Dakar to Paris: Layover in Algiers or Tripoli?

by Grant Martin on

You think that you know things about airlines until you start searching for flights in and out of African. There, the old knowns of KLM and British Airways go out the window and replacements like Afriqiyah Airways and Air Algerie come into play, carriers that many never knew existed.

The current itinerary on which I’m working involves a one way flight between Dakar and Paris, a three thousand mile trip over the Sahara Desert, Mediterranean Ocean and Southern France. With a connection.

Where is that connection you ask? Depends on the airline. Of the above two airlines, one (I’m sure you can guess which) involves a four hour layover in Algeria‘s capital, Algiers, in the Houari Boumediene airport. The other offers a similar stay in Tripoli, the capital of Libya.

The most comedic part of the operation in the the fare codes. Typical local carriers have complex fare codes like QE07A0NA to dictate the rules and routes of a flight. On Afriqiyah Airways? My fare basis (copied above) would be “BLOW.”

Whatever. The real question is whether I should fly through Algiers or Tripoli. Technically it would be interesting to spend a day or two exploring the cities on my layover (if that’s possible,) but North African nations aren’t the most welcome place for Americans — and could I go to a country that bans alcohol? I would have to bring a book or something.

So where would you go?

%Poll-29495%

KLM celebrates its 90th birthday with its own tulip

by Scott Carmichael on

If you have ever flown into Amsterdam airport between April and May, you have probably seen the massive tulip fields surrounding the airport.

I’ve always found it one of the most beautiful airport approaches in the world, filled with vibrant colors.

So, it makes sense that KLM decided to celebrate their 90th birthday with something special – their own tulip.

The KLM “tulipa” is a cross between a China Pink and a tetraploid tulip, developed for the airline by the leading Dutch agricultural university.

The tulip can even be ordered online for your own garden, but the retailer currently only ships within Europe. Later this month, you’ll be able to order your own Tulipa bulbs from Colorblends.com.

Another way to see Tulipa is at the temporary Keukenhof tulip gardens set up inside Schiphol airport and of course, at the “real” Keukenhof just 20 miles from the airport.

The Dutch by numbers

by Jamie Rhein on

This month’s issue of Holland Herald, KLM’s in-flight magazine is devoted to a numbers theme. For example, California’s Highway 1 is touted as being one of the world’s most scenic drives in an article devoted to pointing out the highway’s finer points.

Another article was perfect for in-flight reading. By browsing two pages filled with random statistics, I found out several interesting facts about the Dutch that might be useful to toss out at parties if there is absolutely nothing left to talk about.

Here are five of them:

  • In 2008, Sophie has been the most popular name for a girl, and Daan the most popular for a boy.
  • On average, women don’t marry in the Netherlands until age 32.7, and men don’t marry until 35.8.
  • When the Dutch want to go on a vacation, France is their number one destination.
  • The average Dutch person eats 16.7 kilos of cheese per year.
  • On average, a person in the Netherlands drinks 77.4 liters of beer per year. This is a considerable drop from the 300 liters the same person would have downed during the Middle Ages.

Here’s one more fact about the Dutch I found out. Each year, they produce 3 million pairs of clogs.

KLM and Air France launch Bluenity – their very own social network

by Scott Carmichael on

In what I can only describe as a “me too” move, Dutch Airline KLM and Air France have launched their own social networking site.

Bluenity is aimed at bringing travelers on the 2 airlines together, and offers a simple way of tracking where and when your friends are flying.

Bluenity also offers members the ability to share tips with fellow travelers.

KLM and Air France call Bluenity “the first social network launched by an airline”, conveniently ignoring a similar site launched by Lufthansa 2 months ago.

A spokesperson for Bluenity says the airlines expects around 300,000 people to sign up for the site in its first year.

Personally I don’t think a single-airline social networking site will ever take off. People are simply not that loyal to one airline. There are already much more established travel social networking sites out there, that are not tied to just one carrier.

Dopplr is the most famous example of travel social networking done right; they even offer Facebook and Flickr integration. Dopplr also has mobile access, as well as the ability to add flights to your profile using text messages.

Alitalia deal dumped by Air France-KLM

by Iva Skoch on

For a while there, it almost looked like Air France–KLM was actually going to buy Alitalia and dig them out of their ongoing financial problems. Alitalia has been losing $1.6 million a day for more than a year. Grant wrote about the KLM-Alitalia deal just a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately, Air France-KLM ended their negotiations with Aitalia after Alitalia’s unions balked, The Wall Street Journal reports. As a result, the Italian airline’s chairman resigned.

You could just see how this whole thing unfolded in Italy. Silvio Berlusconi, currently campaigning to become Italy’s eccentric prime minister again, thought that KLM was just not offering enough for the national pride that Alitalia is. Looking at it through KLM’s eyes, they could care less about national pride; they wanted a good investment.

Well, if Berlusconi does get reelected, one of the first things he might have to do is place Alitalia under a government-appointed organization. Air Silvio, anyone?