JetBlue's First A321 Appears in Hamburg

Video of JetBlue's first A321 surfaced over the weekend

JetBlue's first ever A321 has been spotted being towed around the ramp at Hamburg's Finkenwerder airport in Germany. As is typical with airbus aircraft which has the tails assembled and painted in a separate facility before arriving for final assembly, this aircraft is no different. But for a JetBlue aircraft, the tail is all we need to notice that this plane will be different from the others in the airline's fleet for more reasons than one.

This particular aircraft, to be registered as N903JB upon delivery, sports a livery not seen on a JetBlue aircraft before. The tail consists of a mosaic of triangles of different shades of blue and surprise, surprise, green. Blue has been all but the exclusive color of tail designs since the airlines inception in 1998, with only one of the nine main designs featuring a color other than blue, but green has never been featured on the tail in unison with blue, making for an interesting sight on the end of the plane. While JetBlue has yet to officially unveil the new livery and have not set a date to do so, they have announced that the livery that appears on the first A321 will be on all aircraft of the type in the fleet.

The A321 is expected to be delivered to the airline late this year, and the first four aircraft will be equipped with the typical all-economy seats that are typical with JetBlue, but the rest of the A321 fleet will be outfitted with their new premium cabin seating, including 16 lie-flat beds and 4 private suites. Those will be introduced in the second quarter of 2014. The first aircraft will be used on flights from JFK to Florida and the Caribbean. The A321s equipped with the premium seating will be used on the premier transcontinental routes of New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco

No official dates have been set for unveiling or delivery of the aircraft.

Department of Justice Tries to Intervene in American Airlines/US Airways Merger

While not quite cancelled, the mega merger between American Airlines and US Airways to form the world's largest airline, has certainly been delayed. Announced in February, the deal is supposed to create, yet again, the largest airline in the States and be the grand finale of airline mergers after more than 5 years of industry consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. The deal was put on hold Tuesday however, when the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against the merger, claiming the merger would reduce competition on routes, raise fares, and increase the likelihood of coordinated actions by the industry. While unlikely to derail the merger, which was scheduled to be finalized next month, the lawsuit will definitely delay its progress.

Washington has become a hot spot for debate for regulators, with officials pushing the new airline to give up slots at National. The joint airline would control 69 percent of takeoff and landing slots, and the Justice Department fears that this will lead to increased fares and fees out of and into the airport, as well as more limited choices for passengers. The lawsuit also alleges that the merger may threaten the presence of airlines like JetBlue at national, who entered the market when they traded slots at JFK in New York with American for slots at National, and they still maintain a relatively weak presence in DC.

The Department of Justice claims the merger is also anti-competitive across the board, not just here in washington. Since the airlines don't share any hubs, they only directly compete on 12 non-stop routes, however, the merger would make the new airline the only carrier to fly the route on seven of the 12. Using an algorithm called the Herfindahl-Hirshman Index to measure market concentration and competition, the DoJ also says that the merger will lower competition on 1,677 routes, including the non-stops, and increase competition on only 210 routes.

Lawyers for American Airlines and US Airways have said they fully intend to fight the suit in court, rather than pursue a compromise or settle out of court.

Special note: From this point forward, blog posts will not come every Monday like clockwork as they have in the past. School is starting soon and the pressure to have one post every week at the exact same time has proven to be too much as sometimes topics will be harder to come by than other times. I will still try to post an average of one post a week, sometimes there will be multiple posts in a week, other times none at all.

What Has Happened in the Past Month

I arrived back from New York about a week ago, and so I thought I'd make this week's post about what all has happened in the month since I last posted. In an attempt to brush up on my journalism skills, I wrote a short paragraph on each event. Enjoy.

