When an advertisement starts out with the statement, “WARNING: The following video contains language and themes of a sensitive nature. Viewer discretion is advised,” they get my full attention. When first checking out Air New Zealand new Rico ads about a month ago I wondered how they might out-do their videos of almost-naked employees. Well, I think they succeeded and have made me laugh in the process.
Enter Rico, Air New Zealand’s new spokesperson… err spokesquirrell, maybe spokesfuzzyguy, um, I am not really sure what he is. I do know he is unique, a bit rude and darn funny. He says things that no spokes person should ever say, but some how me makes it seem alright. According to his FaceBook he was born, “on plane between two country on international line of dates on June 6th and 7th 1972.” He states he likes to say he was born on the 6th since that was the same day, “David Bowwow release Ziggy Stardust recording.” Don’t tell Rico, but I have heard he was actually “born” at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in Los Angeles. This is the same place that brought you the much more clean-mouthed Muppet’s.
If you follow quite a few aviation blogs, this is probably not the first time you have seen Rico. He has been up to his shenanigans on the internet for a bit over a month. Since then, he has caused quite a stir around the interwebs. I have seen that most aviation geeks love him, some think he is disgusting and others just do not get it. I say, if an airline is able to make their marketing funny and creative enough to get people to write about them, that says something.
How can you not like this little fuzzy dude? Well, I think I like watching him on YouTube, not sure if I would want to sit next to him on Air New Zealand’s longest flight of 14hrs from Vancouver, BC to Auckland (ok, yea I would, but alcohol would need to be involved and I am not sharing a snuggle seat with him). I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to interview him and he made a funny video for me. I am not sure he 100% understood all my questions, but his answers made me laugh hard. Trying to answer what his favorite airplane to fly in should make any aviation geek smile!
If you haven’t seen Rico’s other videos, be sure to check them out. Just do me a favor and don’t listen to these at work 🙂
Would you want to hang out with Rico for a few hours? If you so dare, you can also follow Rico via his Facebook or Twitter accounts. He sounds like a world traveler and hoping I can run into him someday.
Airbus versus Boeing. Who doesn’t love a good competition between the world’s two largest commercial airline manufactures? I try to say I am not slanted one way or another, but living 15 minutes away from where most Boeing aircraft are made might make me a bit biased. The saying around these parts, “If it isn’t Boeing, I am not going,” is pretty popular. I actually know a few people who honestly will not fly an Airbus or Boeing product just on principle. I don’t go that far.
Anyhow one of the constant “this manufacture is better,” arguments I hear is that the Airbus A320 seats are so much wider than the B0eing 737s. I figured it was time to find out. I took a look at airlines from around the world that fly both aircraft and used SeatGuru.com to find out the width of each seat.
I wanted to check the accuracy of the information SeatGuru has on their site, so I spoke with Jami Counter, Senior director of the site and he stated, “SeatGuru’s content team utilizes flyer comments to maintain the accuracy of our airplane seat information and updates the site with both user-submitted reviews and independent research.” That being said, I am by no means saying this is 100% scientific, but I think it can give a good comparison between the two.
Both the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families have the same width no matter what model they might be (ie a Boeing 737-200 is just as wide as a -900). Airbus starts out ahead with a fuselage width of 156″ and a cabin width of 146″. The Boeing 737 is a bit smaller with a 148″ fuselage and only 139″ in the cabin. This means that the Airbus A320 has 7 more inches of width than the Boeing 737. If an airline did things right, each seat and the aisle could have 1″ more width than the 737.
I took a look at airlines running the Boeing 737 and/or the Airbus A320. I compared both the standard economy seating and also premium seating (some airlines call it first class, business, etc). The economy is shown with an “E” and premium with a “P.” If an airline had multiple seat widths in the same category, I averaged them together. Here are my results in inches:
On average, the Airbus A320 seats are wider, but not by much. Only about 1/2″ in economy and almost no difference with premium seats. It seems that airlines and seat manufactures are not using that extra 7″ of cabin width that the Airbus A320 provides.
When I asked Counter from SeatGuru about his thoughts, he told me, “While the A320 does have a wider diameter fuselage, it doesn’t necessarily mean that airlines will put in a significantly wider seat.” He also took a look at the data they have on their site and came to a similar conclusion that the A320 will have slightly more width on average. “On SeatGuru we’ve found that while there is some variation, we generally see airlines give about 17-17.2″ seat width in coach on a B737, while they give about 17.5″-18″ seat width in coach on an A320. These differences depend on the types of seats airlines use, as well as the overall seating configuration of the aircraft. ”
Is it worth making an effort to fly on a Airbus A320 for more room? I am going to say no. I know that many people have a preference of aircraft type they fly on and I am assuming that fractions of an inch isn’t going to persuade a person one way or another. However, airline loyalist have always surprised me in the past. Does this information change your views on flying on either the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320?
Allegiant Air Boeing 757 N902NV outside ATS at Paine Field in Everett, WA on Sunday.
I know, I know, I have posted a lot of blogs not only on Allegiant’s new Boeing 757’s, but also their semi-new livery. What can I say, I love new liveries and new airplane types. Put them together and I can’t resist.
While driving around Paine Field on Sunday, there was a nice treat sitting outside of ATS in Everett: N902NV. Although I was aware that N902NV was at ATS, I haven’t seen her in person. Previously I wondered if Allegiant’s semi-new livery would look better in person than in photos and I think it does.
