Archive for November, 2005
November 18 2005
Another weird one: Kazakhstan’s flag carrier, Air Astana, has suspended flights to Turkey because the Turkish government has threatened to impound an Kazakh airplanes to secure payment on unpaid Kazakh government debt. If you didn’t catch that, Kazakhstan owes Turkey money. Turkey is threatening to take Kazakh airplanes and pawn them (I guess?) to pay for the debt. You can’t make this stuff up.
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November 17 2005
This is kinda odd: Arkia Airways, an Israeli carrier, said that it has formed a partnership with Qatar Airways to fly passengers from Israel to parts of the Arab world. This would be the first such partnership between an Israeli airline and an airline from an Arab nation. Of course, after 5000 years of fighting, this should be so easy. It’s not. Qatar Airways denies that any such agreement was reached, with a Qatar Airways official saying, "We have not been in any discussions with this airline." Damn that’s weird.
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November 17 2005
A quick follow-up to a story from last week about United hiring additional flight attendants for the first time since 9/11. You may remember there was some controversy about the low salaries that United was offering. Well, perhaps they weren’t low enough. United has stopped accepting applications for the positions after receiving more than 16,000 applications in 3 days. I guess that whatever United was offering was sufficient. I will never mention flight attendant salaries again. Carry on.
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November 16 2005
After lots of speculation, Boeing announced that it will launch a new stretch version of its 747, called the 747-8 (formerly called the 747 Advanced, and formerly called Prince), that is about 12 feet longer than the current 747. Though its launch customers are both cargo airlines, the new plane (which will debut in late 2009) will also be offered in a passenger version, with 34 additional seats compared to today’s 747-400. Boeing has said that it believes the market for the larger A380 is too small to sustain long-term business for the plane. Regardless, the A380 has had technical issues, so airlines may be drawn to a larger plane based on a proven platform.
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November 15 2005
Economic sanctions on Iran are starting to affect its flag carrier, Iran Air. The airline was forced to ground 5 of its 16 Airbus planes because they are unable to purchase spare parts for the aircraft. Iran Air’s spokesman said that the sanctions are putting lives at risk. Which I don’t disagree with, especially since the sanctions have forced the carrier to resort to purchasing far-less-safe Russian made aircraft.
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November 15 2005
Forget all of the other business class deals I’ve bored you with in the past–this is a big one. MAXjet, which must be struggling mightily, is offering a roundtrip fare in its all-business class seats for $750 INCLUDING taxes. Yes, that is correct, $750 including taxes. Tickets must be booked by November 16th, but they’re good through October 1, 2006. Just enter the promo code NYTIMES when you book on their website. Hopefully they’ll still be flying by October, 2006.
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November 14 2005
Pakistan International Airways (not as freaky as it sounds) has a crazy $824 ROUND TRIP business class fare from New York to Manchester, England, (England/Across the Atlantic Sea…) It’s an amazing fare, and the seats are quite comfortable. Enjoy!
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November 14 2005
JetBlue launched a great 2-for-1 sale, offering $39 one-way trips from the northeast to Florida, and $59 one way trips from the northeast to the west coast. Yeah, that’s cheap. Tickets are good through mid-February, with the usual blackout dates thrown in for good measure.
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November 14 2005
EasyJet pulls out a very tasteful ad with a woman with big boobs and the tagline, "Weapons of Mass Distraction." Well done. Ugh.
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November 11 2005
A Boeing 777-200LR (long range) set a record for the longest commercial flight this week when it flew 22 hours nonstop, from Hong Kong to London (Eastbound). The pilot said that the plane still had 2 hours of fuel left when it landed after the 11,600 mile flight. Crazy.
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Turkey Threatens to Impound Kazakh Planes