Next upgrade for the A380: Bunk Beds?

by Grant Martin on

With so much space in the Airbus A380, there really is no limit on what you can design and build into the aircraft. Sure, you’re going to want to cram as many people as possible into Economy seating, but in Business and First Class, you can let the extravagancies seep in. Emirates’ version has showers. Singapore’s has double beds. Lufthansa envisions an aircraft with conference rooms and bedrooms. You get the idea.

The next upgrade? Bunk beds. As the airline industry tries to carve out a Premium Economy market, one concept that Airbus is exploring is the possibility of using stacked beds to utilize space better while still offering a lie flat experience. The beds would be smaller than a premium lie-flat seat, but would cost a fraction of the price.

Airbus is still toying with the concept of integrating the beds, so it may be some time before you’re able to bunk up with your best mate on the way out to Australia, but if the idea pans out, we’ll be the first to test drive it.

Wheelchair on plane explodes on landing

by Abha Malpani on

Having the battery of an electronic item you take on board a flight, short-circuit and then burst into flames, doesn’t even come to your mind when you think about plane accidents.

Earlier this month, a wheelchair stored in the hold of a Boeing 727-200 First Choice flight carrying 229 passengers, let out blue sparks while being offloaded from the plane. The minute it was placed on a vehicle to be transported at Manchester Airport, it caught fire and exploded. Luckily, no one was injured. Thank goodness it didn’t happen on the plane. A similar incident happened in February last year, where a fire started aboard a plane because a camera battery short-circuited while in the overhead compartment.

The articles about this incident talk about passengers needing to be more vigilant when taking items on board. True, but I also think it’s the ground staff’s responsibility to fiercely spread awareness of things like this, and make their check-in and boarding procedures more stringent. Although the exact cause of the accident has not yet been found, assuming it was a short-circuit, it could have been avoided by making sure the battery was fixed properly and that there was no way for it to switch on automatically while in storage.

Talking about seemingly innocuous items causing serious damage on an aircrafts, you can’t help but think of mobile phones. Although told a million times, I still know people who do not switch their phones off on a flight, even if they don’t use them. They forget, or don’t realize the importance of doing so. I haven’t heard of any planes crashing or catching fire due to a mobile phone, but if it can happen with a camera and a wheelchair, I imagine that things can happen with a mobile phone.

How can airlines be stricter? Perhaps when baggage is being screened, they should ask passengers to remove batteries from all electronic devices. But then you can’t be assured that the passenger won’t put the battery right back in. Other than spreading awareness through publicity, what’s the solution? Rely on the passenger’s consciousness?

Ugandan pastor arrested for possibly molesting girl on flight

by Abha Malpani on

41-year old pastor and head of Ugandan church, Jackson Senyonga, was arrested at Oakland International Airport under the suspicion that he might have fondled the 13-year old girl seated next to him.

The religious community worker who is known to have dedicated his life to building orphanages in Kampala and heading poverty-relief initiatives, was taken to a jail in Dublin and released on bail; the case is now with the FBI.

Google Senyonga and you’ll find that he is head of a Christian Life Ministry that has 40,000 registered members; there are also numerous articles written by him and podcasts to listen to. He seems like he’s got a lot out there and is connected to many good causes.

The fact that he could have molested a child on a plane is reason enough to question what he stands for and all the good things he seems to be doing. It also makes you want to rethink where you choose to let your child sit on a plane.

Irrespective of the case’s outcome, this is a good opportunity for the FBI to investigate this man thoroughly.

Breaking News: 147 People killed in Madrid plane crash

by Abha Malpani on

A Spanair plane bound for the Canary Islands from Madrid caught fire after skidding off the runway killing 147 people; 173 were on board — 26 are known to have survived.

The plane was delayed for an hour because of technical reasons and when it finally tried to take-off from Terminal 4 of Barajas International Airport, it hardly got off the ground before it swerved off the runway as its engine caught fire and blew-up into flames. This happened around 2:30pm this afternoon (Spain time).

“The plane was totally broken apart, it was all full of bodies,” one of the witnesses told El Pais newspaper (as reported by Sky News).

You can see a video post accident here on Spain’s National newspaper El Pais, unfortunately the commentary is in Spanish.

Before the crash, Spanair pilots threatened to strike after they heard of plans to cut the airline’s workforce by 1000 people.

Spanair is one of Spain’s national airlines — the second largest after Iberia, and owned by the Scandinavian SAS Group.

Expansions in the business-class-only service

by Grant Martin on

The all-business-class model for airline carriers has been a touchy subject over the last few months. With all but two of the airlines now out of business (OpenSkies and Singapore Airlines‘ select flights), many wonder if the original approach was a good idea.

Yet OpenSkies (EC, owned by British Airways) and Singapore Airlines (SQ) continue to press on — and even expand. Earlier this month, OpenSkies announced that they would be adding service further into the European Union, while SQ just expanded their A340 service from Los Angeles into Singapore.

How can these carriers thrive in such tight times? How can they survive where so many others failed? Well, there’s no doubt that the deep pockets of each carrier are helping ride out the storm of high oil prices. While Americans sort out their financial woes, each airline plans to build a product and loyal customer base, get the word out on their product as much as possible and fight for a place in the future market.

Things could be a little rough for OpenSkies. With the American economy suffering and the EU economy headed in the same direction, demand for business class seats is going to be dropping off pretty quick. Unfortunately, the worst may yet be to come.

According to Singapore Airlines, their business-class-only service has conversely enjoyed packed flights and thriving business.

The true gauge for each airline, regardless of their current situation, is long term sustainability independent of their parent airline or routes. If the routes fail to generate profit after a few years they will surely disappear, but perhaps if we’re all lucky and the trend picks up, OpenSkies’ and SQ’s business-class-only flights will be here to stay.