Delays happen. Everyone who travels frequently knows that. Flights arrive and depart late. Your room isn't ready but you can have breakfast in the hotel cafe if you'd care to wait. Your table at the hot new restaurant - the one featured on TripAdvisor - isn't ready either, but you can have a cocktail at the bar while you wait for the crush to abate.
As it goes with small matters, so it goes with large ones.
That's why it's not a terribly big surprise that Boeing Co. (www.boeing.com) has delayed the delivery of its eco-friendly, composite-materials 787 Dreamliner yet again - this time till the third quarter of the New Year. Originally, the gorgeous new plane - I've seen test models at Boeing plants near Seattle - was supposed to arrive at launch airline All Nippon Airways (www.ana.co.jp) in 2008. Didn't happen, thanks to overextended global supply chains and technical challenges. The latest setback came about when a fire broke out on a test flight in November and engineers had to scrutinize the plane again. When it does finally fly commercially, this will be a better-than-good plane; it will be a breakthrough aircraft. (You can read about the 787 in more detail in a feature story I did last year for Global Traveler magazine, www.globaltravelerusa.com).
Another delay, less sweeping, to be sure, also involving Japan, has come from American Airlines www.aa.com), which will delay nonstop service between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Tokyo's lustrous, refurbished and expanded Haneda International Airport (www.tokyo-airport.bldg.jp). The new service is now expected to begin on or about March 1, pushed back from previously announced Jan. 20 - Thursday. American says it needs more time to plan and wants to wait until the traditionally weak travel month of February gives way to stronger traffic. AA had already sold some tickets for early flights. Bloomberg Business Week reports that AA "will offer passengers rebookings on its existing route from JFK to Tokyo's Narita airport instead, or a refund ...''
Delta Air Lines, too, has pushed back to Feb. 19 its own Los Angeles International Airport service to Haneda, from the original January time-slot.
Sometimes the marketing runs ahead of operations and engineering. These instances are the latest examples, by no means rare.
Having recently toured Haneda airport and flown into and out of the new international terminal, I can say it's one of the best airports in East Asia. That's saying a lot, as most of the world's high-quality airports are in East Asia. Haneda is gleaming, modern, efficiently run, much closer to downtown Tokyo than Narita -which snared Tokyo's international flights when it opened in 1978 but must now share them - and blessed with good food and shops and lounges. You almost wouldn't mind getting delayed there, though I wasn't when I flew to Tokyo Haneda recently on Japan Airlines. When service to this strikingly upgraded airport gets going in earnest, the travel experience for trans-Pacific fliers will get markedly better.
And when Dreamliners are, at last, put on some of those routes, it will be better still.
Showing posts with label All Nippon AIrways. Show all posts
Showing posts with label All Nippon AIrways. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Monday, August 9, 2010
Self-Boarding, a Little Late
As is so often the case with travel in the United States these days, U.S. airlines are coming in a day late and a dollar short when it comes to innovation.
The latest example is Continental Airlines' experiment with passenger self-boarding, being trialed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in Houston. Basically, this consists of printing out your boarding pass at home, then swiping it at a turnstyle-like device at the airport gate. If it works as intended, you are cleared for boarding; you don't hand the boarding pass to an airline employee to do a swipe. The idea is to speed up the boarding process, according to Continental.
"One gate has been tested, and so far we've been pleased with what we've learned with the experience,'' the New York Times quotes airline spokeswoman Christen David saying. There are still gate agents around if you need them for assistence with anything, she added.
Jeez. One gate. One airport. One airline.
Continental is the first U.S. major to test self-boarding. But self-boarding is not new. I did it with Japan's All Nippon Airways in January 2008 - two and a half years ago - at Tokyo's Haneda airport - this was after booking the flight and getting my seat assignment, all on a handset. To board the plane, one places the handset and flight bar code down on a display panel at the turnstyle, and the turnstyle reads the bar code. It was simple and easy, even for a confirmed technophobe like me.
One gets the feeling that by the time America catches up to this, Japan and other world leaders in travel technology and infrastructure will have moved on to something else. "Beam me up, Scottie,'' perhaps.
