to 11.25 million.


The first two quarters of 2008, provided no clue to the excess capacity in the Indian airline industry. The "perfect storm" of increased fuel prices and reduced economic activity started rearing its ugly head towards the end of Q2 (April, May, June), and kicked the industry in it's teeth in Q3, with a mind numbing 25 per cent drop in traffic. (Fig. 4). Q4 has provided some seasonal relief, but Q1 of 2009 will see numbers dropping back again.


With the exception of Paramount, which has a small niche regional market, all the airlines saw massive drops in passengers in Q3. (Fig. 5). Most airlines staged a recovery in Q4, but the surprise is Jet Airways. It's passenger numbers tanked almost 20 per cent in Q3 and continued the downfall by another 15 per cent in Q4.


The market share of LCCs followed the increase in air fares, as passengers shifted from the FSCs. SpiceJet share in Q3 reflected its financial problems, prior to the Ross bailout. (Fig. 6)

It is an ignominious performance that the pioneer in the air travel bubble, Air Deccan (now Kingfisher Red) has lost over six per cent market share over the year. Clearly many of the "first time flier" passengers have chosen not to repeat, either returning back to trains and buses, or moving to other carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet.


The data highlights the price sensitive nature of the Indian traveller. IndiGo appears to have a winning formula with its low prices and efficient service. Fancy gimmicks do not work. At a time of economic slowdown, the FSCs have to get their act together quickly. By holding fuel surcharges to unjustifiably high levels, they are surrendering ground to the LCCs and surface transport.

Singapore Airlines will introduce the the Airbus A380 super-jumbo, on its Singapore-Paris route from June 1, 2009 .

Using the A380 in precisely the manner Airbus intended, i.e. lower frequency with a ultra-large aircraft, Singapore Airlines will cut down the frequency from the current 10 a week Boeing 777-300ER flights to a daily Airbus A380 flight.

Paris will be Singapore Airline's fourth A380 destination, its first in Continental Europe. Singapore Airlines already flies the A380 daily to Sydney and Tokyo, and twice daily to London.

The Singapore A380 is configured with 471 seats, in a three class configuration, and is considered to have one of the finest cabins in the world, especially its award winning Singapore Airline Suites, not to mention the world famous in-flight service.

The ergonomically designed new Economy Class seats maximises knee and legroom, and boast intelligent features such as a non-intrusive reading light and height adjustable leather headrests with side panels.

The Business Class seats are even amongst the widest in the sky. Measuring 86 centimetres (34 inches), each seat has direct access to the aisle, and converts into a fully flat bed within seconds.

The A380 also features the revolutionary Singapore Airlines Suites, a new and luxurious class of travel. Each Suite, enclosed by sliding doors for privacy, is fitted with a leather-upholstered seat, a 23-inch LCD screen for inflight entertainment, and a full-sized flat bed that is separate from the seat.

Across all three classes, KrisWorld, the world’s most comprehensive inflight entertainment system, offers more than 1,000 on-demand options in every seat.

Singapore Airlines currently has six A380s in service, a further 13 on firm order, and options on six more. The introduction of the A380 on the Paris route will follow the delivery of the seventh and eighth A380s in the first half of 2009. By this time, Air France, the European launch customer of the A380, too will receive its first A380.

Till that time, London Heathrow will remain the only airport in the world to have A380 services from all the A380 operators, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, and QANTAS.

SQ334 will depart Singapore Changi T3 from June 1, 2009, at 2340 and arrive Paris CDG next morning 0655.

SQ333 depart Paris CDG from June 2, 2009, at 1225 and arrive Singapore Changi T3 next morning 0655.

Singapore Airlines A380 Cabin Layout and Seat Map (Click on image for larger picture)

Effective June 1, 2009, Delta Air Lines will change the aircraft and flight number on its Amsterdam to Mumbai service.

The current NW34/NW33 service operated by an Airbus A330-200 will be replaced by NW792/NW791 operated by a Boeing 767-300.

The ultra luxurious Boeing 777-300ER of Jet Airways, which have also been leased to Turkish Airlines THY and Gulf Air. I hope you enjoy the images of the luxury on offer in these aircraft, for those lucky to travel in the Business class or First class suites.



Talks are on with Oman Air, but it is unknown whether Jet is offering its 777s or its Airbus A330-200s.

Click on the images for a larger view.

Seat Map
Business Class

First Class suites

As usual your comments are requested and welcome.