Ethiopian Airlines 787 Catches Fire in London: On July 12 Ethiopian 787 ET-AOP at London Heathrow Airport had a fire near the back of the plane. Currently being investigated is the plane's ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) battery is being investigated as the cause of the accident. Unrelated to the battery problem that plagued the plane in the beginning of the year, the system is activated in the event of a crash and is located in the rear of the plane, above the cabin just before the tail. The damage was sufficient enough that it blackened the roof just above the battery and the airline is considering writing off the airplane that was delivered a year ago, which would be the first time a Dreamliner has ever been written off.

Southwest Jet's Nose Gear Collapses at LaGuardia Airport: On July 21, Southwest Airlines Flight 345 had its nose gear collapse upon landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York. The flight from Nashville was uneventful until landing when the nose gear on the 737-700 suddenly collapsed. A total of five passengers and three flight attendants reported injuries from the incident. An official cause has yet to be determined, but preliminary reports suggest that the plane landed nose gear first at LaGuardia.

American Airlines Receives First Airbus A319: On July 23, American Airlines took delivery of their first A319 from the European manufacturer Airbus. The airline received their first aircraft in the A320 family at a ceremony in Hamburg, Germany, marking the start to a series of more than 130 deliveries over the next 4 years as part of a fleet renewal program. They also have another 130 A320neo family aircraft on order that they will begin taking deliveries of in 2017.
On August 1, the airline also debuted its Embraer E175 regional jet in Chicago.

JetBlue Unveils Premium Transcontinental Product: Announced two months ago, JetBlue's premium transcontinental product was revealed last Monday to much fanfare in the aviation world. The product, which does not yet have a name, will be fitted onto all of JetBlue's newest aircraft type, the A321, set to begin delivery in December of this year. The product will be somewhat separated into two classes. First, a two-to-a-set business class style seat will be found in rows 1, 3, and 5. Second, a suite style first class like seat in rows 2 and 4. JetBlue intends to use the new product initially on routes out of JFK to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Terminal Building at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi Kenya Catches Fire: On August 7, Kenya's main international airport suffered a small fire that escalated quickly into major catastrophe. The flames destroyed the international arrivals hall, several banks, and foreign exchange bureaus. It caused East Africa's busiest international gateway to be shut down. When the airport reopened later that day, only domestic flights were allowed to arrive and depart. Airport officials say they intend to convert an area of the domestic terminal into an international terminal for the time being. While no cause has been established yet, a widely circulating rumor is that the fire could have been started purposefully as part of a terrorist plot, being that the fire occurred exactly 15 years after the al-Qaeda bombings on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

An Extended Trip to New York City

I will be taking a two and a half week trip to New York City, starting this Wednesday, the 17th, which means I will be unable to write three new blog posts. In addition to the normal tourist sightseeing around the city, starting next Sunday, I will be taking a business intensive course at Adelphi University on Long Island for two weeks to learn more about business, and of course get college credits. But because I will be studying such a wide range of subjects in such a short period of time, I will have little if any time to write for this blog. While I thought I would be able to write a little bit here and there, after looking at the schedule, I've come to realize that it would be impossible. So i chose my future career over my hobby, and I think I made the right decision.

You can expect my first blog post on August 12, a week after I come back.

Asiana Airlines Flight Crash Lands at San Francisco Airport

Saturday morning started like any other morning at San Francisco International Airport. But after the marine layer had dissipated, that would change. At 11:27 AM, Asiana Airlines flight 214, a Boeing 777-200ER, experienced a hull-loss accident upon landing at the airport. The crash landing caused the tail and landing gear to separate from the plane, the aft pressure bulkhead to burst, and the plane to spin like a top. The crash of flight 214 was the first fatal accident to happen on American soil since the Colgan Air crash in Buffalo, New York, which killed all 49 passengers and one person on the ground. Killing two and injuring 183, the flight from Shanghai via Seoul hit the seawall and left a trail of debris as it spun out of control off the runway and into the dirt nearby. The accident was the first involving a fatality for the 777, going to show the outstanding safety record of the model first delivered in 1995.

