Plan ahead: Purchasing flights in advance

Airline industry experts agree that it is better to purchase flight packages months in advance. Apart from the fact that most airline companies come up with enticing packages half a year earlier than the intended flight dates to boost company sales and benefit travel agencies, it is always healthy to plan ahead. To this end, one can really predict the future, especially when it comes to planning vacation trips.

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For a good amount, one can get an action-filled vacation in a prime location just by purchasing one’s flight package early on. Since flight tickets usually cost more than an Average Joe’s resources can afford, planning ahead and buying the airfare early on may save him a good sum of the greens.

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Regardless of the turnout of the future, one may also view this advanced purchase as a sort of investment. Should a person, due to unforeseen events, be unavailable to fly out on the expected dates, then it is always an option to sell the seats to someone else. A good deal of travel and airline companies profit from this type of setup, and a good number of people enjoy it because they get to fulfill their vacation plans via a more economic means.

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This Bruce McCaffrey Twitter page has more links to updates on the airline industry.

Sky Theater Planetarium: Cradle of Aviation Museum launches new digital projection system

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The Cradle of Aviation Museum in East Garden City, New York, is noted for the large role it played on the birth and growth of the aviation industry in the United States. Now that it has already built its mark in history, it is aiming to uphold another technological milestone by launching another state-of-the-art facility: the JetBlue Sky Theater Planetarium.

JetBlue Airways was instrumental in the installation of the new digital projection system in the museum’s Leroy R. and Rose W. Grumman IMAX Dome Theater. The facility could provide visitors with a fully immersive experience on Long Island’s widest screen, taking them to the continuum of the universe and offering them with a holistic view of the Earth.

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“JetBlue is committed to fostering education in the communities we serve through meaningful partnerships with organizations like the Cradle of Aviation Museum, right here in our own backyard,” remarks Dave Barger, CEO of JetBlue Airways. “What better partnership than with fellow aviation enthusiasts! The new planetarium gives visitors a front-row seat to wonders of our universe and we encourage everyone to head out and explore all that the museum has to offer.”

Many players in the aviation industry, such as volunteer pilot Bruce McCaffrey and the Cradle of Aviation Museum itself, have a socio-educational mission of educating people of all ages about the many aspects of life and the universe. Through educational programs, charitable causes, and technology-related events, they are able to achieve their specific goals.

The Jet Blue Sky Theater Planetarium was officially launched on October 6, 2012 in conjunction with the World Astronomy Day and the Columbus Day. The opening weekend saw the premiere of three shows: One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure, We are Astronomers, and Passport to the Universe, which was narrated by Tom Hanks.

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This Twitter page provides more updates about the aviation and aerospace industries.

Flying economy class: Tips for a comfy travel

Any frequent air traveler probably has a tale or two about flying economy class. Also called coach, economy is the lowest seating class in air travel. Marked by cramped space, narrow seats, a communal in-flight entertainment, and very basic amenities, economy class has a poor reputation with travelers that some airline companies had to improve on-board facilities and services to make flying coach more bearable for passengers. Nonetheless, no matter how comfortable flying economy can be, babies crying non-stop, long lavatory lines, and chatty seatmates can make even the most tolerant of passengers peeved even for a bit.

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So how does one survive coach especially if one is flying long-haul? Frequent fliers offer some tips on surviving economy class.

Upgrading to premium economy—if it’s worth it. A growing number of airlines now are offering premium economy class to passengers who are willing to pay more for slightly better seats, and in some cases, better service.

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Choosing a seat carefully. Frequent fliers are thankful for SeatGuru.com, a site that gives free color-coded maps of the best and worst seats with detailed notes. It also indicates where the exit row, bulkhead, closers, galleys, power ports, and toilets are, which can be very helpful especially when on a long-haul flight, where being comfortable is the top priority of all passengers.

Checking in early. Some airlines do not allow seat reservation online, thus it is worth getting to the airport early to try and reserve one. Although frequent fliers suggest that dressing well can help one’s chances to get a better seat, they also remind that patience and politeness go a long way.

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Bruce McCaffrey worked as an airline executive for more than 3o years. To get more tips and updates on airline travel, follow this Twitter account.

JetBlue Founder's 'New Big Thing' for Aviation

This article discusses how natural gas can be made into jet fuel to help the aviation industry's burgeoning need for efficient and low-cost fuel.

Written by: Justin Bachman
Article re-posted from: www.BusinessWeek.com

David Neeleman, the serial entrepreneur with four successful airlines under his belt, is looking to tackle one of aviation’s most acute problems: the price of jet fuel.

“My big thing—a $1 billion X-Prize—is to figure out how to make natural gas into jet fuel,” Neeleman, JetBlue’s founder, said Sept. 17 at an airline forecast conference in Dallas. “That’d be awesome. That’s my next big thing.”

The notion of converting a gas into a liquid jet fuel is not as technically far-fetched as it may initially sound. In Qatar, Shell (RDSA) has built an $18 billion GTL (gas-to-liquid) plant that produces jet fuel from gas at a cost of $80 per barrel. A Qatar Airways flight in 2009 became the first to be powered by fuel derived from gas.

