best airline?

[Perry]

Wonder if they cared, even if they noticed?
.

[CJ]

I wonder if the passengers on the A320 that went down in USA Hudson river managed to obey the no walking area signs?

Wonder if they cared, even if they noticed?
.

I think dents on the wings probably didn't cause that much extra damage

[Perry]

Air NZ's Rob Fyfe Named CEO of The Year
21/10/2010

Air New Zealand's chief executive Rob Fyfe was named
chief executive of the year at the Centre for Asia Pacific
Aviation (CAPA) awards in Singapore last night.

Emirates was named airline of the year. The awards were
part of this year's seventh annual Asia Aviation Outlook
summit.

"Our executive of the year has been a tireless advocate
for innovation and customer orientation - two hallmarks
of Air New Zealand's recent success. For a small airline
at the end of extremely long thin routes, the carrier has
performed remarkably in the past two difficult years,"
CAPA executive chairman Peter Harbison said.

Extraordinary marketing initiatives and remarkable
products such as the new long haul economy seating
were testimony to Mr Fyfe's willingness to "have a go,"
he said.

[Wayne]

I think air NZ provide us the best air line services.

OK I'll bite - why do you think that?

[Perry]

I've had only a few international airline
experiences. Generally, I've found AirNZ
to be very good. Pacific basin carriers
vary, considerably. I've found that it
needs to be a really good deal, now,
before I fly with an airline, the cabin
crew of which have French, Bislama
or SA Portuguese as their language
mother-tongue.

I wryly recall dragging up from the
depths of my cranial compound, the
sentence: Plus petit pain, s'il vous
plait after all earlier attempts (in
English) to get some more bread
rolls had failed, abysmally. And I got
my bread rolls, too.

Thanks, Reg (my French tutor of long ago)

The New Zealand domestic routes all
seem to work well, too. AirNZ staff
are generally helpful and cheerful. Yes,
there may well be exceptions, but, over-
all, I've found them excellent.

My late wife was an 'assisted passenger,'
starting at class 3 (needing help, all the
way to and from the aircraft seat, incl-
a chairlift/forklift up, from tarmac level),
progressing to class 1 (can climb air-
stairs to aircraft and get to seat, but
cannot walk long distances). At all times
during her travels, while rehabilitating,
and afterwards, the level of attention,
care and service she received was al-
ways impeccable.

I must be a challenge to be good and
stay that way, when there's effectively
no competition, on many of the local
feeder-routes.

In discussions with staff, they have all
been complimentary of their CEO, with
specific examples given to show why
they think he's good at his job, good
to them and generally competent. For
me, when all staff praise their big boss,
that's usually a good guide as to just
how capable the incumbent is.

My own direct dealings with him confirm
it as a reward, well deserved. Especially
after the earlier Airline of the Year Award.

Air Transport World said Air New Zealand
was being recognised for its commitment
to safety and operational performance
and superb customer service that com-
bined passenger-friendly IT systems with
caring staff.

Credit where it's due.
.

[speights boy]

Quantas are very reliable,

Quantas may well be; but Qantas seems to be having a few issues this week.

[eri]

close 1 for qantas

'Reverse thrust was only available from the No 3 engine, no leading edge slats were available, there was limited aileron and spoiler control, anti-skid braking was restricted to the body landing gear only, there was limited nose wheel steering and that the nose was likely to pitch up on touchdown,'' investigators reported. The flight computer indicated that they could not apply maximum braking until the nose wheel was on the runway.
That left pilots facing the prospect of being unable to stop the plane on the length of the runway at Singapore's Changi Airport, leading to the prospect of an aerodynamic stall if the plane came in to land too slowly, or a runway overrun if it came in too fast.
After the autopilot function faltered, the pilot in command, Richard de Crespigny, elected to fly the stricken craft in manually from 1000 feet.
He managed to get the main wheels down on the runway, the damaged front wheels six seconds later and threw the Number 3 engine into maximum reverse thrust, pulling up the aircraft on the runway with just 150 metres to spare.
But the pilots could not shut down the Number 1 engine using either the emergency shut-off or inbuilt fire extinguishers as fuel continued to leak out, in the vicinity of hot brakes.
Firefighters on the ground drowned the engine in foam and managed to shut it off.
Passengers did not get off the plane for about an hour.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/4420870/Pipe-blamed-for-Qantas-incident

[speights boy]

Excellent job by the crew.

