As Boeing 787s are making their way out to airlines at a reasonable rate, the first European Airlines to receive one has now been delivered to LOT Polish Airlines.

LOT Polish Airlines 787 – Image: The Boeing Company.

LOT are pretty excited about the 787, with Marcin Pirog, chief executive officer of LOT stating:

“This is a historic moment for LOT”

“I am convinced that the addition of the Dreamliner to the fleet of one of the world’s oldest airlines is a crucial moment that will launch a new era of European aviation. I believe it is also the beginning of an exciting journey for LOT with the most modern passenger airplane in the world.”

Now the press blurb is out of the way, lets get onto more important things – like routes and configurations.

LOT will be operating their 787′s initially on short haul European routes in December. However – no confirmed flights have been set for Europe yet.

In terms of Long Haul Deployments, Warsaw to Chicago will be the first service, along with the following subject to delivery of aircraft:

•  Warsaw – Chicago from 16th January 2013
• Warsaw – Toronto from 1st February 2013
• Warsaw – New York JFK from 3rd February 2013
• Warsaw – Beijing from 3rd March 2013

Especially when it comes to 787 deployments, watch for short changes dependant on aircraft delivery.

In terms of seating, LOT are operating the planes in a 3 class service with 252 seats.:

• 18 Elite Club seats (Business Class) in a 2-2-2 configuration
• 21 Premium Club seats (Premium Economy)  in a 2-3-2 configuration
• 213 seats in Economy Class in a 3-3-3 configuration

This delivery is the first of eight Dreamliners that LOT has on order.

Well I did say that 787 will start becoming common sooner rather than later. But its still nice to see a new operator take delivery of the aircraft.

LOT Polish Airines will become the first European airline to launch the Boeing 787 Dreamliner into service.

According to Airlineroute.net, LOT is planning to operate the following:

• Warsaw – Chicago  Commences 16th January 2013, Up to 10 times weekly by 20th May 2013
• Warsaw – Toronto Commences 1st February 2013, operating 8 times weekly by 6th June 2013
• Warsaw – New York JFK Commences 3rd February 2013, operating up to 10 ties weekly by 3rd June 2013
• Warsaw – Beijing Commences 3rd March 2013, with increasing from 31st March 2013

787 operation will be restricted by deliveries by Boeing and how fast they can be delivered, commissioned and made ready for service. There wil be some limited EU operation of the 787 – details of which LOT will release closer to the time.

LOT will operate these planes in a three-class configuration. Hard data regarding the product remain vague, but the seatmaps have been released

• Total Passenger seats: 252
• Business Class – 18 Seats in 2-2-2 configuration
• Premium Economy – 21 seats in 2-3-2 configuration
• Economy Class- 213 in 3-3-3 configuration

Well, unsurprisingly 787 operators are going for capacity over comfort now with nearly all operators (bar two) installed 3-3-3 seating in economy on long haul services. Still it’s good to see these planes being delivered at last.

Major news from Warsaw, with news of a LOT Boeing 767 having to land with a landing gear failing to deploy before landing.

Flight reports video footage from Reuters… and it doesn’t look good.

The 767-300ER – forming flight LO016 from New York  – Newark to Warsaw was carrying 220 passengers and 11 crew.

Thankfully all were safely evacuated from the plane.
LOT also add:

“After noticing a central hydraulic system failure the standard procedure for emergency landings at Warsaw airport were implemented,” said the carrier.

“All airport authorities and emergency services were alerted and in place to assist the aircraft during the landing.”

I believe the Chuck Yeager term of “Any landing you can walk away from is a good one” comes to mind.  However, you can bet your bottom coin there will be an investigation pretty sharpish to why the landing gears failed to deploy.

In the meanwhile, Warsaw airport is closed to traffic, and is not expected to reopen until tomorrow (02/11/2011)

It’s Friday, so it’s time to wrap up this week in Civil Aviation and ponder what people were thinking this week:

US Immigration Considers $10 on ESTA service.

I’m not going to repeat this here – head to my Soapbox entry.

EK Send a A380 to BHX

I wasn’t going to cover this.. but hey. Here it is – an Emirates Airbus A380  landing safely at BHX (does that mean BHX now becomes a diversion airport for A380′s in the UK? Interesting thought..,..)

Photo Credit  – BHX Flight Guide – photo blog with more photos at http://bhxflightguide.blogspot.com/2009/09/ek-380.html.  Happy 70th BHX.




Well done to the ground team for organsing this, and to Emirates for having a go at deploying this. 
 

Asia Air 09

Some quick highlights an news in a sentence sort of thing:

Air France: Considering new aircraft for the short haul, but want larger, quicker offloading and much lower running costs – and Open Roter might be nice.  and how do you want the moon delivered?
Airbus: A380′s for LCC’s - In a move to destroy any glamour in flying, Airbus are pitching the A380 as a Low Cost carriers dream of connecting Asian cities. This could work with some routes – but 840 people crammed aboard a tin can isn’t my exact idea of fun (ala Air Austal)…
Bombardier -  Buy our CSeries… please?  Taking aim at Embear and Airbus, the CSeries is hoping to make a competitive splash in China when it launches.

BMI Baby steps in at EMA

As Easyjet throws in the EMA towel, BMI Baby are moving in anohter 3 737′s for extra duty at their base at EMA with links to Barcelona, Cork, Malta, Venice, Dubrovnik, Sardinia, Corsica and .. umm… Newquay.

What will Mother Lufthansa say? We’ll see…

Jet Airways Staff “Fall sick”

Jet Airways staff have “fallen sick” in a labor dispute for two pilots joining a new Union, with a total of 186 flights cancelled – the bulk dometic, but  32 international services cancelled to. A follow-on sick day costed another 31 flights cancelled.

Talks are continuing.

Frontier to send Flip and Hector Back to Mexico!

Yup. Now Frontier is out of Bankruptcy, they’re making a bid for Mexico again with A319′s servicing Cancun with a daily return flight.

Hopefully this will be the first of a lot of good news for Frontier.

LOT has almost hat their LOT with Boeings 787.

Oh dear. With the continuing delays to the 787, LOT is getting annoyed with Boeing, and has opened up a few options – deploy 777′s, a major overhaul of the 767 fleet, or talk to Airbus.

Whilst Boeing may crow about how many of these aircraft have been ordered – there is a monumental messup in design and rollout of this aircraft – something that other airlines will get more annoyed at.  It’ll only take a big name to pull out to watch the cards fall on this game.

More roundup next week.

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