Man lights up in loo, then runs amok on Qantas flight
A MAN kicked walls and broke free from restraints before finally being subdued and handed over to Singapore police after attempting to smoke on a Qantas flight.Qantas cabin crew restrained the burly man, believed to be in his 40s, after a toilet smoke alarm went off.The man was restrained by his hands and mid-section twice after he managed to break free of the restraints once.He continually yelled and kicked walls throughout the flight.
Qantas axes China flights
A softening in demand for travel to China, triggered by the global financial crisis, has forced Qantas to cut back services to the country.Qantas is scrapping its Melbourne-Shanghai and Sydney-Beijing services as part of a belt-tightening effort, the airline said in a statement today. As leisure travel to Beijing declines, Australia’s largest airline will cut three flights to China, consolidating services to the nation into a daily Sydney-Shanghai route.”The Qantas group is performing well in this difficult environment, but we are not immune from the need to address under-performing routes,” group chief executive Alan Joyce said.
Bad weather to blame for increase in flight problems
Storm and tempest are largely to blame for more late flights, writes Clive Dorman.It’s a long-standing truism that the reason for Australia’s near-flawless air travel safety record is that it “doesn’t have weather”, while the US and Europe face frequent blizzards, hurricanes and severe electrical storms.But now Australia truly does “have weather” – and lots of it. In the past two years, increasing incidences of fog, wind and rain have been blamed for an otherwise mysterious deterioration in the punctuality of Australia’s air services. Once the best in the world, they are now comparable with the chronic delay-ridden industries of Europe and the US.
V Australia’s first Boeing 777 touches down in Sydney
V Australia’s first Boeing 777 jet has touched down at Sydney Airport, marking the launch of a new home grown international carrier on the trans-Pacific route between Australia and the US west coast.The arrival of the new plane for the Virgin Blue offshoot airline on Monday is expected to spark a price war on tickets to Los Angeles as V Australia goes head-to-head on the route with Qantas, United Airlines and newcomer Delta.
US Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger offered ‘double the pay’ to work for Virgin
VIRGIN boss Sir Richard Branson has made an irresistible job offer to the “hero” pilot of a US Airways plane that landed in New York’s Hudson River last month.Mr Branson said he would spare no expense to poach pilot Chesley Sullenberger, whose breathtaking landing into the Hudson River saved the lives of 150 passengers.“I’d like him to come fly for us,” Mr Branson told New York’s Daily News. “We’ll make him the best-paid pilot at Virgin – we’ll give him double the salary of anybody else.“He also can become one of the astronauts in my intergalactic spaceship company.”
Oneworld alliance’s future under a cloud
Bosses of airlines in the Oneworld alliance will celebrate its 10th birthday on Tuesday knowing the future of the 10-carrier grouping may hang on the fate of two agreements which could fly or fail within months.Already the smallest of the three global airline alliances, analysts say Oneworld is being left behind on trans-Atlantic competition by the 18-member Star Alliance and by the Air France-Delta led Skyteam.The biggest members from both those rival alliances have stretched their advantage over Oneworld by winning US antitrust immunity on North Atlantic routes — allowing them to coordinate prices and schedules.
Qantas achieves record US sales thanks to bargain flights
Qantas has defied the economic downturn in the US by achieving record fare sales to Australia in the past fortnight.The Australian airline, offering deeply discounted fares and riding on the promotional success of the G’Day USA festival, announced it had a 160 per cent rise in bookings from the US to Australia compared with the same period a year ago.”The past two weeks has set an all-time high,” Wally Mariani, Qantas’ senior executive vice president, The Americas and Pacific, told AAP.
Qantas A380 grounded in Los Angeles
A Qantas A380 has been grounded at Los Angeles airport, halting travel plans for almost 450 passengers bound for Sydney due to a minor technical issue.Passengers on board the Nancy-Bird Walton, Qantas’ first airbus were left waiting on the tarmac for over four hours last night due to low oil pressure in one of the engines. It is the first time one of Qantas’ three A380 planes have been grounded.”We’ve boarded passengers, [the captain has] started the engine and he’s received an indication light in the cockpit of low oil pressure in one of the engines,” a Qantas spokeswoman said.
Qantas delays flight for 10 hours
About 300 Qantas passengers bound for Melbourne were delayed for 10 hours at Perth Domestic Airport on Friday.The plane had been taxing on the tarmac about 11am before it had to turn back when the pilot reported a “steering problem” to passengers, 6PR radio reported.Passenger Alison Redfern, from Scotland, said the day had been chaotic and she had waited hours to re-check her baggage and to try to check into a hotel.The passengers eventually flew out of Perth Airport at 9.30pm.Qantas was unavailable for comment.
Qantas passenger numbers down 3.8% in Nov
QANTAS Airways carried fewer passengers in November as deteriorating economic conditions encouraged more people to stay home.Australia’s flagship carrier said today passenger numbers fell 3.8 per cent from a year ago as 3.17 million passengers travelled on its domestic and international networks on its mainline, regional and discount JetStar airlines.Revenue seat factor for the month, a measure of how many paid seats it fills across its fleet, declined by 3.5 percentage points year-on-year to 78.3 per cent.
