International flights, travel and much more

Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, holds the record for the largest collection of roller coasters in the country, with 17. The park loses its record on Memorial Day, when Six Flags Magic Mountain reopens its 17th coaster (Road Runner Express) and debuts its 18th roller coaster, Green Lantern: First Light.

Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, holds the record for the largest collection of roller coasters in the country, with 17. The park loses its record on Memorial Day, when Six Flags Magic Mountain reopens its 17th coaster (Road Runner Express) and debuts its 18th roller coaster, Green Lantern: First Light. From the fastest double-twisting impulse coaster (the Wicked Twister, with a top speed of 72 mph) to the first coaster in the country to feature three inversions (the Corkscrew, pictured), there’s always an off-kilter view of the park and Lake Erie available from the high perches of the coasters.

The Beast, at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio, is America’s longest duration roller coaster. The record-breaking running time—4 minutes, 10 seconds—is about a minute and a half longer than most of its counterparts, steel or wood.

At a third of a mile long, the Wildebeest at Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana, ranks as the world’s longest water coaster.

Leap-the-Dips, in Lakemont Park, Altoona, Pennsylvania, is the oldest operating roller coaster in the world. Built in 1902, the coaster has a top operating speed of just 10 mph and a peak of 41 feet.

The title of “tallest free-fall waterslide” in the U.S. goes to Summit Plummet at Walt Disney World’s Blizzard Beach in Orlando. The ride plunges the brave down a 120-foot slide. That’s 12 stories, or twice the size of the presidential heads on Mount Rushmore. The ski-lift-themed Summit Plummet, complete with mounds of fake snow, makes you wonder if it’s really a smart idea to slide down the slopes in just your bathing suit. But don’t worry: The waters here are heated year-round to a bath-like 80 degrees.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey—the world’s first robotic “coaster”—lives inside Hogwarts castle at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort.

Air Koryo is to operate two flights weekly between the capitals of North Korea and Malaysia. Its other routes are Beijing, Shanghai, Vladivostok, Moscow and Bangkok.

Formed in 1955 (and then known as Chosonminhang) the airline is one of the world’s oldest. It operates mainly Russian-built aircraft (being blocked from the purchase and maintenance of e.g. Boeing due to sanctions) and the KL route will be served with a Tupelov TU-204.

The 142-seat capacity Tupelov is a mid-size twin engine regional jet and available in several configurations including a high-capacity 210 seat variant.

The aircraft almost went out of production earlier this year when the largest customer of its manufacturer, Air Company Moskva, cancelled all of its outstanding orders, alleging inconsistent component and build quality. The production was already under threat as profitability was seriously undermined by production ineficiencies which led to a final production cost that exceeded its selling price.

The business was refinanced in January this year after Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Sergei Ivanov, said that aircraft production was a strategic industry and important to the economy.

Even though suppliers reportedly agreed to an average reduction of more than 17% in their prices, the aircraft remained uneconomic to produce but its continued production – with a planned end-of-life of 2014 – will enable Tupelov to develop its new range.

The immediate future of the TU-204 was secured when airline Red Wings placed an order for 44 of the aircraft – but demanded concessionary prices and aid with associated technology such as a simulator and stocks of spares.

But the TU-204 ran into trouble again in March this year. An Aviastar-Tu aircraft crashed on approach to Moscow’s Domodedovo airport in poor visibility. However, there were no signs of problems prior to the crash, investigators say, and nor did the crew say they were planning an emergency landing. It was the second incident for the same aircraft which had previously had to turn back to Moscow earlier in the day, when the crew reported smoke in the cabin. When turned back, the aircraft had more than 200 passengers on board but it continued its charter flight to Hurghada , Egypt after maintenance crews found a fault in an electrical circuit for the cabin heating. When it crashed, it was flying back to Moscow empty save for eight crew.

As a result of that crash, Rosaviatsia, the Russian aviation regulator, banned Aviastar-Tu from carrying passengers.