At least Continental is trying, unlike some of its peers. Now, all we have to worry about is Continental's planned merger with United Airlines, which may go through by the end of this year. Continental has built a reputation in recent years for good customer service, at least by feeble U.S. standards. United, which used to advertise its service in the Friendly Skies, now has some of the surliest, don't-bother-me customer service there is. It will be interesting to see whose corporate culture prevails after the merger.
If it's United's, watch out.
The latest example is Continental Airlines' experiment with passenger self-boarding, being trialed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in Houston. Basically, this consists of printing out your boarding pass at home, then swiping it at a turnstyle-like device at the airport gate. If it works as intended, you are cleared for boarding; you don't hand the boarding pass to an airline employee to do a swipe. The idea is to speed up the boarding process, according to Continental.
"One gate has been tested, and so far we've been pleased with what we've learned with the experience,'' the New York Times quotes airline spokeswoman Christen David saying. There are still gate agents around if you need them for assistence with anything, she added.
Jeez. One gate. One airport. One airline.
Continental is the first U.S. major to test self-boarding. But self-boarding is not new. I did it with Japan's All Nippon Airways in January 2008 - two and a half years ago - at Tokyo's Haneda airport - this was after booking the flight and getting my seat assignment, all on a handset. To board the plane, one places the handset and flight bar code down on a display panel at the turnstyle, and the turnstyle reads the bar code. It was simple and easy, even for a confirmed technophobe like me.
One gets the feeling that by the time America catches up to this, Japan and other world leaders in travel technology and infrastructure will have moved on to something else. "Beam me up, Scottie,'' perhaps.
At least Continental is trying, unlike some of its peers. Now, all we have to worry about is Continental's planned merger with United Airlines, which may go through by the end of this year. Continental has built a reputation in recent years for good customer service, at least by feeble U.S. standards. United, which used to advertise its service in the Friendly Skies, now has some of the surliest, don't-bother-me customer service there is. It will be interesting to see whose corporate culture prevails after the merger.
If it's United's, watch out.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Hubris
Hubris, thy name is Boeing ... and Airbus.
The world's two giant aircraft-makers - embracing globalization but stretched to the limit by it - are still struggling to make what they proudly term "game-changing'' new airplanes and deliver them to customer airlines. The latest delay came in June, when Chicago-based Boeing Co. announced there would be yet another delay - the fifth since 2007 - in delivery of its B787 Dreamliner, a long-range airplane made of carbon-composite materials that airlines are counting on to generate less pollution and burn less fuel than do their current fleets. Now, Boeing says its first test flight of the 787 won't take place till the end of this year, with the first deliveries in late 2010 - two and a half years late.
Delays play havoc with the business plans of airlines and put off the day when the traveling public can start to reap the benefits of flying in relatively clean and quiet jetliners.
Toulouse-based Airbus, for its part, is two years behind schedule on its superjumbo A380, due primarily to problems in the extensive electrical wiring needed for the plane. The A380 has been flying for nearly two years but only three airlines are using it, as orders stack up, awaiting faster production by Airbus, a European consortium dominated by the French and Germans with some input from the British and Spanish.
I flew on the first scheduled commercial flight of an Airbus A380, traveling from Singapore to Sydney on Singapore Airlines flight 380. The date was Oct. 25, 2007, and the ride was spectacular - not least because of the movie-premiere-like party going on throughout the seven-hour flight, but also because of the astonishingly quiet performance of the enormous, double-decker plane. Since then, Emirates and Qantas have started flying the A380, too, though both are still waiting for most of the planes they ordered, as is Singapore Air.
The Dreamliner, too, promises to be a fine new airplane, though aviation industry pundits are understandably skeptical about the manufacturer's grand claims for it. "There was a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of the chatter on the street was "Will this aircraft ever fly?'' Alex Hamilton, an analyst with Jesup and Lamont Securities, told Airwise.com after the latest Boeing explanation and apologia.
That's a bit silly. With billions in research and development committed to the 787 and Boeing's prestige on on the line, the aircraft will fly. The question isn't if but when.
In the meantime, imagine being All Nippon Airways, the launch customer for the 787 and buyer of 55 of the aircraft. ANA was expecting to take its first planes in May 2008 and fly them to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. That plan was dashed.
In Tokyo last year, I interviewed several ANA executives. When the question of the Dreamliner came up, the vexation in their faces was apparent. When I asked if they would seek financial compensation from Boeing for lost business, they said they just might. No one has commented on how much such compensation that could be.
