There have been two image threatening Qantas ‘crises’ today. At least. Both in Brisbane.
QF 168, a 767-300 from Tokyo via Cairns arrived with emergency services on more than their usual professional state of alert because of uncertainty about a possible oil leak. And the other incident, which seems to be the only one to [...]
Monthly Archives: November 2008
The Sunday afternoon Qantas barbie
November 30, 2008 – 5:09 pm
UK govt robs Qantas to ‘pay’ Emirates
November 26, 2008 – 2:24 pm
The doctrinaire, dare I suggest dishonest, approach of the UK government to adding taxes to air travel to ’save the environment’ comes with some bizarre consequences.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, has announced a set of Air Passenger Duty charges which rise according to the distance a jet flies from London which would add £85, [...]
Flying ourselves into extinction?
November 25, 2008 – 12:58 pm
Is our taste (make that former taste given the state of the economy) for cheap flights flying our species into extinction? Or is the demonisation of air travel just another shallow exercise in do-gooder social engineering by those who think this will save them from the dreaded middle seat on full flights?
An interesting discussion began [...]
787 production frozen
November 25, 2008 – 6:43 am
Ever since sitting in the 787 Dreamliner full scale mock up in Seattle in 2005 I’ve been infatuated with, and increasingly frustrated by, the delays to the development of this aircraft.
It offered what appeared to be the finest passenger environment of any airliner. There was genius at work in every aspect of the cabins, quite [...]
Qantas in a flap again
November 23, 2008 – 3:58 pm
The ugly news photos of a jammed leading edge flap on an aged Qantas 747-300 that was about to take off for a trans Tasman flight from Sydney on Saturday are another exhibit in the case that can be made that the airline hasn’t fixed the under resourcing of its fleet [...]
Does the NSW govt want country fliers to ‘Get lost’?
November 21, 2008 – 8:10 am
The NSW Government is looking for a new regional airline to replace the cancelled REX Airlink services.
The fundamental questions are being overlooked amid all the hand wringing.
Is it viable to fly tiny rural commuter services to Sydney Airport? No. Which is why Airlink is broken.
Will any small flights continue to use Sydney Airport indefinitely? No. [...]
CASA issues urgent directive to A330 pilots
November 20, 2008 – 3:42 pm
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has just issued an urgent airworthiness directive affecting all 21 Airbus A330 wide bodied jets flown by Qantas (15) and Jetstar (6).
CASA says that in lay terms, pilots must now follow revised procedures to isolate a faulty Air Data Inertial Reference Unit or ADIRU like the one that imitated the [...]
Tiger and ‘free fares’. The numbers look bad
November 19, 2008 – 12:43 pm
Tiger can’t give away free seats, or get free publicity, in these hard times, as reported in Crikey today.
In ‘good times’ this is how ‘free’ or ‘nearly free’ fares are supposed to work, and how carriers like Tiger, Jetstar, AirAsia and Ryanair can sometimes outperform the so called full service or legacy airlines.
Tiger and Jetstar [...]
787 wing box video is up, but early performance claim is down
November 19, 2008 – 9:44 am
The video of the destructive testing of the Dreamliner wing has been posted by Boeing.
While the failure load isn’t shown the commentary says it had reached the certification target of 150% of maximum aerodynamic load before it broke at the place in the structure predicted by the designers.
In New Zealand where Air NZ was one [...]
Dreamliner wings: Half broken or half fixed?
November 17, 2008 – 5:13 am
Boeing isn’t revealing more about the destructive testing of the wing box of the 787 Dreamliner until Tuesday US time. Video highlights will be then posted. The editing process seems to be as glacial as the project itself. Earlier today we mistakenly believed there was to be a press conference on the same day. [...]
Copyright © 2008 Private Media Pty Ltd, Publishers of Crikey.com.au. All Rights Reserved.
Independent news, blogs and commentary on politics, media and business.
Editor: Jonathan Green.
Publishers: Eric Beecher, Diana Gribble.
Level 7, 22 William St, Melbourne, 3000. Ph: 1800 985 502 Fax: (03) 8623 9975