Boeing’s rival to Airbus’ giant A380 – the new modern, fuel-efficient version of the 747 – made its first public appearance in the US this month and the first is due to be delivered in the fourth quarter of this year. German airline Lufthansa, a partner of SAA in the international Star Alliance, which now flies the A380 daily between Frankfurt and Johannesburg, is a launch customer for the new Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, which is claimed to have 12 percent lower costs than the old Boeing 747-400.

With oil prices soaring again as a result of the revolutions in the Middle East, costs are even more important to airlines, and so are environmental factors. According to Boeing, the new plane provides 16 percent better fuel economy, gives out 16 percent less carbon dioxide and makes 30 percent less noise than the 747-400. It also shares interior design features with Boeing’s new Dreamliner which, according to Boeing, give passengers a greater feeling of space and comfort, and provide more room for personal belongings.

SAA has started taking delivery of six new 250-seater long-range Airbus A330-200s to be used on routes including London, South America and the increasingly important destination of Accra in Ghana. We have been promised that they will make some flights from Cape Town. There are now more than 750 A330s being flown by 90 operators in 50 countries, and so many orders have been received that production is being increased to 10 a month by 2013.

But it already makes sense to make fewer flights with larger aircraft to particularly congested airports such as Heathrow, and Airbus is hoping SAA will order the A380 in addition to its new fleet of 330-200s. British Airways is due to take delivery of its first next year. In view of this, Boeing is certain to offer its new 747 to SAA.

Hong Kong, to which both Cathay Pacific Airlines and SAA fly daily from Johannesburg, is also a particularly busy airport. Built on a manmade island to replace an older airport, it was planned in 1992 to handle 87 million passengers and nine million tonnes of cargo. But, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), growth has been much faster than predicted and the airport, which handled 51 million passengers last year is now working at 90 percent capacity. IATA is urging the Hong Kong authorities to start planning now for a third runway to handle further expected growth.

Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive and director general of IATA, also said that air traffic management problems in the industrial Pearl River Delta – frequently visited by buyers from South African companies who import goods from China – urgently need to be fixed with new, shorter routes to cope with the rapid growth in air travel.

The old airport, which the present one replaced, had one of the most challenging approaches in the world. Planes flew between skyscraper blocks to reach it and a large target was painted on the side of one building to show pilots exactly where they had to make a sharp turn. One might think it was a nightmare for pilots – but, in fact, they loved it. I flew into Hong Kong for the opening of the new airport and found the pilots all regretted the loss of the exciting approach.

Deutsche Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and British Airways are expending their reach into Africa and beginning to fly routes to the Congo, Libya, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Libya as passenger demand grows.

In November last year Lufthansa, which is Europe’s second largest carrier after Air France-KLM, added flights to the Republic of Congo while fully owned subsidiary British Midland International (BMI) began services to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in December. The airline has announced routes to Marrakech and Casablanca in Morocco. In addition, Air France is planning to add routes to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Libya later this year.

Lufthansa has predicted that air travel in Africa will increase by an average of 6% every year until 2025, helped by an expanding raw material industry and growing middle class. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts strong growth in Africa well into the foreseeable future.

Figures just released by IATA say show that passenger revenues increased 11.7% between December 2009 and 2010 for Africa while the Middle East saw growth of 14.1% for the same period. Africa and the Middle East occupy the top spots in terms of passenger revenue growth, according to IATA.

According to Airports Council International, international traffic in Africa jumped 9.8% last year, outstripping growth of 3.9% in Europe and 5.5% for North America.

Europe is the main gateway to Africa, with flights between the two continents accounting for 3.2% of all traffic in 2009, according to IATA. That compares with 1% for Africa-Middle East connections and 0.4 percent between Africa and Asia.

Lufthansa’s main brand last year reported an 11% increase in African and Middle Eastern traffic, measured by passengers kilometres flown. The carrier’s market share in the region reached 24% in November, compared with 17% in 2002, Bloomberg reports.

