Virgin Atlantic managed to top the polls in the CoolBrands List. The CoolBrands List has been running for 11 years and has featured the sexy red airline rather a lot. Sir Richard Branson’s airline was one of only two airlines to place, along with British Airways, However Virgin Atlantic placed 8th coolest brand in the…
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Dining: Qatar Airways has yet again, gone above and beyond to try and create a truly unique product to compete with it’s slightly larger Middle Eastern counterparts. Four International chefs have been drafted in to enhance and develop their First Class and Business Class menu offerings flying from Doha in Qatar. The award-winning Chef Ramzi Choueiri,…
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Today, 09 September 2012, marks the news of one of the industry’s most influential CEOs stepping down from his position as CEO of Virgin Atlantic. Steve Ridgeway started his career with Virgin Atlantic in 1989 when he was appointed Managing Director of the industry’s first automated frequent flyer programme, Virgin Freeway. In 1994, he was…
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Singapore Airlines has always been seen as a global market leader so it doesn’t surprise to hear they have launched a plan to roll out their in-flight offering of WiFi from their current 14 aircraft out to their entire fleet. This will also mean that mobile phone data services can be enabled, allowing the humble…
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So, for those of you who have been following my posts will probably be expecting this report. It’s safe to say I’ve been confident that a ‘Virgin America’ product would end up over in Europe, recently covering such a concept in this Report. Virgin Atlantic have launched a 3 times daily return connection between Heathrow…
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US Airways isn’t really a market leader in many ways. Their cabins are still dated and for most internal flights, entertainment consists of an inflight magazine and either a rather boring game of eye-spy or completing a half-done sudoku. However, US Airways does have miniture strokes of genius from time to time, usually spurred on…
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So if you haven’t heard about the fairly radical new uniform for Virgin America, being launched across their fleet 8th August this year, here’s a cool behind the scenes look at their new uniform, designed by San Fran neighbours Banana Republic. It’s great to see the attention of detail that goes into the design of…
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Swoon. It’s no real surprise that Virgin America kept it’s probably now rather weighty crown of Best Domestic Airline in the US this year, it’s 5th year in a row. For those of thinking ‘Fix! Fix!’ It’s hard to say it is, as this award is voted by readers of Travel and Leisure magazine, rather…
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Whilst this image of the freshly painted Thai A380 might not generate a huge fanfare of a reaction, it is within that reasoning I feel Thai have got their paintjob of the A380 absolutely right. Comparing the image of the A380 to the 747 below you’ll see a few minor, but very clever changes. The…
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So for those of you who don’t know about new start-up FastJet, it is the new venture run by Stelios, the original easyJet guru who helped create the phenomenon of the low cost carrier. This venture is touted as the new ‘easyJet’ of Africa and whilst it most likely will have to compete with a variety of…
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So Malaysia Airlines have been playing all sorts of crazy games with their new toy. Bringing it over to Kuala Lumpur half finished, and now fully painting their livery in their new design. Whilst this design has been publicised as their new paint scheme in a lot of their campaigns as of late, I can’t…
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So Malaysia Airlines is the latest airline to get hold of their brand-spanking-new-shiny-flying-office-block of a plane, the A380. Malaysia have been keen to push their product offering forward with the launch of their new fleet of 6 mega planes. On board chef’s for first class passengers, lie flat seats for business passengers and Thales entertainment…
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Troubled Mexicana had only recently launched its new livery when they went down due to financial difficulties back in 2010. So it never really got the outing it deserved. But only today was it suggested by an article on ATW that Mexicana will possibly come back to the skies on June 9th using a fleet…
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Spot the difference… Yes! you are right. The second plane is different… a 737 (737-300) compared to the Airbus. (well… if you are colour blind that would be the only difference…) In all seriousness though Viva Colombia will be launching in a few days time from it’s base in Medelín, Colombia. The fact the two…
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Whilst those of you that have seen Air Pacific planes might be a little confused by this press release issued by the airline (due to the fact the airline’s livery has a huge ‘Fiji’ written on the tailfin), the old airline is being reborn. Fiji Airways (Air Pacific’s original name) will become the brand name…
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British Airways have been busy with their paint recently. After the rather questionable ‘Dove‘ that British Airways touted as their London 2012 celebratory livery, they’ve gone and created a whole new one – strangely to much less fanfare! This livery is due to the fact this very Airbus A319 will be bringing the Olympic torch…
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“Hello Mum? Yes, it’s me. I’m on the plane. I’ll be 30 minutes early.” Yes. It’s official, Virgin Atlantic have decided that mobile phone calls are a good idea in the plane, making themselves a British leader once again in aviation. Whilst this is a relatively new trend to travellers it will be interesting to…
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Hawaiian Airlines released news of their 4th Japanese route, to Sapporo, this month (subject to approval) and this makes the airlines latest addition to their large Asia network expansion since the launches of Tokyo in November 2010, Seoul in January 2011, and Osaka in July 2011 and recently Fukuoka in April 2012. Hawaiian now have 6 sparkly new Airbus A330’s in their fleet now,…
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Virgin Atlantic released today they are putting VS026/027 into service operating the ever popular NY-LON route from LHR to JFK. Commencing on 28th October, the fourth daily service between JFK and LHR offers the perfect excuse to try the new super cool JFK Clubhouse whilst either popping into Manhattan or gracing Bond Street in London for…
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The new Boeing 737 MAX Concept still being drawn up as the economical answer to the current world’s best selling aircraft has developed what can only be described as a brand-new old idea. The big story here is the main wing will now feature a ‘split’ winglet which should generate a 1.5% reduction in fuel…
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Virgin Australia have been busy recently and have just released images of their new domestic A330 fleet operating both the Syndey-Perth and Melbourne-Perth routes. This comes just over a week after releasing news of them updating the interiors of their 777 cabins for their trans-pacific flights. As designed by Brand Director, Hans Hulsbosch, Virgin Australia has…
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Thai Airways have launched their new subsidiary Thai Smile this week, the new ‘pseudo’ low cost wing of Thai Airways following a mantra of “Trendy-Friendly-Worthy”. Commencing operations on July 1st, they will be operating a fleet of 4 A320’s. This new airline will focus on short haul destinations from Bangkok to Asia and India. This…
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Wow Air, Iceland’s Newest Airline have created a full TV commercial to generate interest in their product. Whilst really keeping it as a sneak peak into what the airline might be, it definitely will generate a buzz. I have to say, as a pilot, it’s a bit of fun, if not a little cliché, but it obviously…
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Virgin Atlantic doesn’t seem to disappoint with its new onboard Upper Class offering. Now available for view on their website, the brand new product is similar to that of the previous product, but it seems slicker, more streamlined, a lot more contemporary, and comfortable. The famour purple leather seat is gone, replaced with a slick…
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Vladimir the Bat, Samson the Sloth, Doug the Dung Beetle, Chloe the Chipmunk and Enrique the Tree Frog seem like characters from a Disney film, however, they were the competitors against the winner ‘Polly the Parrot’ to become Frontier Airlines new Spokesanimal. Frontier whilst struggling in the North American market, have to have some of…
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No, this isn’t an advert for a new Japanese game show. This was the launch of Japan’s first LCC’s uniform. Welcome to Peach! Still unsure of why it’s called Peach, but according to the airline, the name “Peach” was chosen for its symbolism as a well-known and much loved fruit that symbolizes longevity, energy and happiness…
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