What a difference a week makes!
Last week’s open thread had a much different theme as I was writing from under 12-inches of snow in Boston. This week, in stark contrast, is a beautiful sunny springtime kickoff here in Washington (67F, 19C). Take that Groundhog.
767-323ER(WL)
Yesterday, American Airlines Flight 78 departed Dallas Fort Worth enroute to London Heathrow Airport. This was a perfectly routine trans-Atlantic flight save for the fact that there was an eleven foot tall winglet affixed to each wingtip. N389AA, which took flight with its new Aviation Partners Boeing winglets back in July, entered revenue service yesterday touching down at Heathrow at 10:26 local time this morning. The 767-300ER now boasts a range of 6,335 nm up from 5,975 nm.
With American, Delta, Air New Zealand, Condor, LAN, Hawaiian and Austrian (to name a few) all buying winglets like they’re going out of style, it begs the question: Are winglets recession proof?
British Airways A318 Interior
BA let their premium A318 interior configuration slip yesterday and Flightglobal.com nailed the scoop. The 2-2 lie flat configuration for 32 passengers that will hop from London City Airport to Shannon to JFK.
Thought No. 1: Keep an eye on these load factors when this service begins. The A318 order came out of competition with EOS, MAXjet, L’Avion and Silverjet all of which are no longer in operation. Is there a still a market for this type of premium service in this economy?
Thought No. 2: Looking over those pictures yesterday, I stopped and did a comparison of the original and new A320 family interior. Worth taking a peek at these side-by-side A320 cabin shots. ORIGINAL (MSN2539) v. NEW (MSN3404)
A380 Convoy
Emirates A380 (MSN028) is on its way to Toulouse and will be winding around the French countryside beginning on March 9th. The aircraft will eventually wear A6-EDH as the 8th A380 for the Dubai-based carrier late this year or early next year. Just fifty more to go.
Looking to get away?
NBC Nightly News (highly recommended podcast) had a little piece on falling travel prices. I got the itch just watching this.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.