Yes, we touched on this earlier last week. I think if you look at what was reported it seems as if they got themselves into a pretty hefty leasing contract for those 767s and also generally you would imagine that the loads between the US mainland and Hawaii are below average.

Yes Mongu, my statement about the flexibility and economics of washing aircraft was rather far-fetched, however, still it would remain a factor as to why aircraft are not washed as frequently.
Nevertheless, I was only stressing the point that there are reasons for aircraft getting dirty and that every time an aircraft does a sector to a place like Dakar where it is sandy or Toronto where it is snowy, it is bound to get dirty. As long as the inside of the aircraft is clean then personally I am not vexed.

With the flexibility factor, many of Air France’s long haul aircraft are flying 18 hours a day at any time, this leaves precious little time to actually get the aircraft maintained plus also washed and so it is left in a state where, ok it may do AF’s publicity wrong, but where it is still fit to fly. With the economics, can you imagine the whole AF fleet being cleaned after every single rotation? It’s not a matter of money nor time; it’s just logical that an aircraft can’t go back in the hangar because of some stains every time it flies, it wouldn’t make sense.

Even if Air France’s aircraft are dirty they are not the only one, as some appear to believe. Have you see the dirt that sometimes is visible on a 732, a 747 or the worst culprit the TU-154? It is just a case that AF has a white livery and so dirt is more apparent as it is on Delta, Air Canada and Swiss.

I received an email with this optical illusion attached last week…Quite extraordinary!

Well the Mars program was quite interesting…

I generally can type pretty much at a considerable speed with a quite good success rate with the ‘hunt and peck’ method without looking at the keypad. I never really considered myself to be quick at typing until certain people were amazed at how good I actually could do it with one or two fingers. I guess it is just progress after using a computer so often.
I can also type with all my fingers, however, I hurt my wrists doing this and take a lot slower so I don’t use it that often.

Ah, ok…one in a series of adverts :p

How is the A318 doing in terms of sales? I know it is hardly the success so far that Airbus were hoping.