Livin' It Up.... On The Dream)liner

The long Diwali weekend has come, and it was time to head back home to Delhi....

This was a well-planned trip from an aviator's perspective - we were to be flying on the Dream)liner, Air-India's Boeing 787. We had carefully chosen AI348, the flight that heads to Shanghai-Pudong via Delhi - the flight departs Mumbai at 0750 hours, reaching Delhi at 1010 hours.

Being an international flight, with a domestic leg, we were asked to report for checkin at least two and a half hours before the scheduled departure time.

We reached Mumbai's Terminal 2 before dawn.... The terminal was lit up and illuminated for Diwali... It looked awesome...

This left me speechless....

(Thanks to Neeti for grabbing these magical sights on her camera!)

We were flying on VT-ANL - this Dream)liner was fabricated at the Boeing facility at Charleston, South Carolina. It undertook its maiden flight on  October 28, 2012, and was delivered to Air-India on December 29-30, 2012 when it flew on the CHS-FRA-DEL route... 

We had an unusual takeoff from the 09 end of the primary runway 09-27 and took off over Kurla, overflying Vikhroli and the Vashi creek....

The GEnx-1B engines looked massive - there was indeed much lesser noise in the cabin and takeoff was much smoother...

We turned northwards over the Vashi creek overflying Mulund and Thane towards our left....

Once the seatbelt signs were turned off, the cabin crew dimmed the windows from their controls...

The Dream)liner windows are 65% bigger than conventional windows and passengers have a knob that helps in electrically dimming the windows...

The dimming effect is the result of an electrified gel sandwiched between two thin pieces of glass. As the electric current increases, the gel darkens and as it drops, the gel lightens. The system is a technological marvel...

Three stages of dimming.....

Overflying Rajasthan...

Dimmers at work over Rajasthan...

Notice the curvature of the Earth...

Overflying the Aravalis...

Approach into DEL

Landing on DEL's 29-11...

Landing was super smooth like running a knife through butter... wish Jet Airways learns a thing or two about smooth landings...

Winter is setting in with perceptible haze...

Three sisters - Boeing 777s from Emirates, Jet Airways and British Airways on the ramp at Delhi's Terminal 3...

The Dream)liner experience was an awesome one. Not only was flight a very smooth one, service on board was excellent. Air-India's in-flight entertainment was pretty decent - I watched the movie, Godzilla. Breakfast was excellent as well - omelettes and sausages with a flaky croissant... The stewards were kind with endless refills of lemon tea... Leg space is always awesome on Air-India, the Dream)liner was no different.... In all Air-India scores highly over domestic carriers like Jet Airways and IndiGo.

With today's flight on the Boeing 787-8 Dream)liner, I have traveled on all Boeing commercial aircraft from Boeing 707 to the Boeing 787 with the sole exception of the Boeing 757. Chances on traveling on a Boeing 757 are remote today. In India, the aircraft is operated Blue Dart for their cargo operations. A few carriers in the United States still operate the Boeing 757, but they would be taken off service soon.

My track record with Airbus is a lot better - I have flown on all their commercial aircraft - Airbus A300, A310, A320-series, A330, A340 and A380. Now look forward to the Airbus A350 entering commercial service. 

Plane Spotting At BOM -- Part IV

A few weeks back, I traveled to Ahmedabad. I took a mid-morning flight from here, which is usually the best time for plane spotting, the liveries look vibrant.

That was the week when the new terminal, T2, was inaugurated. There was model of the new T2 on display besides the check-in counters....

In a few years, all operations will shift from T1A and T1B to the new T2....

And truly, that'll be something that this city and India truly deserves.... A worthy brother of Delhi's T3....

The Air-India Airbus A320 being pushed back.... The bird looked splendid in the morning sun....

We boarded and in some time we pushed back....

But the windows weren't clean from the outside, a disaster for a spotter like me.... it seems Jet Airways skips washing its planes, saving, well, a few pennies....

IndiGo's Airbus A320 - these days even IndiGo is saving a penny or two and is avoiding keeping their planes clean.... These guys at IndiGo have indeed gone nuts...

