Airlines, Airplanes, Airports

Gas

The price per barrel of gas hit $136 today as gas prices have soared other the past few months. When thinking about the price of gas, and how much an airplane uses to fly, the conclusion seems to be that airlines prices are going to sky rocket.

Speaking of rockets, what will happen to space travel? Entrepreneurs are finding business in space and as you have seen, Virgin Galactic will be asking for 20 million dollars, but since gas prices have gone up, will prices soar as well? Does that mean that space travel will be canceled or set to an extremely high price?

Once again Virgin appears. In late February Branson was able to have one of his 747’s fly from Heathrow to Holland running with one engine on biofuel. This is the future and if we do not act fast and do something, flight travel may end and the world’s form of transportation could come to an end.

My blog being called Airlines, Airplanes, and Airports, should have some information about airports. So with the help of Patrick Smith from ask the pilot lets lay down some background information about the biggest and best airports around the world.

If you are a traveler looking to avoid the worst lines and most packed airports, you might want to avoid Atlanta. The busiest airport in the world, trafficking about a bit more than 76 million people a year. This number may jump is Delta buys Northwest and makes Atlanta the busiest hub in the world. Surprisingly enough next up O’Hare with 66.5 million people going through it every year. Then we get international and move into Heathrow and Haneda. Finally at number 5 LAX rules the gate to the Asian empire. Then with www.worldairportawards.com we find out that Hong Kong int. is most comforting. Runner ups are Singapore’s Changi and Seoul int. The final two to make the top five are Munich’s and Kuala Lumpur’s trailing behind.

Moving on to a, in my opinion, better trusted network, Forbes. They also agree that Hong Kong is numero uno, and Changi’s following, then Incheon, Munich, and the only change in the lineup, Osaka killing off Dubai int., Kuala Lumpur, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and barely making it, Sidney.

Next time you travel try to make it fuel efficient and make it coincide with a non-busy airport that is a great place to relax when your American Airlines flight has been delyed…again.

Video of planes landing at Hong Kong, and one at the old Hong Kong airport.

Since I am Canadian, the major airlines in my life have been Canadian Airlines and Air Canada. I did not spend a lot of time on Canadian since it got bought out when I was young, but Air Canada has been there through bankruptcy and through turbulence. Over the years I see how Air Canada keeps on cutting its budget and how it does not care about its passengers. I remember flying Canadian and after watching the videos I can conquer with anybody that Canadian will always be better than Air Canada.

When looking at Canadian’s fleet, it is beautiful for its time. Te fleet consisted of Airbus A320’s, Boeing’s 737s, 767s, 747s, DC-10s/30s, and many small propeller used in regional service. Even though they only lasted 14 years they never had a fatality.

Now compare this to Air Canada. When I looked for their historical fleet, it was completely disorganized on their website. Some of the airplanes they used were acquired from Canadian Airlines. The Lockheed Tristar was taken out of service in 1996, the Fokker F28 was retired in 2004, the DC-9s were put down in 2002, Boeing 747s not acquired from Canadian were retired by 2004.

When I asked my parents who they thought were better they immediately responded to Canadian. What I liked, though it hurt me, was that part of the reason they went bankrupt was partially because of their excellent service.

When watching the videos below please enjoy and feel the pain we Canadian supporters feel.

PLEASE leave questions or ideas for me to write about because I am running out of ideas and I would love it if I could get some ideas that you guys are interested in. The great thing is, you do not do any work, I do the research and I answer the question.

VLJ, short for very light jet, may be the new way to travel. The VLJ’s have a range around 2000 kilometers which is great for business people wanting to travel to bordering states or countries. The VLJ’s might replace regional jets so that the destination points increase and might open a door to air taxi service. There are many VLJ’s such as the Eclipse 500, the Adam 700, the Embraer Phenom 100, and the Cessna Mustang. These planes prices range from 1.5 to 3 million dollars. Most of these planes come with a bathroom service but on the Eclipse 500 there is the choice of a bathroom, a sixth seat, or a beverage area. The problem with these planes is that they only carry around 4-7 passengers.

Even though these great things are happening were come to the cost of fuel. The world is running low on it and prices are becoming steep. My hypothesis is that airlines will begin to merge and traveling will become a lot more expensive. Scientists have started looking for biofuels that Virgin and Richard Branson have looked into and plan to start using biofuels with 747’s by the end of 2008. The problem is as more airlines are created, more planes are built. This causes pollution and might cause and end to flying. When we look at space travel it is hard to believe it will happen with so much concern for oil.

One amazing thing is even though there is a lot of demand in private air travel in Central America, there is no air taxi service.

So let’s say a plane costs 2 million dollar and resale price is 1 million. Then the whole price costs 1 million and after flying for ten years the price you make up is greater and better.

I feel this post was not great, so if you are checking out my blog leave a comment on what I should writer about or a question that I could answer.

Thx to wikipedia for information.

Delta Airlines is moving up to the top of the flying world. Delta not only may be becoming the world’s biggest and probably most important airline, but they also care about their passengers and their comfort.

On Delta’s new and old 767’s and 777’s they will be replacing the crappy seats we see today and put in awesome Cozy Suites, which give a passenger a bigger seat with more leg space, YOUR own arm rests, which means no more arm rest wars, and televisions in the back of every seat. If you have not passed out by now, and you are on the verge of it, let me remind you that this is in economy seating. After all this great news there is more, everyone gets a headrest that curves to your sides so you do not end up sleeping on some strangers shoulder.  Are you tired of letting someone out into the aisle? Well now you don’t have to, the seats fold up so you can stand right at your seats. All this cool, technological stuff should be installed by the end of 2010.

Now compare all this to your crappy American Airlines. On American the seating is so cramped and small that you are almost like sitting on top the other person. Cozy Suites tries to make your airline travel as pleasant as possible. I believe American’s goal is to make sure that your trip will be screwed up as much as possible.

Cozy Suites has been working on this plan for seven years. Cozy Suites is part of Thompson Solutions, they have been working closely with Delta and plan to work with Emirates, Virgin, and Swiss Int. in the future.

If this is to come in two years, imagine what will happen in twenty years. Maybe the now business class will become the new economy class.

Thanks to Wikipedia, Wired Magazine, and Jeanne LeBlanc for providing the information.