There are several inescapable conclusions to be drawn from the decision by Singapore Airlines to lease an additional 15 Airbus A330-300s for entry into service between 2013 and 2015. Neither the 20 Boeing 787-9s nor 20 Airbus A350-900s Singapore Airlines has ordered for delivery in this period will be satisfactorily available or serviceable The brochure [...]
Jetstar’s group CEO, Bruce Buchanan, has responded to a report published in the Crikey Daily Mail subscriber bulletin last Friday, June 24, and later that day in Plane Talking. Dear Ben, RE: “Geek’ pilots, dangerous delusions, and the Senate inquiry” I wish to respond formally to Friday’s post “Geek’ pilots, dangerous delusions, and the Senate [...]
In a news environment in which the public generally wants the story in 30 seconds, the risk of ‘strikes’ at Qantas during the mid year school holidays being reported in emotive rather than factual terms is high. Consider the headlines this morning about the licensed engineers taking strike action next Monday and Tuesday. The ALAEA [...]
Captain Richard de Crespigny, who was in command on the Qantas Airbus A380 which experienced a massive engine disintegration causing severe airframe and systems damage while operating QF32 last November 4, has responded to a Plane Talking discussion of the report on the Senate Inquiry into pilot training and airline safety which was tabled last [...]
Over the weekend the case of a 95 year old woman who was humiliated by the TSA or Transportation Security Administration at a Florida airport has reignited the controversy over government backed criminal assaults and molestations of air travellers. The woman, a cancer sufferer who could barely walk, was told that her incontinencey diaper was [...]
Although it was swept aside at the Paris Air Show last week by the torrent of orders for the Airbus A320NEO, the manufacturer’s owner EADS’ proposal for an all-electric airliner may be what replaces them in the 2030s. This is the first plan for a completely electric large airliner. It is powered by what EADS [...]
There is only one question left hanging in the air today as persistent volcanic ash clouds keep New Zealand skies closed to all but Air New Zealand and a few international flights. And that is how many Qantas, Jetstar and Jetconnect customers are being booked on Air New Zealand services, obviously to their mortal peril [...]
The closed circuit TV video of a Jetstar NZ customer care officer chasing and punching out a passenger, NZ radio shock jock Iain Stables has been released after it was shown in court. The court ruling went against Stables, and the contractor who pursued and assaulted Stables has kept his job. However one is entitled [...]
Plane Talking seldom visits general aviation stories, other than to express concern about the critical importance of that sector to the food chain of experience and opportunity it provides to flying. But we are concerned about how things are reported, and the way messages are manipulated by spin doctors and managed by reporters who see [...]
In lay language, the Senate inquiry into pilot training and airline safety has made a set of recommendations that would put Australia on the same page as American lawmakers in resisting the dangerous things desperate airlines have been doing to cut corners. It has shot down the preference of Jetstar for example for ‘geek pilots’ [...]
