In less than one week the former Pan American Airways Unit Terminal Building, more commonly known as the Pan Am WorldPort, at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, taken over by Delta Air Lines in 1991, and now simply known as Terminal 3, will cease operations after 53 years. . JFK’s iconic Terminal…
*DISCLAIMER * IF YOU HAVE A FEAR OF FLYING I URGE YOU TO SKIP THIS POST* Yesterday afternoon, at approximately 3:30pm (UTC +0430), National Air Cargo flight NCR 102 lifted off from Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan to Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport, on a routine cargo flight. Flight NCR 102, a Boeing 747-428BCF (N949CA), operating…
Sharpen up your knives, polish your golf clubs, restring your lacrosse stick and pack them in your carry on bag for your upcoming flights … but don’t pack a drink. On the 25th of April 2013 the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is adjusting its list of items prohibited as carry on items.  The TSA…
I get emails about airlines, airplanes and airports fairly often, but rarely if ever about airline blogging. Today’s reader mail comes from Ross Mitchell who writes, “Are airline bloggers competitive with each other, always trying to beat each other to be the top of the pile? I fly often, enjoy my time in airports and…
Valentines Day will bring together a new relationship, the union between American Airlines and US Airways. What a merged American Airlines and US Airways will look like will remain to be seen, and both airlines have a checkered history in buyouts and mergers. When American Airlines took over TWA hostility ran deep, the tension…
Just over five years ago, back on the 9th of January 2008 Kuwait’s National Assembly approved the privatization of Kuwait Airways … and if this line sounds familiar, it is because I wrote it word for word on the 5th of May 2011 … now on the 23rd of January 2013 Kuwait’s National Assembly approved…
When you sit in the airport staring out the windows at all the planes parked at their gates what area of the airport are you looking at? The Ramp? The Apron? The Tarmac? The answer is … not the tarmac. Tarmac, while commonly used as a term to describe where airplanes are parked, is…
As Christmas Eve approaches for North America this seems like an appropriate time to discuss the logistics that make Santa Claus’ annual flight possible and how North Pole International Air Cargo, d/b/a Santa Claus Express Ltd have been revolutionizing their present delivery logistics. Operations at Santa’s North Pole Workshop, located at the North Pole…
The birth of business jets dovetailed the birth of commercial jets. As airlines grew in popularity and size, Pan Am’s founder, Juan Trippe, an innovator in many aspects of commercial aviation, had his sights set on the travelers not on his planes … those flying private planes. In the early 1960s Juan Trippe became…
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…
