Airline & Holiday Information

Archive for July, 2009

Originally known as Idlewild Airport and renamed to John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963 just one month after President Kennedys assassination, although commonly referred to as JFK.
The original name came from the Golf course that the airport was built on top of in 1943.

JFK Airport Overview

35,000 people are employed at JFK which counts for $9.8 billion in annual wages.  Back in 2008 JFK airport handled 43,124,992 passengers and contributed $30.1 billion in to the economic activity in the NYC area.
The busiest airline at John F. Kennedy International Airport was jetBlue Airways with 28.3% and British Airways at the bottom with 2.9%.

JFK is served by close to 100 airlines and flys to over 50 countries worldwide,  JFK to London Heathrow is the busiest international  route with just under 3 million passengers, Paris Charles De Gaulle is second with just over 1 million customers.

John F. Kennedy International Airport has four runways, 13R-31L which is just over 14,500ft long making it the second longest commercial runway in North USA. 

13R-31L runway is next to Terminal 1, 2 and 3 and serves around one half of JFK’s departures. It due for maintenance work to be carried out 2010 so it will be closed for 120 days so that it can be widened and resurfaced.

JFK Terminal 1

4L-22R is just less than 11,500 ft and lays next to terminals 4 & 5 landings & takeoffs can be completed from both ends of this runway.

JFK Terminal 4

13L-31R is 10,000 ft long and is equipped at both ends with ILS and ALS.
 
4R-22L is the baby runway with a length of only 8,400ft, but its fully equipped with ALS, TDZ,EMAS and the arrestor bed concept which is aimed to slow planes down quickly if they over shoot the runway.

JFK is connected to NYC’s subway and the rail system by AirTrain. AirTrain stop at all of JFK’s Terminals and Car Parks allowing easy access for all passengers. Manhattan is only 30 minutes away when using Airtrain.

JFK Airport NYC Subway

If you’re in Manhattan and need to be at John F. Kennedy International Airport in a hurry then head down to East 34th Street Heliport and you can be at JFK in around 9 minutes, but it will cost you $159 for the one way trip.

The history of Air Zimbabwe dates back to 1967 when it was known by the name of Air Rhodesia after Central African airways was dissolved.

Air Rhodesia Logo

Air Rhodesia Boeing 720

Air Zimbabwe has a fleet of 9 planes 3 Boeing 737’s, 2 Boeing 767’s, 1 Xian MA60 and a BAe 146-100. The 737’s only fly domestic and short haul flights. The 2 737’s are used for international Flights, the 3 Xian MA60’s are used only for domestic flights and the BAe 146-100 is used as a presidential plane and has a VIP layout.

Air Zimbabwe fly’s to Gatwick 5 times a week, since British Airways stopped flying to Harare claiming poor availability of fuel in Zimbabwe.

Air Zimbabwe fly’s to 15 destinations, excluding Africa which has 12 of these destinations, the only others are Beijing in China, Changi Airport in Singapore and the UK’s Gatwick

Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767

Gatwick Airport London’s second largest airport is the second busiest airport in the UK.
Gatwick is located around 3 miles north of Crawley and 28 miles south of London .

In 2008 the airport celebrated its 50th birthday as it was opened on the 9th of July 1958 by Queen Elizabeth II.

The owners and operators of Gatwick Airport are BAA who also own Aberdeen Airport, Edinburgh Airport, Glasgow International Airport, London Gatwick Airport, London Heathrow Airport, London Stansted Airport and Southampton Airport.
 Although BAA do have Gatwick, Stansted and Edinburgh or Glasgow up for sale.
The Competition Commission said that BAA needed to sell a airport as it was so dominate in the South East, Gatwick was valued at £1.8 billion by independent regulators.

Gatwick only has two terminals aptly named North and South. Both of these terminals are fully equipped with restraints in the public areas and after check-in, prayer rooms and entertainment and leisure facilities.

