Air scares
So Qantas had a sudden decompression a few weeks ago, and now a Ryanair Boeing 737-800 has just suffered one. Sudden decompression is one of the two types of event that can occur on any passenger...
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Ryanair’s Ciampino birdstrike
Within about an hour of the Monday 10 November overrun at Rome Ciampino, the airline put out a statement that the Boeing 737-800 had suffered a multiple birdstrike on approach. It certainly did. The...
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Ryanair’s route via Rome to Damascus
Strange and wonderful things are happening. Ryanair is saying nice things about its pilots (some of). Has the company’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, been walking the road to Damascus recently? Thinking...
View ArticlePrima donna passengers versus punctuality
Yesterday I boarded an EasyJet flight out of Cologne for London Gatwick. We pushed back 17min early and arrived 40min early. Pushback as early as that is a record for me. I was left to reflect on how...
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Revealed: How to run an airline
Somebody has noticed that all is not well in the world of airlines, and has deduced that good management practises might help. They’ve written a book about it. Is it just me, or is there is an...
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The really big market for professional pilots
Airlines may not be hiring pilots at the moment, but the market will recover. Won’t it? Yes it will. Definitely. One of the first sectors to get moving when the economy revives – always – is air...
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It can’t be that bad: BA is recruiting again
The last time British Airways offered wannabe pilots the chance to train for a job with the company was before 9/11. Between now and 2016, says BA head of recruitment Robin Glover, the airline needs...
View ArticleThe sleepy pit stop
Commercial aviation has been slowly re-inventing itself since deregulation began in the USA in 1978, and a little later America began exporting what it called open skies agreements – a kind of...
View ArticleFlying backwards
In 1968 a Hawker Siddeley Trident was certificated to fly a category II autoland, permitting landing in fog with some forward visibility. By 1975 it had been cleared for category IIIB, which means it...
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