The Little Airliner That Could

There are currently two new European airline companies that subscribe to a new theory called Ultra Low Cost Carriers (ULCC’s). These new companies the French La Compagnie and the Iceland-based, WOW (seriously that is the name of the company); both have developed new ways of cutting costs of international travel. The French company La Compagnie has a fleet of Boeing 757 ‘s that have been modified instead of having about 150 seats including business and coach seating they have removed the coach section and replaced it with a total of 75 business class seats. This means that the people on board will enjoy more room and better seats. These planes leave from Newark airport and travel to Paris Charles DeGaul airport and cost about $1000 round trip compared to Delta's $,5000- $20,000 depending on your seat and how many stops.

The other company WOW (awesome name) has another way of saving money. With flights leaving from Baltimore and Boston to Reykjavík you would think that it would be fairly expensive, but no, a round trip ticket can cost as low as $400 (I think that’s why its named WOW as soon as you see the price that’s what you say) however this cost does not include baggage, drink, food, or even boarding pass printing fees. They are using narrow body Airbus A320’s for their flights because they are smaller planes they hold less passengers and therefore can allow you to have a little (very little) more room while flying. And due to the low fares it is almost guaranteed that the flight will be full.

One company that is becoming a ULCC is frontier Airlines which is offering lower prices than their chief rival Spirit Air. Frontier Airlines headquartered in Denver Colorado the company Frontier Airlines has a fleet of 55 active aircraft, with 93 aircraft ordered, and 78 destinations with 14 more routes becoming available soon out of Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. Currently Frontier only fly’s Airbus aircraft including the 319, 320, and 321, however they used to fly 737’s and Embraer ERJ 145’s. however these aircraft have since been retired.

Another company out there founded in 2003 and began flying in 2004 is the Budapest based company Wizz Air (another awesome name). This company fly’s all around the European skies and has a large amount of flights out of London. They currently only fly A320’s like WOW and have a fleet size of 74 aircraft. If you want to know more about this company visit their web site http://wizzair.com/en-GB/Search

Personally I think both of the companies discussed in my first two paragraphs are very interesting and neither really has an advantage over the other. WOW is cheap but who wants to go to Reykjavík while La Compagnie is a little more expensive the seating is more attractive and it does have the advantage of traveling to Paris which is a much nicer location, however it only flies there and Newark nowhere else.

Overall I feel that these models will bring a lot of business into the industry, it will also create a lot of competition. However these low prices might force a lot of companies out of business, not to mention what will happen to things such as maintenance because fixing an aircraft is not cheap to own and maintain.

To Boldy Go Where Few Men Have Gone Before

Recently the Virgin Galactic Space Ship Two was destroyed shortly after it separated from its launch vehicle. So far the investigation has determined that the cause of the accident is that the braking system was initiated early causing the aircraft to lose control. Currently it is believed that this is due to the co-pilot releasing the safety on the braking early.

The resulting breakup of the aircraft killed the co-pilot and injured the pilot who was able to eject and safely parachute to the surface. While the current thinking is that the feathering system caused the crash the NTSB has yet to rule anything out including pilot error which is being heavily looked at.

This is one of the latest failures to the civilian space tourism business. Space travel has always been a favorite subject for many people and being a trekkie myself I of course want to go and explore space. In the early 2000’s flights were offered to some participants to the international space station aboard Russian Soyuz capsules for a very affordable 20-40 million dollars (because I just so happen to have that kind of cash lying around).

However around 2010 these flights stopped due to an increase in crew sizes at the ISS. However flights are planned to resume around 2015. One of the most highly publicized private flights is the virgin galactic flights. The Virgin company has been making many headlines with its different designs for orbital and sub orbital ships. And people have been purchasing tickets on the first flights for years.

The FAA for once has fairly little regulations on something to do with air travel. The FAA regulations specifically Title 14 CFR Chapter III — Commercial Space Transportation, deals with certain space flight requirements such as launch licensing, license to operate a reentry site, Reentry of a Reentry Vehicle Other than a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), and human space flight requirements.

I see space tourism going very far (eventually Star Trek far) however I believe that it will take a very VERY, VERY, long time to get there. For the first dozen or so years that space tourism really begins to take off (no pun intended) it will only cater to the very rich because of the how costly it will be to get off the ground. However the longer that it is around the cheaper I believe it will become, it could eventually become as cheap as the price of an airline ticket (this again is a very long time from now).

From what I have found the requirements are fairly low for pilots going into this field they include A bachelor degree is required and only 1,000 hours of PIC time in a jet aircraft plus the usual medical requirements for pilots to name a few of the requirements. For the moment as with all of aviation it really boils down to who you know and who they know in order to get into the industry. While some companies have been advertising positions available they aren’t exactly hiring off the street.

For more information on the crash of Virgin Galactic Space Ship Two check out this website,

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/03/virgin-galactic-crash-investigation-rules-nothing-out

No Rest For The Wicked Fast Cargo

After the New York aviation accident involving Colgan Air flight 3407 the government was swamped by protests from the families of the victims, these protests were aimed at getting the rest and training requirements for pilots changed. Before the requirement changes pilots were getting hired by airliners with very little hours this has been changed so that pilots are required to have 1500 hours of flight time before getting their Airline Transport Pilots certification.

Another rule change is that the rest period for pilots doesn’t begin until they actually check in to their hotel where as before the rest period began once you left the aircraft which is unfair to pilots because it could take an hour or two in order to get to your hotel eat something and finally fall asleep. Therefor while the pilots may have been off duty for eight hours in reality they only got about four hours of actual sleep. Because of this pilots were showing up to work and were seen yawning while boarding aircraft. And in the case of Colgan they were so tired they had no idea what was going on. Another incident involving fatigue like this was the Lexington Kentucky accident the pilots were so fatigued that when they arrived for work they boarded the wrong aircraft and began to pre-flight it.

Cargo carriers are exempt from these new rules partially because they do not carry passengers and partially because if they were exempt, then a lot of new pilots would not be able to get entry level jobs. Currently the cargo companies follow the old style of rest and training rules where they take fairly low time pilots and train them. However the pilots are only given eight hours of rest when they are off shift, this time does not include time to the hotel/home or time to eat just time from getting off the plane to getting back on.

I feel that part of the reason that the cargo carriers are exempt is because it is considered an entry level position in our professional field. If the cargo carriers were to be a part of these new rules it would limit the number of pilots in the industry and it would also increase the time it would take for less experienced pilots to get the time they need in order to go work at the airlines and other passenger carriers.

However I do feel that the cargo carriers should have to follow the new rules (at least the rest requirements) as a measure of safety. Many aviation accidents have been linked to cargo carriers and the fact that the pilots were fatigued. While admittedly the new rules are made more for the safety of passengers aboard aircraft it is still unsafe for the people on the ground if an airplane was to crash on the ground. While I feel that the rest rules would be good for the pilots of cargo carriers I feel that the hour requirements should still be up the that particular airline so that many young pilots such as myself can get an entry level position as a pilot there so that we may gain time and experience.

If the cargo carriers were to be made a part of these new requirements I would have to look elsewhere for beginning employment opportunities. Right now one of the easiest ways to get flight time is to fly for a cargo company because they take young pilots like me in and train us so that we gain hours fast and get into the airlines in decent time. However if it were to become part of the new rules we as pilots would be required to spend more of our money gaining time so that we could even work at entry level jobs placing us even more in debt.

For more information about the duty requirements checkout this page which lays them out and compares the new and old rules.

http://aviation.about.com/od/Regulations/a/Faa-Final-Rule-Pilot-Duty-And-Rest-Requirements.htm