Gatwick Airport

Although Gatwick has 2 runways they can only use one at once due to their close proximity. The northern runway 08L/26R is only to be used when the Gatwick’s main runway 08R/26L isn’t in use.  The Northern runway is normally used as a taxiway.
26L the main runway is just under 11,00FT in length and is a mixture of Asphalt and concrete. 26R or the northern runway is considerably shorter at 8,415 Ft in length.

The recent bridge erected at Gatwick is part of a £850m plan to increase the airports capacity and turn around in passengers over the next 10 years which could cope 45 million passengers per annum.

Gatwick Bridge

IFE refers to In Flight Entertainment, in the early days of flying you would be expected to make your own entertainment by either playing cards or looking out of the windows.

In the past few years In Flight Entertainment has really grown and now includes internet connections, SMS and Phone calls. During the early 1980’s the most you could expect would be movie projected on to a screen at the front of the plane and audio could be heard via an audio jack in the arm rest.

Of course today modern IFE is a lot more complexed, you can view live maps of your flight which is mapped via GPS and will give you position, air temperature outside, time to destination, time on plane, and speed. Often there is a live feed from camera on the wings, nose and tail.

Most long haul and short haul flights will have Tv’s in the back of the headrest in front of you, which enables you to watch popular TV shows and a selection of recent movies.

Perth Airport is located in the western state of Australia, and it is located just south of Guilford. Perth Airport is a domestic and international airport, the airport itself serves as a major commercial airport to Perth which is Western Australia’s capital city.

Boeing 767 Taxiing At Perth Airport

The total number of passengers passing through the airport has slowly been rising since 1988 only experiencing a slight dip in 2001 of around 400,000 passengers, this could be pinned on the 911 attacks that took place in the USA in 2001.

The airport has 3 terminals, Terminal 1 looks after all flights that departed from outside Australia or are set to depart to foreign destinations.
Terminal 2 is the Qantas Terminal normally dedicated there air operations also housing the Qantas Club Lounge.
Terminal 3 is used by companies like Virgin Blue and Ozjet and is a multi-user Domestic Terminal.

Inside Perth Airport

All flights are served by two runways, the main runway is 03/21 and is just over 11,00Ft long and the second runway 06/24 which is just over 7,000 ft long.

If you need to move between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 you can use one of the shuttle bus services or a taxi service.

Large parking areas at both Terminal 1 & 2 with short and long stay.

Concorde made its first flight on the 2nd March 1969 and was introduced to chartered flights 21st January 1976.

Sadly Concorde no longer graces the skies, due to a fatal crash in Gonesse France 25th July 2000, killing all 100 passengers nine crew, and four people on the ground. The Air France Plane, flight number 4590 and the Concorde Registration F-BTSC, crash was caused due to debris left from a previous plane on the runway prior to Concorde. The debris punctured one of the tyres on the left which in turn triggered a series of malfunctions.

After this accident Concorde had a number of modifications, more secure electrical controls, Kevlar lining added to fuel tanks and burst resistant tyres.
Commercial flights proceeded on 7th November 2001 by British Airways and Air France. 10th April was D day for Concorde as both Air France and British Airways consecutively stated that they would retire there fleet of concords that year. Stating falling passenger numbers since the accident on 20th July in France and a fall in air fare sales from the September 11 attacks in New York.
That same day Sir Richard Branson  put an offer in to British Airways offering to purchase their fleet and have them re branded as Virgin Atlantic and he aimed to run them for years to come.

Concorde Heathrow 1987

Concorde set the fastest transatlantic flight time of 2:52.59 from London Heathrow to New York JFK back in 1996 this was set by G-BOAD.

The only operators to fly Concorde where, Air France and British Airways, although Singapore Airlines and Braniff International Airways, had a short term lease on them.

Concorde ran  4× Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 engines, it could reach Mach 2.2 or a maximum speed of 1,450MPH and would often cruise at Mach 2.02 (1,320MPH.

Concorde could fly 92-120 passengers, the seats where in two rows of two seats on each side.

