British Airways

British Airways’ Travel Choose Your Own Adventure Video … check this out …

As kids many of us probably remember reading the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. The ability to change the direction of a story, or the out come of a moment, intertwined with our learning to read, comprehend and most importantly learn that our destiny is in our hands.   Travel is like a…

Delta buys 49% of Virgin & Forms A Joint Venture … Sounds Familiar

Yesterday, on the 11th of December, Delta Air Lines officially announced that it was purchasing a 49% stake in British flag carrier Virgin Atlantic, from Singapore Airlines, for US$360,000,000 and forming a trans-Atlantic joint venture.  Under the terms of the deal Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin, will retain his 51% majority stake in…

Airline Twitter Tip: Don’t Tweet Your Pax Is A “Gook”

When an airline’s social media goes wrong it tends to go really wrong. Social media going off the rails ends up taking a tool that is ideal for damage control and turns it into an instrument of brand destruction … especially for a global airline with a highly conservative.   Yesterday afternoon British Airways‘ usually…

Inside A British Airways Boeing 747-436 D-Check

All aircraft undergo routine maintenance checks at specific life cycle intervals, these checks range from a light A-Check through a heavy D-Check.   An A-Check for a commercial aircraft is typically performed around 800 flight hour cycle and often conducted during an overnight layover at an airport, requiring 20 man-hours maintenance.   The B-Check is conducted…

Reader Mail: Explain How Airlines Come Up With Flight Numbers

Just before my Hurricane and Nor’easter induced break from Flying With Fish I received an email from Tim Wesolek asking, “can you [please] explain how airlines come up with flight numbers?”   Well Tim, there is no straightforward answer, but I will do my best.   For starters, some airlines have historical flight numbers, such…

A US Airways & American Airlines Tie Up … revisited

Following the mergers of Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines followed by Continental Airlines and United Airlines talk of further airline consolidation was rampant. Discussions of ‘the next’ merger was frequently fueled by US Airways’ CEO Doug Parker, with the logical tie up being a US Airways and American Airlines merger.   Now, as American…

UK Border Agency Goes On Strike & Passengers Report A Better Experience

For the past week the threat of the looming Public Sector labour strike in Britain gripped airlines and airports with fear.  As UK Border Agency Immigrations Officers announced they would take part in the public sector strike action today some airlines readjusted schedules, other carriers cancelled flights and London Heathrow Airport warned that passport control…

Oh No American Airlines Is Bankrupt & I Have Tickets!

Businesses going bankrupt immediately conjure up images of windows being boarded up, assets being sold at auction and phone lines going dead … but that is not the case with American Airlines following its parent company AMR filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection this morning in US Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New…

Reader Mail : Why Does The TSA Rescreen Passengers Connecting From Int’l Flights?

Security is a fact of life for airline travel and screening procedures vary from country to country … which leads to this reader mail from Gene R., from Pittsburgh, PA.  Gene writes “I just flew home to Pittsburgh from Paris with US Airways, as I have done a few times through Philadelphia.  When connecting through…

Reader Mail : “Why Don’t Airlines Use Their Name As A Callsign?”

I have written about airline call signs before … but not in almost three years … so this reader mail caught my attention.   Alberto Lopez, from Barcelona, Spain, writes “I was recently listening to air traffic control while waiting for a flight home from Chicago and noted many airlines do not use their name…