2008 Review – what a year?!

Well I was bored so I thought it might be a good idea to remind you all of some key events that took place this year within the industry…am afraid to say that most of it is bad news, but there is some positive stuff to come out of the year!

Lets just hope that 2009 is a better year!;)

All information gathered is from various sources (mostly Wikipedia and other news websites), thus it may not be 100% accurate.

Please feel free to post any additions and/or corrections that you may feel need to made.:)

January:

17/01/08 – A British Airways Boeing 777 flying from Beijing, China to London, England lands on the grass short of the south runway and continues onto the runway, stopping on the white stripes, injuring 13 people, but resulting in no fatalities. The chaos results in the cancellation of 200 flights.

31/01/08 – easyjet completes buy over of GB Airways costing the company £103.5 million.

February:

21/02/08 – Santa Barbara Airlines Flight 518 is reported missing in Venezuela with 46 people on board.

24/02/08 – A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 becomes the first commercial aircraft to make a flight powered by biofuel flying between Heathrow and Amsterdam.

March:

2/03/08 – A Lufthansa Airbus 320 nearly crashes while landing in Hamburg, Germany due to high winds. The pilot was able to stabilize the plane and successfully landed on the second try. No one was injured.

12/03/08 – Southwest Airlines grounds 41 jets after the FAA discovers the airline failed to inspect its Boeing 737s for structural flaws during 2006 and 2007.

14/03/08 – Queen Elizabeth officially opens London Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal 5.

16/03/08 – Italian airline Alitalia is purchased by a consortium of Air France and KLM for €138 million.

25/03/08 – A final report into Adam Air Flight 574 finds the 102 on board died when pilots preoccupied with an instrument failure did not realise the 737 was descending out of control.

27/03/08 – Cancelled flights, baggage delays and a temporary suspension in check-in blight the opening day of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 when it officially opens for passenger use. Over the next 10 days, 500+ flights were cancelled and thousands of bags failed to travel with their respective owners. British Airways was not able to operate its full schedule from Terminal 5 until 8/04/08 and also had to postpone the transfer of its long-haul flights from Terminal 4 to Terminal 5. The difficulties were later blamed on a number of problems with the terminal’s IT systems, coupled with insufficient testing and staff training.

30/03/08 – Aloha Airlines, a Hawaii based airline which operates inter-island and trans-Pacific flights, has suspended all passenger services effective March 31, 2008, due to bankruptcy.

30-31/03/08 – ‘Open Skies’ agreement between the US and European Union comes into effect. This historic move is designed to ease restrictions on air travel between the EU and the USA. Now any European airline is potentially able to fly to the US from anywhere in the EU, not just from its home nation as was previously the case. The first flight from the US was from New York (Newark) to London Heathrow on Sunday (30/03/08), operated by Continental Airlines. The first European flight was on 31/03/08 from London to Los Angeles, which was operated by Air France.

April:

4/08/08 – United States airline Skybus announces that it will be shutting down Saturday and cancels all flights.

9/04/08 – Hundreds of passengers are left stranded after Oasis Hong Kong Airlines suspends flights and applies to go into liquidation. The airline flew a fleet of Boeing 747-400’s between Hong Kong and London’s Gatwick Airport and Vancouver in Canada. It had ambitious expansion plans to provide low-cost flights to Australia and the West Coast USA. A proportion of the blame resulting in the demise was due to the airline promising flights from London Gatwick to Hong Kong from £75 one way which was considered ‘unrealistic’ by its competitors.

Also on this day, American Airlines cancels more than 1,000 flights in order to make sure some wiring on its fleet of 300 MD-80 jetliners was secured correctly inside wheel wells.

10/04/08 – Frontier Airlines files for bankruptcy protection.

14/04/08 – Delta Air Lines reaches an agreement with Northwest Airlines to take over Northwest and create the world’s biggest airline.

27/04/08 – Eos, a US based all-business class airline, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and says it will cease operating flights. The airline flew a fleet of Boeing 757’s between New York JFK and London Stansted.

May:

25/05/08 – At Brussels Airport, a Boeing 747 cargo airliner from American operator Kalitta Air crashes at the end of the runway during takeoff and breaks in two. All 5 crewmembers survive.

30/05/08 – Silverjet, a UK based all-business class airline, suspends all flights after entering administration due to rising fuel costs. The airline flew a fleet of Boeing 767’s between London’s Luton Airport, New York (Newark) and Dubai.

June:

10/06/08 – Sudan Airways Flight 109 crashes on landing at Khartoum International Airport in Khartoum, Sudan, with around 200 on board. The death toll is 28 and 66 people unaccounted for. The airline is subsequently grounded for a month by the Civil Aviation Authority of Sudan on 21/06/08 for violations prior to the crash.

July:

3/07/08 – French authorities charge Continental Airlines and five individuals over the Concorde disaster.