A JetKonnect Boeing 737.... an awful livery....

That's SpiceJet - perhaps a flying elaichi....., or a flying oregano?

Air India's Baby Bus .... Airbus A319...

The short lived livery of Indian Airlines.... Wonder if Air India can't afford a repaint today....

A UPS Boeing 747-400 Freighter in the cargo operations area of the airport...

That's Air India's Boeing 777 - a few of these will be sold at throw-away prices to Etihad....

That would complete India's complete selloff of aviation to the Emiratis - James Hogan of Etihad would be laughing all the way after duping Jet Airways into a lousy deal and picking up these long haul jets from Air India for some loose change.... And as though that wasn't enough, the government has sold out bilaterals on the Indian skies to Emirates making it India's de-facto flag carrier.... Well, with polls round the corner, you can safely speculate what could have happened...

Wow... the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner.... These days, the Air India Dreamliner operates on the BOM-LHR and BOM-DEL-PVG sectors...

And finally the queen... the gracefully ageing Boeing 747-400 of Air India! 

The very sight of this sexy beast makes me go mmmmmmm!

I love her so much.... ♥

Despite her age, the queen does look beautiful....

Jet Airways' Boeing 777 - wonder how long would Etihad let Jet Airways keep these long haul aircraft...

After all see how Etihad has screwed Air Berlin forcing them to pull out of Phuket...

But I can't take my eyes off the queen...

And finally, we hold short of Runway 27-09, waiting to take off for Ahmedabad....

T2: From Where Dreams Will Take Flight!

A few months back, I was travelling to Hyderabad. I was taking an early morning flight from Mumbai's Chhatrapati International Airport. Since our aircraft was parked on a remote parking bay near the international terminal T2, we were ushered into a bus to take us there. 

The bus had a group of American executives from Du Pont - their conversation was so animated and engrossing that I intently eavesdropped on them.

Their conversation centered on India and clearly they were impressed with the new X-shaped Terminal 2 which was under construction. They marvelled at its size and splendour. That made me secretly happy!

Last Friday, the new T2 was unveiled. I had waited for the T2 for long, especially after Delhi got its new integrated terminal T3. While the T3 made me feel proud of India and my home city, Delhi, I cringed at experiencing the Soviet style, musty and bursting at its seams T2 here in Mumbai.

Mumbai certainly deserved something better, for Mumbai is the city that midwifed the birth of Indian aviation with stalwarts like JRD Tata who headed one of the finest airlines of those days, Air-India, out of this city. Air-India had developed Mumbai as hub for traffic into India. Global carriers made Mumbai their port of call in their flights between Australia / South East Asia and Europe.

But things stalled - traffic out of Mumbai stagnated. Mumbai's airport was bursting at its seams. Air-India shifted its headquarters and operational hub to Delhi. When Air-India inducted the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Delhi was chosen over Mumbai as their homebase - that anguished me. Carriers like Qantas, KLM, Aeroflot, Alitalia, Virgin and Austrian Airlines pulled out of Mumbai.
A lousy deal between Jet Airways and Etihad promised the development of Abu Dhabi as a global hub, and not Mumbai (sic!).

The new upcoming carriers  - Tata-SIA and Air Asia India did not choose Mumbai as their hub. The development of classy airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore also sucked traffic away!
Mumbai, it seemed was dying a death as an aviation hub.

However T2, an impressive development, promises to change that all. The terminal not only would help expand capacity but would also showcase India's warmth to the world, to passengers who would transit through Mumbai, with its 3 kilometer long art-wall. 

Development of Mumbai as a hub is what is key - Mumbai is right in the middle of major flight routes of the world and there is no reason why we can't develop Mumbai as a major transit hub like Dubai. Transit passengers would bring in a lot of revenue for the airport - these passengers would spend on food, drink, shopping and the warmth that a terminal would exude would make a difference. That's upto the airport to market itself to carriers.