Among the 307 passengers and crew on the flight, two were killed, 183 were injured ten of which were in critical condition (as of the this writing that number has been downgraded to 6), and 122 walked away uninjured. Most of the injuries consisted of head trauma from the initial impact and burns from the fire that ensued. The two that were killed were Chinese 16-year-old girls Ye Meng Yuan and Wang Li Jia. The flight had 141 Chinese citizens on board, including 70 students and teachers traveling to the US for a summer school program. 91 passengers and crew were South Korean citizens, 61 were American citizens, and the other 11 were citizens of 6 other countries.

Witnesses reported seeing the plane flying extremely low before the accident, and passengers reported hearing the engines revving and the plane tilting upwards seconds before impact. The National Transportation Safety Board has indeed confirmed that the plane was flying too low and too slow to make a safe landing. They have also stated that according to the cockpit voice recorder, the pilot called for a go around, which of course, failed, hence the engines revving moments before impact. Because the plane survived the crash for the most part, the two black boxes were easily recovered, and thanks also to eyewitness and survivor testimonies, the NTSB knows exactly what happened. The investigation must continue however to determine a cause.

At this point so early in the investigation, everything is still on the table, including pilot error and mechanical failure.

Potential Route Development for Dulles Airport

Last week, British Airways announced their inaugural routes for their first two Dreamliners, saying they will fly to Toronto starting September 1st and Newark starting October 1st, a move that, while not surprising, did disappoint yours truly. While unlikely, it could have been possible for Washington to receive one of British Airways inaugural 787 flights given the fact that British Airways' international 767s fly primarily to the East Coast and Canada, and Dulles gets one of them (read more about why Dulles could have gotten BA's inaugural here). This got me thinking about what other possible inaugural routes Dulles could see. In just the past year and a half since I started following the industry, Washington has seen dramatic growth, adding 3 new airlines and inaugurating the 787 Dreamliner for Ethiopian Airlines. Dulles even had the honor of being the destination of the worldwide launch of the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, flown by Lufthansa from Frankfurt. With more and more airlines flying new aircraft like the 787 and A380, and the launch of the A350 just a year away, could Dulles' next superstar route be just around the corner?

When the FAA let the Dreamliner fly again, it opened up doors for hometown airline United to fly some more off-the-beaten-path routes to Latin America and Africa. Cities such as Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Sao Paulo and even potentially Rio de Janeiro could see service from United thanks to the 787's cost efficiency, making niche routes more financially viable. One route United could especially target in the upcoming years out of Dulles is a flight to Accra, Ghana. The West African capital used to receive service from United by their 767s, the primary aircraft the 787 is set to replace, but was dropped a year ago citing poor financial performance. Thanks to the improved economics of the Dreamliner, we could see that route make a comeback.

A few years after the Airbus A350 starts flying commercially, which will come in about a year, don't be too surprised if you see a couple of them buzzing through Dulles airport. Not only does hometown airline United have 35 A35-1000s on order due for delivery in 2018, but many other airlines that already fly to Washington have orders of all variants on the table, including but not limited to, Emirates, Air France-KLM, Aeroflot, and launch customer Qatar Airways. The airlines that have placed firm orders have variants that are perfectly fit to replace the aircraft they currently have flying here. United's order for A350-1000s, the largest variant, are most likely to be used to upgrade capacity on load heavy routes, and along with Newark and Chicago, Washington could see capacity increases on routes to major European cities such as London, Paris and Amsterdam, cities that the airline already flies up with 777-200s, their largest twinjet by capacity.

Disagree on potential routes? Think a different airline could bring something new to Washington? Think I missed something? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Brussels Airlines Brings Flights to Washington

Last Tuesday, Brussels Airlines added a new design to the rainbow of tails of international airlines that fly into Washington Dulles International Airport. Announced in January, the Belgian carrier has begun flights five times a week between Brussels and Washington, using A330s. Flying as flight number 515, the flights will arrive at Dulles five days a week every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as the second direct link between Washington and Brussels, the first being United's flight 950. Coming in at 7:30, the flights will also be one of Dulles' few evening international arrivals, meaning shorter wait times in customs.

