People love to watch airplanes. That’s why airshows are one of the world’s most popular spectator events. Aviation enthusiasts will risk sunburn and dehydration to stand at an airport, sunglassed eyes scanning the skies, to watch pilots demonstrate their planes’ performance. Fast-moving and incredibly noisy military jets will make them reach down to cover their kids’ ears, and they’ll haul kilos of photo gear around to “get the shot.”
Western Canada’s first scheduled Airbus A380 service began on Sunday evening, with the arrival of British Airways flight BA85 at Vancouver International Airport. YVR is the airline's only Canadian A380 destination, and is one of only nine city-pairs worldwide served by one of British Airways’ eleven megajets. The A380 replaces British Airways’ daily London-YVR Boeing 747 service for the summer season.
The sun isn’t just a big, bright orb in the sky; it’s an active star, emitting all sorts of radiation and particles. A solar event might give us a beautiful Aurora, but it could also wreak havoc with ground-based power grids, radio, satellite communications, GPS navigation and even air traffic control operations.
Cabin ceiling projections of stars, clouds and colors; huge curved flat-panel in-flight entertainment (IFE) displays; advanced lighting systems; massive translucent cabin monuments displaying current flight status and moving maps. These are just some of the concepts being worked on by engineers in Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes Product Development group. “Airlines are telling us that they want to have interiors that have a wow factor, and set their cabin apart from [those of] their competitors,” says Mark Ellis, senior manager, Payloads Product Development.
The clock keeps ticking. It really doesn’t matter what we try to do. Lotions and potions, exercise and nutrition, and even surgery won’t stop the calendar pages from flipping. Every day, we’re getting older, but that’s not stopping us – we’re traveling more than ever. We’re joined on our flights by millions and millions of other older travelers.
OK, I’ll admit it. I’m the one who arrives at the airport hours early. But I’m not worried about missing my flight, since I checked in online and know that it’s only going to take me a few minutes if I go through security on the mezzanine level at YYZ. No, I’m here because I love airports, aircraft and the process of travel. I’m a prepared passenger. I know my airport codes and airline abbreviations, and where in the plane I’ll be sitting.
The appetite for binge-friendly streaming services like Netflix, Amazon or Hulu, over expensive cable or satellite TV packages, appears to be insatiable. “Streaming video has grown at such a rapid pace in North America that the leading service in 2015, Netflix, now has a greater share of traffic than all of streaming audio and video did five years ago,” says Dave Caputo, CEO of Sandvine, a broadband network solutions provider. Based on a recent Sandvine study, real-time entertainment streaming now accounts for more than 70 percent of evening Internet traffic in North America.
AvGeeks and Plane Spotters wait for the British Airways A380 inaugural at YVR.
Written for the Airline Passenger Experience Association – APEX.aero
How do #AvGeeks show their love of aviation? Our regular contributor […]
“Mr. Slutsken, would you and your wife please join us in the lounge at the back of the cabin?” asked the Purser, our flight's senior cabin representative. She had a big smile on her face as she stood beside my business class seat in the Emirates A380 on our flight from Dubai (DXB) to Rome (FCO). I looked back at my wife; we both wanted to be right beside a window, so I was in seat 9K and Karen was in 11K on the remarkably quiet upper deck of the Airbus.
Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport can be seen from the upper floors of the office towers and apartment buildings that crowd the centre of Canada’s largest city. Located less than three kilometres from downtown on Toronto Island, the airport is Canada’s ninth busiest. But it takes an even closer look to appreciate this small airport’s substantial impact. Nestled just a stone’s throw from downtown on Toronto Island, the airport has quickly risen to become Canada’s ninth busiest.