Then I saw an advertisement in today's newspaper - Air-India is to launch Dreamliner flights from here to Shanghai via Delhi! Wow, I this is a sign that things are changing already.
As for me, I just can't wait to travel to Delhi on this Dreamliner flight from the T2 - it'll be a double first when it happens - a first at T2 and a first on the Dreamliner.

Headwinds or Tailwinds? - Some More Random Thoughts....

A few weeks back, I had written a blog titled "Headwinds or Tailwinds?" on the latest in aviation, including the launch of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

I received an interesting comment on the blog post from a gentleman, Mr. Rodrick Rajive Lal, who observed:

Yes, we have shrunk distances! The Dreamliner goes a long way from the Boeing 720s and 707s that I used to fly with my parents from Addis Ababa to Mumbai. Then planes had to land in Aden to refuel because they burned a lot of fuel while taking off from Addis, blame the altitude! Then came the 767s, one of which crashed of the Comoros islands after it was hijacked. The moot question is, Do we need aircraft for long distances, or do we need aircraft for shorter hops? The Second question is, in spite of the hype, will the Dreamliner sell? The Airbus A380 is a high capacity aircraft. I wonder whether it will sell in large numbers because it would not be cost effective to fly below its full capacity! The same goes for the Dreamliner, will it be cost effective, will it be a money spinner, would you like to bet your money on it?

So true, we have come a long way in air travel. But the whole charm of flying in a Boeing 707 was something that is almost indescribable. My mind still has vivid memories of the very regal Air-India Boeing 707s in the early 1980s and that of the Zambia Airways Boeing 707, resplendent in the pan-African colours, and the classic "Z" stylised as an eagle on the green tail!

Those were the days when there was a certain charm in flying. Now it is more of a chore. And sadly now, there is only one scheduled operator of the Boeing 707 - Saha Air of Iran! The other Boeing 707s are either junked in boneyards of Arizona or the Mojave Desert in California or operate as fuel tankers for air defence forces, especially in the United States and other NATO countries. The Indian Air Force also did operate a fleet of Boeing 707s, but those are rusting away in the Palam Technical Area of Delhi Airport - they are clearly visible from the road that links Terminal 1 and Terminal 3.

I recall travelling in an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 727 from Addis Ababa to Bombay in 1981. It was raining heavily when we boarded the trijet through an aerobridge - that was such a wow for me, a 5 year old then! As we took off from Addis Ababa, there was a lovely site of green terraced fields on hillsides - those memories are crystal clear. The majestic Lion of Judah, which symbolised the airline was everywhere on board - on the meal trays, napkins, etc. Then the meal that was served was one of the yummiest I had!

My sister recently travelled Ethiopian from Washington DC to Entebbe, and she did say the airline is still damn good - in the same period, Air-India has gone to the dogs (sic!). As was acknowledged by the Economist a few months back, Ethiopian, South African Airways and Kenya Airways are effectively serving the world by linking major commercial centres of the world to African cities.

Now Mr. Lal spoke about the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767, flight ET 961 crashing off the Comoros Islands. Yes, that was a sad incident which was widely publicised in India in 1996 - the flight originated in Bombay and after a stopover at Addis Ababa and was headed to Nairobi. The flight was hijacked by Ethiopians demanding asylum in Australia. The brave pilots refused to give in to the demands and the aircraft soon ran out of fuel and had crash land in the Indian Ocean. The horrific incident was videotaped by a South African couple on the Comoran beach, who actually though that the Boeing 767 was a part of an airshow.

Now coming to whether the Airbus A380 will be a viable option for airlines, in the long term, or not - well that's anyone's guess. But there are certain high density routes where such a massive capacity can be deployed. Airlines in Japan already deploy Boeing 747s on domestic routes. Korean carriers deploy Boeing 747s and Airbus A380s between Seoul and Hong Kong. There is a market at least for now. The Centre for Aviation brought out a listing of the busiest air routes last month, and the Delhi - Bombay route was listed as the 8th busiest in the world. Imagine, if we had carriers that were imaginative enough, a fleet of 5 Airbus A380s would be good enough to put the Rajdhani Express of the Indian Railways out of business - economies of scale will push down prices. We need to realise that travel time has an economic cost - it does not make sense to travel for over 16 hours when you do it in 3 hours, taking into account the checkin time.

