Private Jet Charter News

Airline Creates All-Business London/New York Service

BA1 lifted off from London City Airport today beginning that airline’s attempt to create a successful all-luxury airline service between London and New York.  Sounds vaguely familiar?  That’s because several other airlines have tried, and failed, to create the same service.  Eos, MAXjet, and Silverjet all served the luxury market for a short time during great economic prosperity before ultimately failing. Why does BA think it will be any more successful now when the world economy is sputtering and they themselves are planning to cut routes and ground 9% of their fleet this winter due to “declining advanced bookings”?
 
I see several shortcomings with their service.  First, choosing the Airbus A318, an aircraft that does not possess the range for transoceanic flights (East to West, against the prevailing headwinds) seems a dubious way to start off.  BA sugarcoats this by departing from London City Airport, which will allow very short check-in and boarding times, but has a short runway “forcing a stop in Shannon, Ireland for fuel and to clear customs.”  To be clear, it is not just the short runway at London City causing a needed stop - the A318 simply cannot fly the distance without refueling.  Next, and to me, the elephant in the room is the fact that BA is attempting to supply a private aviation product aboard a commercial airliner, flown by a commercial airline, along commercial routes, and into commercial hub airports. 

Ultimately, no matter how flat, wide, or comfy the seats are, despite the nearly endless on-board entertainment options, and the ability to connect to the internet, BA’s luxury service is still airline travel.  Travel that is subject to adverse weather, airport congestion, equipment malfunctions, and delayed departure/arrival times.  Does it matter how quickly and painlessly London City Airport makes the check-in process if the aircraft has not yet arrived from New York on the East-bound leg?
 
BA should know better and leave the luxury private aviation segment to private aviation.  You just can’t put a shine on a sneaker.

Thousands of airline flights cancelled due to dangerous ash plume

Earlier this week a volcano under an Icelandic Glacier erupted and spewed thousands of tons of ash into the atmosphere causing the cancellations of thousands of flights across the globe.  Currently all airspace in Great Britain Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, and the Netherlands, is completely closed to all aircraft while airspace was partially closed in France, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Norway, and Ireland.  US airlines are cancelling flights to/from Europe stranding thousands of passengers. It is simply too dangerous to fly.

Volcanic ash clouds are a serious hazard to aviation, reducing visibility, damaging flight controls and ultimately causing jet engines to fail.  Encounters between aircraft and volcanic ash can happen because ash clouds are difficult to distinguish from ordinary clouds, both visually and on radar, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.  Ash clouds can also drift great distances from their source. The eruption in Iceland sent a huge plume of ash moving across the Atlantic, disrupting air traffic across Western Europe.

According to Boeing, flying through an ash cloud should be avoided by all means. The aircraft manufacturer says experience has shown costly damage can occur to aircraft surfaces, windshields and power plants, while ventilation, hydraulic, electronic and air data systems can also be contaminated. Critically, it says the ingestion of volcanic ash by engines may cause serious deterioration of engine performance due to erosion of moving parts and partial or complete blocking of fuel nozzles.  One former pilot said, “it’s like throwing a bucket of beach sand into the engine”.  But it is actually much worse, while the sand would pit and gouge the critically balanced surfaces of a high performance jet engine, eventually the sand would work its way through the system.  But the ash is much more insidious.  Volcanic ash contains particles, whose melting point is below that of an engine’s internal temperature. During flight these particles will immediately melt if they go through an engine. Going through the turbine, the melted materials rapidly cool down, stick on the turbine vanes, and disturb the flow of high-pressure combustion gases.  In the worst case this disorder of the flow may completely stall the engine, causing a complete shutdown of not only the propulsion systems, but electrical, environmental, and oxygen/pressurization systems.