Unlock Your Ideal Aviation Career Path with FlyingCrews.com Whether you're a Pilot, Air Hostess, AME, MBA, or aspiring Airline Ground Staff, seize thrilling opportunities within the Aviation realm right here! FlyingCrews Serves as your premier destination. ๐ Dive into the Premier Flying Crews Job Board ๐จ✈️ Pilots ๐ฉ✈️ Air Hostesses ๐ง AMEs ๐ MBAs ๐ Ground Crew
Etihad Airways will no longer Operate Boeing 777-300ER Jet Aircrafts
Donia Elizabeth
Etihad Airways to ground its Boeing 777-300ER and A380s Etihad Airways has stated that they are no longer going to operate their Boeing 777-300ER jets. They have also planned to ground its 10 Airbus A380s as well.
Etihad Airways, the second flag carrier of the UAE is now focusing on being a more streamlined and focused airline from now on. The CEO, Tony Douglas stated at the World Aviation Festival that, “we have gone far too diversified when it came to fleet types to be operationally efficient”
He also stated that “You will see of us, a very focused, a very disciplined operating model which is heavily built around the fleet of the 787 Dreamliner and A350-1000,” This would be mean that the airline is now going to streamline its business to make it more focused and transform the same into a boutique airline.
The airline has also planned to ground 10 of its Airbus A380s “indefinitely”. As per the CEO, he believes that the flights are amazing as it is, but given the current situation of the aviation industry, he feels that they are no longer commercially sustainable. This is because the A380 fleet of Etihad has not flown much in 2020 and it is not showing much of a future as well. The CEO even though was reluctant to say it would never come back but the message was passed on loud and clear. This has been the impact of the pandemic on the Airline.
Etihad is now going to be functioning mainly on its fleet of Dreamliners where, 40 of them are currently flying. The fleet being divided between 30 of 787-9 and a smaller fleet of 10 787-10s. Douglas believed that these are not just operationally efficient but are also contributing heavily to the Airline’s sustainability goals as well. Many Pilots Captain and First Officer with Cabin Crew Members will be Unemployed due to this decision.
Donia Elizabeth
Get Your Airline Ready ViSume[Video Resume]Only for USD $9.99
Only 100 Captains and First Officers [Co-Pilot] are Paid on the Boeing Fleet
News Team
Afreen, Donia, Shruti
75 percent SpiceJet fleets are grounded and only 100 Captains and First Officers [Co-Pilot] are paid on the Boeing fleet, rest of the people are getting Leave Without Pay (LWP). For the Flight Q400 only 150 Captains and 150 First Officers [Co-Pilot] were paid. It seems that for other Airlines too the departures would be cut down and fleets would be grounded for long. An estimate of 50% departures across all the networks would be cut. Seeing the halt around the flights due to covid last year, most of the Airlines across the world had suffered huge losses. Seeing the rumours it is believed that there would come a condition when all simulators would be halted till further notice. That would lead to further losses maybe for the whole aviation sector. Grounding the fleets is at least ensuring that as per the need the flights are working. Airlines incur huge cost in maintenance so controlling only 25 percent flights is a good decision made by SpiceJet. According to the updates, Spicejet has converted three of its Bombardier Q400 passenger Aircraft into freighters in May 2020, to help with the primary operations of covid -19 in smaller cities in India.
It was recently reported by Flying-Crews.com that SpiceJet Ltd. is expected to post miserable financial results for the March quarter (Q4FY21). They also reported that there would be a dip in the Passenger load factors (PLFs) to 75% and further an expected dip in the yields by 5%.
All these point towards a company moving towards huge losses. In addition to that the second wave of Covid-19 across the country has added to the scenario. As per what ICICI Securities Ltd analysts wrote in a report on 19 April, “Weekly average daily fliers came in at around 193,000 in the week ended 17 April versus around 232,000 in the week ended 10 April." This shows that the situation ahead is also not very promising towards a better growth in passengers or yields. This is expected to be the reason for this take of SpiceJet on it’s fleet and employees
This is not the first time that SpiceJet has decided on grounding of the Fleet. According to the reports July 2020, due to Coronavirus and the two-months long lockdown were the reasons behind the Airline’s dull performance and grounding of the 737 MAX.
Five Air India Pilots Test Positive for Covid19 - All are Air India Pilots On Boeing 787
Five Air India Pilots have tested positive for Covid-19. The Pilots had operated one of the cargo Flights to Guangzhou recently.