While that price is too high for worldwide feasibility, Neeleman said that cutting it to $40 would be a “game changer” that would make natural gas a better alternative-fuel source than current research into fuel sources such as jatropha, algae, and other biofuels. Bio-jet fuels are a pet project of Virgin Atlantic Airways founder Richard Branson, whose Carbon War Room in December launched a website devoted to cutting in half the use of traditional jet fuel. While promising, such research has not yielded commercial projects of a scale needed for global airlines.

Neeleman is hoping to rally other carriers to contribute $1 billion to a fund that would reward innovators who successfully convert natural gas to jet fuel. He said that could have saved Delta Air Lines (DAL) one-third of its $12 billion fuel bill in 2011.

Such incentives have a long history, including the first trans-Atlantic crossing, when Charles Lindbergh won $25,000 from a New York hotelier for making his Spirit of St. Louis flight in 1927. More recently, a $10 million prize was awarded in 2004 for the Paul Allen-Burt Rutan effort SpaceShipOne, the first manned craft to achieve successful private space flight.

Since crude oil spiked to near $150 per barrel in July 2008, airline executives have bemoaned the extreme volatility that has marked commodity prices. In the past week, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate has passed $100 only to drop more than 4 percent at one point on Monday. Such volatility—even more than sustained high prices—impedes executives’ abilities to plan and control their costs.

Neeleman, 52, helped to start Morris Air out of a charter operation in the early 1990s; Southwest (LUV) bought that company in 1993. After helping to found Canada’s WestJet Airlines in 1996, he founded JetBlue (JBLU) three years later, based at New York’s JFK Airport, and built it into a successful independent carrier. He was replaced as chief executive officer in 2007 after a disastrous Valentine’s Day snowstorm snarled the airline’s operations for several days. The next year Neeleman, who was born in Brazil and speaks Portuguese, founded a Brazilian carrier, Azul, which operates out of Campinas, northwest of Sao Paulo.

In his remarks before the Boyd Group’s annual International Aviation Forecast Summit, Neeleman said his days of starting new airlines are probably over. “If you start a thing that 40 percent of your cost is fuel … there’s just a smaller piece of what you can control now. When I started JetBlue it was so easy. It was like taking candy from a baby. Fuel changed the whole dynamics.”

Bruce McCaffrey: Surviving long-distance flights

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The strain that comes with long-haul flights is something that Bruce McCaffrey and other airline executives are very familiar with. That is why major airlines these days are making sure that passengers enjoy transatlantic journeys by providing them with good entertainment options, varied snack choices, overflowing beverages, and soft pillows and warm blankets. However, no matter how comfy the airplane ambience is, there will always come a point in the 18-hour non-stop flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Singapore when air travel becomes unbearable. Below are some tips to help passengers survive long-distance flights.

Carrying layers
Onboard temperature can vary, thus, bringing a sweater or a coat will be useful when the mercury drops to an almost unforgiving level. In addition, seasoned travelers like Bruce McCaffrey note that large sweaters and coats can function as blankets and pillows.


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Wearing appropriate shoes
Feet tend to swell at high elevation, making shoes uncomfortable to wear. There are several ways to relieve the pressure:

• Wearing relaxed-fit or slip-on shoes
• Hydrating before and during flight
• Walking down the aisle
• Avoiding crossing legs

Seasoned travelers advise against removing shoes while walking down the aisle or when going to the lavatory. This exposes the feet to bacteria not only from the floor but also from fellow travelers.

Getting some z’s
Passengers who are on a plane for over 10 hours and hopping time zones are advised to schedule six to eight hours of rest that align with their destination’s nighttime. Sleeping will make the flight seem shorter and will keep the body in sync with the destination’s time zone.


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For more airline travel tips from Bruce McCaffrey, follow this Twitter account.

Bruce McCaffrey: Flying toward a greener airline industry

This Bruce McCaffrey blog entry discusses the notion of making the aviation industry environment-friendly.

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The concept of carbon emissions is never far from the airline industry. This is not a surprise as in a typical flight, CO2 is inevitably discharged. But while it is simple for governments to analyze and account for emissions from fixed sources, it is an arduous task to do so with international aviation. With planes, CO2 is released over international waters, even spanning different continents. This difficulty is one of the many hindrances to “greening” the airline industry since various governments treat aviation emissions differently, resulting to conflicting and overlapping national and regional policies.

Villanova University alumnus Bruce McCaffrey worked as an airline executive for three decades.

For the International Air Transport Association (IATA), aviation is a global industry and should be treated as such. According to the organization, the airline industry should be addressed as a global sector, meaning its emissions should be accounted for at an international level.

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Governments should have a unified, simple, and straightforward understanding of how to handle emissions from aircrafts. They should create a body that will develop and implement global measures to address aviation emissions. These measures can include emissions trading and raising carbon funds.

It is also important for governments to agree on where emission revenues would go. In this case, IATA advises that proceeds should be reserved for environmental purposes, from which a portion will be invested for the development of fuel-efficient and sustainable aviation equipment and devices.

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