Obama ditches “Air Obama” for American Airlines’ MD-80

Barack Obama, the President-elect for USA, traded his “Air Obama” or “O-Force One” (Boeing 757) that was used during the campaign for a chartered American Airlines Boeing Super-80 or MD-80. The aircraft was recently used to fly him from Chicago to Washington DC for his White House meetings.
Great advertisement for American Airlines
From [...]

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V Australia postpones Launch

V Australia, Virgin Blue’s long-haul offshoot, was supposed to launch its service from Sydney to Los Angeles on December 15th, but due to the strike at Boeing headquarters has forced the launch until February of next year!
The airline has suspended advanced sale of tickets for travel December 15 2008 to February 28th 2009.
The strike is [...]

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Boeing vs Airbus reasons to strike on Business Week

BusinessWeek has an article today on the employee situations at Airbus and Boeing.
The article summary is such (please do read it with the interesting comments) -There are two companies A and B
Company A

Struggling Financially
Average raise for employees this year – 1.5%
Plans to eliminate 1 in 5 jobs

Company B

Recently offered 11% raise over the next [...]

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Merger Update: British Airways and Iberia Airlines in merger talks

+ Higher oil prices have driven airlines to different solutions like capacity reduction, merger related synergies, airfare increase, charging for the usual freebies, etc.
British Airways and Spain’s flag carrier Iberia (or Iberia, Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A. ) are deep in merger talks with Iberia “have taken direct/indirect 10% stake in British rival”. [...]

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Middle East – Where airlines don’t care about saving money!

All over the world – in Europe, Asia*, Americas, Africa and Australia, airlines are struggling against rising fuel costs, trying to find opportunities to cut costs and make more money. But there is one region where fuel is not a concern and money is not an issue, the middle east. Airlines in middle east – [...]

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Jet Fuel: Greener Future Ahead?

Lufthansa, Europe’s second largest airline. has announced plans to mix biofuels with conventional jet kerosene as part of their environmental strategy. Main points from their announcement -

Lufthansa intends to use as much as 10% biofuel (made from non-food sources, not algae) by 2020.
They also aim to cut carbon dioxide emissions per km flown by 25% [...]

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Boeing – More Dreamliner Delays?

BusinessWeek has an article on the new delays.

Boeing 787 Deliveries will not start until late 2009 (or later)
The deliveries were already 10 months behind schedule
Customers are unhappy, and are likely to start talks regarding financial compensations (including International Lease Finance Corporation, world’s largest aircraft lessor by value, with 74 plane orders, Qantas Airways with [...]

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