Air India has been operating cargo Flights to international destinations since the lockdown. Among the Flights operated were Boeing 787 Flights to Guangzhou from Delhi on April 18 to pick up medical supplies.
The Airline has also operated medical cargo Flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong. Under the government guidelines formulated for the repatriation Flights, the Airline crew undergoes a swab test for Covid-19 before and after they operate the Flight. Post Flight, the crew proceed to a hotel where they wait for the test results, which takes 24-48 hours.
If they test negative, the Airline car drops them to their residence. Five days after arrival, the crew take another Covid test. If this test too return negative and the crew concerned doesn’t suffer from any symptoms of this virus only then could they be rostered for further Flying duties. The pre-Flight Covid test requirement is that the sample for the swab test should have been collected within five days of date of departure and it should test negative.
Thank you guys for supporting and performing your duties when its most difficult. Salute to you all and your families... Thank you.
Air India crew operating the repatriation Flights don the full PPE gear, including the hazmat suits, gloves, mask and goggles. However unlike the earlier Covid repatriation Flights carried out by Air India, what’s different now is that night halts for crew have been planned in cities like NewYork, San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, London and Singapore. Air India had laid down SOPs to ensure that the crew remain safe during their stay abroad. Arrangements for transportation and hotel accommodation at the contracted hotels, on a full board basis, which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner were made so that the crew needn’t step out for food. A note in this regard sent last week by AI executive director Capt R S Sandhu said : ``Due to the major Covid problem in Manhattan NewYork, all crew should be accommodated at the contracted Newark hotel.” The note added that crew transport, movement control staff, availability of company doctor for pre and post Flight medical exam should be ensured at all these foreign stations.
Social Media is considered to connect people without any limitation of distance, time or cost. It not only enables us to connect to our dear ones but also it helps in reaching out to build professional relationships. It also helps in building good relationships with the customers and get their feedback for the services the company provides. A statistic has shown, that “social networking is the top online activity in the US, with the average American spending 37 minutes per day” (Karr, D., 2014). Due to the popularity and the increasing number of participants, more and more businesses, amongst others many airlines, realized that social media is a useful tool and a general foundation of their marketing strategy to reach prospects and customers. Social media provides the opportunity of getting close to the customer which is also known as Social Customer Engagement Management. To bridge the gap between the customers’ want and the quality of our product and services, it is important to understand the customer and it is believed that social media can bridge that gap. Companies need to reflect positively on customers by answering politely, quickly and with a helpful attitude. A statistic of 2014 has stated that 49% show positive reactions towards the interactions with brands on Facebook and 55% on twitter, whereas 20% of users negatively react on interactions on both platforms. This shows, that improvements are always necessary and recommended.
International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) best practice guide for crisis communications depicts three drivers behind the evolution of social media. They are: connectivity (one-third of the world’s population actively use social media channels); mobility (by 2020, some 80% of adults globally will own a personal smartphone); and streaming video (Facebook Live quickly achieved notoriety after several shocking incidents were streamed on the platform as they occurred). IATA describes Twitter as the “most widely-used ‘micro-blogging’ service” and notes that it is available in 30 languages, including Chinese, Korean, and Arabic. It also reports that a tweet from a “survivor or eyewitness can reach tens of thousands of users around the world in minutes, including mainstream journalists who monitor Twitter”.
KLM, for example, offers service on social media 24/7, by responding within an hour and helping with requests within a day. Moreover, they offer assistance in more than 10 languages on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, 2015). Nowadays, KLM almost reaches 10 million likes on Facebook. Comparing their social media strategy to Lufthansa, the company aims to be wherever their customers are. Since 2009 they provide a Facebook page, counting almost two million likes. Up-to-date information, news and daily offers can be found as well as discussions about service issues can be hold directly with the company (Lufthansa, 2015).
In the previous years, the presence of airline companies is growing larger on social media and the interactions with the companies are increasing. For example, “there has been a 60% increase in the number of tweets received by airlines between February 2011 and March 2011. In March 2011, airlines received 101,400 tweets and sent out more than 24,000 replies” (Hameed, B., 2011). Moreover, 40% of airlines focus more on their social media presence by expanding their social media team. Employees from customer service, marketing corporate communications and e-commerce are brought together (Hameed, B., 2011).
To conclude, the availability of airlines on social media platforms increased significantly due to the rising popularity of social media. Social media is often used as a foundation of a company’s marketing strategy and research has shown, that customers react on it. Hence it becomes very important for the aviation sector to take up social platform, not only to socialize and built the business relationships but also to understand the need and wants of the customer.