Taking a look at this close up photo of the door, you can see there is no interior trim on the door and what looks like wires hanging down from the inside. I assume that the interior has not yet been completed and work should continue at ATS. N901NV, the other Boeing 757, is stationed at Flightstar Aircraft Services in Jacksonville, FL. I followed up with Allegiant again to see if there was any news on these Boeing 757’s and at this time they are still staying silent.
On top of seeing their new aircraft, Allegiant also announced last week that if you don’t pay for an assigned seat, you will end up having Southwest-style open seating. This will be the new order for boarding:
* Priority Boarding for those that pay $9.99 extra per leg on top of seat assignment fee
* Pre-boards
* General Boarding – those who purchased seat assignments for $6.99 or $9.99
* Families with children under 7
* Everyone else, in order of check in
If a passenger does not board during their specified boarding time, they forfeit their seat assignment. Now, that would be frustrating for a family of 3 that dropped $30 to sit together.
I will be taking my first flight on Allegiant next month from Bellingham to Las Vegas. I have heard you can purchase Allegiant MD-80 models on board the aircraft, you better believe I will be getting one of my own.
UPDATE:
On Allegiant’s SEC presentation they state under a plan to amend the 757 fleet and Hawaii program:
* Operate 757 in domestic mainland, non-ETOPS flying (ETOPS is needed to fly over 60min away from an airport)
* After several months of operational experience, apply for ETOPS
* Target ETOPS approval in 2012
Interesting. Allegiant has confirmed with me that the Boeing 757’s will start flying in mid-2011, but there was no talk about pushing flights to Hawaii to 2012. Is Allegiant just having issues with getting ETOPS certification or does the FAA want Allegiant to get some experience flying the Boeing 757 domestically over land before having them ETOPS certified. I am not sure now, but hoping to find out. Thanks to Dan Webb for finding this.
Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner (VT-ANA) now out of the paint hangar at Paine Field. Photo from MoonM.
The newest livery on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner belongs to Air India and their first Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Found this fine photo (and there are a few others of this 787) on Jon Ostrower’s Flight Blogger website. Heck, this is a good time to take a look at all the current liveries seen on Boeing 787’s to date:
Royal Air Maroc Boeing 787 Dreamliner being stored next to the Future of Flight.
There are currently two JAL Boeing 787's also parked next to the Future of Flight.
This Boeing 787 has the ANA tail, but the rest is all white. People are guessing ANA might have a special livery planned.
This is ZA002 which has been in the news recently. It was the first in ANA livery, but there are quite a few now lined up at Paine Field.
ZA005 was the first to have GE engines, but the third to sport Boeing's livery-lite. Photo from Liz Matzelle
Ah, good 'ol ZA001 in full Boeing livery -- probably my favorite.
More should be on their way soon. If you cannot wait until then, check out Boeing’s website where you can preview what different liveries will look like on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. So looking at the liveries in the real and those on Boeing’s website, which one is our favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Mine? Well I have to say that Boeing’s full liver is my favorite and man, it is not easy to pick a least favorite, hmm…
Boeing and Eva Air has been silent with how these three Boeing 777’s were going to get seats. Last week the aircraft, which has been parked next to the Paine Field tower for months, were moved, prepped and started to take customer test flights(photo of B-16717). Then yesterday, the first of the three Boeing 777’s took its delivery flight to Taiwan (photo). Of course, the big question was what seats are inside the aircraft?
Eva Air obviously doesn’t want to say too much since I am guessing they will take legal action against Koito. Boeing has been staying pretty quiet as well, since they have a policy not to discuss their customers. However, I have been able to confirm that the seats in the aircraft are from Koito.
Beverly Holland with Boeing Communications explained to me that, “Koito Industries works directly with our airline customers. Ever since this issue came to our attention, we have been working closely with our customers who have purchased the seats to make sure the seats are fully compliant to Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) and FAA regulations.”
As reported previously, if the JCAB certifies a seat, the FAA also certifies them through a US/Japan bilateral agreement. Boeing has had a team in Japan helping to make sure the seats are able to become certified. Holland did confirm, “Boeing is committed to helping our customers through this situation.”
Speaking with an Eva PR consultant Mary Graybill, she confirmed that the airline is working with Koito and Boeing to have the seats installed at Paine Field. She wasn’t able to confirm when the aircraft will officially be delivered, but did say that, “all three will be used to serve long-haul and regional routes, in rotation with the B777s EVA is already operating.” By chance of luck, I was at Paine Field on Sunday when I got an email alert stating a Boeing 777 filed a flight plan. Turned out to be one of the Eva Air Boeing 777’s (B-16715) being picked up by Eva pilots and flown to Taiwan. Due to heavy fog, the flight was delayed, but did take off at 2:35pm.
So are the seats safe in the Eva Boeing 777’s? Yes, I think so. Even though Boeing and Eva won’t talk much about what they have done, I would assume that neither would allow the airplanes to transport passengers if they haven’t verified the safety of the seats. It is great for Eva to make money using these Boeing 777’s, but it is disappointing they won’t be parked at Paine Field to spot anymore. At least Paine Field is quickly filling up with other Boeing airplanes to provide plenty of eye candy.
