Emmergency Landing for Virgin 747 at London Gatwick

Drama over the skies of the south east of England today as a stricken Virgin Atlantic 747 had to repeated circle to burn fuel before returning to London's Gatwick Airport after discovering a problem with part of its main landing gear.

The Virgin flight VS43 with 447 passengers and 15 crew had just departed Gatwick at the start of is flight to Las Vegas when it had to return to the airport, causing major disruption and the closure of Gatwick's only runway. The Virgin aircraft touched down at around 1600 but Gatwick's runway only reopened at 19:03.

Gatwick Airport said in a statement: "The airport is now facilitating inbound and outbound flights but it will take some time for normal service to resume. We advise passengers to check with their airlines on the status of their flight. Updates will also be posted on the Gatwick website and on Twitter."

The statement also explained that the airport was working with its airline partners to provide food, drink and welfare facilities to those affected by the delays and cancellations and volunteers were helping provide advice. Dozens of arriving flights had been diverted to other London and south east airports.

The Virgin 747 is 13-year-old aircraft and had departed Gatwick 11:30 GMT on Monday 29th, when a problem with the main landing gear and hydraulics became apparent. The pilot then had to burn and jettison fuel to in order to be light enough to land. During the incident Virgin announced the plane would be carrying out a "non-standard landing procedure" at Gatwick airport.

Passenger Nick Hughes, on board the jet, said the crew made several attempts to try to free the landing gear.  "They put the thrust on quite heavily and then dipped down, I think, to try and loosen the gears but obviously nothing kind of worked. They gave it every opportunity before they tried the emergency landing. All credit due to the crew and the staff and of course the pilots because the landing was probably one of the softest landings I've ever had."

Eyewitnesses on the ground reported the jet flying at relatively low altitude with the pilot appearing to be trying to "shake" the landing gear down.

Another passenger, Hardeek Desai, said: "The staff were trying to keep everyone calm but a few passengers were a bit panicky. One of the crew came out to the seating area to reassure everyone everything was going to be OK. The staff were giving out thing like drinks and water to everyone to make sure everyone's OK. Generally, the mood was pretty good at this point until we hit the brace position."

Describing the mood on the plane as it was circling, passenger Dan Crane, 24, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, said it was "anxious, a lot were worried, some crying. The mood was quiet, just waiting for the captain's next announcement."  Mr Crane, who is with family and friends, said the crew kept everyone informed, adding: "They said it was an emergency landing and we had to brace on impact."

Another passenger, Mike Kaufman, said: "This was one of the greatest emergency landings in history. It was very smooth." He praised the pilots and the cabin crew, saying the landing had been "textbook".

Virgin Atlantic chief executive Craig Kreeger said: "I am very pleased to confirm that all customers and crew have now disembarked the VS43 flight to Las Vegas, which returned to Gatwick airport this afternoon following a problem with one of the landing gear.  I understand that this will have been a very upsetting situation for the customers involved, and for their friends and family, and will have significantly disrupted people's holiday plans.

"We will make sure they are well looked after this evening, and will be operating a special flight tomorrow for everyone who would like to continue their journey."

Virgin Atlantic president Sir Richard Branson tweeted: "Well done @VirginAtlantic pilots & team for safe & skilful landing of #VS43. Thoughts with passengers & crew, thanks for support & patience."

An investigation is underway.

LATAM Upgrades.

According to resent releases from the LATAM Airlines Group, they will spend up to $100 million on new technology projects to improve passenger service.

 

The South American group has already unveiled a new smartphone app to facilitate passengers ability to manage all aspects of their travel arrangement from electronic boarding pass, flight status reports and adding ancillary products. 

 

LAN and TAM have struck up an agreement with Google's YouTube that will allow passengers access to some content from the video sharing site on their inflight entertainment offering.  Continuing with in-flight entertainment, LAN and TAM Entertainment launches,  a new wireless inflight entertainment system for personal devices allowing passengers to watch movies, TV shows and videos via their own mobile devices including smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Bye Bye Air Tran Airways

Southwest Airlines will officially complete its integration of AirTran Airways tonight, just a little more than four years since announcing plans to acquire AirTran –

The last AirTran flight 001 lands at Tampa International Airport just before midnight tonight and this will be the last ever AirTran arrival.

There are some that will be glad, for many however it is a sad sad day. Scores of customer are not so happy to see the vaulted AirTran brand swallowed whole by Southwest.

In the two and a bit decades of existence, AirTran built up a significant presence within the U.S. aviation industry.

You can read about the backstory of AirTran and ValueJet on the new Airways magazine website, just click this link.

AirAsia Missing Aircraft

A major search operation into the missing AirAsia plane carrying 162 people that lost contact with ground control has been suspended for the night.

The search operation for the plane, which is believed to have gone missing while flying over the Java sea, was halted as darkness fell and will resume in the morning at 6am local time. 

The Singapore-bound plane had taken off from the provincial city of Surabaya in Indonesia, and lost contact with air traffic control at 7:24am Singaporean local time, nearly two hours after take-off.
Both countries are now conducting a major search and rescue operation for flight QZ8501, and South Korea has said it will help also.

