United Airline's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner (line number 45) on the factory floor on September 25, 2011.
A few weeks ago there were rumors that United’s first 787 Dreamliner might have gone into the paint booth. As an airline geek, this is exciting news. It would mean that we get to see the 787 in a United livery and we get to find out if United is going to dress their first 787 in a special livery.
As time passed and no 787 in United livery came out of the paint booth, I started to wonder… where the heck is United’s first Dreamliner?
I reached out to United and they said that their plane was out of the factory, but has not gone into paint. “We are quite excited for this revolutionary aircraft to join our fleet,” Mary Ryan with United Airlines communications explained to AirlineReporter.com. “As for the status of our first 787, unfortunately the rumor is untrue: the aircraft is out of the assembly process but has not yet gone into paint.”
Bummer, but my guess is that we won’t miss it since I expect United to celebrate their first aircraft.
There were other rumors that aircraft #45 might not be going to United Airlines anymore. No worries Boeing confirmed to me that, “there has been no change to the customer who will take delivery of [L/N45].”
The last rumor is that United is planning to paint their Dreamliner in a special livery. Although it is likely, my bet is do not expect a revolutionary change. My guess is that the globe will still be apart of the 787 and that United is not planning on an entirely new livery for their entire fleet. I know there are some of you hoping that United will unveil an entirely new livery starting with the 787 Dreamliner, but they have spent millions on transitioning to the globe and I highly doubt they will work towards another look.
The livery rumors will have to remain out there for the time being. We might just have to wait until the big unveil, which at this time no one knows when it will be.
My plane is sitting right there! Why won't you let me board?!
Sometimes I like to answer questions that I receive about airlines via email. Recently I found an email in my inbox that I would probably classify as an “angry rant.” As I posted before, I get a lot of letters from angry passengers who feel they have been greatly wronged by the airline and want their story heard. Even though I do not agree that this person experienced a huge life hardship, I think there are some clarifications of his situation, that I want to share.
Long story short, this person’s original flight was cancelled. He was working with a gate agent who explained that there was a flight that he might be able to make if he ran for it and that he did.
When he arrived at the new gate he was told that the flight was closed and he couldn’t make the plane. Then he noticed that the airplane’s door was still open and felt the gate agent should let him on the plane. I can understand that it is a hard thing to see that your plane is sitting right there, not moving and you could just easily jump on.
The gate agent explained again that he is not able to allow the passenger board his flight, which caused him to have a seven hour delay before catching the next flight (I know, I told you it was going to be horrific). Although the passenger felt that the gate agent was playing some power game with him, that is not the case.
This scenario is not uncommon and if you haven’t experienced it, chances are you might have seen a passenger yelling at a gate agent about being let on to the aircraft. Heck, even Kevin Smith (of the “I am too big to fly on Southwest” fame) had some issues with this not too long ago with Virgin America. So why won’t the mean old airline let you on your flight? There are a few reasons…
First off, running an airline is very complicated. A small delay on one flight can snowball and affect passengers, crew and airports for hours and even days.
The FAA will not allow an airline to push back their flight until everyone is seated, each bag is stowed and the cabin door is closed. Before the cabin door is secured, the gate agent must get an accurate count of the passengers and physically hand that to the pilot before returning back to the terminal. Last minute calculations on weight distribution and fuel need to be done before the plane is ready to go.
Just because the aircraft’s door is open doesn’t mean it would be easy to open the gate door and let an extra passenger on board. Remember that there are many people that are already on the plane waiting to take off on time and they need to make their connections at other airports. Why should they all be delayed waiting for the flight crew to redo their counts?
Believe me, airlines and those that work for airliens (well a HUGE majority) are not evil people. Their goal is not to make your life a living hell. They need to run their business and to do that, sometimes, some people will be inconvenienced. It can be lame, but it is just the price of living this thing we call a modern society.
American Airlines Boeing 767
AMERICAN AIRLINES FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY
I am going to take a wild guess that probably most of you have heard the news that American Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. There are all sorts of stories out there, so I am not going to re-hash it all. The bottom line is I think this is a great opportunity for American to take a huge leap forward from being an old, out dated (in more than one way) legacy airline to being a slim-lined and successful carrier. Can they do it? I am not fully sure, but either is anyone else, so we will have to see how it will work out. I think that the airline was already on the correct path and this will allow them to speed up the process a bit.
Out of all the stories I have been reading on this, I would highly suggest checking out these two for more information: Brett Snyder’s story on CrankyFlyer.com and Terry Maxon who writes the Airline Biz Blog, via The Dallas Morning News.
United Boeing 757 and Continental Boeing 737 at LAX in August 2010.
UNITED AND CONTINENTAL AIRLINES GET ONE OPERATING CERTIFICATE
How do two merging airlines know when they are only one? The answer is not easy. It mostly depends on who you are and how you interact with the new airline. Yesterday, United announced that the post-merger airline was approved by the FAA to run under one operating certificate. Previously every Continental flight also had a United flight number. Now there will only be United flights and pilots will refer to all flights as “United,” to air traffic control even if it is an old Continental route.
