British Airways is about to experience some turbulence as its pilots go out on strike on 9, 10, and 27 September.
You might want to avoid British
Airways for the foreseeable future.
The UK’s flag carrier is going
through labour pains as it battles its pilots’ union. As it stands, British
Airways pilots will walk off the job on 9, 10, and 27 September, causing chaos
for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Flights on BA CityFlyer, Sun-Air,
and Comair are not affected by the strike action.
The one solace is that the strike
does not impact holiday travellers too much as children return this week to
school.
However, it is unknown how long the
strike action and negotiations will continue for and if this will become an
issue for Christmas holiday travel.
A Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER lands at Frankfurt Airport on a flight from Doha. Qatar Airways won its fifth Airline of the Year award since 2011 at the Skytrax Awards held this week at the Paris Air Show.
Qatar Airways has been named the
world’s best airline by Skytrax at the Paris Air Show this week.
It is the fifth time the Qatar
carrier has topped the list since the awards started in 2001. This is the fifth
win in nine years for Qatar.
The Middle Eastern carrier took the
title from Singapore Airlines which dropped to second in the Top 10 list of the
world’s best airlines. In the 19-year history of the awards, Singapore has only
failed to make the Top 3 twice.
Qatar flies to more than 140
destinations around the world and boasts the industry-leading Q-Suite business
class product.
From the Top 10, only two non-Asian
carriers, Qantas Airways and Lufthansa, made the list.
Although Singapore Airlines lost out top spot as airline of the year, its cabin crew was voted best in the world for a second year while its home airport, Changi was named best airport for the 7th year in a row.
Rounding out the Top 10 were ANA (Japan,
No. 3), Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong, No. 4), Emirates (UAE, No. 5), EVA (Taiwan, No.
6), Hainan Airlines (China, No. 7), Qantas (Australia, No. 8), Lufthansa
(Germany No. 9), and Thai Airways (Thailand, No. 10).
North American carriers continue to
take a beating in the list with the highest ranked carrier being Air Canada at
No. 31. The top U.S.-based airline is Jet Blue at No. 40.
Singapore Airlines’ home base,
Changi International Airport, was voted world’s best airport for a staggering
seventh year in a row. Changi has dominated the award, winning 10 times in the
award’s 21-year history.
In other awards, it was an Asian
clean sweep for best cabin crew with Singapore Airlines winning the award
again. Rounding out the top 10 were: Garuda (Indonesia, No. 2), ANA (No. 3),
Thai Airways (No. 4), EVA (No. 5), Cathay (No. 6), Hainan (No. 7), JAL (Japan,
No. 8), Qatar (No. 9), and China Airlines (Taiwan, No. 10).
Austrian Airlines was the top rated
non-Asian carrier for the cabin crew at No. 12 and no North American carriers
rated in the Top 20.
A Singapore Airlines Airbus A350 touches down. Singapore Airlines uses the ultra-modern aircraft on its Newark to Singapore route which is the world’s longest nonstop route and takes just less than 19 hours.
If
you think spending half a day in an airplane to travel to other side of the
globe is a long time, consider the early days of aviation and the Kangaroo
route.
The
Kangaroo route is the Sydney, Australia to London, England route that has been
in existence since 1947.
Today,
QF1, Qantas Airways’ flagship route to London from Sydney takes 24 hours and 30
minutes in an ultra modern Airbus A380 and includes a stopover in Singapore.
QF2, the return journey, takes a slightly shorter 22 hours and 5 minutes thanks
to the tailwinds and also stops in Singapore.
But
in the early days of the route, fights took days with stops in Darwin, Singapore,
Kolkata, Karachi, Cairo, and Tripoli with passengers spending the night in
Singapore and Cairo.
It
wasn’t until 1971 and the launch of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet that London to
Sydney could be done in one stop.
If
you were stuck in an airplane for more than 12 hours, it has significant
impacts on your body beyond jetlag You have worry about deep vein thrombosis,
swollen feet, dehydration, to name a few things.
