Friday Flyer – June 16, 2023

The story of airlines tackling their NDC strategy continues to evolve.  Lufthansa kicked things off with their surcharge for booking outside of the direct channel.  American recently required all travel agents to use the NDC channels.  This week Air Canada has followed suit with an announcement of what they’re calling the “Distribution Cost Recovery” charge to passengers who book through the GDS.  This is good news as the industry slowly inches its way towards modern distribution.  

Let’s see what else is going on around the industry.

Links

• Qantas launched a new route this week: SYD-JFK.  However, it’s not what you think.  This is actually SYD to JFK via AKL.  The airline is redirecting their New York City strategy through New Zealand for a variety of reasons.  Close followers know that the holy grail for Qantas is the nonstop SYD-JFK service, also known as Project Sunrise.  When launched in 2025, this will be the longest flight in the world.  Because of this week’s announcement, there is renewed interest in the status of the nonstop market, so here’s a good summary of it.  Including how much legroom you get in Economy for a 19 hour flight.
• Last week there was a story that crossed the paths of aviation and geo-politics as an Air India flight bound for San Francisco was forced to divert with an engine issue in rural Russia.  The saga was only just beginning after the diversion as the city couldn’t accommodate 250+ passengers that were diverted.  Luckily the passengers made it to SFO, but the story continues for the grounded plane. 
• Stating the obvious, it is best when two airplanes on the taxiway don’t run into each other.  Unfortunately that did happen for a Thai Airways and an Eva Air planes in Tokyo’s HND airport.  Fortunately, no one was injured, but still not good.
• Jetblue made a big announcement this week as they launched their new, very blue, livery.  It’s their first new livery since their inception and it is a striking look that now really matches the airline’s name.

Interesting Aviation Fact

Given that Jetblue announced the new livery, I thought it would be interesting to share an article about the process required to paint an aircraft.  It’s not quite as simple as grabbing a can of paint from the local hardware store.  And if you recall from stories over the last year between Qatar Airways and Airbus, the paint used can become contentious!

Cool Aviation Photo

Aviation photographers are always looking for that cool shot that grabs just the right perspective.  This one did just that as two Swiss aircraft appeared to be meeting for a kiss on the tarmac.