’œI would like to thank the teams at United, Continental, the FAA, the Department of Transportation and the many regulatory authorities around the globe who put tremendous time and effort into our achieving a single operating certificate,’ said United’s president and chief executive officer, Jeff Smisek in a press release. ’œWhile we have much work ahead of us as we integrate these two great carriers, this is a significant milestone.’
Even though there is one operating certificate, passengers will still need to go to each individual airline’s website to book flights, change seats and check flight status. United is expecting to have only one system during the first quarter of 2012 and at that point, on the most part, Continental will cease to exist and the two airlines will function as one.
Boeing 737 MAX. Photo by Boeing.
BOEING TO BUILD THE 737MAX IN RENTON, WASHINGTON
Being based in Seattle, I was very excited to hear that Boeing will be building their next, next generation 737 MAX in Renton, WA (just south of Seattle). Boeing and the International Association of Machinists (IAM) have not always had the best relationship and it is nice to see that an agreement was reached. The union members still need to ratify the deal next week, but a four year contract and a $5000 holiday bonus should sweeten the deal. This agreement should also end the National Labor Relations Board lawsuit against Boeing for opening a 787 Dreamliner factory in South Carolina.
Previously, it would seem obvious that Boeing was to continue to build the 737 in Renton, but with the recent 787 factory being built in South Carolina, nothing was impossible. Boeing and the union conducted secret talks almost a year before the current contract was to expire and this agreement comes ten months before the old contract expires. This is great and a big round of applause for Boeing and IAM for making this happen.
Read more about the deal from Dominic Gates on the Seattle Times.
American Airlines Photo by Caribb
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 with Mount Rainier in the background. Photo by Brandon Farris.
Alaska Airlines announced yesterday that they will operate 75 regularly schedule flights, using renewable bio-fuels starting tomorrow, November 9th. The maiden flight will leave from Seattle (SEA) to Washington, DC (DCA) and also Portland (PDX). The airline will fuel the aircraft using a 20% blend of biofuel made from used cooking oil.
Alaska is hoping that these flights will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 10%, which is equal to removing 26 cars from the road for a year. The impact of these few flights might seem minor, but if Alaska were to use the 20% biofuel mixture on all their flights, it would be the equivalent of removing 64,000 cars off of the road.
’œThis is a historic week for U.S. aviation.’ Alaska Air Group Chairman and CEO Bill Ayer stated. ’œCommercial airplanes are equipped and ready for biofuels. They will enable us to fly cleaner, foster job growth in a new industry, and can insulate airlines from the volatile price swings of conventional fuel to help make air travel more economical. To the biofuels industry, we say: If you build it, we will buy it.’
The fuel mixture is being supplied by SkyNRG and made by Dynamic Fuels (who is in a partnership with Tyson Foods). These flights by Alaska are part of the Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest (SAFN) initiative, which was launched in July 2010 by Alaska Airlines, Boeing, Portland International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Spokane International Airport and Washington State University to promote aviation biofuel development.
United Airlines's first commercial advanced biofuel flight using a Boeing 737-800 (N76516) takes off from Houston yesterday. Photo by United.
Although there is a lot of excitement in the northwest for Alaska’s first flight on Wednesday, United Airlines operated a scheduled flight using biofuels yesterday, the 7th of November. Flight 1403, a Boeing 737-800, left from Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Aiport (IAH) at about 10:30am local time for Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD).
’œUnited is taking a significant step forward to advance the use of environmentally responsible and cost-efficient alternative fuels,’ said Pete McDonald, United’s executive vice president and chief operations officer. ’œSustainable biofuels, produced on a large scale at an economically viable price, can one day play a meaningful role in powering everyone’s trip on an airline.’
United also announced that they have signed a letter of intent to negotiate the purchase of 20 million gallons of biofuel per year, starting as early as 2014
United beat Alaska for a revenue biofuel flight by two days, but it is not clear when or if United will continue the biofuel flights. An email to United to get clarification on their future biofuel flights has not been returned by the time of posting this story.
United's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner is pulled out of the factory. Image from Boeing. Click for Larger.
Wednesday night, Boeing pulled out United Airline’s first 787 Dreamliner from the factory and off the final assembly line. The first 787 Dreamliner has already been delivered to the launch customer, ANA, but United will be the first North American airline to take delivery of the new aircraft. From United’s press release: “While in final assembly, the aircraft moved through four factory positions, including the final aircraft body join, landing gear installation, weight-on-wheels testing and installation of interior components and systems. Over the next several months, the aircraft will move to the next phase of completion, which includes final cabin configuration, installation of engines and painting.”
United's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner gets pulled in front of the factory located in Everett, WA. Photo by Boeing. Click for larger.
United will configure their first 787 with 36 seats in BusinessFirst, 63 seats in Economy Plus and 120 seats in Economy. There was some speculation if United might be offering a special livery, but I doubt it. When I was on the factory floor recently, the tail was definitely a solid blue, which matches United’s current “new” livery. With United recently switching their brand over from the tulip to the globe, it wouldn’t really make sense for them to also introduce a special livery. Normally I am all for any livery that spices things up, but at this stage it would just cause brand confusion.
Nose show of United Airline's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner outside the factory at Paine Field. Photo by Boeing. Click for larger.
Although the exact date of delivery is unknown, United told AirlineReporter.com that they expect to get their first 787 during the, “second half of 2012.” It will be the first of 50 that the airline has on order.