The Dreamliner will sell - the aircraft is built with composites and plastics, making it much much lighter than similar aircraft in its class. In this age, where fuel costs are high and emission trading schemes are being enforced in the EU, airlines would look at the likes of the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 favourably.

Thank God it was Saturday!

Sometimes one just wants to escape .... escape from the reality ... freshen up oneself, get out of the routine.

And that's precisely what we did yesterday.... we tried to, for a moment, forget what's coming up and tried to live the day. A week passed by since both of us had been down with a bad flu, a few months had passed by of trying in vain to get what we rightfully deserve .... and what the hell....Saturday was the time to break loose. Well some what!

Again it was one of the days when we missed the gym again, but could there be a better day to binge? I guess not.

After a late breakfast of oat porridge, boiled eggs and poha, we headed out to Inorbit Malad at 1 PM. Gosh - what discipline - breakfast at 1 PM???

The recession is here for sure, so we thought we ought to cut our costs right? So we parked our Dreamliner at Hypercity - the parking coupon is redeemable against purchases at the store - and we walked down to Inorbit, a couple of minutes away.

Got into Shopper's Stop for window-shopping, we could not help exclaiming how fast things have come back to normal after 26/11 - the mall-rats were back, finally!!! But the security was pathetic as ever. While I was frisked reasonably, Neeti went through casually - do we give a damn for security?

To compensate for our inability to visit our gym today, we sauntered up and down Inorbit for about an hour, fairly briskly, burning those calories stored in the flab and then as always, a cuppa was what was needed! So our pace quickened towards Coffee World, where we consumed a few more calories alongwith some refreshing Assam tea - afterall the company was great, to chai ho jaye!!!

While enjoying our tea, we were preparing for the worst - making contingency plans just in case Mr. Kasab's mates walk in with a few crackers - we quickly mapped our escape routes, etc. etc. Fortunately for us, Mr. Kasab's mates probably haven't yet commenced their voyage on the high seas!!!

And then, Halleluiah!!!! It was time to head to my temple - the meat and poultry section of Hypercity, where I have to dutifully pay my obeisance, everytime I am in the vicinity of Malad!!! Picked up some pomfret - thank God, Neeti has finally given in to the joys of a carnivorous existence, after over 3 years of my patient convincing!!!!!

And what recession are we talking of? People are still splurging - filling in trolleys with goodies. Now what's the truth? No doubt inflation has hurt us all. No doubt malls were running empty till about two weeks back. How was today different? Perhaps, people who were sick and tired of being at home after the attacks suddenly loosened up and vented out their feelings by mall-ratting. Perhaps, people were lulled in by the "comfort" that we've have a great three weeks and no attacks. Sure this would be a great research topic for a psychologist! Whatever it is, we have forgotten all this so soon, far too soon that it pains.

And it was time for another cup of tea, this time at the Brio. My hypothesis has always been to protest against bad service. This time around the service at the Brio was far far better. Neeti has been saying for the last 3-odd years that I always sniff out bad service, like a lion smelling its prey in the air!!!! Whatever it is, we as a country have a long way to go before we learn what good service is - a long subject that's better left to another blog.

And we headed back - I had a date with my barber for my long due haircut (Gosh! People at office thought I had changed my hairstyle! My style statement was getting blown to smithereens - I needed a haircut, badly!!!).

I joined Neeti at Lokhandwala market, where she was indulging in her favourite pastime of bargaining. On our way out, we chanced upon "Guru da Dhaba" in one of the by-lanes. I had been hearing of this nondescript joint on the foodie forums online for at least 2 years, as one of the most remarkable joints for "homecooked" food. Naturally we were tempted at the thought of rajma-chawal, kadi and arbi. To top it all - the ambiance was just like "home" (read: North India) - an elderly Sardarji - dressed in white with a orange-yellow turban, sat at the counter listening to soothing Gurbani!!! And the food, well, basic but delicious!

And it was time to get back! Thank God it was Saturday!