Advantages of using Digital Technologies in the Aviation sector
With IATA predicting an increase to 7.8 billion passengers to travel in 2036, doubling the 4 billion that traveled in 2017, how can the industry better manage disruption through social media channels in the future? “AI is set to revolutionize airport social media,” says Ben Nimmo, founder and CTO at Orlo (formerly social media management company SocialSignIn), who explains that Orlo has been developing solutions that enable organizations to manage high-volume, emergency situations as effectively as possible. Nimmo explains that Orlo is using AI to draw out key places, names, organizations and mentions, and that understanding sentiment only is no longer enough. “When you combine emotion detection with entity extraction, you have rich contextual understanding around customer experience and events,” explains Nimmo. “That creates a new level of insight and greatly informs your decision-making going forward, helping get the latest, accurate, concise information out quickly to passengers affected.”
In India the most technology-friendly airport is considered to be Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad. The airport has managed to introduce self-check-in procedure. The passenger can print his own ticket. Along with that sticker for bag are also printed. On the next step the passenger can drop off their own bag without any hassle or standing in queue. The passenger can further move for security checks. This procedure is still on trial and will soon receive a green signal from higher authorities. At Hyderabad airport you will witness that there are separate check in counters for people with only a hand bag. Hyderabad airport also has a better baggage belt system to insure only safe bags go on board and no passenger is carrying any illegal item with them. Digital technology could be very useful for the aviation industry. It will make things faster and reduce the human labor. Also Hyderabad was the first airport to try facial recognition system at their premises.
While talking about the digitalization of airports and the aviation sector we need to understand that no airport is the same and accordingly, airports will have different needs and priorities when it comes to implementing digital technologies.
Secondly, airports are at various stages when it comes to implementation. While most airports are transitioning away from Airport 2.0 (self-service and process efficiency) to Airport 3.0 (using digital to optimize flow monitoring and passenger processing) this masks a number of differences in airports’ understanding, freedom of action and overall strategy.
That said, some key aspects of digital technology the majority of airports interviewed wish to see implemented. Cloud computing and big data and analytics were highlighted most frequently, but also other technologies such as smart machines and robots, virtual modelling and simulation and the Internet of Things (IoT). Cloud computing can enable airports to be more agile and deploy new solutions with greater ease for instance and analytics and virtual modelling can assist in monitoring passenger flows.
An uptake in digital technology will be beneficial to airports and their passengers. Digital improves efficiency, which reduces costs and in turn improves passenger experience. There’s a direct correlation between experience at security and propensity to spend money. Airports are first and foremost commercial entities and they have a vested interest in keeping their passengers happy.
There’s an opportunity for digital technology to deliver real and tangible benefits to passengers. With improvements to flight management processing they are likely to see fewer delays and rates of baggage reconciliation are likely to improve. With end-to-end biometrics, transitioning through the airport is likely to become a much better experience for the passenger, where you effectively just walk into the airport and it’s a seamless and touch-free process all the way onto the aircraft.
Uptake of digital technology will be a valuable tool for airports when it comes to handling increasing volumes of passengers, hence why airports with the greatest capacity constraints are using digital for greater optimization and operational resilience and agility. If airports are to handle increasingly larger numbers of passengers, then they are going to have to be more efficient and more adaptable. Virtual modelling and simulation will allow airports to better allocate resources to respond to peak times. It will also allow them to foresee the impact of flight delays and make optimal use of the runway. Big data and analytics will also help airports to optimize passenger flows, allowing them to process larger numbers and also provides information for effective decision-making.
The airline has also planned to ground 10 of its Airbus A380s “indefinitely”. As per the CEO, he believes that the flights are amazing as it is, but given the current situation of the aviation industry, he feels that they are no longer commercially sustainable. This is because the A380 fleet of Etihad has not flown much in 2020 and it is not showing much of a future as well. The CEO even though was reluctant to say it would never come back but the message was passed on loud and clear. This has been the impact of the pandemic on the Airline. 
Etihad is now going to be functioning mainly on its fleet of Dreamliners where, 40 of them are currently flying. The fleet being divided between 30 of 787-9 and a smaller fleet of 10 787-10s. Douglas believed that these are not just operationally efficient but are also contributing heavily to the Airline’s sustainability goals as well. Many Pilots Captain and First Officer with Cabin Crew Members will be Unemployed due to this decision.
