Tag Archives: Condor

742 Condor Airlines

The Condor Airlines Director of Sales for the Americas describes the airline’s plans for the North American market and explains what an airline sales director does. In the news, we look at what happened at the recent FAA Aviation Safety Summit sessions, the Russian fighter and the MQ-9 Reaper drone, longer recording time for CVRs, and a push to ban lap infants on commercial flights.

Condor Airlines A330neo in flight.
Condor Airlines A330neo

Guest

Mikko Turtiainen is the Director of Sales, The Americas for Condor Airlines. He’s responsible for leading sales, strategy, and growth in North America. Mikko is also in charge of continuing to build Condor’s brand awareness and sales from consumer and B2B channels in the U.S. and Canada. Previously, Mikko had a long career at Finnair, most recently as vice president of global sales, and he also served on Finnair’s commercial leadership team. He spent four years based in New York, heading Finnair, North America.

Condor Airlines is a well-known German leisure airline that operates a fleet of around fifty Boeing and Airbus aircraft. A number of new Airbus neo aircraft are coming to the fleet, including Condor’s brand-new, long-haul A330neo. The company is introducing its exclusive Prime Seat in Condor’s new business class.

Mikko tells us about Condor’s plans for the North American market and explains what an airline director of sales does. The airline is renewing its long-haul fleet and maintaining its identity as a top-tier leisure and charter operator for the German consumer. But Condor Airlines is repositioning its brand identity for the North Atlantic market with premium seats on the Airbus A330-900neo. Business class is a 1-2-1 configuration with lie-flat seats and 17-24 inch screens. Premium economy and economy seats are also available.

Mikko works closely with tour operators and other travel partners to create packages for leisure destinations. He’s building awareness with travel agencies, different associations, corporate clients, and others.

Video: A330neo – Prime Seat

Aviation News

Readout from the FAA Aviation Safety Summit Breakout Panels

FAA Safety Summit Brings Renewed Call for Vigilance

At the FAA’s Aviation Safety Summit in McLean, Virginia, more than 200 aviation industry safety leaders met to discuss ways to enhance flight safety. Four sessions were facilitated by a member of the industry and an FAA subject matter expert:

Commercial Operations 

  • Pursue more efficient methods of sharing safety information in near real-time at all levels of the aviation industry, including frontline workers. 
  • The FAA will urge the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) team to set a new goal of eliminating serious incidents such as runway incursions and close calls
  • Continue to refine the data being collected by the Aviation Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) system to include a broader range of factors that will help identify precursors to incidents. 
  • Pilots and flight attendants expressed concerns that they continue to feel stress in the workplace, including long work hours under adverse conditions. The group acknowledged that risk models should also incorporate human factors. 

Air Traffic System

  • Re-examine runway incursion data to identify underlying factors that led to these incidents and identify remedies. 
  • The FAA issued a call to the industry to help identify technologies that could augment the existing capabilities of surface surveillance equipment and deploy this technology to all airports with air traffic control services. 

Airport and Ground Operations

  • A primary concern was workforce experience and attrition. Airport operators, airlines, workers, and the FAA discussed sharing the best practices of training programs among airport tenants and other stakeholders operating at airports. Airlines that operate regularly at specific airports said the industry could explore airfield familiarization training for employees. 
  • The attendees discussed how to effectively implement Safety Management Systems (SMS) at more than 200 of America’s busiest commercial airports. The FAA recently published a final rule that requires those airports to develop and adopt SMS programs within five years. The FAA will host a collaborative workshop on March 30

General Aviation Operations

  • Attendees discussed preliminary data from recent fatal accidents as part of their ongoing efforts to reduce the fatal accident rate in this sector. The group discussed ways to promote the sharing of General Aviation flight data in the ASIAS database to improve safety decision-making. 
  • On March 22, the FAA will broadcast its annual From the Flight Deck Live virtual event for pilots. Topics will include preflight planning, wrong surface risk and human factors (runway safety), and airport signs, markings and lighting (airports). GA pilots who attend will earn WINGS continuing education credits. 

Video Shows Russian Fighter Hitting USAF Drone 

Two Russian Su-27 Flanker fighter jets intercepted a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper, dumped fuel on the drone, and struck and damaged the MQ-9s propeller. (From past guest Ward Carroll.)

FAA To Require 25-hour Cockpit Voice Recorders

The FAA told AIN “We are initiating rulemaking that will require cockpit voice recorders to capture 25 hours of information. We will also establish an Aviation Rulemaking Committee to explore how to make greater use of data gathered by the airplane and its systems, including expanded flight data monitoring. We welcome any tools or resources Congress wants to provide to help us do this expeditiously.”

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy asked the FAA to accept seven recommendations from the Safety Board, including increasing the duration of CVR recordings from two to 25 hours: “The fact is Europe has mandated 25-hour CVRs on new aircraft for over a year. We should do the same. We’ve also recommended that we retrofit certain in-service aircraft with 25-hour CVRs. I don’t understand why it’s so controversial.”

See: Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) and Flight Data Recorders (FDR) from the NTSB, and L3Harris cockpit and voice data recorders.

Flight Attendants Are Again Pushing For a Lap Infant Ban On U.S. Airlines

Flight attendants want to ban lap-babies on plane

The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) has repeated its call to ban lap infants. They hope this is included in the latest FAA Reauthorization Act. It failed to make the 2018 Reauthorization. The AFA-CWA represents the crew members at around 20 U.S. carriers, including United, Alaska, and Spirit. The FAA currently recommends that infants and children occupy their own seats, but there is no mandate.

