Plane spotting la Otopeni

Cristi — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:01:35 +0000

Dupa un an de zile, de cand tot zic ca ma duc cu Nic de la Romanian Spotters la o sesiune de spotting la Aeroportul Otopeni, am reusit sa ajungem intr-o frumoasa zi de sambata.

A fost o dupa-amiaza interesanta in care am avut parte de o varietate de avioane: Airbus, Boeing, BAE (sau AVRO), Embraer, Bombardier CRJ… si cateva Antonov-uri.

Oricum, pana la urmatoarea sesiune de plane spotting trebuie sa-mi iau o camera ceva mai buna!

Alitalia’s MD’s going to Africa. Lufthansa is buying Austrian Airlines. And some extras.

Cristi — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:30:00 +0000

It seems today it was a busy day in the airline sector. Everybody was announcing something. I will not talk about Delta’s jobs cut or British Airways “venture” with Qantas (this thing will not become reality!), but let me give you some very interesting news about Alitalia, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Aegean Airlines.

Alitalia’s MD’s are going to Africa
Alitalia will start selling the grounded planes, hopping to get some extra cash flow in this way. Most of the retired aircrafts are at least 25 years old. I don’t know how they managed to keep them in a good shape and flying but they managed it. I have my doubts now that those planes will be able to keep on flying, mostly because they will be sold to a leased company based in Africa. Then (after a full check-out and maintenance process) the company will lease the planes to a company called 1Time that is flying from Zanzibar to some cities in South Africa. So… I have my doubts those plane will resist a lot up there in the skies. (link)

New Alitalia is flying from January 12th. With some conditions of course…
The new Alitalia – Compagnia Aerea Italiana or Italian Air Company – will start operate from 12th of January 2009. Till then the Alitalia and AirOne existing planes will have to be re-branded and the new routes map will have to be announced. The antitrust EU Commission gave the OK to the new company but with some conditions. The most important one for passengers is that the new company will have to cut 10% (at least!) from the seat price (fare price without taxes and surcharges). This has been ruled because Italians showed concern about the thing that the new company who will have a monopole on lots of internal routes will rise the prices.

Lufthansa plays with the fire (of course, my opinion!)
After buying Brussels Airlines (ex- Sabena) and dropping the plans to get SAS (Scandinavian Airlines), Lufthansa is getting more closer with a deal of Austrian Airlines. It seems Lufthansa has a lot of money to spend in a crisis period when most of the airlines try to keep the planes flying and try not to cut jobs. Anyway… it’s a curious thing about Lufthansa plans… that will form the biggest company in the Belgium-Germany-Austria zone.

Bonus: Wizzair may open Bucharest – Napoli – Bucharest flight.

Extra-bonus: Ryanair could start operating one flight from Bucharest. Can you guess the destination?

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Plane spotting la Otopeni

Alitalia’s MD’s going to Africa. Lufthansa is buying Austrian Airlines. And some extras.