Year: <span>2020</span>

A photo circulating on Twitter shows the sad fate of the first Airbus A380 to be retired from the Air France fleet. In February, the aircraft was flown to Knock Airport in Northwest Ireland, having last flown for the airline on December 31st, 2019.

Earlier this year, Air France revealed that it would be retiring its entire Airbus A380 fleet immediately as it dealt with the COVID-19 impact on aviation. However, the aircraft type was already on its way out from the fleet before the crisis started, with F-HPJB leading the way a year ago. One year on from its final flight with the airline, the aircraft is now in a much different state.

Fuselage intact

Remarkably, the fuselage of the first Air France Airbus A380 to be retired appears to be still intact. However, that’s about all that remains attached to the aircraft. Photos show that many vital parts have already been salvaged from the aircraft, likely to be used as spares on other aircraft.

The aircraft sits jacked up on breeze blocks where its landing gear has been removed. Its vertical stabilizer lays on the ground, covering what appears to be wingtips and perhaps flaps. Some slides have been removed from underneath the upper emergency exits, and all of the aircraft’s engines have been removed.

Retiring the giant of the skies

As mentioned, earlier this year Air France decided to withdraw the Airbus A380 from use immediately. It had been intended that the fleet of ten aircraft would be retired from the airline by the end of 2022. Given that the airline didn’t foresee a need for the aircraft before they would leave the fleet, it didn’t make sense to keep them sitting around.

Today the fleet is scattered at various sites, including the Spanish aircraft graveyard Teruel and in Tarbes. However, it may not be the end of the line for the giant of the skies just yet. While the second hand Airbus A380 market never took off, there is hope that some former Air France A380s could find a buyer.

Source https://simpleflying.com/air-france-first-scrapped-a380/

Hong Kong made waves with one of the strictest COVID-19-related quarantines in the world. Amid a recent growth in the number of cases in Hong Kong, all foreign arrivals must quarantine for a whopping 21 days, extending the previously-mandated 14-day quarantine by a week.

Hong Kong quarantine requirement grows

Hong Kong announced amid the Christmas holiday that all travelers who are coming from places outside of China must undergo a compulsory 21-day quarantine in a designated quarantine hotel. Passengers, who otherwise have to comply with strict entry protocols, have to now work with this new requirement.

The 21-day quarantine requirement started on December 25th and was a near last-minute decision that has thrown things into chaos in the city for travelers. Passengers have to make their arrangements and show compliance with entry restrictions before boarding their flights.

Hong Kong has seen a recent spike in the number of cases. While the numbers themselves have been pretty low, the city has taken a strict approach when it comes to COVID-19.

While other locations have turned to COVID-19 testing before or after, or both, as a means to allow essential travel, Hong Kong has resisted this and maintained a quarantine requirement. While other places in the world have shortened mandated quarantines, Hong Kong is doing the opposite.

Hong Kong further isolates itself

Hong Kong has joined Australia and New Zealand as isolated localities that are off-limits without severe quarantine and most foreigners.Advertisement:

Previously, the city was well-known for banning airlines that crossed certain thresholds by transporting COVID-positive passengers, either knowingly or unknowingly, in a certain period of time. This precluded those airlines from flying passengers to Hong Kong, though they could still fly passengers out of Hong Kong. British Airways faced a ban through Christmas.

A worsening situation for airlines

The already few passengers who are flying to Hong Kong now will be further reduced. The city used to be one of the most important destinations in the world for business travelers and was also a hub for leisure travelers. While the city still has an important financial impact globally, much of that is due to airlines that help keep the city connected to other financial centers, such as New York and London.

Airlines will likely see a fall-off in bookings. At the current rate Hong Kong is going, it will likely be one of the last places to reopen and may mandate proof of vaccinations for inbound arrivals, similar to what other countries do with other vaccines, like yellow fever.

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s hometown carrier, will face the brunt of this. The airline has already seen one of the worst, if not the worst year, in its long history, and it currently shows few if any signs of abating, with limited support from the government.

