A Korean Air Airbus A380 visits me at home

A Korean Air Airbus A380 visits me at home

For nearly my entire life, I have lived in the shadow of one of the busiest airports in the country. Draw a straight line from my house and you end up on JFKs runway 22L in almost 2 miles. Arrivals glide across the sky mere seconds from landing, while departures roar directly overhead. When people ask me “why are you so into aviation?” my answer should be “the real question is what took me so long?”

JFK and airplanes are a daily fact of life in this area. Most people are so used to A380s at 500 feet over their backyard, they don’t even look up. For many years of my life, I was one of these people. DC8s, 727s, 707s, Concorde, all the classics you might now find in a museum were all right over my head, but I just never looked up.

Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (YWG)

Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (YWG)
Photo: Gerry Kopelow

Dear YWG,

Somehow, AirlineReporter.com missed the opening of your new terminal in October, 2011. We must have been busy with the 787, A380, airline mergers and stuff like that. But we still want to talk about you.

And by the way, we do know that your full name is ’œWinnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport’, but frankly, that’s a lot to type over and over. So we’ll just call you YWG. Hope you’re OK with that.

Sincerely,

Howard at AirlineReporter.com

OK, everyone, let’s review what we know about YWG and Winnipeg, the capital city of the province of Manitoba, Canada.

The first Copper River salmon comes of the Alaska Airlines 737 Combi. Photo by Shannon Leigh Kehoe / AirlineReporter.com

The first Copper River salmon comes of the Alaska Airlines 737 Combi. Photo by Shannon Leigh Kehoe / AirlineReporter.com

I love my sleep and it takes quite a bit to get me up before the sun. The first Copper River Salmon brought in by Alaska Air Cargo is good enough reason as any.

This early morning event, which just wrapped up, has become a yearly tradition that started in 2010. Luckily in previous years there was no rain, but this year we were not so lucky.  But being at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, rain can never stop an event like this.

The Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-400 Combi arrived with 24,000 pounds of Copper River salmon to an eager group. One lucky (or unlucky) fish was chosen to be filleted and cooked up in a competition between multiple chefs.

Sir Richard Branson gives that little personal touch to Tony Fernandes from Air Asia - Photo: Adam Lee, Air Asia

Sir Richard Branson gives that little personal touch to Tony Fernandes from Air Asia – Photo: Adam Lee, Air Asia

In 2010 two Formula 1 Race team owners made a bet between each other over who would finishing higher in the Constructors’ Championship.  The two owners were Sir Richard Branson, owner of the Virgin Formula One Racing Team and Tony Fernandes, owner of the Lotus Racing Team.  The two friends (Fernandez worked for Sir Richard as a financial controller in the 80s) both own and run airlines and they made a bet that would go to benefit charity.  Unfortunately Sir Richard Lost.

What was the bet?  The loser would need to work as a flight attendant on the others airline.  Sir Richard’s airlines span the globe with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America and Virgin Australia, while Tony Fernandez’s Asian Powerhouse, in the low cost market, Air Asia & Air Asia X.

The bet went a little bit further than that, they would have to do it in full uniform and not just any uniform.  It would be in drag.