Brussels Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, and because Washington is a major hub for United, also a Star Alliance member, it allows passengers a much smoother connection to reach many other cities in the US. Not only that, but in the other direction, flights leaving Washington can have passengers connecting to other Brussels Airlines destinations. During the summer season, passengers flying to and from the Belgian capital will fly Brussels', A332s and A333s, newly refurbished with more comfortable business and economy class cabins.

The new route is all part of Brussels' expanding long haul route structure. Last year, they added New York as their first transatlantic destination, making Washington its second destination in the Americas. According to CEO Bernard Gustin, over the last four years, Brussels Airlines has doubled its long haul fleet size from 4 to 8 aircraft and added 4 intercontinental destinations. "Washington is part of our strategy to operate the most important intercontinental destinations from Brussels Airport" Gustin said.

The A350 Flies for the First Time, Adding Fuel to the Fire in Widebody Race

After years of design, months of assembly, weeks of testing, and days of anticipation, Airbus' newest jet, the A350 took to the skies over Toulouse, France last Friday for its inaugural flight. A crew of 6 pilots and engineers flew the test flight, including Airbus' Chief Test Pilot Peter Chandler and A350 Project Pilot Guy Magrin, in front of hundreds of members of the media from around the world. Under the serial number MSN1, Airbus' A350 XWB test flight was completed successfully and went off without a hitch. "[The flight went] pretty well, the aircraft is in good shape," said Patrick Du Ché, Head of Development Flight Tests for the program. Friday's test flight kicks off a flight test program with around 2500 flight hours and 5 development aircraft. The French aircraft maker intends to have the first delivery to a customer in mid 2014 to Qatar Airways.

Labelled a "Boeing-Killer", the A350 XWB is Airbus' response to Boeing's radically designed 787 Dreamliner, which recently experienced problems with its battery system. The company says that its three models, the A350-800, -900, and -1000 each compete with a different Boeing widebody. The A350-900, the base variant, is built to compete with Boeing's 777-200ER in both range and capacity, but boasting a 25% reduction in fuel burn and operating costs. The A350-800, the shortened variant, is designed to compete with Boeing's 787-9 in range and capacity, but boasting an 8% reduction in fuel burn and operating costs. The A350-1000, the stretched and most troubled variant, aims to compete with Boeing's 777-300ER, its best-selling 777 model, but boasting 25% lower fuel burn and operating costs.

For quite a while after the launch of the A350, while the -800 and -900 variants wereselling like hot cakes, Airbus had trouble drawing new orders for the A350-1000, with customers citing that despite a much improved engine that Airbus added to the design two years ago, pushing back entry into service 18 months, the A350-1000 still does not compete with Boeing's bestselling 777 product, the 777-300ER. Recently however, starting with Cathay Pacific's order converting 16 A350-900s to -1000s and adding 10 more to their total, orders for the longest version of Airbus' new composite jet have been rolling in.

With the introduction of the A350, Airbus and Boeing are locked in a renewed battle for the wallets of international airlines who fly long haul flights. After many traditionally Boeing customers turned to Airbus' new jet to replace their aging first generation 777s, Boeing decided to officially launch its 777X program, a project that many inside the aviation industry had known a lot about already, in order to try to stop the bleeding of customers to rivals across the pond. Believed to be the catalyst for the official launch was the decision by British Airways to order 18 of the Airbus craft as part of their replacement program for their 747-400s. Boeing's 777X will include the -8X, the successor to the 777-300, the -8LX, the successor to the bestselling 777-300ER, and the -9X, which will be in a whole new class of capacity for twinjets, comparable to the 747. While these two companies are no stranger to competition in the widebody aircraft department, never before have the two models been so similar to each other.

