Tag: Emirates View All Tags
Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Dubai Travel / DXB / Emirates / → All Tags
Plane-Spot In Private From Dubai's JW Marriott Hotel
As much as we would have loved to have a video of a plane landing over the JW Marriott Hotel in Dubai in this story, it seems as though there is a serious dearth of photos and videos from plane spotters at DXB-Dubai International Airport. So let us then recommend a spot at which to make some: the aforementioned JW Marriott Hotel.
By requesting a room facing the runways, which usually run around $250 per night, you will get for yourself a truly awesome view of takeoffs and landings at the neighboring airport. The hotel sits at the end of a runway, so you won't feel as though you are sleeping at the airport, and it's luxurious enough to banish all thoughts of airport concessions. The key, however, is in asking for that runway-facing room without seeming suspicious.
Tags: Middle East Travel / Dubai Travel / Emirates / → All Tags
Emirates' Air Pass Gets Us Thinking About Arabian Nights
There's something enticing about the Arabian Air Pass that Emirates has just launched. We've always considered Dubai little more than a convenient hub for long-haul flights, but the exotic-sounding Arabian Air Pass is giving us some new ideas.
Obviously not pleased with Dubai's stepping-stone status, Emirates wants everyone to vacation in the Middle East and not continue on to Europe or Asia. The air pass deal means you can get cheap flights from Dubai to a dozen different cities in the region, including Cairo, Doha, Muscat and Damascus. Some flights are just $50 one-way (Doha or Muscat, for example) and longer flights are $150 each way (think Cairo or Damascus).
There are few strings attached, of course: you have to return to Dubai after your Middle Eastern jaunt and you can only get your air pass fares this cheap if you've paid more than $500 for a return ticket to Dubai from wherever you're starting. You need to buy all your tickets at once and there's a limit of six one-ways per person.
Related Stories:
· Arabian Air Pass [Official Site]
· Emirates Offers Low-Cost Air Pass [NY Times]
· Emirates Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: cgsheldon]
Tags: New Routes / A380 / Emirates / Airbus / Toronto / → All Tags
A380 Continues To Conquer The World, But Still Has Leaky Sink
When we last left the biggest bird in the sky, The A380, she was looking to welcome her one-millionth passenger aboard Singapore Airlines. Now she’s looking to continue her world dominance, by initiating service from Toronto to Dubai three times a week starting in June thanks to Emirates. Hopefully the citizens of Canada can provide some life into the Middle East party zone, because all we here about it lately is more and more bad news.
To handle the big beast, Toronto Pearson International Airport had to fix up some of its infrastructure. Over the last 10 years the airport had been sprucing things up, including strengthening and widening the runway. They’ve also got two new double-decker gates that can handle the unloading of almost 500 passengers and their 1,000 pieces of carry on luggage.
Tags: Airlines / Air Berlin / Emirates / What Recession / → All Tags
Some Airlines Say, "What Crisis?"
We thought it's all doom and gloom for airlines. We were wrong. There are airlines out there who haven't heard the words global economic recession.
German low-cost carrier Air Berlin is one of them. They're out there trying to hire three to four hundred new flight attendants, while tons of other airlines are getting rid of them (so there should be plenty of good candidates).
And perennial over-achiever Emirates is thinking along the same lines. They've announced they'll increase capacity by 14% this year, although they do concede that this increase is lower than it's been in other years. At least we know a couple of more-likely-to-be-recession-safe airlines we can book some flights with.
Related Stories:
· Capacity Increase of 14% For Emirates [eTravel]
· Air Berlin Recruiting More Cabin Crew [Peanuts]
· Thousands to Get the Shaft From Limping Airlines [Jaunted]
[Photos: Andrei Dimofte & caribb]
Tags: No Sleep Till Dubai / Emirates / A380 / A350 / → All Tags
Emirates Pilots Can't Sleep; We Hope A350 Solves Their Problem
Had enough A380 news this year? We think we've almost reached our fill of tales of the new superjumbo, although the complaints from Emirates pilots that the plane runs so quietly they can't sleep definitely amused us. Apparently the sounds of screaming babies, flushing toilets and call buttons being pushed is no longer drowned out by engine noise and the pilots are not impressed.
The overly-quiet problem aside, we think we're ready to move on to the A350. It's the first Airbus plane to be largely constructed from carbon fiber reinforced plastic and should compete against Boeing's 777s and 787s.
Emirates is starting to look ahead to these planes too. They've said they expect to see the final design this February and have ordered 70 of the aircraft already. Hopefully the new design makes the A350 noisy enough for the pilots to sleep. And yep, we know that sentence doesn't make sense--obviously Emirates pilots are a special breed.
Related Stories:
· Emirates Air Expects A350 Design By Feb '09 [CNN]
· A380 Is Too Quiet Say Sleepless Pilots [The Age]
· Emirates coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: hartlandmartin]
Tags: A380 / Emirates / Dubai Travel / Australia Travel / → All Tags
Emirates Superjumbos Aim For Down Under
With the Aussie version of the A380 now flying Australia to US routes, the big guns in A380s, Emirates, are throwing their jumbo-sized hat into the same ring.
Yep, more flights heading Down Under are likely to be flown in the A380, if the Emirates plan pans out. The first route would be a Dubai-Sydney-Auckland flight, with Dubai to Melbourne routes planned for later on in 2009.
We’re not complaining about (hopefully) a bit more comfort on these long-haul routes. But since we found out that one A380 is just like another the excitement’s definitely died down a bit. In fact we’re probably ready for a new generation plane right about now.