But
today’s new ultra long-haul carriers are designed with your health in mind. In
the past few years, Airbus launched the Airbus A350 and Boeing the Boeing 787.
These
aircrafts are lighter, make use of composite materials, and has a
self-regulation pressure monitor to ensure your comfort at all times.
I
have flown both and prefer the Airbus A350 because the biggest thing I have
noticed on those planes is that my nose does not feel as dry as the Sahara
after a long flight as it tends to be situation on almost all of the other
airplane types.
Qantas Airways’ Boeing 787 is operated on the airlines non-stop service between Perth, Australia and London, England.
It
is no coincidence that the A350 and Boeing 787 are used on two of the three
longest commercial flights in the world. Singapore Airlines uses an ultra long
range model of the A350 on the Newark to Singapore route which clocks in at a
staggering 18 hours and 45 minutes non-stop. Qantas Airways uses the Boeing 787
on its non-stop flights between Perth and London which takes about 17 hours and
20 minutes.
While
the Qantas flight as a traditional layout of business, premium economy, and
economy, Singapore uses a special layout of only business and premium economy
to ensure greater comfort on this ultra long-haul flight.
A
roundtrip on the Newark to Singapore route also gives you the unique experience
of circumnavigating the earth because from Newark the flights travel east
across the Atlantic, over Europe, into the Middle East, over India, across the
Indian Ocean and into Singapore.
The
return flight leaves from Singapore and travels up the Malaysia coast before
veering over Japan and then Russia, into Alaska, over Canada, and into Newark
Airport.
If
you are flying long distances, pay attention in the flight options to the type
of aircraft the carrier is using. My recommendation is to use the Airbus A350
or Boeing 787 if they are options.
A Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777 was grounded for eight hours at Manchester International Airport last Friday, 7 June, 2019.
A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)
flight at Manchester Airport was grounded for eight hours because a passenger
mistook the emergency exit door for the toilet
Shortly before it was ready to
depart for Islamabad from Manchester last Friday, the Boeing 777’s emergency
door was activated which deployed the plane’s emergency slide.
The flight, which was supposed to
depart Manchester at about 8 p.m., was delayed until about 4 a.m. as passengers
were offloaded.
To make matters worse, frustrated
passengers voiced their issues with PIA when they finally arrived in Islamabad
to find out that somehow their luggage was left in Manchester.
Is this a great deal? Yes and no.
No, purely from a price comparison perspective. On the London to Bangkok route,
there are cheaper flights available in economy and business class. Using 1-10
July as an example of a flight period within the validity period, here is what
I found on Kayak’s website after clicking on the Airline only booking sites.
Economy
Royal Jordanian: £424
Oman Air: £474
Qatar Airways: £498
Etihad Airways: £508
Business
Swiss Air: £1,855
Austrian Air: £1,879
Aeroflot: £1,986
Finnair: £1,997
Alitalia: £2,038
Emirates: £2,109
Etihad: £2,120
From this perspective, there are
several flights that are cheaper. But there is no cheaper flight in premium
economy.
If we look at the intangibles of the
flight, Eva is a better deal. If you prefer a nonstop flight, Eva comes in the
cheapest among the non-stop carriers that fly between London and Bangkok. The
other, Thai Airways and British Airways, come in much higher in all classes.
For the flights to Taipei, there are
no better deals so this is the best deal possible.
For the flights to Brisbane only
Etihad (£881) was cheaper. Eva was the cheapest flight in premium economy and
business class on the route for the days I chose to use.
My recommendation:
Eva is caught up in a political struggle between China and Taiwan which means that its planes, and those of China Air, Taiwan’s other carrier, cannot fly over Chinese airspace. Therefore, most of these flights have built in a stop in Bangkok. This is why Eva is able to offer direct flights to Bangkok. But the rules are odd (when are rules never strange when governments are involved). If Eva is flying from an foreign country to Taiwan, they cannot fly over China, but they do offer flights from Taiwan into China. Confused? You ought to be.
