Thread: Airline News

Originally Posted by Troy

^ I thought you travelled first class 'arry....

...staff should be picking up your luggage while you're taking a shower in the lounge.

Have you tried finding a flight with First these days?

You don't fly much, do you?

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Have you tried finding a flight with First these days?

You don't fly much, do you?

I think my logbook over the last 40 years might surprise you.

Flights are more limited, depending on distance, airline and aircraft type. I don't bother but I'm not the one gloating over being at the pointy end.

Originally Posted by Troy

... being at the pointy end.

... I can but dream

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

You don't fly much, do you?

Who does not fly "much", has no right to speak out here, has he?

Originally Posted by Troy

I think my logbook over the last 40 years might surprise you.

Flights are more limited, depending on distance, airline and aircraft type. I don't bother but I'm not the one gloating over being at the pointy end.

They're not actually. Most international airlines now follow the US model of "First" and "Coach", with essentially two cabins, Business and Economy.

The exceptions are very long haul on some routes and the A380 which is being phased out.

Even Qatar Airways only do Biz and Pleb cabins on DOH-LAX.

Maybe you don't see that sitting in row 53.

T’way Air to begin flights between Seoul-Incheon and Chiang Mai

Another airline is to join the glowingly popular Seoul-Incheon/ Chiang Mai route with South Korean airline T’way Air to begin flights on the route before the end of the year.


The airline, previously known as Hansung Airlines, is a low-cost airline based in Seoul. The airline runs a fleet consisting exclusively of Boeing 737-800 aircraft.


“Within this year, we plan to expand [to] the Incheon-Chiang Mai and Incheon-Hong Kong routes to better meet rising demand in the regions,” a T’way Air official told The Korea Times.


National carrier Korean Air currently flies the route with Jeju Air, another low-cost carrier having started servicing the route in September.


The demand to fly to destinations such as Chiang Mai by South Koreans is being fueled by an ongoing dispute between the country and Japan that has seen Koreans abandoning travel to Japan for other destinations.


108,776 passengers from South Korea flew into Chiang Mai International Airport in 2016, the last year numbers are available.

https://chiangmaione.com/tway-air-to...hiang-mai-5034

Got stuck behind half a dozen old Korean chaps in the Exchange at the Night Bazaar once.

They were cashing Bt1,000's in piles a foot thick.

I don't know if that was for Karaoke or what but they seemed to be looking forward to their trip.

Add another 737model, type NG this time.
Boeing’s 737 in another pickle

By Bjorn Fehrm


"October 1, 2019, ©. Leeham News: The FAA has issued an Air Worthiness Directive (AD) for high time Boeing 737 NGs, requiring immediate inspections for cracks in their wing attachments called pickle forks.

The cracks were discovered on high time aircraft which were torn down for conversion to freighters. The affected 737 types are NG only; the MAX and Classic have a different wing attachment design. The P-8 Poseidon, a derivative of the NG, also is unaffected."

pickle forks = Part of the fuselage hoops bolted to the wing connection box.

More at

https://leehamnews.com/2019/09/30/boeings-737-in-another-pickle/

It just goes to show that they should have designed a wholly new fit-for-purpose aircraft and not tried to squeeze more blood out of a 50+ year old stone.

Vietnam Airlines to offer in-flight wifi service

Hanoi (VNA) – National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines will offer wifi services in some of its flights starting from October 10, becoming the first Vietnamese airline to do so, announced the carrier on October 7.


Passengers will be able to access the service in Vietnam Airlines’ flights using Airbus A350 in the air routes linking Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai, Osaka; and Ho Chi Minh City with Osaka and Singapore.


At a price between 2.95 - 29.95 USD, passengers can choose suitable packages with a maximum capacity of 80 MB.


From the launch of the new services to the end of this year, the carrier will offer 30 minutes of free wifi which enables passengers to send text messages during their flights.


The airline will work to offer the service in other Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 aircraft with faster speed in the coming time.


Earlier, Vietnam Airlines was the first to provide wireless-streaming services on its Airbus A321neo fleet.


It is now operating 94 routes to 21 domestic and 29 international destinations with an average of 400 flights per day, connecting the world’s major cities to travel destinations in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar.

National News Bureau Of Thailand

At a price between 2.95 - 29.95 USD, passengers can choose suitable packages with a maximum capacity of 80 MB.

Whoa there, take it easy Vietnam Airlines!

Chinky parasites at it again. Mind you we all know that's how they fast-tracked the project. Thank fuck the thing is more dangerous than a 737MAX.

A coordinated cyber espionage campaign running over several years helped China to acquire intellectual property needed to design and build its own C919 airplane.

That's according to a report by CrowdStrike [PDF], which claims that this particular cyber espionage campaign was part of China's coordinated effort to bridge the technology gap in the aviation industry and to help the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) build its C919 airplane.

According to CrowdStrike, the ambitious hacking operation also saved billions of dollars for the Asian giant by copying technical details of the components that were eventually used in the C919 airliner.

The development of China's Comac C919 twinjet aircraft was started in 2008, and after several delays, the plane finally completed its first maiden flight in 2017. Although C919 is touted as a China-made airliner, it uses a large number of components supplied by aerospace companies from North American and Europe.

According to CrowdStrike, between 2010 and 2015, its researchers tracked a Chinese hacking group it dubbed Turbine Panda, which carried out a series of cyber attacks against a number of hi-tech companies, which supplied components for C919 plane.

