This is the fourth Boeing 787 made (notated by ZA004), but only the third one to fly. The third aircraft (ZA003) is the one I was able to tour the interior previously and Boeing will be flying it shortly. Today the fourth one got to spread its wings early, taking off from Paine Field.
I wasn’t able to get out today and watch the take off, but Sandy with the Future of Flight was there and got video from above. Currently she is flying over eastern Washington.
Express Jet EMB-145's might be leased by Branson airport to bring in more visitors
Back in May of last year I talked about Branson Airport (BKG) being the first privately owned airport. Since then, the airport has had some success (and some failures) in getting airlines to fly profitable routes to their airport.
Brett Snyder (aka Cranky Flier) wrote up a great piece on how the airport is looking to create its own airline…well kind of. They are looking to charter some regional jets from ExpressJet to fly to Branson from Austin, Des Moines, Houston, Shreveport, and Terre Haute starting in May.
To learn more about what Branson is up to, check out CrankyFlier.com.
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Image: Drewski2112
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-800 taking off from Anchorage, AK.
Airlines adding wi-fi to their fleet is nothing new. But Alaska Airlines announcing they will be adding GoGo Inflight for their Wi-Fi service is exciting since: #1 They were testing Row44 and decided to go with GoGo instead and #2 Alaska is my hometown airline (based in Seattle), I fly them often, and I love having the internet at 30,000 feet.
Alaska has been testing Row44’s satellite-based internet service for quite sometime now. Row44’s main customer is Southwest Airlines. Many thought Alaska would go with Row44 since they have flights to Hawaii and remote areas of Alaska where cell towers, needed by GoGo, do not exist.
Why is Alaska willing to forgo service on all their routes to go with GoGo? A few reasons. First GoGo equipment costs less and takes less time to install on aircraft. This would mean a lower investment at the beginning and not as much lost revenue due to aircraft not being able to fly during installation. Also GoGo is installed on many different airlines all over the US already and has proven itself as a viable service.
GoGo, attempting to get Alaska’s business, has agreed to expand its network into Alaska, however flights to Hawaii will still have no internet (but heck those passengers are going to Hawaii…nice tropical, warm Hawaii. They can deal with no internet).
To get FAA certification, one Boeing 737-800 will get GoGo installed, then the service will be installed fleet-wide.
Mary Kirby, with Flight Global’s Runway Girl, also has another opinion on this choice. She asks if Southwest and Row44 might have some arrangement in the works, which would have either delayed installation of Row44 into Alaska’s aircraft or Southwest might invest in Row44 and partly own the company. Only time will tell!
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Image: Bob Butcher
Air Canada Jazz CRJ-200ER (C-GKEU)
Stories of passengers getting kicked off a plane for unruly behavior is nothing new. But being kicked off for smelling so rancid is still a unique story.
On February 6th, a smelly passenger flying on a Air Canada Jazz flight from Charlottetown to Montreal was asked to leave the flight.
The plane was waiting for take off when passengers started complaining about the smell. The stinky passenger was moved, but it didn’t help the problem. The airline asked the man to leave the plane and he did. It ended up only delaying the flight about 15 minutes, but worth it to the passengers left on board.
“Because of privacy reasons, I really can’t provide specific information on the passenger who was involved or the reason for the deplanement. But I can confirm that there was one passenger deplaned from our flight,” Manon Stuart, a spokesperson for Air Canada Jazz, told CBC News Wednesday. The airline continued, “the safety and comfort of our passengers are certainly our top priorities, so any situation that is perceived as a threat to either the safety or the comfort of our passengers is taken seriously.”
The smelly passenger was allowed to fly another flight the next morning.
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Image: caribb
All Nippon Airways Boeing 747 (JA8955) waiting to take off.
Starting on March 1st, All Nippon Airways (ANA) will have women-only lavatories on their international planes (except the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320). These lavatories will be restricted to only female passengers and will have a pink logo on the doors.
Only under certain circumstances will male passengers be able to use the lavatories:
* When required for safety reasons, just prior to the seat belt sign being turned on during take-off and landing
* When a passenger is not feeling well and a personal emergency requires such use
* When there are very few female passengers and the women-only designation has been lifted for the flight. If this is the case, an in-flight announcement will be made.
I don’t want to go into too many details on why this might be a good idea, but a man using the restroom and turbulence could cause issues. Also women wouldn’t have to worry about putting down the seat.
Of course previously ANA has advised passengers to use the restroom before even boarding the plane to save on fuel and carbon emissions.
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Image from 64N21W