Airlines and Their Relationships with Sports Teams

These days, almost every team in major professional sports leagues has an official airline. These official airlines put their name on the big screen at the stadium, appear on local advertisements boasting their status as the "official airline of your team", and sponsor merchandise promotions at the team's home venue. Normally, these are airlines that operate a hub at the local airport or at a nearby major city's airport. But that is just about where the similarities end. Different airlines have very different relationships with their sports teams; some relationships are intimate and rather exclusive and sometimes airlines will have so many teams, that they can number more than 30.

The reason airlines sponsor teams is to attach their name to local fans' favorite teams. In this day and age, here in America and around the world, people are very tightly connected to their favorite team, sometimes even giving their favorite players nicknames or using the pronouns we, us, and our when referring to their favorite team. Advertisers will pay top dollar to be associated with these cultural icons, and airlines are no exception. To an airline, associating with a team means that when fans go to book a flight, they're more likely to think of the airline that has giant billboards at their favorite team's home venue.

But some airlines are a lot less passive in their approach to marketing their brand to sports fans. Just in the US, airlines like JetBlue and US Airways have created special liveries for the teams they sponsor. Internationally, airlines like Air New Zealand and Turkish Airlines have also created special liveries for sports teams; Turkish has even painted the entire roster of FC Barcelona on the side of a 777-300ER. When people see their favorite team's logo flying through the sky, they will clamor to choose that airline the next time they fly, in hopes of being able to fly that special plane.

Other airlines host contests for the team, with the prize ranging from free round-trip tickets to one of their destinations to a season-long vacation following the team to every road game; Everyone loves free things, even if one of those free things is a cramped economy class seat in a plane flying 5 hours across the country, sandwiched between the crying baby and the person who talks too much. These airlines know that by tapping into the sports market, and properly engaging in their communities, they can potentially draw hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of fans, if they form as tight a bond with the fans in the same way the fans have formed a bond with their team, a challenge some airlines have mastered, while others have yet to come close to achieving.

Dreamliners Return to the Skies in Droves

This past week, dubbed Dreamliner week by yours truly, has seen four new airlines "re-inaugurate" 787 services, two airlines receive their first 787, confirmation that all 50 Dreamliners delivered before the grounding have been refitted with the improved battery system, and to top it all off, the first pictures surfacing of Boeing's first 787-9 in final assembly at their production facility in Everett. The Dreamliner flooded aviation news sites in the latter half of last week while Boeing and it's flashy new toy closed one tumultuous chapter and moved on to a new one with less drama and hopefully for Boeing, more cash.

On Saturday June 1st, two airlines put their 787s into commercial service. After more than a month of flight tests, Japanese carrier Japan Airlines put their birds back into commercial service, flying within Asia and to Boston and San Diego. Though ANA decided to push one inaugural flight forward a week, they also put the rest of their 787s back into the air on service in Asia and to San Jose and Frankfurt. LOT Polish also resumed service this weekend, sending their Dreamliner from Warsaw to New York. LAN, however, had originally scheduled its service resumption to also be this weekend, but have pushed back the date another month to July 1st, leaving them to be the last pre-grounding airline still grounded.

Friday, before three different airlines restarted their silent Dreamliner engines, two airlines started their engines and took off for the first time. British carrier Thomson Airways and China Southern Airlines both left Paine Field as brand new owners of their own Dreamliners. And China Southern will be starting commercial flights this week, flying from Guangzhou to Beijing starting Friday June 6th. Thomson on the other hand is not starting flights until late July.

All this comes after Boeing has confirmed that all 50 aircraft delivered before the grounding have been refitted with the brand new battery system. Photos have also surfaced of the first 787-9 in final assembly, with its stretched fuselage and "9" painted on the tail clearly visible. Besides the 787-9, fully painted -8s have coming out of the paint shop non-stop. So far, British Airways, Norwegian, and Hinian tails have all been spotted on the flight line in Seattle, waiting to be delivered. Norwegian and Aeromexico have both announced their inaugural routes. Paine Field should be very busy this summer.