Some people pick airlines by price, some by leg room and some by type of sushi in the lounge.

I would be happy to have this flight deck crew up front on a dark and stormy night.

SB

[CJ]

Excellent job by the crew.

Some people pick airlines by price, some by leg room and some by type of sushi in the lounge.

I would be happy to have this flight deck crew up front on a dark and stormy night.

SB

Agree - stories like this and the pilot who landed in the Hudson (it still amazes me how calm he was when air traffic control went into panic) makes you feel a bit safer when you fly. Now if only the engineers could do a bit better so the pilots dont have to try so hard.

[eri]

Agree - stories like this and the pilot who landed in the Hudson (it still amazes me how calm he was when air traffic control went into panic) makes you feel a bit safer when you fly. Now if only the engineers could do a bit better so the pilots dont have to try so hard.

the hudson was a double bird strike?

the qantas a design/manufacture flaw

neither anything to do airline engineers

[whitt]

Eri beat me too it. Nothing to do with engineers.

Qantas incident was design/manufacture flaw caused by a cracked oil feeder pipe on engine. This eventually leaked and caused a fire which led to engine failing.
Official report released last week

[spurner]

With Christmas and New Year round the corner, Air Asia has at last exposed its fabulous cheap tickets for travelers. The idea is to attract a huge number of customers and shake up the market with the lowest prices on offer. This Southeast Asia low-cost carrier will have 4 times a week flights to Kuala Lumpur from Christchurch.

It has started taking bookings for the same starting the yesterday noon. The base return fare for Kuala Lumpur will cost just $423.

This has come as great news for the tourists as for the New Zealand and Southeast Asian tourism industry. However, these cheap fares come at the cost of the comfortable legroom space, and also forgoing the free lunch and choice of seats.

Tourists will have to shell out an extra $100 for these facilities. The airlines might be fitting in 377 seats in its Airbus A 330 as contrasted to 290 in a full service airline.

Fares to London are also considerably very cheap as compared to other airlines. Fares of $1190 and $4700 of the economy class and business class are way cheaper than the full service counterparts of Air Asia.

Thank goodness we finally have a serious and long-term player here that is really going to shake up the market. I'm sick of paying $2,000 for a ticket to Bangkok. I think it's going to cost half that much now. And even if one doesn't want to travel on a budget airline; Air NZ and the other airlines are really going to have to sharpen their pencils now...

http://topnews.net.nz/content/210506...ifts-travelers

[Perry]

The $1M question is where are they taking
short cuts to make the thing pay/viable?

Qantas has an unenviable reputation for
maintenance, ahhhh, 'economies.' I hope
this lot aren't the same or worse.
.

[BusyLizzy]

AIr Asia is awesome! I have used them when travelling through Asia on two different trips. My last trip I bought about 10 flights over a 5 month period for just under $600 all up. Most of these were international, between countries.

Every few months Air Asia do deals where they give away 'free' tickets - often 1,000,000 seats in one promo that runs for a few weeks. They're not really free by the time you pay departure tax, luggage, credit card free, a meal if needed, etc - but they can be damned cheap if they work out for you. They don't have movies and inflight entertainment so you need to BYO. But the flights are clean and pleasant otherwise.

With the launch last Friday, I have scored tickets from Chch - KL - Bangkok for $260. You can't beat that!

How do they do it? As I understand it, they heavily discount about 20% of seats on all flights, and charge a bit more on the rest. So .. if the timing is right for you, it's excellent!

I'm an avid fan.. but acknowledge they have down sides. Customer service is lacking at times when you need to contact them. It's OK if you have time and plenty of patience, but I would imagine it's stressful if you needed to speak to someone urgently. Out of my dozen or so flights last year, one was cancelled, and 3 were rescheduled. The cancelled one was one that I was going to throw away anyhow, so at least I managed a full refund on that one. Again, it would have been more stressful if time was limited, and plans weren't flexible. And they are very tight on the luggage weight allowance - little room for flexibility here.

I believe they have been voted Number 1 of budget airlines - not sure if it's just in Asia or worldwide. I would recommend them, and plan to continue using them.

I have always been an strong loyal support of Air NZ but they now only travel to Hong Kong (in Asia) and costs are high. Admittedly it's a nicer flight with movies, food, etc.

[Perry]

Good to have real, hands-on, first-hand
reports on a forumite's actual experiences.
I'll keep the comments in mind.
.