It is hard to believe it has been over a year since US Airways flight 1549 hit a flock or birds and successfully landed in the Hudson River. Now a time-lapsed video has been posted showing the Airbus A320 being taken out of the river. The video was taken by David Martin, who lives right above where the plane was extracted (check out his blog for photos and more information).
Now the plane is waiting to find a new home and if you have enough money you can place a bid on it. It is being sold “as is” and most likely won’t be flying anytime soon.
A new and exciting concept has popped up at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Those who fly regularly on a particular airline or have no problem paying for the First Class ticket get to experience the VIP airline lounges often.
Now, you don’t have to have thousands of miles or thousands of dollars to be treated like a VIP. A new pay-by-the-hour lounge at LAX gives you ability to get VIP treatment at an economy-seat price.
For only $10 for an hour, $25 for three, $35 for five or $50 for the entire day, you can hang out at reLAX Lounge. The lounge has top-notch amenities, free wi-fi, free refreshments, some snacks and amazing views of airlines outside the window. It is located before the security check points, so if you are flying out, have a layover, or waiting for an arriving flight, you can enjoy the amenities.
I asked Walter Vergara, the creator and marketing director, about how business was doing. “Business is doing well better than expected, there is a real need for this product specially when so many business class travelers are flying economy due to the economy and companies cutting back,” Vergara said. He also told me they were looking at opening additional locations at other airports by the end of 2010 or early 2011.
I asked about what the space reLAX is currently taking up was going to be used for. Vergara told me originally the airport was going to use the space for public concessions, but while LAX was building their mutli-million dollar VIP lounges they used the reLAX space for a temporary airline lounge. After the airlines moved to their new homes, reLAX was created and opened December 4, 2008.
Harriet Baskas, who is a columnist for USA Today and MSNBC and writes her own blog, was recently at LAX and took a look at what reLAX offers. She was welcomed to view the reLAX Lounge without having to pay the $10. However she told me, “I would, however, be willing to pay that $10 for the first hour another time – for the Wi-Fi, the great view, the comfy chairs, and especially the snacks. I paid more than that for a lot less out in the food court.”
The new Skycouch on Air New Zealand earn an Awesome Medal
Taking Economy Class to the next level, Air New Zealand announced their “Skycouch” for Economy Class on their Boeing 777-300 aircraft.
The new seat allows passengers to choose to extend the bottom cushion of their seats to the seats in front of them providing an amble bed to sleep on. This will work great if you are flying with a significant other, but might be a little awkward if with a complete stranger.
22 sets of the SkyCouch seats will be available and will cost about the same as two and a half non-Skycouch seats.
You might notice the window shapes in the background of the videos look very similar to the Boeing 787’s. That is because Air New Zealand was hoping to introduce the new seats on the 787, but went ahead with the 777 due to the Dreamliner’s delays.
Air New Zealand will start flying the new seats at the end of the year between Auckland and Los Angeles and hopes to expand into other markets in 2011 and 2012.
I think these seats are pretty awesome. So awesome that I am giving the seats my AWESOME MEDAL!
Other things Air New Zealand will be upgrading:
* New oven technology to cook food from scratch rather than just reheating
* Extensive new in-flight entertainment system using touch screens
* Wine tasting and destination seminars
* Slip-on pillows for headrests to remove need for neck cushions (economy)
* Flight Planner to know when meals, drinks etc will be served, lights dimmed etc.
* Shared-meal experiences such as pizza for two (Premier economy)
* On-demand food and beverage service (business class)
This Saturday I was at KPAE (where the Boeing 747-8 is built) and saw one of the jets with its strobes on, doing testing.
To most, seeing two jets sit there and only one with strobes on might not be the most exciting thing, but to me it was awesome. It is a great sign for the things to come, hopefully very shortly.
Matzelle also caught a picture of Boeing re-painting registration numbers on one of the Boeing 747-8’s. Boeing had accidentally painted the same registration number (N747EX) on both aircraft. Hey if that is the only thing that goes wrong — I am ok with that!
Flight Blogger points out the Boeing 747-8 to fly first (RC501) is the 1420th 747 that Boeing has built since 1966. Hopefully we will see RC501 completing taxi tests later this week and a having her first flight as early as January 31st.
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which is like India’s equivalent to the FAA, is investigating Kuwait Airways flight KU302 from Mumbai to Kuwair for flying three passengers “off record” on a flight back in October 2009.
The Times of India is reporting the three extra passengers were relatives of a Kuwait Airways employee. The flight was overbooked in economy class, where the three had tickets. The airline’s policy is to not upgrade passengers to Business Class (which had empty seats). Instead of breaking the airline’s policies, the employee severely broke security policy to get them on the flight.
Official paperwork shows the three extras were “offloaded” on paper and their boarding passes were not scanned so their presence was not recorded. ’œAfter the three passengers were handed their business class boarding passes, the airline staff was instructed not to scan their passes so that their presence in the flight was not registered in the airline’s records,” an official said. The three were cleared through Customs and allowed to board the Kuwait Airways Airbus A300. Since the three were offloaded on paper, the trim sheet for weight and fuel distribution was updated accordingly. A pilot’s calculations for takeoff speeds and flap settings are based on the trim sheet.
This incident is a serious violation of safety procedures. Even though the passengers had to clear Customs, having three people with no paper trail is a huge security issue. With the right connections people involved in human trafficking, kidnapping, and terrorism could get people to a destination with no record.
Another problem is with the weight. The three extra people added about 900lbs to the A300 (the three had 15 bags — crazy). Although being off by less than a 1000lbs probably won’t cause serious issues, the pilot should be aware of the weight change.
