It never gets old: Sea-Tac’s fire department welcomes Eurowings to Seattle with a traditional turret salute.
Germany-based discount airline Eurowings launched thrice-weekly service to Seattle from Cologne on July 11, using Airbus A330s for the route. Eurowings is owned by Lufthansa Group..
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar does a fly-by of Kansas City International Airport. – Photo: JL Johnson. Not for use elsewhere.
The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar was a plane with a tragically short lifespan. It was expected to be a real contender against the Boeing 747, Douglas DC-10, and Airbus A300. It entered the market late, in large part due to delays resulting from difficulty at Rolls-Royce, the only engine producer for the TriStar. Despite this, it is one of just a few airliners that elicits strong emotion from people of all ages and walks of life. It was received with much fanfare.
In business, however, fanfare does not necessarily equate to economic viability. In roughly two decades, just 250 units were produced – including an incredible number of custom variants. Few operators held onto their L-1011s for long before passing them along to others or sending them to storage. By most accounts, the TriStar was a failure. During development of the only TriStar engine option, the RB211, Rolls-Royce was deemed what modern day observers would call “too big to fail.” It was nationalized to avoid catastrophic economic impact to the United Kingdom and to keep the costly program afloat. Following the cancellation of the series, Lockheed fully withdrew from the commercial airliner market to focus on military and other industries.
But struggles in development, lackluster sales, and frequent turnover did not get in the way of the passion shared by those who had in some way experienced the TriStar. It was and is one of the most beloved planes in AvGeek culture. The TriStar was an underdog. People love an underdog story, and that is just what this is.
We’ll admit it, there has been a lack of content here on AirlineReporter recently. Blame the summer lul, laziness, craziness, or whatever you want, but it’s true. While I don’t have any actual content for you, I figured I could at least publish some cool airplane pictures. So…here they are! Enjoy.
The JetBlue “Retrojet”
Take a look for more…
Some of the seating options in AA’s new JFK Flagship Lounge – Photo: Blaine Nickeson | AirlineReporter
American Airlines has been focusing on upgrading the premium cabin experience on the ground, much as its competitor United Airlines has been doing with their Polaris lounges (currently only open at Chicago O’Hare, which we visited). I recently found myself departing New York’s JFK Airport in a business class flight on Cathay Pacific flight. This gave me access to their partner AA’s recently-opened Flagship Lounge.
This is the first new Flagship Lounge for American. By the end of 2017, they hope to have the new lounges open at Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles, and Miami. These will be followed by Dallas/Fort Worth, London Heathrow, and Philadelphia in 2018.
Read on for more photos and descriptions of the lounge, including how you can access it.
My first Alaska Air E175 pulls up to SLC
It has been a few years since I first flew on an Embraer E-Jet. That was on Air Canada, from Seattle to Toronto and I was sitting up front. The very long (for a smaller aircraft) flight was a breeze, but being in first class surely helped.
Since then, I have not had the opportunity to fly on another one. When I saw that Alaska Airlines was adding them to their fleet (via SkyWest and Horizon), I was excited. I figured it would only be a matter of time before I would get the chance to fly one, and when I recently took a trip down to Salt Lake City (SLC), I got my opportunity.
On my flight down, I flew on an Alaska 737-800 — been there, done that. But when I looked at my flight options back home, I saw that there was the option to fly on the E175. Yes’¦ that please.