While passenger carriers, including Cathay Pacific, have turned to cargo-only flights, it is still not enough for airlines to turn a profit. Even “preighters” (passenger jets being used as temporary freighters) have not helped airlines. These aircraft cannot carry the large, heavy, and expensive cargo on the main deck that would otherwise earn cargo carriers millions of dollars in a year.

Source https://simpleflying.com/hong-kong-21-day-quarantine/

Delta Air Lines has signed a new long-term catering contract with DO & CO. The catering agreement, which will go into effect from March of 2021, will cover all of Delta’s daily departures out of Detroit.

Delta’s partnership with DO & CO

Delta Air Lines and DO & CO signed a long-term catering contract agreement that will go into effect on March 16th, 2021. The agreement will make DO & CO the airline’s sole hub caterer out of Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) on all of Delta’s short and long-haul flights for the next 10 years.

DO & CO billed the measure as showing the catering company’s strength and is a decisive milestone in the company’s US expansion plans. DO & CO will be able to, and appears to be gearing up to, participate in Delta’s upcoming hub tenders in 2021.

DO & CO Catering

DO & CO has partnerships with over 60 airlines around the world. This includes some of the world’s leading airlines, such as British Airways, Emirates, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, and more. DO & CO also provides on-the-ground catering at select lounges, including Lufthansa’s First Class lounge. DO & CO also offers a Flying Chef service. This can be found on carriers like Turkish Airlines and Austrian Airlines.

DO & CO is well-known as one of the world’s best catering companies for inflight services.

Is full inflight catering coming back?

Delta has been one of the most conservative airlines when it comes to meal service. On domestic flights, including premium transcontinental flights, in business class, Delta is only serving a snack box. This snack box, previously offered for sale in economy, can also be found on domestic and short-haul international Delta and Delta Connection flights in premium cabins that would previously have offered a meal service.

The one set of flights where Delta is offering a more substantial catering service is on long-haul operations. As Simple Flying got a chance to review Delta One between São Paulo and Atlanta, Delta has consolidated meal services with a focus on efficiency and minimizing contact between flight attendants and passengers. All meals are served on a single tray, and not a long, drawn-out meal service such as was previously offered on long-haul operations in Delta One.

Delta does not seem to be changing its course. The airline has extended seat blocking through March 2021, though it is likely that will be closer to when Delta ends its policy of blocking seats onboard aircraft. It is thus likely to expect a full meal service will not be on offer in March.

However, this could be the start of Delta upgrading its long-haul international meal services. Before the crisis hit, Delta Air Lines launched a new economy experience for long-haul flights. With a more efficient meal service likely to be around in March and beyond for at least the foreseeable future, Delta seems to be pivoting to upgrading those services, so it can compete effectively on long-haul routes and keep lucrative business travelers coming back.

Detroit is one of Delta’s gateways to Asia, with flights to Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Paris, Nagoya, and more. So, with this new catering contract, those flights will likely benefit with enhanced catering compared to other hubs.

Time will reveal what Delta will do with this DO & CO partnership, but this is something to look out for in the future.

Source https://simpleflying.com/delta-spring-catering/

Passenger numbers in the US are growing again after a lull in the post-Thanksgiving weeks. On Friday, December 18th, and Saturday, December 19th, numbers in the US again topped one million in a day. This is indicative of a Christmas holiday that will be relatively strong for airlines.

The Christmas travel surge

Despite warnings from public health officials, Americans appear ready to take to the skies. The TSA recorded two consecutive days of over one million passengers traveling in a given day. The official data leading up to the weekend was as follows:

• Wednesday, December 16th: 641,966 passengers
• Thursday, December 17th: 846,934 passengers
• Friday, December 18th: 1,066,747 passengers
• Saturday, December 19th: 1,073,563 passengers

These numbers are just the lead-up to what is turning out to be a busy travel period in the United States. In the coming weeks, passengers will most definitely top one million travelers again, especially as it gets closer to Christmas and then New Years’ Day. Passenger numbers will again be high as people head home after the holiday season.