Repair Parts Running Out For GNS 430/530

Garmin says starting in 2024, repairs on early devices won’t be possible due to “multiple component availability limitations.” This applies to “WAAS and Non-WAAS GNC® 420, GNS 430, GNS 530, GPS 400, and GPS 500.” Garmin “encourage[s] GNS 430(W)/530(W) series owners to begin considering their transition strategy to newer generation products.” Database updates and technical support will remain available.

Two Indian Pilots Suspended After Photo of a Full Coffee Cup Balanced On Cockpit Controls Goes Viral

Two Spicejet pilots placed the cup on the controls. The pair have been taken off flight duty while the airline investigates. India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation also says it is investigating the incident.

Mentioned

Elvis’ jet is grounded—forever—but its new owner is flying high

Video: No Engine, No Problem | Pilot Refuses to Declare an Emergency (ATC)

Small plane makes incredible landing on Dubai’s iconic Burj Al Arab helipad – video

Danger Close w/Amber Smith – Registration for Mar 23, 2023, Zoom meeting.

Hosts this Episode

Max Flight, Rob Mark, David Vanderhoof, and our Main(e) Man Micah.

570 Flying in the B-2 Stealth Bomber

Our guest is the only person ever granted access to film the B-2 stealth bomber from the cockpit in flight. He’s producing a television series examining the United States military’s global nuclear mission in the 21st century. In the news, we discuss the protest with drones at Heathrow, the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority views on the 737 MAX, a Boeing 707 struggling to get to Australia, and an A330 flight diversion due to spilled coffee. Plus, more interviews from Cranky Flier’s Dorkfest and SpotLAX2019, and part 4 of Launchpad Marzari’s quest to buy an airplane.

Guest

Jeff Bolton, first to film inside the B-2 Stealth Bomber.

Jeff Bolton

Jeff Bolton tells the stories of the men, women, and families of the United States military. For more than 20 years he has been embedded in military commands, combat theatres, and natural disaster zones around the world.

This past July, Jeff became the first person ever to film a B-2 stealth bomber cockpit tour narrated by the pilot in-flight. He also filmed a B-2 aerial refueling from the bomber’s cockpit. More recently, Jeff has taken a camera inside the B-52.

Jeff is developing and producing a television series in partnership with Defense News that examines the United States military’s global nuclear mission in the 21st century titled GUARDIANS: A Mission For Peace. His previous projects include the documentary film America’s Marine Aviators.

Jeff’s website is JeffBolton.org and you can learn more at Educational Media Enterprises which produces documentary educational programming. He also volunteers at the Cavanaugh Flight Museum, a non-profit educational organization which restores, operates, maintains and displays historically significant vintage aircraft.

Full Reveal Video inside the B2 Stealth Bomber

B2 Cockpit Tour & Aerial Refueling

JeffBolton.org B-52 Experience

Aviation News

Heathrow climate change drone protest arrests rise to 19

UK climate activists made a plan to protest near Heathrow Airport by flying drones inside the airport’s 5km no-fly zone. Their expectation was that the airport protocol would require halting flights. The group called Heathrow Pause said they’d use toy drones, fly them 6 feet high, outside of flight paths, and early in the morning when no flights were scheduled. Authorities responded with some unspecified technology that prevented the drones from flying.

See also: London’s Heathrow Airport appears to have worked out how to jam drone signals to stop climate-change protesters from shutting down its airspace

UAE regulator not optimistic on Boeing 737 MAX return this year

The United Arab Emirates’ General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) joins EASA in saying they too will conduct their own assessment of the 737 Max before allowing it to return to service.

High-flyer Travolta to jet into Australia but pricey gift grounded

Since 1998, John Travolta has owned a former Qantas Boeing 707. Travolta is attempting to gift the plane to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society in Albion Park, but repairs necessary to make it flightworthy may cost $2 million.

Plane carrying 326 passengers diverted after pilot spills coffee

An Airbus A330-243 operated by Condor as flight DE2116 from Frankfurt to Cancún last February had to divert after the commanding pilot spilled some coffee onto the audio control panel (ACP). The panel started smoking, there was an electrical burning smell, and one of the buttons on the co-pilot’s ACP began to melt. The flight was diverted to Shannon airport and jettisoned fuel. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch interim report [PDF] describes operator safety actions, including ensuring that cup lids are provided for flights on all routes.

Reports

Buying a Plane, Part 4

Reporter-at-large Launchpad Marzari tells us more about the Focke-Wulf he’s purchasing.

Focke-Wulf FWP-149D

Cranky Flier’s Dorkfest and SpotLAX2019, Part 2

Brian Colemen spoke with Ben Granucci from NYCAviation, Poppy (age 3), KC-10 pilot Doug and Bob, Tracy from the UK, Ian Petchenik from Flightradar24, Nick from JetTip, Pilot Mike, and Ross.

Mentioned

Eat at the Airport.com

American Helicopter Museum – 1220 American Boulevard, West Chester, Pennsylvania.

AvTalk Episode 66: Our Super Avgeek Week – Covers Cranky Flier’s Dorkfest and SpotLAX2019, the Super80 send-off, and more.