Lufthansa is focusing its network expansion on the oil-rich region around the Gulf of Guinea, with services to Nigeria, Senegal and Angola. Lufthansa and its subsidiaries also serve the North African capitals and East African cities including Khartoum in Sudan, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Lufthansa, which includes Austrian Airlines and Swiss International Airlines, serves 39 African destinations with 269 flights a week. Lufthansa is also expanding its network via the Star Alliance, which includes South African Airways, Cairo-based EgyptAir and soon Ethiopian Airlines. A plan by Lufthansa’s three African partners to set up a new airline to operate in central and west Africa would allow the German carrier to concentrate on hubs like Lagos while the local business would take over regional connections, spokesman Boris Ogursky said.

Meanwhile, Air France-KLM added Kigali, Rwanda and Bata in Equatorial Guinea to its winter schedule and boosted capacity to Africa by 3.5%. It plans to fly to Freetown in Sierra Leone, and Liberia’s capital Monrovia. Air France will begin serving Tripoli in addition to KLM’s daily flights. Air France-KLM’s SkyTeam includes Nairobi-based Kenya Airways.

Virgin Atlantic Airways added Accra in Ghana to its flights to Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town and Johannesburg in May and British Airways will start flying to Marrakech from March 27. “Africa is a growing and important market to us and we have expanded where we feel appropriate and where we have been permitted in the past few years,” spokesman Richard Goodfellow told Bloomberg.

“It’s not just traffic to France from Africa – Charles de Gaulle airport attracts a big portion of all the traffic coming out of Africa to the rest of the world, to the US or to Asia,” Yan Derocles, an analyst at Oddo Securities in Paris told Bloomberg. “Now this traffic is starting to interest other carriers.”

Africa generates as much as 400 million euros ($553 million) in operating profit for Air France-KLM annually, Derocles estimates. The group reported a 1.3 billion-euro operating loss in the year ended March 31.

Although Africa is most prone to political upheaval and unrest, European airlines are undeterred by this, Frank Skodzik, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt told Bloomberg. “The risk of political instability is higher than in developed countries, but the prospects of strong margins on these routes outweigh that concern,” he said. “Many of the markets used to be monopolies with exclusive rights for one carrier, and that’s very attractive for a newcomer airline.” Often African routes are more profitable than those in European markets.

Thanks to a promotion from Lufthansa, you can now book a flight on one of their routes for $100 off.

The promotion requires you to enter your name and email address, and minutes later, you’ll have a unique promo code in your inbox.

The fine print is pretty simple – book and redeem between now and February 21 for travel between now and March 31. Promo codes can only be used on Lufthansa flights (so no codeshares) and only on flights that depart in the US. According to the terms and conditions, the promo can be applied to any ticket code! Promotions like this don’t last long – so snag yourself a code as soon as possible.

Found yourself a flight for a nice price? Share it in the comments section!

How much would it take for you not to fly?

Name your price. That’s what Delta is telling passengers at airport kiosks now, in case a flight is overbooked. The Atlanta airline asks passengers to enter a bid — how much they would like to be offered if they were bumped.

There’s no minimum bid; the maximum varies. Passengers can change their minds at the gate if they decide they don’t have time to wait for the next flight.

Delta says the move is part of its larger strategy to expand its technology offerings. And the bidding prevents the “crowded and chaotic scene” that often ensues at the gate when a flight is oversold, spokesman Paul Skrbec said.

Often five or six passengers volunteer at the gate to take a voucher when a flight is overbooked, he said. That slows the boarding process and often makes planes late leaving the gate. On-time performance is a key measure of airline reliability. Delta Air Lines Inc. finished last in that category among major airlines in the most recent report from the Department of Transportation.

The airline also bumped nearly twice as many passengers as any of its competitors last summer, according to the DOT. The DOT has only measured overbooked flights through September of last year. Delta accepted about 30,000 volunteers to take another flight in the July-to-September period. That’s about one-tenth of one per cent of its 26.7 million passengers in the period. It typically offers vouchers between $250 and $500 for travellers willing to wait it out at the airport, Skrbec said.

The airline knows as much as 24 hours ahead of time if a flight will be overbooked, as passengers begin to check in online. It started offering bids on its website in November. Delta has been offering the kiosk bids for a little over a month.