Airbus and Rolls Royce in pole position to equip Russia's major airlines

It looks like the Airbus A380 had quite a successful first appearance at MAKS, the Moscow Aviation Show, that took place last week. Russia is one of the aviation markets where interesting things are currently happening, not least because of the resurgence of the domestic aircraft industry, lead by its star, the Sukhoi Superjet.

But there are no plans for a competitive very large commercial airplane to be produced in Russia in the foreseeable future at a time when Russians are increasingly traveling abroad, no wonder airlines are looking to upgrade their long-haul, wide-body fleets (it also helps that taxes on >300 seats imported aircraft have been recently abolished).

Whereas Boeing was the manufacturer of choice when Russian carriers first renewed their fleets in the post-Soviet era, Airbus is making important advances into the Russian market. First it was Aeroflot ordering A330s and A350s, now we hear that the Russian flag carrier might be interested in acquiring up to 5 A380s. This would be great news for Airbus, but also for Rolls-Royce, the possible engine supplier of choice with its Trent-900, the engine that powers the majority of A380s flying today (Rolls-Royce Trent-700 was already selected to power Aeroflot's new A330s), not because of the size of the order "per se", but because of what it represents in terms of visibility and its consolidation in the Russian market.



Transaero is another airline said to be interested in the A380. Russia's second largest airline is adding long-haul capacity at a frantic pace, it is adding Boeing 747-400s with high-density configurations (ex-Japan Airlines aircraft fitted with up to 525 seats) as well as former Singapore Airlines Boeing 777s (by the way, also equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent engines). If it is able to fill all these Jumbos, why not go for the A380, then?

More airline archaeology

When I was doing some research on communist-era airlines for my previous post on my visit to Belgrade's aviation museum, I came across this interesting photo on Flickr of a Tupolev TU-134 that belonged to East German flag carrier Interflug.

This photo stream is worth a look if you are an #avgeeks with a passion for history!

Revisiting the history of European aviation in Belgrade

I was being driven to Belgrade's Nicola Tesla international airport to take my flight back home after a couple of fruitful days in Serbia's capital when something caught my eye...right to the side of the main airport terminal there was what looked like a spectacular display of old aircraft types.

Fortunately enough the field in question was within walking distance of the terminal and I had plenty of time before the departure of my flight, so, trolley in hand, I walked towards this open-air museum to have a closer look...the 7min. walk was well worth it!

The place itself has a somewhat derelict look, like a legacy from a bygone era, when other architectural styles were in fashion (somehow the main building reminded me of the Atomium, in Brussels!), but this is possibly the best setting for one of the most amazing displays of communist-era aircraft that I have ever seen.





I am not an expert in military aviation but I think most of the airplanes are old Yugoslav-made Galebs (that curiously enough, happen to be in the news these days because of the conflict in Libya!). However, what I found to be the star of the exhibit, and certainly of much interest to someone like me interested in the history of commercial aviation, is this JAT-Yugoslav Airways Caravelle, an icon of European commercial aviation history.



The SUD-Caravelle was one of the first jet-powered commercial airliners and a big commercial success in its day. This French-made aircraft came to dominate European short and medium haul routes in the pre-Airbus era. It carried around 80 passengers, although the latest version, developed in the early 70s and called Super-Caravelle, could carry up to 140 passengers. I ignore whether there is any Caravelle left flying in some remote corner of the planet, but, in any case, Belgrade's open-air aviation museum is a great opportunity to come face to face with this mythical aircraft!

As per JAT Airways, what used to be the flag carrier of the former Yugoslavia has reinvented itself as the flag carrier of Serbia and it operates under a new logo and a renovated image and fleet. It flies to some 35 scheduled destinations with a fleet of Boeing 737s and ATR-42s.

Amazing video taken from a Vueling airliner while intercepted by a French Mirage fighter jet

Ever since the terrible events of 9/11 in the US, commercial airlines that can not be properly identified or that report some sort of incident are regularly intercepted and escorted by fighter jets...How does it feel to see fighter jets approaching while you look through the window in mid-flight? Thanks to this extraordinary video that is making the rounds on social media channels we can see how it looks like!

Vueling flight VY8366 was flying from Málaga (AGP) to Amsterdam (AMS), when it was intercepted by a French Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet on May 27th at around 21.30 CET.

According to Dutch blogger FMCNL (that became famous in aviation blogger circles because of its excellent and timely coverage of NATO's Libyan campaign), the intercept took place just South-West of Paris and was what it's called a "QRA Tango" or Quick Reaction Alert Training.

You can watch it here. It is really spectacular!

Unusual planespotting opportunities

I am by no means an expert planespotter, but when I come across some interesting sights at Europe's airports, I like to share them here. On this occasion the pictures are of two airlines that operate very limited schedules to European airports, so it is not too easy to spot them!


An Uzbekistan Airways A310 taxiing at Madrid-Barajas (MAD) before taking off for Tashkent


An Aeromexico Boeing 767 at Barcelona-El Prat (BCN)

The frustrated merger Olympic-Aegean and the competitive situation in the Greek air travel market

The Olympic-Aegean merger, unlikely to happen anytime soon

The Greek aviation industry has been flying through turbulent times in recent years and one of the consequences has been the proposed merger between the country's two main airlines: Olympic Airlines and Aegean Airlines.

But it looks like industry consolidation will have to wait, since this merger has recently been blocked by the European Union on the basis that such a merger would bring about a virtual monopoly on Greece's domestic air routes. The people at Anna Aero have been doing some research on the competitive environment in the Greek aviation market. In a couple of articles (beware if you click on the links from work, as they contain some animations and sounds!) they have assessed what the market share of the merged airline would be, it would account for nearly 95% of the Greek domestic routes, but the situation would be significantly different on European routes, were it would be competing with foreign airlines in practically all city pairs.

They have also looked at what is the market concentration at other European markets. Greece would be at the top of the table after the merger, but France is, already now, not far behind. Although it is also true that overland communications might be easier in France, that has a well developed high-speed rail network and that Greece's many islands lack a fast transportation alternative.



The Greek aviation sector has been transformed and has got a face-lift recently but the islands remain dependent on the same old links to the mainland

When reading these articles other considerations come to my mind, maybe material for further analysis, for example, when considering the long-haul market. There is currently no Greek airline flying long-haul (these were large loss-makers for the old Olympic) and there aren't many international airlines flying long-haul into Athens either, so the offer is quite limited. A merged Greek airline would possibly have a better chance to do them, increasing capacity on this market segment.

Another point to consider is whether the resulting airline would join Star Alliance, of which Aegean is already a member, or Sky Team, as Olympic was on track to do. So how the competitive analysis in European routes would vary once taking into account code-sharing agreements and the alliance's partners routes?

In any case, the latest news is the an appeal has been filed regarding the blocking of the merger, so this story might go on for still quite a while...

Spectacular photo of Moscow at night taken from an airliner

I recently came across a site with amazing photos, all of which had in common that had been taken from aircraft in flight.

I then went to my archive and posted on Twitter what is possibly the best picture I have ever taken from an airplane. I took last winter from a Brussels Airlines A319 on a flight from Moscow to Brussels and it enjoyed an immediate success upon posting it, so I decided to post it on this blog too...I hope you like it!