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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Leafing through the library of Ink Global’s (world’s largest in-flight publisher) magazines, Gulf Life sprang out as one good looking title. With a new lease of life it seems and printed on quality stock, the magazine aims to impress, and certainly tries to punch above its weight for Gulf Air, the smaller of the Gulf…
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Raising the question ‘Will we ever learn?’ Hong Kong Airlines seems to have dropped it’s premium flights between Hong Kong and London Gatwick, only months after starting them. Add this to the recent news that the all-business class Singapore Airlines flights between Singapore and JFK now offer economy seating in them to bolster yields as…
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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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Perhaps slightly strangely named, the ‘OZ’ suite (after their airline code) has been revealed by Asiana Airlines. Asiana is one of my favourite airlines, quietly confident in their offering, very stylish and very reserved, there is something almost ‘Swiss’ about them. Whilst this suite isn’t anything really that new for those that have travelled on…
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Hawaii’s second longest running airline Island Air has just launched a new look for its fleet and website. Bright and colourful isn’t something new to the airline, the brand has always had fun liveries, however this feels a lot more considered and professional whilst maintaining it’s bright ‘Aloha’ spirit. The lei (garland of flowers) logo…
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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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Here’s a a little bit of fan for you from Farnborough. Rolls Royce has unveiled a perfect replica of it’s Trent 1000 engine, made entirely from 152,455 lego bricks. As stated in Flight Global‘s report, the engine was revealed as part of its innovation zone at the airshow. Much like the engine itself it was built…
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United have announced on their facebook page that their 787 will have a new look to it’s livery. To quote their site, “Our 787 fleet will be painted with the globe livery but will get its own unique twist: the gold line along both sides of the fuselage will feature a special swoop from nose to…
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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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Changi Airport has just revealed the brand new ‘poetic’ art installation at their check-in hall in Terminal 1. Named ‘Kinetic Rain’, it is now the world’s largest (and possibly most complicated) moving art sculpture. 1,216 bronze droplets connected to computer-controlled motors create waves, shapes and random patterns that constantly change the halls interior similar to the…
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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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California Pacific Airlines might be a little upstart airline in the Californian sun compared to its rather large legacy competitors, however, the Californian’s do like the underdog. And with that in mind, look at how big Apple is today… perhaps this airline with very small roots could shoot up to become a bit of a…
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Birmingham airport will be the home to a new luxury lounge, created by the super cool business lounge experts ‘No.1 Traveller‘. In October this year they will be bringing their brand of super cool relaxation and comfort to the ever expanding international airport in the Midlands of England. This is No.1 Traveller’s first lounge outside…
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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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Las Vegas is the proud owner of a brand new terminal. An architectural modern cube of a terminal to be honest. This modest $2.4 billion addition gives McCarran International Airport 14 brand new gates open to both international and domestic flights. Totalling over 1.9million square feet, Terminal 3 is a state of the art building with…
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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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So. Here it is, after my first post, the much anticipated big bird. Yellow is the colour of the day with Scoot. Large swooshes of yellow flow across the 777 they are using for their low cost long haul route network. Whilst I’m trying to remain fully objective over this, I can’t help but cringe…
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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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No, not that Richard Wilson, but sculptor Richard Wilson has been commissioned to create a new sculpture to fill the hall of the brand new Terminal 2 at London’s Heathrow Airport. Aptly dubbed ‘Slipstream’, the sculpture will fill the length of terminal’s Covered Court, twisting across the atrium’s columns and physically integrating with the architecture.…
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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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We’ve had doves, giant ladies in bikinis and even killer whales gracing the air, and now Alaska Airlines‘ big old flying fish is coming back to the skies later this year. The largest flying (and perhaps only flying) salmon is being painted on the side of a 737-800 a longer airframe compared to the predecessor fish which…
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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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There is something quite charming about looking at the new Mais Lineas Aereas livery on their Fokker 100 fleet. It’s like stepping back in time wearing that favourite retro t-shirt you have washed too many times so it’s shrunk in the wash but can’t let go of. For me, it’s like looking at the DC9 or…
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American Airlines today have possibly jumped on the Weber seat bandwagon with a newly refreshed cabin product. As part of this redesign, American’s entire fleet of 777-200ERs will have fully lie-flat Business Class seats with aisle access for every seat, international Wi-Fi, in-seat entertainment throughout all cabins, and Main Cabin Extra seating offering more legroom. The 767-300ERs will…
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