Much of this travel is VFR, that is, visiting friends and relatives. People tend to go home for Christmas and spend time with family. Those who are going on leisure vacations are likely heading to sun or ski destinations. Now is an opportune time for skiing, as seen by JetBlue’s arrival in Telluride this weekend.

The post-Thanksgiving lull

After a strong Thanksgiving, travel numbers slipped back into the sub 900,000 per day mark. Traditionally, there are still healthy traveler numbers between Thanksgiving and Christmas as people start to head out for winter vacations. This year, it appears that most people held off from taking those trips and instead waited until Christmas before boarding a plane.

Christmas is usually another good time of year for airlines. While most people are not flying transatlantic to places in Europe due to the cold weather, they are doing a lot of domestic flights, which is why airlines tend to lay on more domestic flights as the holiday season rolls around.

What comes next for airlines?

The Christmas holiday is a reminder that the first quarter of 2021 will be rough. Spring break, which normally helps airlines in March, will look a lot different this year, and airlines will need to monitor demand to see what happens.

There is a lot of hope for more widespread vaccinations heading into the summer holidays. Airlines want to move beyond the public health emergency, and they hope vaccinations will help do that. Plenty of airlines eagerly began to ship the vaccine around the country after the FDA certified the vaccines for emergency use.

Early 2021 will likely see a lot of the same language from airlines (cash burn is still high, travel demand remains low, restrictions still hinder most people’s ability to travel abroad, business travel is still far below normal, and the crisis is still unprecedented).

Source https://simpleflying.com/christmas-passenger-surge/

Boeing’s 787 ecoDemonstrator aircraft has entered service with Etihad, following its delivery in October. Boeing used the aircraft to test environmental and noise reducing initiatives before its delivery.

Many expected the 2020s to be the decade where the main focus in aviation was on the industry’s sustainability and driving down emissions. While airlines are still extremely focused on such goals, health and safety have become the central theme of aviation this year. One airline demonstrating its commitment to reducing its environmental footprint is Etihad. This year, the airline operated special flights with another of its 787-10s, known as the Greenliner.

The ecoDemonstrator is flying for Etihad

Etihad took delivery of the former Boeing 787-10 ecoDemonstrator in October. However, the aircraft has so far not been taking to the skies for the Abu Dhabi-based carrier. The aircraft took its first flight post-testing on November 25th as EY77 from Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam.

It was only today the airline officially inaugurated the aircraft. The aircraft features a plaque commemorating its role, while some of its testing logos remain on the fuselage. Additionally, the airline had written ‘From Abu Dhabi for the World’ on the side. At the time of writing, the aircraft was operating a return leg from Milan.

“As the first 787- 10 to take part in the ecoDemonstrator programme, this very special aircraft stands testament to the innovation and drive for sustainable aviation that forms a core element of Etihad’s values and long-term vision”

What was the ecoDemonstrator?

The Boeing ecoDemonstrator is the American manufacturer’s program of testing new technologies to improve its aircraft’s efficiency. Many aircraft have been used for the program, from a Boeing 737 to the mighty 777. However, Boeing typically uses a customer’s aircraft rather than one of its own.

In the case of the Etihad 787-10 ecoDemonstrator, one of the main focuses was on the noise produced by the aircraft. As such, 214 microphones were attached to the aircraft’s fuselage, with an array of over 1,000 more microphones laid out over a Montana runway.

One of the tests placed a particular focus on the noise generated by an aircraft’s landing gear. Bright orange fairings were placed on the landing gear, giving them an aerofoil shape. The aircraft was then flown low over the array of microphones.

While the flight data is yet to be revealed, onlookers said that they noticed a reduction in noise with the farings. This is a crucial finding if confirmed, as landing gear accounts for 30% of the noise generated by an aircraft coming into land.

Source https://simpleflying.com/etihad-boeing-787-ecodemonstrator-inaugurated/