Ryanair to open base in Valencia, Spain

by Sean McLachlan on

Budget airline Ryanair has announced that it will open a base in Valencia, Spain, Inside Ireland reports. Service will start in November with a total of 260 flights a week to 20 destinations, including popular spots such as Madrid, Barcelona, London-Stansted, Dublin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Milan, and Rome.

Valencia is a port in eastern Spain that combines beautifully preserved medieval and Renaissance architecture with modern exhibitions and a fun nightlife. Gadling named it one of the 25 greatest cities for drinking wine.

Ryanair is celebrating by offering half a million seats from €10 ($12) for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays on more than 500 routes this September and October. The seats are only available until midnight this Thursday.

Photo courtesy Felivet via Wikimedia commons.

Mixed Messages, Part II: The role of the flight attendant

by Tom Johansmeyer on
It’s almost embarrassing to admit that the short, comical (and obviously very powerful) JetBlue video that I noticed on a recent flight left me with so much food for thought. Maybe it’s the fact that a stick figure chased a little red dot into the overhead compartment … I’m not sure. What does matter is that it had an effect. In addition to noticing the opportunity for increased service with no expense, it also occurred to me that the flight attendant is being positioned as a service employee … rather than the final arbiter of the rules or safety czar.
This made me think: how secondary is the service role to the primary safety responsibility of these airline employees? We’ve all seen plenty of commercials with smiling flight attendants eager to please their passengers. Yet, we have yet to see an airline invest its marketing dollars in a 30-second spot chronicling the exploits of the heroic flight attendant.

But, wouldn’t that be a great idea?

Think of how it would play out … a la David Hasselhoff with a torpedo buoy, red shorts and a mission to save a life. We’d see her (or him) burst forth from the galley, flotation device in hand and a determined look on her face (wow, this really is starting to sound like a Baywatch knockoff). “Safety First,” I’d label the ad campaign, with the only service highlighted being the gallant saving of a life.

What more could you ask for? I don’t know about you, but C.J. running up the aisle to guide the passengers sitting in the exit row is a pretty compelling reason to choose an airline.

Or, we could all face the fact that the service aspect of the gig isn’t really as secondary as it seems.

Don’t grab the seat in front of you – Airplane tip

by Gadling Staff on

During your next flight, be considerate of the passenger in front of you. When settling down into — or, getting out of — your seat, don’t grab the seat in front of you for leverage.

Nothing is more startling (or, annoying) than to suddenly feel your seat rock backwards because the passenger seated in the row behind you couldn’t just use the armrest.

Cracks on American Airlines Boeing 767 planes “cause for concern”

by Scott Carmichael on

Experts from American Airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing are working overtime to inspect all Boeing 767 aircraft in the AA fleet.

The inspections were ordered after cracks were detected on a 767 which regulators say could have resulted in the loss of an engine.

During the past two weeks, inspectors found problems on three of the planes, promoting calls for “additional action.”

The cracks were found in engine pylons, which are the structural members that hold the engines on the wings, though none of the parties involved are going as far as to claim there is any danger.

This is not the first time Boeing planes have had issues with engine pylon structures – cracks in engine fuse pins were to blame for the 1992 El Al Boeing 747 crash in Amsterdam, killing 43 people.

According to FAA records, one of the planes found to have serious safety issues had only flown 500 trips since its last major inspection – which is prompting Boeing to recommend more regular safety inspections. At the moment, the pylons are only inspected after 1500 flights.

Of course, everyone involved is quick to point out that the safety concerns are not the result of missed or botched inspections. American Airlines says it expects to finish all inspections of its 56 Boeing 767s today.

If the FAA does alter current safety inspection rules, about 360 Boeing 767s will have to be inspected in the United States, along with hundreds more in use abroad.

[Image from: Flickr/Deanster 1983]

Mixed Messages: How airlines miss the service opportunity

by Tom Johansmeyer on

As I write this, I’m several thousand feet above the Atlantic Ocean on a JetBlue flight to St. Martin. I looked up from my screen for a moment, just to get a change of scenery from the seemingly endless line of characters that’s been manifesting before my eyes. On the small screen housed in the seatback before me, I saw a brief ad for JetBlue, positioning its service as a reason to keep flying this airline.

It was a clever little animated video. A passenger chases a flight attendant call button as my cat pursues the little red dot I shine on the floor, without regard to the futility of the task. Of course, this in-flight advertisement ends with the passenger on JetBlue flight, receiving high-touch service from the flight attendant.

Later in the flight, the flight attendants walked the aisle with premium snacks for sale. Ostensibly, this would seem like a contradiction – positioning a brand as service-intensive while nickel and diming passengers for grub on an international flight. The reality, however, is a bit more nuanced. The two don’t need to be mutually exclusive. In fact, airlines could probably get away with charging for more if they delivered a higher level of service … which bears no incremental cost.
A smile and prompt answer to the call button don’t cost the airline anything extra, and an efficient check-in desk or gate operation can offset luggage fees, premium snack charges and just about anything else.

Service shouldn’t be confused with amenities. We’re losing the latter at an incredible pace … while learning that the definition is much broader than most of us probably realized. But, this doesn’t have to come at the expense of the former.

What I encountered on this JetBlue flight is that the service was commensurate with the positive portion of the animated video, suggesting an airline that has figured out how to make the most of its brand without having to submit its margins to the gobbling effects of meals and headsets.

Airlines have a unique chance to deliver more service without having to make any financial sacrifices or charge higher prices. All it takes is a smile.
[photo by mrkathika via Flickr]