There were three Lufthansa Airbus A380s waiting at Frankfurt when we left.
Last Friday marked the first time that an Airbus A380 has landed at Miami International Airport (MIA). This was the first Lufthansa Airlines flight from Frankfurt (FRA) to Miami operated by the double-decker Airbus A380.
Miami becomes the third US destination that Lufthansa flies the A380 and the sixth destination internationally. Although the airline has gained experience flying the seven Airbus A380s in their fleet, this was the first time any A380 has landed at Miami.
“We are extremely excited to introduce our new, flagship A380 aircraft as the very first in the Miami market,” said Jens Bischof, Member of the Lufthansa German Airlines Board, Sales and Revenue Management. “I applaud Miami International Airport’s management team for their determination to become A380-ready. We share in their excitement and are both committed to Miami’s community of global travelers in both the business and leisure markets.”
I had the opportunity to fly on the upper-deck of the large aircraft, which houses eight first class and 98 business class (where I was sitting) seats. The lower deck contains only economy seats — 420 to be exact. When arriving at the airport I already had my boarding pass and no baggage to check and having a business class ticket allowed me to take the VIP line at security — which did not matter too much since traffic was a bit slow.
Passengers are able to board directly from the Business Class lounge located in Frankfurt, Germany.
When stepping up to security I realized I didn’t know Germany’s rules. Did I have to take out my laptop? Toothpaste? How about body scanners? Things were much different than here in the US –talk about service.
There was a security agent where you unload your stuff and they didn’t assume I knew what to do. They smiled as they let me know I needed to take out my laptop and all metal from my body. I didn’t have to take off my shoes or remove my toothpaste. After going through the metal detector, there was another friendly agent to help me get my stuff and I actually had room and time to gather my things. A far cry from going through security in Seattle.
At the gate, there is a business class lounge located upstairs where one can relax, get a drink and a bite to eat. Before boarding there were folks from the airline that gave a speech with the three pilots and head flight attendant looking on. We were able to board from the lounge and take an upper jetway directly onto the top deck.
Having the entire upper-deck as business class has its pluses and minuses. Even though there are quite a few actual and “fake” bulk-heads (fabric giving the feeling to sections) in the aircraft, there are still 98 of the same seats up top. This does take away a bit of the exclusive feel that flying in a premium seat normally has. However, if you are able to swing a first class ticket, there are only eight of those seats and definitely feels exclusive.
You will find 98 of these business class seats on the upper deck of Lufthansa's Airbus A380.
The business class product on the A380 is very similar to the product found on other aircraft with a few changes. There is a new universal outlet and an updated entertainment system with more content, which is good since I watched a good number of movies flying over on my Seattle to Frankfurt flight just 24 hours prior. Even with the updates, I was kind of hoping for a few more movie choices.
The best change is the ability to view one of three cameras located on the A380: on the tail, on the nose looking down and another looking straight. Of course, nothing beats seeing what is in front of the aircraft directly from the cockpit.
A few of us were invited to take a tour of the flight deck while we were over the Atlantic Ocean. I have been in cockpits during flights before, but never allowed to take photos — bonus. The five of us were easily able to fit in the flight deck and what an amazing view — inside and out. For some reason, seeing the vast blue sky and clouds looked so much better from the cockpit windscreen versus a side window.
The process of getting to the flight deck was a bit of an eye opener. I was sitting near the front of the upper deck, but we had to go to the back of the plane to use the rear stairs and then walk the length of the aircraft on the bottom deck. I have been on an empty A380 and it just doesn’t feel the same when every economy seat is taken. It felt like we had to walk a mile and through hundreds of people (420 to be exact) before getting to the cockpit. That was a heck of a lot of people and I was happy to return to the upper deck when the tour was complete.
Visiting the flight deck while in flight was amazing. I am being shown where we currently are with an old-school map.
I have been hearing how quiet the plane is during take off, but I kind of brushed it off as PR-talk. Since this was my first time taking a flight in one, I paid extra attention when we took off. I was genuinely shocked at how quiet the plane was at full throttle taking off from Frankfurt with a full load. It took us a good chunk of the runway to finally rotate, but it didn’t even sound like the engines were at full throttle — impressive.
The trip to Germany and the flight back were great experiences, but the landing easily trumped them of both. We touched down in Miami to hundreds of people lined up along the airport and freeway to greet the plane. I had never seen so many people line up to greet a plane like that before. This wasn’t just one group of people, but hundreds lining the length of the runway to catch a glimpse of our Airbus A380 landing — it was surreal.
I feel that Miami has a unique love affair with aviation. Eastern Air Lines used to be based in Miami and so many people are still very proud of the airline and the influence it had on aviation. Miami International Airport is proud to be one of very few airports to host the Airbus A380.
There were four fire trucks at Miami to greet the Airbus A380.
’œToday is one of the proudest days in the history of MIA and Miami-Dade County,’ said Miami-Dade Aviation Director Jose Abreu. ’œLufthansa’s A380 service elevates MIA into an elite class of airports worldwide that are capable of receiving this groundbreaking aircraft. We congratulate Lufthansa and deeply appreciate them for helping us reach another historic milestone.’
The A380 is one large plane that is able to carry one heck of a lot of people. It provides better economics per passenger compared to other aircraft (when nearly full) and is amazing to see in person with its double decks. I still do not think the A380 is as majestic as the Boeing 747, but it does its job and does it well. It has a beauty all of its own that truly is hard to compare to other aircraft. This might have been my first A380 flight, but I doubt my last.
More Good Airbus A380 Stuff:
* All 42 photos from the first MIA-FRA A380 flight
* Local Miami channel 10 was on the flight and did a great piece
This Boeing 787 Dreamliner is supposed to be the sixth 787 that Air India is supposed to take delivery of.