Concorde Interior

Gibraltar Airport is located on the Iberian Peninsula and is part of the British Overseas Territory.
The runway at Gibraltar Airport is rather unique as both ends of the runway have the sea adjacent, Planes will start at the very end of the run way to maximise its short 6,000ft length, and don’t leave the runway until the last 1/4 .

The airport was originally constructed during the 2nd World War and opened in 1939 and only used as an emergency airfield for the Royal Navy, the runway was later extended to allow larger aircraft to land, this caused tension between Spain and Britain as the extra land was reclaimed from the Bay of Gibraltar which Spain claimed was their territorial water.

Gibraltar Airport

Gibraltar’s airport has another unique distinction in that it is only 500 meters from Gibraltar’s city centre. In 2004 the airport handled 314,000 passengers and 380 tonnes of cargo, these number have slowly risen due to the number of cheap flights.

The airport is mainly used by people visiting the western region of the Costa Del Sol or Costa De La Luz.

If you have ever been to Gibraltar Airport, you will know that it crosses a local road, so every time a plane lands or departs from the airport the road needs to be closed.

For countless years Gibraltar airport has been to small which has constrained it in many ways, the road that also crosses the runway poses many issues in the airports expansions.

On busy days the airport now handles 7 flights arriving and departing and the road can be closed for up to 10 minutes at a time which in total creates a 2 hour road closure.

Gibraltar Airport Road Crossing

Manchester Airport is the UK’s busiest airport outside of the London area when talking in pure passenger numbers.
Located just off the M56 and A583, Manchester airport lies just south of Manchester City it’s self and opposite Ringway.

Manchester Airport was originally named Ringway Airport when it was opened on the 25th June 1938, during World War II the airport was known as RAF Ringway, a declaration of war brought an end to all civil flights in 1939, and work proceeded in the building of a new Royal Air Force Station.

The Airport was officially opened on the 25th of July 1938, the first scheduled flight was a KLM flight to Amsterdam on a Douglas DC-2 Aircraft. In its first year 4000 passengers came through the terminals of Manchester Airport which was then known as Ringway due to the parish it laid in.

After the end of World War II the airport saw rapid expansion the first Trans Atlantic flight flew on the 28th of ~October 1953 to JFK airport in New York. In 1958 Ringway was handling 500,000 passengers a year.

In 1972 Ringway airport was renamed Manchester International Airport, in a bid to attract more long haul flights the main runway was extended to 10,000ft from 7,000ft, in 1988 Manchester international Airport was handling 9.5 million passengers annually and celebrated its Golden Jubilee.

Manchester Airport 1971

The ever increasing number of passengers travelling through Terminal 1 was starting to take its toll, so in 1993 Terminal 2 opened with a airport railway station which connected to the UK’s rail network which allowed even more passengers to travel direct into the airport.

Terminal 2 only handles international flights, with 16 gates located in T2 15 of those have air bridges and one where you’ll walk along the runway. Terminal 2 and Terminal 1 are connected by the Skylink which also has long travelators to save passenger’s a 10-15 minute walk. Skylink also connects to Manchester airports railway station.

Skylink Manchester Airport

In 1997 planning was approved for Manchester’s second runway to be built, work commenced in 1997 and was completed in 2001 at a cost of £172 Million and was the first full runway to be constructed in the UK for over 20 years, 23L/05R the technical name for Runway Two.

Terminal 1 deals with all the UK internal flights, and it can handle around 11 million passengers annually, which has been greatly expanded since it first opened in 1962 when it could handle a capacity of 2.5 million passengers.

Manchester Airport fly’s to over 190 destinations via 65 tour operators / carriers, the airport offer more destinations compared to some of the biggest airports over in the US such as New York, Dallas and Chicago.

Car parking at Manchester Airport is fairly well equipped, Short stay car parks can be found next to T1,2,3 and are usually multi storeys. The parking is pretty expensive at around £2 for 30 minutes and close to £30 for 24 hours. When parking for a arrival it will usually cost you around £6-£8 depending on your time of arrival. It can take international flights around 1 hour from point of landing to coming through the arrival gates in the lounge, so don’t worry about turning up to early for a flight.