Passenger leaves a plane by emergency exit

One of the first class passengers on Delta flight from New York to Guyana got so angry that the economy passengers were leaving the aircraft before him, that he… opened emergency doors and slid down the slide.

Delta Airlines plans to file charges against the man.

For once, I am speechless.

Silverjet ceased operations today

Silverjet, the all-business-class airline, which flew from Luton to New York and Dubai, ceased operations today.

Travellers who book through the travel agents or bought a ticket as part of a package can expect a full refund.

British Airways has offered Silverjet passengers the chance to re-book flights from Heathrow and will waive both its advance-purchase and Saturday-night stay rules to reduce the cost of re-booking.

Virgin Atlantic offers the Upper Class fares of £759 one-way to Dubai and £899 to New York with proof of a purchased Silverjet ticket.

Customers should contact their travel agent or visit the CAA website at atol.org.uk.

Ryanair's is rising extra charges yet again... again

Ryanair announced changes to its optional priority boarding service which allows passengers to be first to board their flights. From June 3 all passengers flying with Ryanair will be required to pay £4 for priority boarding; this includes passengers checking-in online who till then checked-in free.

Skyway robbery

The American Airlines has joined other major U.S. airlines in charging a fee for checking a second bag on domestic flights.

Charges range from $25-$50 for the second bag, depending on the airline, also charges for oversized bags - such as surf boards and golf clubs - and heavy (over 50 pounds) have risen.

Should you be travelling in America this month, you might be in luck for some free buzz.

On Wednesdays in May in June, on selected flights to Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco, Virgin America will serve their passengers two free cocktails.

Your boarding pass will also ‘open bar’ for you in Tao Lounge, XYZ bars and The Venitian.

Please see the promo page for further details, including dozens of pages in fine print.

First Class, Business Class, Economy Class, … Loo Class?

The New Yorker flying with JetBlue from New York to San Diego on a “buddy pass” - a standby travel voucher that JetBlue employees give to friends – was forced to give his seat to flight attendant and told by the pilot to sit in a… toilet.

When passenger objected, he was told by the pilot that "he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command that (passenger) should be grateful for being on board,"

For some reason now the passenger is suing the JetBlue airline for $2 million.

And who was laughing at the Hale&Pace's 'Yorkshire Airlines', ha? But do not worry, we do not sell JetBlue tickets, you are safe… for now at least ;)

Ryanair's is rising extra charges yet again.

From May 5th, the fee for checking in baggage is rising by 80 pence and so are the airport check-in charges.

Ryanair continuous tactics of not including extra charges in its advertised fares, resulted in the Office of Fair Trading investigation after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) accused Ryanair of repeatedly breaching advertising guidelines.

Did I hear someone yelling "Liar, liar pants on fire?"... Nah, I must be mistaken ...

easyJet to fly from Manchester to Alicante

A new winter sun flight route from Manchester to Alicante in Spain will start on September 29th 2008.

Flights will operate four times per week throughout the winter on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

UK commercial manager for easyJet Carly Brear commented: "This is the first new route easyJet has introduced to its new Manchester base and we look forward to further expansion in the near future."

Flight delay forecasting

With airline schedules became more and more unpredictable with chronic flight delays would it not be nice to have a crystal ball telling which flight will be actually on time?

Believe it or not, there is a website which predicts flight delays. Delaycast was established to provide information about possible difficulties in flight itineraries and to give travelers realistic expectations about their travel plans. Its goal is to help flyers avoid delays, missed connections, and unintended stay overs.

Oasis Hong Kong Airline - help information for stranded passengers

Oasis Hong Kong Airline announced yesterday its voluntary liquidation cancelling all its flights and leaving passengers stranded in Hong Kong, London and Vancouver.

Notice To Passengers

Date: 9 April 2008 – 2050h HKG time

It is with regret that Oasis Hong Kong Airlines announces that the airline has this morning applied to the Hong Kong Court to appoint a provisional liquidator. The Court has appointed Edward Middleton and Patrick Cowley of KPMG as the provisional liquidators, and they have assumed control of the airline with effect from 1400h HKG time today.

Our flight operations have been cancelled until further notice. The Provisional Liquidators are liaising with other airlines in order to help customers make alternate travel arrangements as quickly as possible.

The Hong Kong government is implementing contingency arrangements with other airlines to help travellers, secretary for transport and housing Eva Cheng told a press conference. Ms Cheng said passengers seeking compensation should approach Oasis or the Hong Kong consumer council for help.

Oasis has set up hotlines for affected passengers - 0844 482 2323 in London and +44 129 359 6633 outside the UK).

Cathay Pacific is offering to help stranded Oasis passengers

"We sympathise with the many passengers in Hong Kong, London and Vancouver who have been stranded by the Oasis’ decision, and we will do our very best to help them through this difficult and stressful period,” Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Tony Tyler said today.

Cathay Pacific is adding two extra flights to London, scheduled for the early hours on Friday and Sunday . A number of seats would be set aside on these as well as scheduled flights, where possible, to accommodate the returning students.

"We hope our contingency arrangements can accommodate as many as possible of the school children affected, and take people home who have been stranded by the closure,” Mr. Tyler added.

Special ticketing arrangements have been made to help Oasis customers who had confirmed bookings on the airline over the next two weeks – effective up to and including 23 April 2008.