The report claims that the responsibility to carry out the operation was on Jiangsu Bureau (JSSD), which was selected by the Ministry of State Security (MSS) for this particular operation.

To coordinate cyber espionage efforts, JSSD selected two lead officers: one was tasked to recruit insiders working at foreign aviation firms, while the other was in-charge of the hacking team (Turbine Panda).

Between 2010 and 2015, Turbine Panda group successfully breached C919 suppliers, including Safran, Capstone Turbine, Ametek, Honeywell, GE, and others. It deployed malware, such as PlugX, Sakula, and Winnti, on their machines, which was then used to search for intellectual property and exfiltrate their trade secrets to remote servers.
In some cases, insiders were also used to plant malware, such as Sakula, on targets' networks, largely via USB drives.

In 2016, after about six years of persistent hacking, the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) unveiled a new home-made CJ-1000AX engine that was set to replace the C919 engine from CFM.

According to CrowdStrike, the CJ-1000AX engine showed many similarities to the LEAP-1C and LEAP-X engines produced by CFM International, the foreign contractor that supplied turbine engines for the C919.

CrowdStrike researchers believe it is likely that Comac and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China "benefited significantly from the cyber efforts of the MSS [Ministry of State Security], knocking several years and potentially billions of dollars off of its development time."

US authorities have arrested at least four individuals so far in connection with China's hacking aero-industry campaign.

One of them is Xu Yanjun, the officer who is thought to have been in-charge of recruiting insiders at targeted aerospace firms.

Yu Pingan, the developer of the Sakula malware, was arrested by FBI in 2017, while he was attending a security conference in the US.

https://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news...espionage-c919

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

That's according to a report by CrowdStrike

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

US authorities have arrested at least four individuals

Any idea of when they will be in court, or are they just shipped off to Caribbean Islad for R&R?

Originally Posted by OhOh

Any idea of when they will be in court, or are they just shipped off to Caribbean Islad for R&R?

I realise you don't understand how the industry operates, but if Crowdstrike say it's the chinkies, it's the chinkies.

Their only absence of proof is of the link between the group and the government, but who else is going to nick aircraft tech, you bumbling fucking idiot?

I did the 16.5hr DOH-LAX a couple of years back and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I slept the first 5, and then spent the rest watching movies (bring your own!), eating, catnapping and doing a few laps of the cabin occasionally to stretch the legs. I purposely avoided looking at the clock and when they announced we were commencing descent coming down the West coast, I was surprised at how quickly it had gone. Landed early afternoon, so we had a lengthy stroll around Long Beach that night to give the circulation a good run out as well.

Mind you I was waking up ridiculously early for almost a week.

Thai Airways at risk of closure, president says

Thai Airways International (THAI) president Sumeth Damrongchaitham said on Tuesday that staff must cooperate with the airline's rehabilitation efforts because it is in a crisis and faces possible closure.


He sent his message to THAI executives during a training session at the airline's headquarters.


"Today I want staff to be united to overcome the obstacles. Otherwise, the national airline must close down. There is still time for a solution, but there is not much time," Mr Sumeth said.



He said that THAI had lost its market leadership on several routes to competitors, citing northern routes that had generated a third of THAI's revenue but were now dominated by low-cost airlines.


"The competition is very fierce this year," Mr Sumeth said. "THAI is really in a crisis. Next year it must do its best. If staff are still unaware and do nothing, they will not have enough time to fight back. Today very little time remains.
Today there is no comfort zone. Everyone will die if the vessel sinks," .


THAI would cut costs by reducing the salaries of managerial staff and following a zero inventory policy at its catering department, he said.

"There will be no other rewards for the staff, because the top prize is the survival of the company," Mr Sumeth said.


In the first half of this year, THAI posted a loss of 6.44 billion baht, raising its accumulated loss to 280 billion baht. It employs more than 20,000 people.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business...president-says

Originally Posted by misskit

Thai Airways at risk of closure, president says

And I bet him and the rest of the leeches that "run" the company are still giving all their mates first and business freebies.

Lion Air accident report is hot off the press.

An interesting read....

Originally Posted by Troy

Lion Air accident report is hot off the press.

An interesting read....

That should raise a big red flag.

The report also found that a critical sensor providing data to an anti-stall system had been miscalibrated by a repair shop in Florida and there were strong indications it had not been tested during installation by Lion Air maintenance staff.

Lion Air should have grounded the jet following similar faults on the plane’s previous flight, the report said, adding that 31 pages were missing from the airline’s October maintenance logs. Lion Air did not respond to a request for comment.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...nd-pilot-error

^ Having correctly identified the problem immediately after take-off, neither crew carried out the correct memory items to establish recovery. That's a basic training failure to add to the design failure.

It is why I don't fly with the cheap monkey airlines, preferring well trained pilots to cheap tickets, good entertainment or even good food.

Originally Posted by Troy

^ Having correctly identified the problem immediately after take-off, neither crew carried out the correct memory items to establish recovery. That's a basic training failure to add to the design failure.

It is why I don't fly with the cheap monkey airlines, preferring well trained pilots to cheap tickets, good entertainment or even good food.

Yes, and it doesn't say a lot that they have deleted logs that probably show they were not performing proper maintenance procedures: Another sign that they put profits before safety.