From the September UK Pionairs Monthly Newsletter
Emirates plans the world’s longest flight next February at over 17 hours 35 minutes from Dubai to Panama City. The record is currently held by Qantas on the Dallas/Sydney route at just under 17 hours.
American Airlines is creating pet cabins in first class. Two cabins per plane in first class will be provided on select flights between JFK and LAX, and JFK and SFO. One drawback is that the pets will not be entitled to free peanuts or movies but having a cabin all to itself means that they won’t have to sit next to a guy who won’t stop taking, so it’s a pretty good deal!
Laszlo Bastyovanszky sent us this >Now here's an innovative (video)< way from Air New Zealand of presenting the Safety Procedures before take-off.
Wow! Must have cost a mint to produce! However, it will, I am sure, have people talking about the airline and its fantastic novel way of holding passengers' attention for these important few minutes and giving the company great publicity. Top marks to Air NZ.
- Plans call for daily Toronto-Seoul flights to South Korea (787-8) starting on June 17th 2016.
- Air Canada and CUPE reach new 10 year agreement subject to ratification on contract terms for Flight Attendants.
- Air Canada Rouge received delivery of its first Airbus 321 on November 4th, 2015, direct from the Airbus completion facility in Hamburg. This aircraft is the first of five brand new A321s that will join the Air Canada rouge fleet.
- Air Canada’s new non-stop flights from Vancouver to Brisbane, Australia will now launch two weeks earlier on June 1st 2016 to meet demand
Betty Driver extracted this from the Leader-Post issue May 2nd 1974.
Oh! For the good old days, when flying was just a word.
Annette Donovan, a stewardess on Air Canada's first commercial flight 35 years ago, remembers the event was not exactly an overwhelming success. The 10-passenger, twin-prop Lockheed left Montreal for Toronto with stops at Ottawa and North Bay, Ont. When the aircraft reached Ottawa, the airline, then Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) - had put the passengers on a train because a blizzard closed the North Bay and Toronto fields. The plane arrived in Toronto 13 hours after leaving Montreal. "I was not disappointed," she said in an interview, "It was pioneering - something new to all of us. "At that time people weren't particularly air-minded, flying still was just a word. When faced with the reality of going on a flight it must have been a bit frightening - which explained why some men would take a good belt of liquor just before boarding."
Some took a little too much so TCA made it a rule that if the passenger was too drunk the stewardess could discuss it with the captain and refuse to take them.
The inaugural flight was April 1st 1939, and Mrs Donovan, then Annette Brunelle and a native of Montreal, just managed to inch her way on board. The airline doctor said she was an inch too short of the minimum regulation height of four feet, 11 inches when she applied for the job. "What difference does it make?" she told the doctor, "They'll take me anyway." Two days later they did after noting she met the rest of the qualifications - being a registered nurse, single, bilingual and being under 125 pounds. She later vindicated the airline's judgement by being the only one of 10 nurses who didn't get sick during a rough training flight over the Rockies. There was no oxygen and the cabin was not pressurized in those days. And there were some frightening moments in the air, she recalled.
Once the plane dropped hundreds of feet in an air pocket near North Bay. In another the engine quit over Lake Ontario. There was the time the aircraft was caught in a lightning storm before it could gain altitude over New York City". "We were nearly forced down into the skyscrapers," said Mrs Donovan, "That's when I decided I had a pretty good career and didn't care to stretch it."