Last week - following a Boeing announcement that it is making headway on resolving a problem left unsolved by an Italian contractor in afixing the wings to the body of the 787 - ANA issued this statement:
"We understand the need to make the best and safest aircraft possible and appreciate that delays due to engineering issues of the current nature must be solved in order to move forward and achieve this. However, as launch customer and future operator of the 787, the length of this further delay is a source of great dismay, not to say frustration.''
Some of Boeing's current difficulties come from overpromising, some from the increasingly globalized nature of manufacturing, with its extended supply chains, worldwide outsourcing and many subcontractors - some relatively unknown to Boeing and Airbus.
Despite their struggles in managing far-flung contract manufacturers, Boeing has said it is looking into starting a second production line for the 787 Dreamliner. If final assembly takes place outside Boeing plants in the state of Washington, that would be a first for Boeing.
Meanwhile, airlines and air travelers alike wait, and wait, to fly the sky of the future.
The world's two giant aircraft-makers - embracing globalization but stretched to the limit by it - are still struggling to make what they proudly term "game-changing'' new airplanes and deliver them to customer airlines. The latest delay came in June, when Chicago-based Boeing Co. announced there would be yet another delay - the fifth since 2007 - in delivery of its B787 Dreamliner, a long-range airplane made of carbon-composite materials that airlines are counting on to generate less pollution and burn less fuel than do their current fleets. Now, Boeing says its first test flight of the 787 won't take place till the end of this year, with the first deliveries in late 2010 - two and a half years late.
Delays play havoc with the business plans of airlines and put off the day when the traveling public can start to reap the benefits of flying in relatively clean and quiet jetliners.
Toulouse-based Airbus, for its part, is two years behind schedule on its superjumbo A380, due primarily to problems in the extensive electrical wiring needed for the plane. The A380 has been flying for nearly two years but only three airlines are using it, as orders stack up, awaiting faster production by Airbus, a European consortium dominated by the French and Germans with some input from the British and Spanish.
I flew on the first scheduled commercial flight of an Airbus A380, traveling from Singapore to Sydney on Singapore Airlines flight 380. The date was Oct. 25, 2007, and the ride was spectacular - not least because of the movie-premiere-like party going on throughout the seven-hour flight, but also because of the astonishingly quiet performance of the enormous, double-decker plane. Since then, Emirates and Qantas have started flying the A380, too, though both are still waiting for most of the planes they ordered, as is Singapore Air.
The Dreamliner, too, promises to be a fine new airplane, though aviation industry pundits are understandably skeptical about the manufacturer's grand claims for it. "There was a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of the chatter on the street was "Will this aircraft ever fly?'' Alex Hamilton, an analyst with Jesup and Lamont Securities, told Airwise.com after the latest Boeing explanation and apologia.
That's a bit silly. With billions in research and development committed to the 787 and Boeing's prestige on on the line, the aircraft will fly. The question isn't if but when.
In the meantime, imagine being All Nippon Airways, the launch customer for the 787 and buyer of 55 of the aircraft. ANA was expecting to take its first planes in May 2008 and fly them to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. That plan was dashed.
In Tokyo last year, I interviewed several ANA executives. When the question of the Dreamliner came up, the vexation in their faces was apparent. When I asked if they would seek financial compensation from Boeing for lost business, they said they just might. No one has commented on how much such compensation that could be.
Last week - following a Boeing announcement that it is making headway on resolving a problem left unsolved by an Italian contractor in afixing the wings to the body of the 787 - ANA issued this statement:
"We understand the need to make the best and safest aircraft possible and appreciate that delays due to engineering issues of the current nature must be solved in order to move forward and achieve this. However, as launch customer and future operator of the 787, the length of this further delay is a source of great dismay, not to say frustration.''
Some of Boeing's current difficulties come from overpromising, some from the increasingly globalized nature of manufacturing, with its extended supply chains, worldwide outsourcing and many subcontractors - some relatively unknown to Boeing and Airbus.
Despite their struggles in managing far-flung contract manufacturers, Boeing has said it is looking into starting a second production line for the 787 Dreamliner. If final assembly takes place outside Boeing plants in the state of Washington, that would be a first for Boeing.
Meanwhile, airlines and air travelers alike wait, and wait, to fly the sky of the future.
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