KLM wants you to run your own airline with its latest Facebook game

KLM continues to rock with its social media activities. Its latest Facebook initiative has aviation enthusiasts all around the World already salivating...5000 likes and over 150 comments on Facebook and the game hasn't launched yet!

As someone who grew up playing Railroad Tycoon, I could not resist the allure of running my own airline (at least that's what it appears to be promising!) and already signed up to get notified once the game is live.

Looking at these fantastic vintage aircraft my guess is that KLM's game is also going to leverage its historical heritage (KLM is actually the oldest airline still operating anywhere in the World!). Something I certainly don't mind...!

Russian airlines round-up (2/2/13)

 Aeroflot: a perfectly fit 90-year old

This week marks a remarkable anniversary for Russian airlines: on 9th February 1923 Aeroflot, the former Soviet flag carrier and still the largest airline of Russia, was founded.

Yes! that means the dean of Russian airlines is turning 90!

Although Aeroflot has had its ups and downs, as its history is inevitably linked to that of its country, there are few airlines in the World that have such a long history of continuous operations.

Its image might not have fully recovered yet among the Western public after the chaotic late-Soviet and post-soviet years, when everything seemed to be falling apart...but today's Aeroflot is a totally different beast: new aircraft, levels of service on a par with the major international airlines, membership of Skyteam and even a website with a really cool design and truly innovative user interface!

If you wish to see more of Aeroflot's history, the Huffington Post has posted some very interesting pictures of Aeroflot's 90 years of history!

On unrelated news, a Russian airline that is unlikely to get to 90 is Red Wings, that has just seen its air operator license withdrawn by Russia's aviation regulator, Rosaviatsiya (Росавиация). This measure was already expected and follows the accident of one of Red Wings Tupolev Tu-204 at Vnukovo airport on 29th December. Five crew members died and three others were seriously injured, in addition to another person injured on the ground, when the Tu-204 aircraft hit a motorway just outside the airport perimeter.

For images of the Red Wings Tu-204 accident at Vnukovo airport, see this article on Russian daily Vedomosti.

Red Wings airlines was not a large airline, but was strong on some domestic routes such as that between Vnukovo airport and Makhachkala, in the Republic of Daguestan, in the Caucasus, where it had a 50% market share.

It is also uncertain what is going to happen with Red Wings' fleet of 8 Tu-204 aircraft. Those are among the latest aircraft to have been designed in the Soviet era and it is unlikely they are going to be worth much in the market now that most Russian airlines are opting either for more modern Western aircraft or for new-generation Russian aircraft such as the Superjet and the upcoming MS-21.

And meanwhile, in Russia's Siberian expanses, Yakutia Airlines took delivery of the first Bombardier Q400 airliner that enters service in Russia. The Siberian airline, that has three of the type on order, covers many regional routes in the sparsely populated Republic of Yakutia (also known as the Sakha Republic), the largest of Russia's regions. And in Russia, "large" means really "huge", because at over 3,000,000 Sq Km. Yakutia is more than 12 times the size of the United Kingdom!

Airships are back in fashion!

I don't know why, but last summer airships caught my attention. I already recognized on this post that I do not know much about this very peculiar type fo aircraft, but later on, airship sightings during the London Olympics led me to write a couple more posts about this topic (see them here 1 & 2).

So, no wonder today I read with interest this piece published on the BBC about a British firm, Hybrid Air Vehicles Limited, that is working on an airship project that might end up having multiple applications, both civilian and military (the project was originally commissioned by the US Army).

I can see a  market niche for airship commercial air travel. Do you?

Balloons and searchlights in action over London...1940? not really...

An airship (or a barrage balloon?) over London while searchlights are in action...1940? 1916? No! This picture was taken in London tonight. Almost certainly some sort of marketing action connected to the Olympics. I found the image and the setting quite suggestive, particularly after having written about airships on this blog not long ago.

I know the quality of the image is not perfect, it was taken with a small basic camera from a long distance, Hyde Park, and at night. In the next picture even worse quality but you can see the approximate location of the blip, notice the London Eye on the right side of the picture.

Back to 1974: Nicosia's international airport

 An abandoned Cyprus Airways Hawker-Siddeley Trident (Picture: Dickelbers/Wikipedia)

Shortly after I posted this story about Vilnius being, possibly, the EU capital with the least air connections, Alex, a friend of mine from Cyprus, pointed out the existence in Nicosia, Cyprus, of an airport that has not been in use since 1974.

(Note: Nicosia's old airport is not to be mistaken with Cyprus main international airport at Larnaca, about 50km away, on the coast, an airport I had the chance to speak about a few months ago)

This story piqued my curiosity, fortunately a quick online search yielded some interesting results:

Nicosia's abandoned airport is just West of the city center, right in the middle of the UN buffer zone that separates the Greek and Turkish sides of the island. It is precisely this latent conflict that is at root of the current state of abandondment.

The airport itself was at the frontline in the summer of 1974 and was the episode of a botched attempt by Greek airborne troops to provide assistance to Greek cypriots during the fight.

Besides these tragic circumstances, Nicosia's old international airport offers a really fascinating glimpse of the World of air travel as it used to be in the 1970s. As it happens all along the buffer zone, time seems to have stopped in 1974, it is possibly the closest you can get to a time travel experience.

The wikipedia entry has some really stunning pictures (I repost a sample here), Cypriot photographer Andros Efstathiou is also exhibiting his work about the airport.

