Aviation info.

[dafluff]

More than 400 KLM passengers have been stuck in Singapore for days because of a defective plane.

The aircraft departed Bali on Wednesday to fly to Amsterdam via Singapore. But in Singapore, travelers were notified that the engine's dynamo was broken. After waiting for 3 hours the passengers had to disembark.

"The repair of the aircraft is taking longer than initially expected, which is why the aircraft could not depart on Thursday," KLM said.

The duped travelers are not happy and complained they were left to their own devices and had to enter Singapore on their own. “The KLM crew left waving at us, taking a bus to their own hotel and we were standing there.”

Now obviously the latter makes sense since KLM changes the crew in the stop. It was the same at the Kuala Lumpur stop between Amsterdam and Jakarta. They have a maximum amount of consecutive working hours for the flight attendants. So, weirdly enough, for the last (or first) leg that would not even take 2 hours extra they install a new crew.

According to KLM, all passengers have now been rebooked on other flights and will fly home today, tomorrow and Monday.

Last September a very similar situation occurred btw.

View attachment 2668

Very familiar with this route. The crew does the AMS - SIN flight. Then stay 1 night in SIN, then does SIN-DPS-SIN, stay one night in SIN, then do SIN-AMS. So they would have a crew transport and hotel ready.

However, KLM should arrange for accommodations for the passengers due to this delay, although not sure what the policy is now. FWIW, European airlines incl KLM have been steadily going downhill since like the late 80s.

 

[ChrisTex]

FWIW, European airlines incl KLM have been steadily going downhill since like the late 80s.

Same with the US airlines which is one reason why I try to fly with certain Asian airlines if I can.

 

[jstar]

Garuda Indonesia is increasing the number of flights between Amsterdam and Jakarta during the coming spring and summer seasons. From March 26, the Indonesian airline will fly not once, but twice a week between the two destinations.
Garuda flies non-stop from Schiphol to Jakarta every Monday and Saturday. The return flights are scheduled on Thursday and Sunday. The flights are operated with a Boeing 777-300ER. (At the moment, the airline flies from The Netherlands to Indonesia only on Saturdays.)

While Garuda doubles the number of flights, KLM halves them. From 27 March, KLM will only fly to Jakarta on Tuesdays and Fridays with a Boeing 777-300ER. On the way, a stopover is made at Singapore airport. (So not Kuala Lumpur!) During the ‘winter‘ season, KLM flies to Jakarta on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays with a stopover at Kuala Lumpur. These flights are operated with a Boeing 777-200.

All a bit confusing perhaps, per week:
Garuda 1 2
KLM 4 2

 

[ChrisTex]

So this morning Texas time, the FAA's NOTAM system went down. It is basically a reporting system. Caused a nice bit of chaos as all domestic flights were canceled until 9am Eastern /8am Central, but it also included international flights.

 

[jstar]

It seems it was a human error, by employees of an external company who seem to have direct access to the files and databases in the production environment . As FAA’s Information System security and validation experts I would be very concerned.

 

[jstar]

Something that goes viral here and which is quite a big concern for many netizens; the expiry of the Garuda vouchers. Obviously, not being in the EU, the people were not so well protected and had to accept vouchers with an expiry date for canceled trips during the pandemic. Many of these are offered for sale.

But here it comes; quite some people who had a voucher and wanted to use it before expiration, were told it was not in Garuda’s system (anymore). So that points to theft and resales or (mis)use by employees. Oops.

 

[ChrisTex]

Garauda Reminds they moaning at least every other day about losing money like they are the only airline in the world. One thing I noticed, once flights restarted back in 2020, every Indonesian airline had reduced prices except, Garuda.

Also apparently their stocks were selling for less than $5 when they went back on the stock exchange.

 

[fastpitch17]

Garauda Reminds they moaning at least every other day about losing money like they are the only airline in the world. One thing I noticed, once flights restarted back in 2020, every Indonesian airline had reduced prices except, Garuda.

Also apparently their stocks were selling for less than $5 when they went back on the stock exchange.

Garuda before pandemic from Bandar Lampung to Jakarta, 35 minute flight was about 1 juta. Post pandemic when from 5 flights a day to one each way for 4 juta one way. They were warned not to relist in the stock exchange but did so any way and it tanked. The government needs to cut strings with it. It is a money pit and it's not going to change. Poor management, corruption, and who knows what maintence practices are like now. Of course, Garuda is state owned and being so, like so many other businesses, just sucks the government dry because god forbid a state owned business goes under.

 

[ChrisTex]

Didn't they cancel and also return some of planes due to their debt?

 

[jstar]

Citilink, the low cost carrier from Garuda, added flight routes to Palembang, and Semarang from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport. This airport is not a bad option for many domestic flights to Denpasar, Surabaya, Malang, Medan, Yogyakarta for instance.

For those who never tried it, it’s a bit comparable to Burbank, Charleroi, Eindhoven, Frankfurt-Hahn, Gatwick, …. you get my drift.

