Passengers on a Qantas 747-400 got to try out emergency oxygen masks yesterday when the cabin depressurized as a chunk of the cargo bay blew off the airplane. The flight, QF 30, operates from London to Hong Kong to Melbourne, and it was on that second leg when the accident occurred. The pilot put the jumbo jet down in Manila, at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, where there were no injuries reported among the more than 300 passengers and crew.
Leave it to an Aussie to be totally rational about the wild ride:
There was a terrific boom and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into first and the oxygen masks dropped down. It was absolutely terrifying, but I have to say everyone was very calm.
People were so relaxed that flight attendants were actually working the aisles wearing portable oxygen masks, which totally impresses us.
After landing in Manila, passengers deplaned for a bit then got back on another aircraft that was specifically sent to pick them up. Hope there were free cocktails!
V Australia doesn't make its inaugural flight to the United States until December, but that won't be enough, it seems. The long-haul carrier has applied with the Australian government to fly the Sydney-Johannesburg route, starting October 2009.
The flights, currently only available on Qantas or South African Airways, would be the first foray into Africa for the start-up. It spilled its plans in a governmental filing:
V Australia proposes to commence services between Sydney and Johannesburg with five weekly services with effect from October 2009. V Australia will operate these services utilizing 361 seat B777-300ER aircraft.
After nearly a decade, Qantas is bringing back in-flight cigarette sales on international flights. Though the carrier isn't allowed to advertise smokes, it can and will start stacking them prominently on top of duty free carts as they trundle down the aisles.
Obviously, this has the anti-tobacco lobby more than upset. Says the head of one anti-smoking group:
Retail tobacco display is a powerful form of advertising, especially in association with a highly respected brand name like Qantas, and research shows it normalizes and encourages young people to smoke.
Rising fuel costs are hitting Down Under airlines like Qantas and LCC Virgin Blue hard too. Things are bad enough that the Australian press is now reporting on all kinds of ideas the two airlines have to decrease flying weight and therefore decrease fuel consumption.
Virgin Blue's ideas include the less-than-appealing prospect of carrying "just enough" fuel, replacing brakes with different models that use lighter parts and reducing how much water they carry for the toilets and wash basins.
Qantas is thinking along the lines of lighter knives and forks, lighter seats and even meal carts that weigh less. Perhaps it'd just be easier if they stopped letting all those passengers get on board?
We're still months away from V Australia's inaugural flight, but that won't stop the big V from shaking things up. Richard Branson's latest carrier apparently isn't scared of a little healthy competition.
While we were enjoying Independence Day, V Australia was announcing new routes. Brisbane to Los Angeles will start on March 1, 2009 and will operate three days a week. Seats in the back of the plane will start at A$2,087 ($2,006)--about a cool A$1,000 less than the price of the same trip on Qantas.
Even the comfy business class seats are going for less than the country's oldest carrier. But hey, when you're facing high fuel costs you got to do what you got to do, even if you aren't rockin' the new A380.
Qantas doesn't plan to let V Australia steal away its customers when Richard Branson's newest airline takes flight December 15. So the old-line Aussie carrier is hyping some great fares on its A380 flights between LA and both Melbourne and Sydney.
Qantas says it's selling tickets for as little as $380 round-trip on flights departing between November 2 and December 8. But as far as we can tell, those super-cheap tickets are already gone.
We did find an LAX-Melbourne round trip in November for $1,215. Not less than 400 bucks, but that's certainly not bad! If you're willing to spend a bit more, A380 service between the US and Oz starts on October 20.
Aussie LCC Jetstar is talking up its new flights into Indonesia, after a week of complaints about its decision to switch its Japanese route to land in the Gold Coast instead of Brisbane.
Trying to put that controversy behind them, Jetstar is crowing about new routes running from Perth to Bali and Perth to Jakarta. The Western Australia to Indonesia route is a pretty busy one, and getting tickets at the discount fare of A$179 ($168, one way) is a pretty good deal.
But Jetstar does seem to be forgetting one thing. The LCC's parent company Qantas already said it would spin these routes to Jetstar as part of a cost-cutting drive. So flying into Bali is really just a consolation prize, right?
The newest airline to become the proud owner of some A380s looks to be Qantas, with its first 20 super-jumbos currently being fitted out in Hamburg. They're getting one now and two more by December, with the others to follow "soon."
The surprise is that the Flying Kangaroo is planning to use the new plane on the Melbourne to Los Angeles route--everybody was expecting it would be used to fly to London. Qantas has apparently decided otherwise.
A non-stop Melbourne-LAX flight will make the Qantas route look a lot more enticing than main rival United, or at least that's the plan. We're wondering how the giant jet will stack up against V Australia's 777 service from Sydney.
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