Heck yes! DJ'n at 35,000 feet on KLM's new Amsterdam to Miami flight.
It takes something big to turn down an offer to fly on a party plane from Amsterdam to Miami on KLM. I was invited to KLM’s party flight, but unfortunately had to turn it down to cover the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental’s first flight.
Luckily Shashank Nigam, who runs the site Simpliflying.com, was on the flight and able to share all the excitement. “The KLM flight was quite exciting, and entertaining, to say the least,” Nigam told me over email. “It was the first time I was in a plane that felt more like a club, since everyone was grooving to the music being played by the Dutch DJs. Probably the most happening 10 hours I’ve spent in the air.”
The passengers were no ordinary folks. Sure there were quite a few DJ’s to offer block-rocking-beats, but also passengers who won KLM’s Fly2Miami social media competition. And actually the power of social media made KLM change the first flight.
Originally KLM planned to fly on March 27th, but a DJ and film maker explained that would be too late for participating in spring break events in Miami. KLM challenge them to fill the plane and they would make it happen.
One beautiful tri-hole. A KLM MD-11.
They started a website and social media campaign to get folks to get 150 people to sign up and only had seven days to do it. Luckily for them, it only took five hours to fill the plane and KLM changed the date to March 21st. Now that is awesome.
Well for social media it is awesome, for me it meant I couldn’t go. Although parting at 35,000 feet is pretty slick, I am more upset that the aircraft used on the flight was an MD-11 and I missed out flying on it. KLM is the only airline offering scheduled passenger service using the MD-11. For an airline nerd, this is awesome. KLM flies a fleet of 10 passenger versions and seven cargo versions of the MD-11 aircraft. This is a small percentage of their over 200 aircraft strong fleet.
KLM will now offer scheduled service from Amsterdam four days per week and is their 65th international destination.
MORE GOODIES:
* Video of Water canon salute
* Video of the DJ’s in action at 35,000 feet
* KLM’s blog about the event
Images: DJ from KLM, MD-11 from caribb
Delta Air Lines MD-90
A little less than two weeks ago I took a look at Delta buying nine MD-90s from Japan Air Lines. Well, Dan Webb over on his blog Things in the Sky decided to take it to the next level and really dive into the MD-90 and I think it is very much worth sharing. Check out his story: Random Thoughts on Delta and the MD-90.
Lufthansa's first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental at Paine Field on March 21, 2011. Photo by Lee Karas. Click for larger.
The very first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental got a lot of great attention this Sunday, flying for the first time. However, I think some attention should go to the first 747-8I to be delivered to an airline.
The second Intercontinental (RC022) will be the first to go to an airline: Lufthansa Airlines and was caught out at Paine Field. Lufthansa’s first 747-8I came out of the paint hangar on Monday March 21st. She is painted with a gray belly and blue tail.
I am in process of finding out when the titles and logo will be put on the 747-8I. Not having them present makes me question if there might be some special livery or a new, updated livery for Lufthansa. Until I find out… let the rumors fly.
A huge thank you to Lee Karas for taking this photo and letting me share it.
Two will enter, one will leave. Some will have Wi-Fi.
United has announced today that Continental intends to add Wi-Fi to 200 of their Boeing 737 and 757 aircraft. It is not officially, official that this will happen, but I would imagine it will go through.
If you get confused on who and what United and Continental Airlines are right now, you are not alone. Although they will be merging, they are still two separate airlines. This gets more confusing since they have started to re-paint planes and doing joint announcements.
Add to the confusion that currently, United flies fourteen aircraft with Wi-Fi already on their Premium Service (PS). 13 of those aircraft are using Go-Go Inflight Wi-Fi and one is using Row 44. The Continental aircraft will be using LiveTV’s ViaSat-1 satellite internet. Those are a lot of different providers and I would imagine as the merger settles down, the new United will be looking at which service package they would want to provide to the entire fleet. Since the new United has so many international destinations, it makes sense for them to look at using a satellite provider like Row44 or LiveTV.
Becoming the world’s largest airline is not easy. There are a lot of things that still need to be dealt with to make sure the new United has a consistent brand.Time is of the essence since the new United doesn’t want to alienate loyal customers for both airlines during the transition.
To learn a bit more, check out my story on AOL Travel News.
Three great Alaska Airlines Timbers livery. Which is your favorite? Images from Alaska Airlines. Click for larger.
The selection process had to be rigged! Back in February, Alaska Airlines had a competition to allow people to design a new Portland Timbers livery that would fly on a Boeing 737-700. I created, what I think was a pretty rad livery and it is not one of the finalists? I smell scandal. Okay, I really didn’t submit that and the three that are the finalists are much better than mine.
Let’s have a little fun. Which of these three liveries do you like best? #1, which was designed by Paul Wright, #2 designed by John Bode or #3 which was done by Lee Zeman.
[poll id=”4″]
Don’t stress too much over the vote, since it really doesn’t matter too much. You see, Alaska has already made their decision. Alaska liked Wright and Bode’s designs so much, they are going to combine them and make one super livery.
About 500 fans submitted their livery ideas to Alaska Airlines and the winners were selected by folks from Alaska and the Portland Timbers. Zeman’s livery ended up getting second place and there were seven others with honorable mentions. Bode and Wright not only get to see their artwork fly around Alaska’s route, but also get a VIP trip to the Timbers home opener on April 14th.
After the new livery is official unveiled in early May in Portland, it will start regular service. To see the other top seven, check them out on the Timber’s website.