 

[jstar]

Where Citilink is the low cost version of Garuda, the rather new airline Super Air Jet is the competitor of the Lion Group. Batik Air is obviously the full service airline of the group so now there are four commercial airlines under its umbrella excluding the Malaysian and Thai versions.

Super Air Jet airline started mid-pandemic so it did not get a lot of attention at the time. Some members of my family-in-law recently took a flight from them and they said it wasn’t bad at all.

 

[nd_eric_77]

Where Citilink is the low cost version of Garuda, the rather new airline Super Air Jet is the competitor of the Lion Group. Batik Air is obviously the full service airline of the group so now there are four commercial airlines under its umbrella excluding the Malaysian and Thai versions.

Super Air Jet airline started mid-pandemic so it did not get a lot of attention at the time. Some members of my family-in-law recently took a flight from them and they said it wasn’t bad at all.


View attachment 2682

When our Lion Air flight from DPS to CGK was canceled last June, they put us on a Super Air Jet that departed an hour later; it seemed identical to Lion save for the livery & FA uniforms.

 

[jstar]

identical to Lion save for the livery & FA uniforms

Yeah it seems to be more safari-like…

 

[ChrisTex]

I flew on Super Air Jet twice and it wasn't bad. Left Jakarta for Jogja(the new airport) maybe 10-15 minutes early and got a free upgrade(to the emergency exit seats). From Solo to Jakarta, wasn't bad apart from a few very late passengers who thought boarding a plane meant you could take your time like you would with Grab or GoJek.

In terms of the FA uniforms, they are more functional than what you normally see.

 

[jstar]

Emirates will fly to Bali with an A380 starting on 1 June, it is the first time that the largest plane in the world will land in Bali.

The flight with the A380 replaces one of two daily flights from Dubai to Bali. These are now still carried out with a Boeing 777. The A380 has 58 seats in business class and 557 in economy class, the airline stated in a press release.

The Airbus will arrive daily at Denpasar Airport at 4:35 PM and depart at 7:40 PM.

 

[Samoerai]

It appears, on a flat map, that any flight from 'say' Jakarta to 'say' Chicago would be directly through/over Hawaii but this isn't the case when navigating.

Flat maps of the earth are not good representations of the earth.

"Though designed with the best of intentions — to provide a detailed and coherent projection of Earth — flat maps are far from accurate; some areas look far bigger than they really are, others appear much smaller, and distances between various land masses are misrepresented."

from: https://www.livescience.com/why-flat-world-maps-wrong

 

[Samoerai]

Emirates will fly to Bali with an A380 starting on 1 June, it is the first time that the largest plane in the world will land in Bali.

The flight with the A380 replaces one of two daily flights from Dubai to Bali. These are now still carried out with a Boeing 777. The A380 has 58 seats in business class and 557 in economy class, the airline stated in a press release.

The Airbus will arrive daily at Denpasar Airport at 4:35 PM and depart at 7:40 PM.


View attachment 2866

Around 600 passengers getting off the plane at the same time. That will give a long queue at the "Imigrasi"- desks .... no fun.

 

[jstar]

For the first time I will take a TransNusa flight from Bali to Jakarta. Let’s see how this low cost carrier works out. It will be docking at terminal 3 of CGK, instead of a terminal 1 like AirAsia domestic. Quite recently, October of last year, they (re)started the flights Jakarta-Denpasar.

It seems that the airline is part-owned by the China Aircraft Leasing Group (CALC),. It’s operating the A320 Neo and ARJ21s. The latter is rather rare and the plane is manufactured by the Chinese state-owned aerospace company Comac. According to plans they started using this plane last month, also on routes as Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru, Kota Kinabalu and Singapore.

TransNusa Pakai Pesawat ARJ-21 Buatan China Mulai 2023

TransNusa bakal memakai pesawat COMAC ARJ21-700 buatan China mulai Maret 2023.

ekonomi.bisnis.com

 

[Samoerai]

For the first time I will take a TransNusa flight from Bali to Jakarta. Let’s see how this low cost carrier works out. It will be docking at terminal 3 of CGK, instead of a terminal 1 like AirAsia domestic. Quite recently, October of last year, they (re)started the flights Jakarta-Denpasar.

View attachment 2889

It seems that the airline is part-owned by the China Aircraft Leasing Group (CALC),. It’s operating the A320 Neo and ARJ21s. The latter is rather rare and the plane is manufactured by the Chinese state-owned aerospace company Comac. According to plans they started using this plane last month, also on routes as Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru, Kota Kinabalu and Singapore.

View attachment 2890

TransNusa Pakai Pesawat ARJ-21 Buatan China Mulai 2023

TransNusa bakal memakai pesawat COMAC ARJ21-700 buatan China mulai Maret 2023.

ekonomi.bisnis.com

I already used this TransNusa service in October last year to Bali and back. No delays whatsoever. The only thing is: in Jakarta we had to walk 'jauh' .. to the end of terminal 3. Lost some weight

 

[jstar]

Yeah those distances are a killer.