14/07/08 – At the Farnborough International Airshow, Etihad Airways agrees to buy up to 100 fuel-efficient aircraft, including x25 A350’s, x10 A380 and x20 A320 planes from Airbus. It also ordered x35 787 Dreamliners and 10 777’s from Boeing.

18/07/08 – Qantas Airways announces plans to cut 1,500 jobs worldwide.

25/07/08 – A Qantas Airways Boeing 747-400 (Flight 30) from London Heathrow to Melbourne makes an emergency landing in Manila after an unknown event causes a hole in the plane. Investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirm on 30/07/08 that thehave been caused by the explosion of an oxygen tank.

28/07/08 – A Qantas Airways Boeing 737-800 (Flight 692) is forced to turn back to Adelaide after an undercarriage door fails to close after takeoff. No one is injured.

August:

20/08/08 – A Spanair McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (Flight 5022) flying to Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) crashes seconds after takeoff from Madrid’s Barajas International Airport. It was carrying a total of 172 people (162 passengers + 10 crew; 6 flight crew, 4 deadheading crew) and caused 154 fatalities. Flight data recorders later revealed that the aircraft had taken off with flaps at 0°, and that the alarm for that abnormal takeoff configuration had not sounded. The report hinted at no other cause of the accident, and excluded both the engines and thrust-reversers as causes of the accident, which had initially been suggested.

Also on this day, the UK’s Competition Commission recommends that BAA Limited should sell two out of its three airports in South-East England (Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted) and one of its Scottish airports, either Edinburgh or Glasgow, due to competition concerns.

26/08/08 – Flight delays hit more than two dozen US airports because of a communication network problem in a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Atlanta, Georgia.

26-27/08/08 – A Sudanese Boeing 737 plane is hijacked shortly after taking off from Nyala in the Darfur region and flown to Kufra in Libya. The hijackers later release all of the 100 passengers, but hold onto the flight crew.

28/08/08 – Zoom Airlines suspends all flights and applies to go into administration, resulting in the loss of 600+ jobs (450 in Canada, 260 in the UK). In total, an estimated 40,000 passengers, including around 10,400 UK-based people, had made bookings with Zoom over the next year, the majority of which were for 2009 departures.

29/08/08 – Italian airline Alitalia files for bankruptcy protection.

September:

7/09/08 – Machinists go on strike against Boeing over outsourcing, job security, pay and benefits.

12/09/08 – The UK’s third largest tour operator, XL Leisure Group, collapses. Over 85,000 British holidaymakers are stranded abroad. The Civil Aviation Authority(CAA) also adds that the firm had 200,000 advance bookings.

14/09/08 – A Boeing 737-500 belonging to a branch of the Russian national airline Aeroflot (Flight 821) crashes near the city of Perm in Russia, killing all 88 on board. The cause of the crash is attributed to engine failure.

17/09/08 – BAA Limited decides to sell Gatwick Airport following a recent ruling by the UK’s Competition Commission.

October:

7/10/08 – A De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 300 type aircraft belonging to Yeti Airlines crashes in the Everest region of Nepal killing 18 passengers. The aircraft’s wheels were reported to have clipped a fence while landing in fog, causing the plane to crash and burst into flames. There was only one survivor, Surendra Kunwar, who was one of the pilots of the plane; he was dragged free from the wreckage shortly after the crash.

29/10/08 – Danish-based low-cost carrier Sterling Airlines files for bankruptcy and stops all passenger flights after its cash-strapped Icelandic investors were unable keep the company afloat. The airline flew a fleet of Boeing 737 type aircraft (-500 to -800 series) to some 40 European destinations, with Copenhagen, Oslo (Gardermoen) and Stockholm Arlanda airports being its primary hubs.

November:

10/11/08 – A Ryanair Boeing 737-800 (Flight 4102) is forced to make an emergency landing at Rome’s Ciampino Airport after several birds were sucked into its engines as it prepared to land.

25/11/08 – AirAsia X, the low-cost, long-haul affiliate of AirAsia, officially announces that it will commence flights to London’s Stansted Airport from its main hub in Kuala Lumpur with a net fare of RM499 one way from Kuala Lumpur and a net fare of ₤99 from London; the maiden flight will be on March 11 2009.

27/11/08 – An Airbus A320 owned by Air New Zealand with 7 people aboard crashes into the sea off the southern French coast during a training flight.

Also on this day, protesters belonging to the People’s Alliance for Democracy close down Don Mueang International Airport, a day after closing down Suvarnabhumi Airport, leaving Bangkok without any airports. Flights to Bangkok are cancelled and moved to other parts of the country, such as Phuket, Chiang Mai and Chonburi.

December:
1/12/08 – Emirates commences services from Dubai to London using its Airbus A380-800 aircraft.