Posts Tagged ‘airline’
Airlines in the News – Air France Goes Big
There’s been a lot of to-do over the last couple years about Airbus’s new A-380, the world’s largest passenger airplane. Since Airbus is headquartered in France, I suppose it’s fitting that Air France should get on board and outfit some of these planes with their signature tricolore.
Air France marks the first superjumbo to depart from Europe, taking off at 1:30pm from Paris Charles de Gaulle on Friday heading to JFK with 380 passengers on board. As with Singapore Airlines’ inaugural A-380 flight, the ticketed passengers’ fares for this flight were auctioned off and donated to charity, generating $450,00 for the Air France Foundation, an organization that helps children in difficulty
A lot of news has come out of the gulf region’s airline industry of late. In the past ten years, four separate high-quality airlines have come out of that part of the world and are all vying for the title of number one. While Emirates has a business model that pretty much puts the others to shame, there’s several national carriers that are headquartered in that area doing what they do very well.
I came across this great video created by the team at Thomson Airways, a relatively new charter airline service based out of the UK.
The video is subject matter we’ve all come to regard as necessary but irritating and if you travel a lot, completely redundant. Fortuntately Thomson Airways has taken a novel approach to the safety video genre and made it just about as adorable as you can get. Definitely worthwhile to watch the whole way through. These kids are so cute!
Thanks to No Debt World Travel for discovering this little gem.
Enjoy!
On Sept 13th Continental Airlines made a major shift in their allegiance and became the 25th member of the Star Alliance network of airlines.
This marks the first time a major airline has moved from one alliance to another. Continental was a compliant member of Sky Team (the alliance that brings you Delta, Air France and Northwest) for over five years before officially leaving on Oct 24th.
Continue Reading
It’s been a crazy year for airline fees. Unbundling has become a four letter word for people who rely on discount plane tickets to get around. Nowadays the cheapest ticket doesn’t always equal the least amount spent. With the airlines unbundling their services, the lowest price usually comes with the most hitches (eg, fees for luggage, seat requests, food, drinks, blankets, smiles and warm cozy feelings).
Fortunately for us Smarter Travel has taken the liberty of composing a chart to keep the endless fees organized. They’ve compiled the info in a handy pdf file to download and print off if you like. Click on the screen shot below for the chart.
In another effort to show the world that if you act outrageously someone else will do your advertising, Ryan Air has stated they will now allow passengers to enjoy “smokeless” cigarettes on their flights, forming a campaign around a Smoking On Planes is Back and Badder than Ever motif.
Smokeless cigarettes are the first product to come out what I’m calling the “for the love of vice” product line (next up is the beer Camelback and an Off Track Betting app for iPhone). Smokeless cigarettes are small metal delivery devices made to look like cigarettes but do not contain actual tobacco. Instead they are filled with a type of liquid nicotine that, when electrified is vaporized, quickly enters your lungs and is disseminated into your bloodstream. The chain reaction starts when air in passed through the tube on a smokers inhale. Ingenious really. And with no icky smoky by-products!
Subscribe
Around the Web
