Airlines On Course For Better Passenger Experience

by Chris Owen on

Airlines continue to chip away at costs while making efforts to increase sales, all to make for a rosy picture on the bottom line. Passengers often see the down side to it all through baggage fees, tight seats and not much legroom. But behind the scenes, the airline industry is making changes and introducing new products that will make them more profitable and lead to a better passenger experience.

Airbus is the world’s leading commercial aircraft manufacturer producing the most modern and efficient airliners. The Airbus A320 family of aircrafts, with over 8000 produced, is recognized worldwide as one of the best single-aisle jetliners available.

The latest version, A320neo, has a focus on fuel efficiency that should bring a 15 per cent reduction in fuel consumption, two tons of additional payload, up to 500 nautical miles of more range, lower operating costs, along with reductions in engine noise and emissions.

That’s great news for airline profits, but what about that passenger experience?Airbus thinks they have that covered too, with their Future by Airbus program that considers the needs of airlines and passengers through 2050.

“Since we launched the Future by Airbus, we have engaged with people in 192 countries in a dialogue about the future of air travel,” says Charles Champion, Airbus Executive Vice President of Engineering, in a release. “This resulted in our revolutionary Airbus Concept Plane and Cabin, which offer a glimpse into some of the innovations that could meet evolving passenger trends and environmental considerations.”

The passenger experience of the future could mean flying aircraft carriers, set to bring multiple aircraft on common routes. The next generation of cruise ships might be in the sky, not the sea, complete with swimming pools, spas and even golf courses.



Don’t want to wait until the future? The Airbus Concept Cabin iPhone app illustrates what the future of flight might look like from the passengers’ perspective. Aircraft cabins of the future may be customized to the needs of individual passengers.

[Photo: Airbus]

Photo Of The Day: Sunny Side Up

by Chris Owen on

This Photo of the Day comes from Gadling Flickr pool member oilfighter who captured this image titled Sunny Side Up in Yellowstone National Park.

Oilfighter tells us, “I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Prismatic Pool, so on my way up to Mammoth, I took a short, but extremely steep and slippery hike (I almost rolled down the hill on my way down) to look over midway geyser basin. The color was incredible.”

Upload your best shots to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. Several times a week we choose our favorite images from the pool as Photos of the Day.

Tips for getting featured: in your Flickr account, check “Privacy and Permissions,” and check “yes” on “Allow others to share your stuff.” Adding information about your image does not hurt your chances either. Oilfighter added some tips on how he captured this image.

“The wind was blowing hard, making all kinds of swirls with the steam. I stacked every single piece of filter I had with me, and managed to get a 2-sec. exposure in mid afternoon. Each image was different, because of the ever-shifting wind. I chose this image, because the steam trail is leading you into the center.”

Time Travel Idea Given New Life With Data Analysis

by Chris Owen on

Once thought a dead issue, the idea of time travel was given new life this week as scientists interpret new data.

In March of 2011, Gadling reported time travel was to be tested at Vanderbilt University. Using the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle accelerator, scientists hoped to find the mysterious Higgs Boson particle, the particle that physicists invoke to explain why particles like protons, neutrons and electrons have mass.

“One of the major goals of the collider is to find the elusive Higgs boson. If the collider succeeds in producing the Higgs boson, some scientists predict that it will create a second particle, called the Higgs singlet, at the same time,” reported Vanderbilt’s research news.

Professor Tom Weiler and graduate fellow Chui Man Ho thought these singlets should have the ability to jump into an extra, fifth dimension where they can move either forward or backward in time and reappear in the future or past.

“One of the attractive things about this approach to time travel is that it avoids all the big paradoxes,” Weiler said at the time. “Because time travel is limited to these special particles, it is not possible for a man to travel back in time and murder one of his parents before he himself is born, for example.”This week, researchers from the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, analyzed data from the Large Hadron Collider and are “almost certain that they had proven the existence of the Higgs boson, the most sought-after particle in all of physics,” says a CNN report.

The new information comes after Illinois researchers said earlier in the week that scientists had come closer to proving that the particle exists but had been unable to reach a definitive conclusion.

No information yet on the Higgs singlet. But proving the existence of the Higgs boson would most likely give new life to the idea of time travel. Not much new life, but some. Professor Weller noted, “if scientists could control the production of Higgs singlets, they might be able to send messages to the past or future.”

Baby steps.


[Flickr photo by katerha]

Video Of The Day: Sea Turtle Release In Dubai

by Libby Zay on

Today’s video was filmed at the beach outside the world-famous Burj Al Arab and Madinet Jumeriah hotels, where an annual summer sea turtle release happened late last week. As part of the Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project, Jumeirah – the hotel group who owns the Burj Al Arab along with several other luxury hotels in Dubai – has an aquarium team that works with the Wildlife Protection Office and local veterinarians to save and release turtles. Since 2004, more than 554 sea turtles have been rehabilitated and released thanks to the project, which is the only one of its kind in Dubai.

This year, the sea turtle celebration was open to the public for the first time. For the send off, 100 critically endangered turtles were each assigned to a child – mostly competition winners, pupils from local schools and even some hotel guests. The children helped release the turtles while the rest of the onlookers watched the turtles make their way into the Arabian Gulf. Six turtles (including two hawksbill sea turtles, two green sea turtles, and two loggerhead sea turtles) were tagged with satellite devices that monitor their whereabouts. Anyone can log on to the project’s Facebook page to see periodic posts about how far the turtles have traveled.

The video above is from last year’s release, but two additional photos from 2012 are included after the jump.


[Video and photos courtesy Jumeirah]

Photo Of The Day: All The Way To The Islands

by Chris Owen on

This Photo of the Day comes from Gadling Flickr pool member James Wheeler who captured this image titled “All The Way To The Islands” in North Vancouver, British Columbia, CA, using a Nikon D5000.

James describes the image: “Lynn peak is a short hike from North Vancouver and offers a great view of Burnaby from the end. This morning I was able to see all the way to the Islands to the West of Vancouver.”

Upload your best shots to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. Several times a week we choose our favorite images from the pool as Photos of the Day.

Tips for getting featured: in your Flickr account, check “Privacy and Permissions,” and check “yes” on “Allow others to share your stuff.” Adding information about your image does not hurt your chances either.