Related Stories:
· Emirates Push for Aussie A380 Routes [The Australian]
· Qantas A380 Takes Off, Flies Just Like the Other Ones [Jaunted]
· A380 coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Ammar Abd Rabbo]
Tags: Movie Travel / Movies / Emirates / Airlines / Travel Advertising / → All Tags
Interactive Advertising Travel: Emirates Wants You to Star in Their Movie
Emirates, the Dubai-based luxury airline with onboard shower spas and private first-class suites that are bigger than our apartment, has rolled out an ambitious interactive marketing campaign to promote the launch of its new Dubai-to-Los Angeles service. In honor of the Middle East's newest bridge to Tinseltown, the airline is making a short film, and it wants you to star in it. Entitled The Exposure of Tom King, it's a comedic thriller that - surprise surprise - plays on the theme of celebrity, with appearances by an actor consumed with vanity, a shameless paparazzo, a conniving blackmailer, and her bumbling boyfriend. The twist here is that the film has already been shot, only without actors.
Tags: A380 / Airlines / Qantas / Emirates / Singapore Airlines / → All Tags
My A380's Better Than Yours
With Qantas finally taking delivery of its first, long-awaited A380 yesterday, the battle of business class in the super-jumbos is really starting to heat up.
Over the weekend, a totally biased review from an Australian journalist who got a free seat on the A380's maiden flight into Sydney claimed that Qantas's layout in business class is the best because it "provides ... the biggest sense of space."
If space is not everything, then the other airlines already flying the A380 might actually be the winners. Emirates has a business cabin layout that gives everyone privacy plus a personal minibar. And Singapore Airlines has the world's widest seat, plus double beds, though you're not allowed to get up to any fun in them.
Related Stories:
· Which Airline Has the Best A380? [The Australian]
· A380 Planes: Flying Kangaroo is Next in Line [Jaunted]
· No Sex, Please: We're on Singapore Airlines [Jaunted]
[Photo: NguyenDai]
Tags: Emirates / A380 / Airplanes / → All Tags
Superjumbo Travel: Emirates Grounds Its A380
Is all not rosy on board the much-anticipated A380 with showers, of Emirates Airlines fame? After just a few weeks, Emirates stopped flying its A380 due to an electrical fault this week.
The carrier is hoping to start flying the superjumbo again by the end of the week, but even then the airline is cutting its use on the Dubai to New York route from three times to twice a week so that they'll be more time for training flights and engineering work.
Either that, or the bathrooms at Emirates HQ have hit a snag and they need the plane there more often so that staff can take showers.
Related Stories:
· Emirates Stops Flights of Its First Airbus A380 [Telegraph]
· Emirates and the In-Flight Shower [Jaunted]
[Photo: Telstar]
Tags: Emirates / A380 / In-Flight Showers / Videos / → All Tags
In-Flight Shower Travel: Inside Emirates' Airborne Spa
Cranky Flier Brett Snyder got a sneak peak at Emirates' new A380 recently, and this quick video explores the one thing everyone is wondering about: How's the shower?!
It doesn't look too big, but you know it'll be nice and clean: The airline plans to have two dedicated "shower attendants" on every flight to clean up after every use and restock the towels and amenities.
We're willing to look past how absolutely ridiculous that is simply because it's a shower. With heated floors. On a plane.
Related Stories:
· Flying the Emirates A380 in Business and First [Cranky Flier]
· Emirates and the In-Flight Shower [Jaunted]
Tags: Magazines / In-Flight Entertainment / Emirates / Green Travel / → All Tags
This Week at Emirates: Whither The In-Flight Magazine?
We've never been huge fans of in-flight magazines but they do tend to while away a good half an hour or so, or even more on long flights when we're fighting boredom. But flavor-of-the-month Emirates, in their eternal wisdom, has now decided to ditch its in-flight magazine completely.
Apparently this will save them one ton of weight per flight--we get it, lower fuel consumption and less emissions--so they're crowing about both cost and environment savings. Environment? This from the airline which thinks an in-flight shower is a necessity for some passengers?
Problem number two: What will passengers do instead of reading the in-flight mag? Stare at the screen in front of them even after watching all the movies? Hopefully not chat on their cell phones for an extra half hour.
Related Stories:
· Emirates Ditch Their In-Flight Magazine [Travel Rants]
· In-Flight Cell Phones: Vibrate Only on Emirates, Please [Jaunted]
· Emirates and the In-Flight Shower [Jaunted]
[Photo: TelstarLogistics]
Tags: Cell Phones / In-Flight Cell Phones / Emirates / → All Tags
In-Flight Cell Phones: Vibrate Only on Emirates, Please
While carriers in the United States are still working to get in-flight WiFi installed, in the Middle East it's all about cell phones. Emirates is leading the way with plans to add in-flight service on its entire fleet of more than 100 planes.
Does that mean someone will be yakking all the way from London to Dubai on your next flight? Not necessarily, a spokesman says, citing trial flights earlier this year:
A certain on-board etiquette has developed, where passengers try to stay quiet to avoid being seen as intrusive. A pre-flight video is shown on aircraft that use the technology, urging passengers to keep their phones on silent or vibrate mode.
Per minute charges of about $4 will also help keep calls short. But not all passengers are buying the idea that cell phone users will be the most polite people on the plane. Says one internet commenter:
Perhaps they need an area for these people who need to be contacted even though they can't do anything in mid-air. Could I suggest on the wing?
Related Stories:
· Emirates Presses Ahead with In-Flight Mobiles [Telegraph]
· Ryanair to Begin Tests of In-Flight Mobiles [Telegraph]
· In-Flight Cell Phones: Not Great for So Many Reasons [Jaunted]
[Photo: pouwerkerk]