                                                         Airport fittings, 1970s-style (Picture: Dickelbers/Wikipedia)

For obvious reasons Nicosia's airport is currently off-limits to everyone but the UN troops that patrol de buffer zone, however, I think that, whenever the Cypriot conflict is resolved, if the airport is preserved and open to the public it will make a must-visit attraction for aviation enthusiasts from all over the World!

PS: If you like aviation history, you might check this other story about Belgrade's aviation museum!

Remembering the history of airships...and rethinking their future!

Today's post is a bit different from usual, but I think the detour is worth it, as I just came across this website Airships.net, that contains a wealth of information about this early form of air travel: the airship.

 Picture: Wikipedia

I must confess Zeppelins are one area of aviation that I know little about, but reading through this website has arisen my interest... This might not be the last post about this topic I write...not least, because, if these entrepreneurial plans end up becoming a reality, the airships might yet come back!

An Interflug Tupolev at Schiphol airport!

Looks like a museum of European aviation

The flag carrier of the former Eastern Germany is no stranger to this blog and while "retro" is now in fashion in aviation, it is not everyday that you get to see a model airplane of one of its Tupolev TU-154M, and it could be anywhere else but at my favourite shop at Amsterdam Schiphol airport (by the way, a must for any aviation enthusiast traveling through the Dutch airport!)

By the way, did you noticed that below the Interflug model of TU-154M there is a...Malev aircraft model!...coincidence?

Well, the two airlines have in common that they used to be flag carriers of Eastern block countries and that both no longer exist...Malev was modernised after the fall of Berlin Wall and managed to survive as the flag carrier of Hungary until its demise last January. Interflug did not survive the system and the state that created it and went down with the Wall...

For those interested in the history of Interflug, there was also an East German TV series, Treffpunkt Flughafen, produced in the mid-eighties, that was based on the stories of the crew of an Interflug IL-62 aircraft as it toured such iconic spots of Cold War geopolitics as Vietnam, Cuba or Angola...

Interflug and the East German state are now gone for good, but you can still see some fragments of Treffpunkt Flughafen on Youtube:

Could history become a new source of ancillary revenue for airlines?

A few days ago a friend of mine mentioned that, after several years, he had flown again on an aircraft that he knew well from a previous stint in the airline industry. I checked the registration details of the aircraft in question and found out that I had also flown on that plane in the past, only that when it belonged to another airline and had a different name.

So the following idea came to my mind, given the rush to get more and more ancillary revenue, why don’t airlines create a list of famous or important people that have flown on a given aircraft, even on a particular seat, and “market” this experience to the public?

Time to add some plates to aircraft seats too?

The same way that some old houses have historical plates that recall the people that have lived in them, why not airplanes?... well, to be fair, I see a major obstacle with this: whereas age might be perceived as a positive attribute in a house (because a long history might give it its character), it might have quite negative connotations when applied to what is, after all, a flying machine (old equipment!).

Nevertheless, you do not need to go back that many years, there are plenty of contemporary icons that could serve this purpose well (football players, artists, celebrities). Airlines would just need to take care not to highlight these "celebrity seats" past a certain amount of time, and keep renovating them...Anyone willing to pay extra to seat on the same seat that your favourite sportsman sat on when flying to that important match? Judging by the video below, maybe Turkish Airlines is well positioned to do it...

To Fly to Serve: British Airways' great retro commercial

Those of you that live in the UK and have been to cinema recently would have probably watched it, as it has been on the air for a few weeks already...I finally had the chance to watch BA's commercial "To Fly to Serve" a few days ago and quite liked it, so I thought about sharing it here for all readers to enjoy!

By the way, I am not sure what the first two aircraft shown in the video are...any clues? (the second one looks like a Dragon Rapide, but not sure)

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.

The retro wave reaches airlines

Attention: this picture was not taken in the late 60s, it is quite recent!
American Airlines Boeing 737-800 Astrojet
Photo by randomduck, available under a Creative Commons license.

Retro design that were successful in their days are making a comeback, touching the nostalgic side of many. In recent years we have seen the car industry introduce the retro-looking, although newly designed, Chrysler PT Cruiser, the remake of the legendary Fiat 500 and plans have been unveiled to produce a redesigned East German icon, the Trabant.

The airline industry is not immune to this trend, airline retro bags are already a fashion staple, but now is the airlines themselves that are taking on the idea and adding retro livery designs to their own aircraft. My guess is that it might have something to do with the flying experience becoming increasingly unglamourous, with no-frills becoming the standard, congested airports and air travel becoming more of a routine. Retro livery designs take us back to a time where flying meant, above all, glamour and exclusivity, when people dressed up to board a plane as to highlight that they were among the select few, a time when flying was not a hassle (whenever you are in Washington DC I highly recommend visiting the exhibit about the evolution of air travel at the Smithsonian , where the shifting demographics of air travel are thoroughly explained)

It is probably impossible to evaluate the branding benefits of adding retro liveries, but this move will surely delight scores of planespotters wherever these planes fly to.


Foto: Air France A320 in retro livery, Munich Airport
Photo by spotterjohnsen, available under a Creative Commons license.


American Airlines Boeing 737-800 Astrojet
Photo by randomduck, available under a Creative Commons license.


Lufthansa A321
Photo by Chjab, available under a Creative Commons license.


Continental Boeing 737-900ER at Newark (EWR)
Photo by Slasher-Fun, available under a Creative Commons license.


Foto: Finnair A319 in retro livery, Helsinki Vantaa Airport
Photo by Aku from Helsinki, Finland, available under a Creative Commons license.