Russian Military Jet's Too Close For Comfort

A diplomatic and aviation row has broken out between Russia and Sweden after claims that a Russian intelligence jet came close to colliding with a passenger aircraft over the Baltic Sea.

Swedish officials claim the Russian military plane had turned off its transponders in order to avoid commercial radar and that it had nearly hit another plane belonging to the Scandinavian airline SAS. However, the spokesperson for the Russian defence ministry, Major General. Igor Konashenkov,  said the two planes were never less than 42 miles apart.  Added that the military plane was flying in international airspace and operating in compliance with the rules at a safe distance from civilian air passenger routes.

He also claimed that a NATO warplane had been flying between the Russian jet and the commercial aircraft.  Micael Byden, of the Swedish Air force  described the incident as “pretty serious”,  advising that the commercial flight was immediately ordered to change course when the Russian plane was detected, he said.

Russian has a recent history of encroaching on passenger aircraft, a much more serious incident took place in March when a Russian plane, again with transponders turned off, come to within 100m of an SAS plane outside Copenhagen.

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Western countries say Russia has ramped up its military presence in the Baltic Sea after amid tensions with the West over the Ukraine conflict.  NATO also conducts air patrols over the Baltic. The Russian spokesperson said the number of flights by NATO warplanes along Russian borders has tripled in recent months.
 

Changes on Emirates A380's

Emirates, the world’s largest airline by international passenger traffic, is all set to scrap its award winning first class cabins from some of its Airbus A380’s! 

The Dubai based airline will switch to a two-class business and economy configuration from late next year on some of its superjumbos, a spokesperson confirmed on today. Emirates can fly between 489 and 519 passengers in its current thee class configuration. The two-class A380s will fly on select routes where the airline is more likely to fill economy and business class seats over its premium product.

Nuts! The Korean Row

The daughter of Korean Air's chairman has resigned from her posts at the airline after being heavily criticised over a first-class row - about nuts.

 

Cho Hyun-ah delayed a flight from New York to Incheon, South Korea, after forcing the captain to return to the gate so the most senior cabin crew member, the chief purser, could be removed from the plane. Ms Cho, who was vice president responsible for cabin service at the family-run airline, reportedly took exception to the arrival of some macadamia nuts served in a packet rather than a bowl. She called over the chief purser who, according to an earlier Korean Air statement, replied with "lies and excuses" when challenged over his crew's knowledge of inflight service procedures.

New Boss for Malaysian Airlines.

Troubled Malaysia Airlines have chosen Aer Lingus boss Christoph Mueller to be its chief executive-designate.

The Malaysian airline, which has seen its value and reputation savagely  hit by two disasters during 2014 announced a raft of senior leadership appointments during a restructuring to stave off collapse. Last month, MAS posted its worst quarterly loss since late 2011, as passenger numbers and average fare yields fell sharply.

Unusually, Mr Mueller is going to become the first ever non Malaysian native to take the head of the country's flagship carrier.  Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund and MAS's parent company, said discussions were ongoing for Mr Mueller to take up the post before 1 May 2015, but no earlier than 1 March 2015. Mr Mueller's Aer Lingus notice period ends on 1 May.

"The appointments announced today are part of efforts by the government and Khazanah to lay strong foundations for the future success of our national carrier," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said, Najib also chairs Khazanah's board of directors.

In August, MAS said it was to cut 6,000 staff as part of a recovery plan, with the airline becoming completely state-owned.

 

Air Fares Set to Fall in 2015

Stand by for a fare reduction revolution!  According to travel experts the average return fares for air passengers will be 5.1% lower next year compared with 2014!

 

Major airlines are expected to cut and reduce fares early next year thanks to higher profits as a result of cheaper fuel and faster global growth.  IATA - The International Air Transport Association, expects the global airline industry to report a record $25bn (£15.9bn) profit next year.

The Global aviation body also increased its profit forecast for 2014 to $19.9bn, up from its earlier prediction of $18bn - good news for all, including the travelling public. 

"The industry outlook is improving. The global economy continues to recover and the fall in oil prices should strengthen the upturn next year," said IATA director general Tony Tyler.

The last time the industry reported a profit margin close to IATA's prediction for next year was in 2010, when it reached 3.1%.

However, Mr Tyler said the 3.2% margin did not leave much room for deterioration before profits were hit, pointing out that political unrest, conflicts and some weak regional economies all posed a risk.

IATA - The industry body represents 250 airlines, accounting for 84% of global air traffic say the state of the global industry varies dramatically according to location. North American airlines expected to see profit margins of 6% next year, by far the strongest performance globally.

In contrast, European airlines are only expected to see profit margins of 1.8%, which the association blames on "high regulatory costs, infrastructure inefficiency and onerous taxation". The UK for example has the most heavily taxed airline industry than almost any other country in the world. 

The recent fall in the oil price is set to provide a welcome boost to airline's profits through cheaper fuel prices. Brent crude oil has fallen more than 40% since June, and today slipped below $66 a barrel! 

However passengers will have to wait to see the benefit of the falling fuel prices as the vast majority of airlines buy fuel in bulk in advance for a set price - or hedging as it is known, so it could be a while before the fare come tumbling.