The result is what is known in the
airline industry as a fifth freedom right. Basically, that means an airline has
the right to earn income by carrying passengers between two foreign countries
which does not include the airline’s home country. Therefore, Eva can take on
passengers who want to go from London to Bangkok and take on different
passengers from Bangkok to Taipei.
Direct flights anywhere tend to be
quite expensive. If that is your preference, I would recommend Eva. Yes, you
can save up to £90 by stopping over somewhere but is it worth a £90 saving to
extend your journey? Eva takes almost 12 hours to fly from London to Bangkok.
Sometimes, you do need to take a hit if it means getting to your destination
quicker.
The fact that Eva is the cheapest
option to Taipei and almost the cheapest option to Brisbane demonstrates that
this sale is a good one.
Another intangible to consider is
that Eva Air is one of only 10 airlines worldwide to receive Skytrax’s five-star
rating.
Skytrax is the industry standard
when it comes to rating airlines. Just as the Oscars are the benchmark for
movie excellence, Skytrax is the bench standard for the airline industry. They
rate airlines on everything from the moment you start a booking, through to
ground services at the airport, service on board, and ground service at the
destination.
The 10 five-star airlines are: ANA
(Japan), Asiana (South Korea), Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong), Eva (Taiwan), Garuda
(Indonesia), Hainan (China), JAL (Japan), Lufthansa (German), Qatar (Qatar), and
Singapore (Singapore).
Several factors make this a great
deal:
Even though there are cheaper flights to Bangkok, this is a direct flight;
There are no cheaper options to Taipei and only one cheaper economy option to Brisbane;
Eva departs London daily at 21:35 and arrives the next day at 15:05 local time in Bangkok before departing Bangkok at 16:25 and arriving into Taipei at 21:15. The return flight departs Taipei at 09:00 and arrives in Bangkok at 11:35 then departs Bangkok at 12:50 and arrives in London at 19:25. This is ideal if you do not live in London because you won’t need a hotel as you can travel to the airport on the day of your flight and return home the same evening as your return to London;
You get to fly on one of the 10 five-star airlines, and;
You can make a booking into 2020.
This is definitely a good deal if
you have wanted to visit Thailand, Taiwan or Australia.
British Airways’ Boeing 777 business class is heavily criticised because of the complicated seating system where you have to step over other passengers to get into the aisles.
In this post, I will explore the economy
of scale of airline seats. Are premium class passengers bringing in more income
than those in economy.
For the purpose of this blog, I will
examine a four-class British Airways flight to New Delhi from London Heathrow.
To provide an understanding of
airline economics, I will set some parameters.
As an example, I checked a return
flight on British Airways between London Heathrow and New Delhi with a two-week
stay in Delhi.
British Airways operates two daily
flights and I chose the second flight which operates a Boeing 777-300 that can
hold 299 passengers with a configuration of 14 first class suites, 56 business
class suites, 44 premium economy seats, and 185 economy seats.
A full flight at the lowest price would
bring in £404,593.58.
If we break this down, the costs per
cabin are:
Economy Class: £127,727.70
Premium Economy: £47,054.48
Business Class £141,423.52
First Class: £88,387.88
On its own, a full business class
brings in more money than a full economy cabin. When we look at the premium
cabins that figure increases to £276,865.88, more than double the income that
economy class brings to British Airways.
Despite the fact that 62 percent of the seats on the plane are in economy class, the best service is reserved for the other 38 percent. This leads the chasm in quality service that exists on airplanes.
This is why seat technology in
economy class has not advanced as quickly as it has in premium cabins. While
some carriers opt for thinner seats in economy as a way of giving you an extra
inch or two of leg space, business class, for example, has progressed to
enclosed suites and excellent privacy measures.
But airlines do give you the
illusion that economy has improved vastly by giving you a menu when you get in
the plane. It’s fancy, but basically they still bring through the cart and ask
if you want the chicken or the pasta.
Taking the road best travelled 