Images from 2012.
Another great year for AirlineReporter.com. Over 90,000 miles were flown to bring you some pretty cool stories for 2012. Long ago, I started the tradition of looking back at some of the biggest and best of the year — so why stop now? I know… it is so original to do a story like this, but I am kind of curious myself and often there are quite a few surprises.
Top 5 Viewed Blogs
Strangely, my top three viewed stories of 2012 were actually from 2011 and 2010. Really, this topic is about stories written in 2012, but I will share that the top three over all were: How to Get a Good Seat on Southwest Airlines, Taking a Tour of the Boeing 747-8I and My Review of Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 Business Class. For those written in 2012:
- American Airlines Set to Get a New Livery Soon
- American Airlines Shows Off New Boeing 777-300ER Interior
- Flying on the Inaugural Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental Flight With Lufthansa
- What are Alaska and Delta Up to In Seattle? You Tell Me. (I have to admit I didn’t see this story making the top 5)
- My Review: Flying Emirates Airline Business Class to Dubai
Top 5 Most Commented Blogs
One of my favorite parts of the blog are the comments and discussion that take place. I am constantly learning about aviation and the airline business and many of you are happy to share your own wisdom and insight. It isn’t too shocking to see that two of the most read blogs also have the most comments.
- What are Alaska and Delta Up to In Seattle? You Tell Me
- Photos: How to get a Boeing 737-400 in a hangar that is too small
- Allegiant to Start Charging for Carry-Ons Wednesday
- Flying on the Inaugural Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental Flight With Lufthansa
- Air India Delays Delivery of their Boeing 787 Dreamliners, But Why?
My Top 5 Blogs
Traffic does not always mean quality or a story is one of my favorites. Of course to choose only five is extremely difficult to do. Here are my five personal stories/experiences of 2012 (not in any particular order):
- Allegiant to Start Charging for Carry-Ons Wednesday: I don’t do a lot of breaking news stories, but this one was gold. I had an inside source reach out and give me a heads up that Allegiant was going to be only the second airline in the US to start charging for carry-on fees. Looking online, I saw that no one had this story and shockingly, when I spoke with the airline, the confirmed it. This blog didn’t get massive traffic, but it gave me that huge journalistic rush of having a scoop.
- Flying on the Inaugural Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental Flight With Lufthansa: This story makes it on all three of my lists and is it that shocking? One of the top stories of 2011 was flying on the 787 for the first time and 2012 was the year of the 747-8I. Not only was I able to chill out in Frankfurt for 24 hours, I was able to catch a ride on the 747-8I’s first passenger flight.
- Visiting Dubai: Yes, taking the non-stop flight on Emirates in Business Class to Dubai from Seattle was pretty rad. So was checking out the airline’s training and catering facility. But what the most amazing part of the trip just in one day, waking up to tour of the world’s tallest building. Then go skiing in a mall. Then wrapping it up with 4-wheeling in the desert just before a short camel ride. There aren’t too many places in the world to do all that in just one day.
- A Confession: I Used My Passport For the First Time Ever in 2010: I had this story written up for a long time before posting it. Honestly, I was pretty apprehensive. Admitting to the world-at-large that before 2010 I had never known internationally — how would people react? I was so relieved to see that many people resonated with the story and hopefully I motivated a few to look at traveling internationally.
- Taking LAN’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner Delivery Flight: Previously I had taken a short flight on one of ANA’s 787s around Japan — but this was different. A non-stop flight from Everett, WA to Santiago on a 787 Dreamliner. The flight on the 787 (and the flight back home on a 767) really was able to show me that the Dreamliner truly is a new generation of airliner.
Over 90,000 miles were flown to cover stories for the blog in 2012.
Top 10 Cities and Countries Reading the Blog
Congrats to Seattle for taking the lead for the city with the most people reading the blog. I am sure that fact that I live in Seattle, have the Seattle PI syndication and that Boeing and Alaska Airlines are based here surely helps. Shocking that I still have had no readers in North Korea. Here are the top 10 cities and countries that read the blog in 2012:
- Seattle, New York, London, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Singapore, Houston, Sydney and Washington DC.
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, India, France, Japan, Netherlands and Singapore.
Previous New Years Posts:
What is coming for 2013? Some pretty cool stuff is already being planned. I already have one of my writers set up to fly on LOT’s inaugural 787 flight to New York and working with a few other airlines on some pretty interesting concepts. I feel that 2013 will be an amazing growth year for the AirlineReporter.com brand and I thank each and every one of you for making that possible.
Cheers and a VERY Happy New Year!
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This story written by… David Parker Brown, Editor & Founder.
David started AirlineReporter.com in the summer of 2008, but has had a passion for aviation since he was a kid. Born and raised in the Seattle area (where he is currently based) has surely had an influence and he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in the world. |
Happy New Year to you, David. May the new year and flights be wonderful for you, your family and all those involved in the success of AirlineReporter.com.
Happy Thoughts to all!
Maybe a trip to New Zealand or Australia could be on the cards for 2013!?
Happy New Year David! I want to say thanks to you and everyone else who makes airlinereporter.com such a great page. I”m looking forward to seeing what”s new in the industry as the year progresses. Best of luck!
Sean