Air India is going through some pretty difficult times and many are questioning their future. Heather Timmons with the New York Times recently shared a story on how a new Air India employee made a horrific discovery on one of their flights that clearly highlights the airline’s current lack of oversight.
The new pilot made a visit to the cockpit during a flight and discovered both pilots had covered the windows with newspaper to block out the sun — an obvious violation.
This is only one of many complaints the state-run airline has received recently and passengers are noticing. The airline used to be the primary airline in India, but has since been surpassed by Kingfisher, IndiGo and Jet Airways since India’s airline industry was deregulated almost 20 years go.
During the last fiscal year, Air India lost about $1 billion in taxpayer money. Currently, there is a solid movement for the Indian government to remove themselves from the airline business.
Even with the outside pressure, both a spokes person for Air India and India’s new civil aviation minister, Vayalar Ravi, have stated the airline will not shut down and will remain under governmental control.
Ravi has admitted that there has been poor management in the past and that the airline has bought too many planes. Air India changed many of their wide-bodied orders into single-aisle orders in 2006 and today there is talk that Air India might have to defer the delivery of their Boeing 787 Dreamliners due to their continuing financial crisis.
It seems the management of Air India needs to wake up. Obviously, the current plan is not working and the airline has already lost many of their customers. It takes much more money and effort to convince alienated customers to come back than it does to attract new ones. With strong competition from other airlines, Air India will need to make serious changes to survive.
Air Moldova Airbus A320
Air Moldova was founded in 1993 and is based in ChiÅŸinău, Moldova. When the airline first started operations, it was a unit of Aeroflot, Russia’s governmental airline. At first, the airline operated with old Russian aircraft: the Tupelov TU-154, TU-134, and Yakovlev Yak-42s.
Today they have a fleet of five aircraft including three Airbus A320s, one Embraer 120 and one Embraer 190.
The livery looks a bit odd to me with the fuselage being half blue and not really properly flowing into the tail. However, it looks a heck of a lot better than the old Aeroflot livery with a new name slapped on.
Image: BrusselsSpotter
American Airlines DC-10 taking off.
This blog is guest written by my father, who was a Naval aviator for twenty years and got me started on my passion for aviation. During a recent chat he shared this story with me and I asked him to write it up as it is a piece of airline history. Here is his story on a trip to New York’s JFK airport:
The year was 1977. I was a young Lieutenant in the United States Navy, stationed at Whidbey Island in Washington. One of the requirements of my job was to represent the EA-6B Model Manager at a NATOPS review conference held at Bethpage, NY. Accompanying me was the other half of the NATOPS Model Manager team, Gary.
We departed out of Seattle, WA for an uneventful trip to New York on an American Airlines DC-10. The airline had a new promotional program called ’œthe bottomless wine glass’. The bottomless wine glass meant there was an unlimited amount of free wine available for the duration of the trip. On the trip to New York we were very responsible drinkers. Our return trip was to be a horse of another color.
The return trip was also on an American Airlines DC-10, however, during this portion of our trip we took full advantage of their bottomless wine glass program. We didn’t have to drive when we arrived back home, so why not? We were seated in the center section, second row back from the bulkhead close to the movie screen. We were also on the aisle, hence easy access to the passing flight attendant.
The flight was seemingly uneventful with us consuming copious amounts of wine until the start of the in-flight movie. Neither of us opted for a headset as that would have cost a few dollars and we were too busy talking about solving ’œthe world problems’ anyway.
The movie started and Gary said that he had recently seen it and from that point on gave a running dialog on the movie since I hadn’t seen it. I’m sure all those around us were totally put out, but, no one said a thing to us.
We continued to drink all the way back to Seattle. In those days there was no such thing as being too intoxicated on a plane; or so it seemed. After landing, I quickly exited the plane thinking Gary was right behind me. I waited at the top of the ramp for what seemed an eternity. Finally, I saw Gary being helped by two flight attendants up the ramp. They brought him over to me a relayed the following events.
Upon exiting the aircraft Gary waited at the aircraft exit door for me to deplane. After everyone had departed the aircraft they closed the door and proceeded to coach Gary up the ramp toward the terminal. Gary then ’œbroke’ free and went back to the aircraft door and started banging on the door and calling out for me. He emphatically told the attendants I was still inside. He was so adamant about me still being onboard they opened the aircraft door and escorted him inside to a totally dark cabin. Still insistent and sounding threatening, Gary made them do a walk through the plane with him.
Flashlights in hand they scoured the entire aircraft. Satisfied I was no longer onboard he quietly deplaned and came up to the terminal where he found me.
Looking back on the inconsideration we showed those around us, I am ashamed. I am not particularly proud of that story but it did happen in an era were heavy drinking was acceptable and Viet Nam was a recent memory so people were more tolerant of military personnel. My how things have changed since then, probably for the better.
Image: 64N31W
To the untrained eye, one might not know what airline owns this Boeing 737. Lucky for us airline nerds, it is easy to tell that it is either a Boeing 737 with United or Continental livery.
This incident happed a few months back in in Greenville, Mississippi after the aircraft was painted to the new United Airlines livery. It had completed being painted and was about to be flown to Houston on a ferry flight. While taxiing out to the runway, the concrete collapsed under the left main gear, causing it to fold.
Luckily there were no passengers on board and both pilots were able to escape, uninjured, out the back of the aircraft.
It appears as though United didn’t want to be associated with a broken down aircraft on the taxi-way and they covered up all the identifiable markings. This is not uncommon for airlines to do when their aircraft become severely damaged.
I tried to get a status update on the aircraft from United, but at this time they have no comment. I have been trying to track down the registration number of this aircraft, but I have not had any luck. Super brownie points to anyone who can.
