Safety cards

For your safety check out these huge safety cards archives:

Online safety card collection by Stefan Roesch
Angelo’s safety card collection page

The Skies are Open…

Today is the first day under the new Open Skies agreement between Europe and the U.S., starting what is considered by many a ‘new era’ in air travel. A Continental Boeing 777 was the first to land at Heathrow under the new arrangement, putting and end to roughly three decades of restrictive rules which allowed only four airlines (British Airways, Virgin Atlantinc, United Airlines and American Airlines) to operate between that airport and the U.S..

This aggreement means that, during an initial phase:

1) U.S.-based carriers will be able to fly to any location in the E.U. and to connect European city pairs (therefore exercising the Fifth Freedom right; more about the Freedoms of the Air);
2) E.U.-based carriers will be able to fly from any European city to any location in the U.S. (e.g.: Air France-KLM is starting flights from the U.K. to Los Angeles; British Airways will connect New York to Brussels and Paris).

At a later phase, and depending on the success of further negotations, European companies should be able not only to fly inside the U.S. but also to own and control U.S.-based airlines.

What about the advantages of such a deal?

For passengers: more options. This doesn’t necessarily mean lower fares in the near or medium term, mainly due to the high oil and airport slot prices. Airlines do pay considerable amounts of money in order to secure airport slots, especially at the most important hubs. For instance, Continental payed $200 million for four slots (two different routes) at Heathrow, being now able to connect it to both New York and Houston.

For airlines: the fact that they are no longer denied access to important destinations such as London and other world’s leading economic centres.

Open Skies is a British Airways subsidiary which will fly between Europe and the U.S.. Image: British Airways.

A380 delivery to Singapore Airlines: a different perspective

A 360º panoramic view of Singapore Airlines’ first A380 delivery cerimony can be found on Gilles Vidal’s website. Check it out here.

Delivery of Singapore’s first A380 at the Airbus Delivery Centre in Toulouse, France. Image: Airbus.

Heathrow’s T5

The new Terminal 5 opened its doors to operations on the 27th, last Thursday. But what was supposed to be normal, was anything but. Let’s face it: one should expect some hickups during the first few days, especially when it comes to technical problems. Take Chek Lap Kok (the Hong Kong International Airport which in 1998 replaced Kai Tak) for example: the freight terminal had to be closed because its state-of-the-art cargo handling system simply collapsed.

Technical failures are, in many situations, not avoidable or even foreseeable. But lack of planning and personel training certainly are preventable. And these seem to be some of the factors that led to T5’s awful start. Ground personel is reported to not even being comfortable with dealing with the baggage handling systems…

I understand that airlines and airport authorities are under a lot of pressure these days. The new T5 was conceived not only to alleviate the congestion but also to change Heathrow’s and British Airways’ reputation among millions of passengers, to offer them a pleasant experience. But even the urgent need to do this should not serve as an excuse for rushing things.

Expect the present ‘chaos’ to reflect itself on the next few days…

About the new British Airways Terminal 5:
http://www.terminal5.ba.com/en/

More on T5’s current status can be found on:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/fc/airlines.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/28/heathrow.t5/