Sigh. I really should have my own photos and video of today’s two flights. But my car had other plans. I was on a camping trip this weekend, with every intention to make it back to the Future of Flight in time for ZA003 Boeing 787 Dreamliner to take flight and then watch the second Boeing 747-8 to take off. However my car broke down and had to be towed 75 miles back to civilization. If this would have happened on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s first flight, I would have ditched the car and taken a taxi! Luckily some other great people were there to cover the action.
Above is a video of ZA003 taking off for the first time today, taken by Liz Matzelle (@ImperfectSense). This is the third Boeing 787 built, but the fourth to take the skies. ZA004 took to the skies beforehand on February 24th. ZA003 is being used to test the interiors,which I was able to tour of back in early February.
If seeing a Dreamliner taking off wasn’t enough, the second Boeing 747-8 also took the sky today after a few delays. The first 747-8 took flight on February 8th. I am currently trying to track down any video or photos taken of the flight, but I did find a photo from Kevin (@TxAgFlyer) showing RC22 waiting to fly.
Boeing recently announced before today’s flight, the Boeing 747-8 has completed 13 flights and 33 hours of flight time. The tests are going as planned — which is a good thing. Five pilots have flown the airplane taking it up to 30,000 feet and up to Mach .65. Boeing has completed initial stall tests and other dynamic maneuvers, and performed an extensive checkout of systems on the airplane. They are hoping to get the third Boeing 747-8 in the sky soon.
AirTran Boeing 737-700 at Seattle when I flew them last
I have mentioned a few times in my blog that for my “real” job I work at a local university. Right now the students are about ready to have finals. You can always tell since the library gets full and students start to have stressed looks on their faces (how I do not miss those days). But with finals, soon comes a well deserved spring break.
Enter AirTran’s U program, which allows college students to purchase cheap standby tickets — arriving just in time for those spring breaks. There are two things most college students like: FaceBook and saving money and AirTran is happy to meet those needs.
AirTran is also launching the Creeper Sweepstakes (people surfing FaceBook are called “creepers”) via the AirTran U FaceBook page where college students can win a free round-trip ticket on AirTran.
My mother still tells me stories when she was in college she would always fly standby on the cheap. At a time when we hear more and more about airlines charging to fly standby, it is refreshing to see an airline to help college students have an awesome spring break.
Kuban Airlines Boeing 737-300 (VQ-BHD) with sunflower livery
Kuban Airlines was founded back in 1932 as a division of Aeroflot, in Krasnodar, Russia. In 1992 it was mostly privatized with the state owning 51% and the employees owning 49%.
This February Kuban Airlines added three Boeing 737-300’s to its fleet with a brand new livery. The airline also flies 12 flew Yakovlev Yak-42D’s in their old livery. They fly to about 18 domestic destinations, but will also fly chartered international flights.
If you know Russian, you can learn more about them on their website.
Oh yes. That is for sure crazier than Ryanair…or at least equal enough to their craziness for Cimber Sterling to earn the “Crazier Than Ryanair” medal. Congrats!
Picture an airline that is having a super sale. When I say super, I mean SUPER. Selling tickets for only $0.19 USD (well it was for 1 Danish crown, but that equals about $0.19). Then picture a second airline whose employees go and buy out hundreds of the $0.19 tickets, not letting real passengers purchase them. Too crazy to happen? Think again.
Norwegian Air Shuttle, to celebrate a new route between Copenhagen and Karup, were offering the super cheap airfares. Danish airline Cimber Sterling employees saw a good opportunity to take advantage of the low fares.
Using fake names, Cimber Sterling employees bought well over 650 tickets on Norwegian Air Shuttle. “One person has booked 458 tickets, and another 100, and two more than 50, and two Cimber board members 18. I am sure it is more than 650,” Norwegian Air Shuttle spokesperson Anne-Sissel Skaanvik said. “It costs us money when we have work to cancel the tickets. There are many people involved in this, and it is not for free.”
Skaanvik said that the flight has seen many “no-shows” since real passengers weren’t able to purchase the tickets. Cimber Sterling’s CEO Jacob Krogsgaard called his counterpart to apologize. “I have called (Norwegian CEO) Bjorn Kjos and given him an unreserved apology for what occurred,” Krogsgaard said in a statement, calling it a case of “misguided loyalty” on the part of Cimber staff. “We cannot interfere in what our employees are doing privately, but I want to stress that it is not the way Cimber Sterling wants to do business,” Krogsgaard continued.
This is just dirty. Yes, there is good competition out there and this is not it. Even if real passengers bought the tickets, Norwegian Air Shuttle would have lost money, but it would have built relationships with new customers. Not only were they not able to build those relationships, it cost them money to take care of the fake tickets. To have so many employees and even board members purchasing the tickets, it is hard to believe that upper management at Cimber Sterling had no idea what was going on.