A special one-way Economy Class fare at HK$2,500 (plus applicable charges) will be offered to eligible Oasis ticket holders on Hong Kong to London, or Hong Kong to Vancouver. The special fare from London to Hong Kong is GBP160 and from Vancouver CAD320.

A hotline has been established and the airline urges Oasis ticket holders to call the number on 2747 6181 to ascertain details of Cathay Pacific’s special ticketing arrangements. The Hong Kong hotline is open 24 hours and available with immediate effect until further notice. Details can also be found at www.cathaypacific.com.hk.

"We will be doing our utmost to help people out, but our efforts are complicated by the fact that our own flights are very full at the moment, and remain so for the next few weeks,” Mr. Tyler said.

KLM pilot misses new Hyderabad airport

One would thing that all that state of the art equipment on board of airplanes should make it impossible for pilot to miss the arrival port, but then one would be mistaken.

In a slip-up barely hours after the Shamshabad airport opened for business, a KLM flight from Amsterdam, which was supposed to land at Hyderabad, skipped the airport and flew across the country — first to Delhi, and then to Mumbai.

Apparently, the pilot knew nothing about the new airport and was flying towards Begumpet only to be told that the facility had been shut. He was directed to Shamshabad, to which the pilot asked the air traffic control: "Shamshabad? What’s that?" The pilot then flew to Delhi, from where, after being refused permission to land, he took the plane to Mumbai.

Next time, give a guy GPS system, I heard TomTom is good.

Dubai to launch cheap airline

Dubai’s government is to establish a low-cost airline, which will be managed by the biggest Arab airline Emirates.

Dubai is also spending $33 billion to build what it intends to be the world's largest airport at Jebel Ali in the south of the emirate. The six-runway al-Maktoum International Airport will be 10 times the size of Dubai's existing airport and bigger by area than London's Heathrow and Chicago's O'Hare airports combined when completed in 2012.

American Airlines moves from Gatwick to Heathrow

After 26 years at London Gatwick Airport, the American Airlines are moving to London Heathrow.

The American Airlines’ planning senior vice-president Henry Joyner said: "We want to strengthen our competitive position within the new open skies regime, so it makes sense to focus our efforts in London at Heathrow.

"These changes do not impact the total number of American flights to and from London. We'll operate up to 18 daily departures to Heathrow this summer from seven US airports."


The last American Airline service from Gatwick will be will be a Dallas/Fort Worth connection on April 13.

American Airlines cross Atlantic with just five people on board.

The American Airlines Boeing 777, able to carry 245 passengers on board, made a nine-hour journey from Chicago to Heathrow with just five passengers on board, using usual 22,000 gallons of fuel. It is 4,400 gallons per passenger.

Richard Dyer, of Friends of the Earth, said: "Flying a virtually empty plane is an obscene waste of fuel.

"Through no fault of their own, each passenger's carbon footprint for this flight is about 45 times what it would have been if the plane had been full."

To sum up the equivalent of this huge carbon footprint a car would have to travel 123,000 miles or the average British household would use up its five years gas and electricity supplies.

So much for green initiatives.

Superb 360° view of a A380 flight deck

Probably everyone interested in air travel already heard about A380, but how many people acutely saw its cockpit? Here is your chance to admire true masterpiece of technology, the magnificent 360° view of a A380 flight deck. Truly worth a look.

'The Air Hostess Wars' war

The new and highly popular Thai soap opera the ‘Air Hostess War’ is causing some stir around Thai Airline staff. The TV show portrays the tribulations of charming stewardess who becomes an object of affection of one of the pilots.

Union president Somsak Srinual describes the show as humiliating and offending.

"It's all about sex and air hostesses beating each other up in the cabin because of love and jealousy.” says Somsak "This kind of thing never happens."

Thai Airline cabin crew have petitioned Thailand's Culture Minister Khunying Khaisri Sri-aroon to get the drama pulled off the air since it shows them in an immoral light.

Can you imagine similar action towards Casualty, ER, Boston Legal, etc?

Virgin Atlantic to go on biofuel.

Virgin Atlantic will fly one of its Boeing 747 planes on biofuel during a demonstration flight from London to Amsterdam in February.

Sir Richard Branson, President of Virgin Atlantic, said: "This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic to fly its planes using clean fuel sooner than expected. The demonstration flight next month will give us crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint. Virgin Group pledged to invest all its profits from its transportation companies towards developing clean energy and with this breakthrough we are well down the path to achieving our goals."

In the middle of 2007, Virgin trains began a six-month trial of a passenger train using biofuel, an experiment the company said could lead it to switch its entire fleet over to a mix of diesel and biofuel.

British Airways new longhaul route to Hyderabad

British Airways is to start flights from Heathrow to the Indian city of Hyderabad from October 27, 2008.

Hyderabad becomes the airline's sixth Indian destination joining Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai on its route network. There will be five flights each week on a Boeing 777 aircraft.

Robert Boyle, British Airways' commercial director, said: "India is our largest market outside North America and, with the Hyderabad route, we will fly there 48 times each week. This is up from 19 flights per week when the UK/India aviation market was liberalised in October 2005.

"Hyderabad has a fast growing economy based on IT, business process outsourcing and biotech industries and we believe that there will be a strong business demand for our flights which will be the only direct services between the city and the UK."