Airline talk
I had a real hectic day today at work. There was a meeting with people from KLM, Air France, Delta, Alitalia and Martinair at the Amstelveen office, regarding the upcoming summer schedule. Airlines generally work with two schedules... the winter schedule that starts in October and the summer schedule that starts in March.
As usual there are lots of things I can't talk about. But what I can say is that there is a lot of interesting developments waiting to happen. On the KLM side especially! KLM is going to start flying non-stop to Quito UIO and Guayaquil GYE in Ecuador eliminating the Bonaire stopover. The flights to Ecuador at one point or the other always made a stop in Aruba AUA, Bonaire BON or Curaçao CUR, because the MD-11 was not able to make it all the way to Ecuador non-stop. Mostly because of UIO airport. It is a high airport with a rather short runway. So a fully fueled MD-11 with passengers, baggage and cargo could not take-off from the airport. UIO will get a new airport with a much longer runway enabling a KLM 777-300 to take off without payload restrictions.
Martinair will seize all passenger flights per November 1st. To compensate for the loss of Martinair's Caribbean flights, KLM will fly 9 times weekly to CUR, 7 times a week to BON, 5 times a week to AUA and 3 times a week to SXM. Havana HAV and Miami MIA will also be loaded into the schedule. All Martinair crew has already been taken over by KLM and are now on 'loan' to Martinair. In November they will merge into KLM Cabin Services and fly KLM planes. KLM is also going to start Buenos Aires EZE in 2012 in a codeshare agreement with Aerolineas Argentinas who by then will be a SkyTeam member.
My buddy Les, who is on loan to Martinair, will leave the company in August and will be a Champion in a project that will oversea the integration of KLM and Martinair's reservation systems. He will also be a Master Black Belt in aquiring new Flying Blue members for KLM. To do this he will be loaned out to KLM's subsidiary Cygnific in Amsterdam.
Air France is adding many destinations as well, primarliy in Africa and South America and Delta will of course implement its Economy Comfort product in their aircraft. Then AF-KL and DL will have one product to offer on it's mid- and transatlantic flights. So a lot is going to happen!
As for me... the question is will I remain at Delta? Delta is happy with its dedicated AF and KL people in Paris and Amsterdam and wants to continue this for another 5 years. I am heading to Atlanta tomorrow for my evaluation and should be back on Saturday or Sunday. I will try to get on the 10.10 Delta flight and if I get bumped I will try to get on the 14.35 KLM flight. There are many other options, but that involves a connection and I am really trying to avoid that. Friday is my evaluation meeting at the Delta headquarters. Then some decions have to be made by both parties. Honestly... I am still in doubt if I want to stay in the Delta team. Will keep you posted!
Anyway, let me pack some stuff, do some administration and get to bed. I have to be at Schiphol at 08.30.
Cheers!
As usual there are lots of things I can't talk about. But what I can say is that there is a lot of interesting developments waiting to happen. On the KLM side especially! KLM is going to start flying non-stop to Quito UIO and Guayaquil GYE in Ecuador eliminating the Bonaire stopover. The flights to Ecuador at one point or the other always made a stop in Aruba AUA, Bonaire BON or Curaçao CUR, because the MD-11 was not able to make it all the way to Ecuador non-stop. Mostly because of UIO airport. It is a high airport with a rather short runway. So a fully fueled MD-11 with passengers, baggage and cargo could not take-off from the airport. UIO will get a new airport with a much longer runway enabling a KLM 777-300 to take off without payload restrictions.
Martinair will seize all passenger flights per November 1st. To compensate for the loss of Martinair's Caribbean flights, KLM will fly 9 times weekly to CUR, 7 times a week to BON, 5 times a week to AUA and 3 times a week to SXM. Havana HAV and Miami MIA will also be loaded into the schedule. All Martinair crew has already been taken over by KLM and are now on 'loan' to Martinair. In November they will merge into KLM Cabin Services and fly KLM planes. KLM is also going to start Buenos Aires EZE in 2012 in a codeshare agreement with Aerolineas Argentinas who by then will be a SkyTeam member.
My buddy Les, who is on loan to Martinair, will leave the company in August and will be a Champion in a project that will oversea the integration of KLM and Martinair's reservation systems. He will also be a Master Black Belt in aquiring new Flying Blue members for KLM. To do this he will be loaned out to KLM's subsidiary Cygnific in Amsterdam.
Air France is adding many destinations as well, primarliy in Africa and South America and Delta will of course implement its Economy Comfort product in their aircraft. Then AF-KL and DL will have one product to offer on it's mid- and transatlantic flights. So a lot is going to happen!
As for me... the question is will I remain at Delta? Delta is happy with its dedicated AF and KL people in Paris and Amsterdam and wants to continue this for another 5 years. I am heading to Atlanta tomorrow for my evaluation and should be back on Saturday or Sunday. I will try to get on the 10.10 Delta flight and if I get bumped I will try to get on the 14.35 KLM flight. There are many other options, but that involves a connection and I am really trying to avoid that. Friday is my evaluation meeting at the Delta headquarters. Then some decions have to be made by both parties. Honestly... I am still in doubt if I want to stay in the Delta team. Will keep you posted!
Anyway, let me pack some stuff, do some administration and get to bed. I have to be at Schiphol at 08.30.
Cheers!
posted by Traveller at 11:44 PM
2 Comments:
Hmmm, ik ken veel crewleden die niet blij zullen zijn met de UIO/GYE vluchten. Waaronder m'nzelf! De lange 9-daagse BON reizen zijn dan foetsie. Dat was één van de grootste redenen dat ik voor de MD11 gekozen had en niet de 777. Jammer!!!!
Anne
Anne, je hebt helemaal gelijk. Toen ik begon bij cabine, was mijn pakket de standaard 737 en 747. Mijn wisselkist was de 767. Toen die uit de vloot ging, was mijn wisselkist de MD11 geworden. Ik was er blij mee, want ik had familie en vrienden op Aruba, Curaçao en in Suriname wonen. Dus de 747 en MD11 waren perfect. Toen ze een tekort kregen aan cabine bemanning op de 777 heb ik die als vierde kist genomen.
Maar zoals Ryan al vertelde komt MP bemanning bij ons en moesten we plaats maken. Dus iedereen met een vierde kist, moest er eentje opgeven. Sinds er allang sprake was dat Ecuador nonstop zou worden, heb ik ervoor gekozen om de MD11 op te geven. Heel erg jammer, maar de 777's hebben veel interresante bestemmingen met lange layovers. De A330 moet ik helemaal niet hebben met hun vage bestemmingen!
Robin
Post a Comment
<< Home