by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 23, 2012 | Industry News |
For those interested, here is the schedule for Boeing’s 787 Tour throughout March. The visits are targeted towards places that are home to Boeing’s suppliers, customers, and employees. If anyone is able to go, please take a few pictures and “share with the group”!!!!!
March 1-4: Toronto, Canada
March 4: Boston, Massachusetts
March 5-7: Newark, New Jersey
March 8-9: Mexico City, Mexico
March 10-12: Phoenix, Arizona
March 13: San Diego, California
March 14-15: Long Beach, California
March 15-17: Salt Lake City, Utah
For more details from Boeing, please click here.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 21, 2012 | Industry News |
Being reported by Reuters tonight, it appears that Kingfisher has been granted a stay of execution and will receive a 16.5 billion Rupee (335 million USD) bailout loan to help the airliner through an extremely rough patch.
As my title states (and it is my opinion), I think it’s a mistake taking perfectly good money and loaning it to an organization that has yet to prove that it can manage its fiscal house. In my real life profession, we have a saying: “You can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a Pig” and I think this situation is a perfect example of that proverb.
I tend to be a jaded cynic when it comes to these handouts whether they are designed to help governments survive (see Greece), help homeowners continuing to own homes they can’t afford to keep and my least favorite, the handout designed to help companies survive. Unfortunately the concept of survival of the fittest does not transcend all things.
I don’t understand what will be different with Kingfisher after receiving this bailout loan. The problems are still there. The symptom(no cash) is being treated, but little effort is being made to diagnose and treat the real problems, whether its lack of passengers, cost of fuel, or cutthroat competition. It’s the typical fiscal mismanagement you find when you are treating the symptoms, but not treating the cause of the problems. When it’s current lenders no longer want to give Kingfisher a lifeline why is the Indian Government spending its own money? Do they not have more pressing issues for their constituents? This bailout is presented as a loan, but does anyone think for a moment that Kingfisher will be able to repay it when it can’t even afford to cover salary and fuel costs?
Maybe I am unfairly judging Kingfisher, but this has been an ongoing saga that has lasted for months, and each successive development seems to only add nails to the coffin. Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong, but why do I have that funny feeling that I am right about Kingfisher, and its only a matter of time until it becomes a casualty that could have been prevented.
To get caught up on my thoughts regarding Kingfisher, you can see my earlier posts HERE, HERE and HERE.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 21, 2012 | Airlines, Industry News |
Lately I’ve been spending a fair amount of time reading about the history of the airline industry. This was primarily sparked by my research into the history of Lufthansa. That led to my reading of “747: Creating The World’s First Jumbo Jet And Other Adventures From A Life In Aviation” by Joe Sutter, the man who quite single handedly kept the 747 program on track from inception to delivery and beyond (book review coming soon). I wanted to get a good background on the history of the 747 and what better source to learn it from than the Head Engineer who over saw the 747 development from preliminary sketches through to delivery.
As I peeled back the proverbial onion, I came across information that was new to me but had always been a curiosity.
Have you ever wondered what Boeing’s numeric sequence means when it comes to aircraft models? I’m not referring to the 7×7 part of the name, that’s the easy part. I’m referring to the suffix (the -xxx in 7×7-xxx), and specifically the last 2 characters of the suffix.
Have you ever seen information on an aircraft where it is identified as a 747-430? or 747-422? or perhaps 747-436? Obviously, Boeing has only one Boeing 747-400 so what meaning do the last 2 characters in the model’s suffix carry?
I’ve come to discover that it is actually the customer number that Boeing assigns to each of it’s clients. Boeing has been doing this since they assigned customer code 21 to their first airline client, Pan American World Airways (Pan Am). Why 21? My best guess is because Pan Am had ordered 21 Boeing 377 aircraft that entered service in 1949 and this was Pan Am’s first major order from Boeing.
Boeing actually has 5 different sequences that it has used over the years to match aircraft to airline:
The first sequence: 21-99
The second sequence: 01-19
The third sequence: A0-Z9
The fourth sequence: 0A-9Z
The fifth sequence: AA-ZZ
The most interesting part in all of this is when aircraft are sold between carriers/governments/leasing companies, the suffix does not change. An aircraft that was originally delivered to customer 22 that was subsequently sold by customer 22 to customer 30 would still retain its original customer 22 identity. The closest comparison I can draw is the customer number acts as a Maiden Name for an aircraft and stays with her for her entire service life.
After some research and sorting, I’ve come up with the customer list for most Alliance affiliated airlines, as well as for major none-alliance carriers as well (note: if an alliance member is missing, it may mean it has no Boeing Customer number since it may have never ordered an aircraft directly from Boeing):
STAR ALLIANCE: Air Canada: 33, Air China: 9L, Air New Zealand: 19, ANA: 89, Asiana: 8E, Austrian: B8, Continental: 24, Egyptair: 66, Ethiopian: 60, LOT Polish: 9D, Lufthansa: 30, SAS: 83, Singapore Airlines: 12, South African: 44, Swiss: 57, TAM: 2W, TAP Portugal: 82, Thai: D7, Turkish: F2, United: 22, US Airways: B7
ONEWORLD: Alaska: 90, American: 23, British Airways: 36, Cathay Pacific: 67, Iberia: 56, Japan Airlines (JAL): 46, LAN: 16, Malev: 7G, Mexicana: 64, Qantas: 38, Royal Jordanian: D3.
SKYTEAM: Aeroflot: M0, Aeromexico: 52, Air Europa: 5P, Air France: 28, Alitalia: 43, China Airlines: 09, China Eastern: 9P, China Southern: 1B, Czech(CSA) Airlines: 5S, Delta: 32, Kenya Airways: U8, KLM: 06, Korean Air: B5, Tarom: 8J, Vietnam Airlines: 6K.
NOTABLE NON-ALLIANCE AIRLINES: Air India: 37, Aer Lingus 48, El Al: 58, Frontier: 91, Etihad: FX, Emirates: 1H, Virgin Atlantic: 1R, Southwest: H4, AirTran: BD, Air Berlin: 6J, Fedex: S2, RyanAir: AS, EVA Air: 5E, EastJet: 3V
