Ben Sandilands
Editor of Plane Talking @PlaneTalking
Ben Sandilands has reported and analysed the mechanical mobility of humanity since late 1960 - the end of the age of great scheduled ocean liners and coastal steamers and the start of the jet age. He’s worked in newspapers, radio and TV in a wide range of roles as a journalist at home and abroad for 56 years, the last 18 freelance.
Tiger’s announcement about check-in fees and increased checked baggage charges, certainly was a big, confusing PR stuff up, writes Ben Sandilands.
Apparently through accident rather than design Tiger Airways is in a communications melt down today after yesterday’s announcement of check-in charges of either $10 or $15 for passengers travelling with carry-on luggage.
Qantas has reduced to 5000 the points needed to access mixed dollars and points frequent flyer redemptions. Is it part of a plan to kill off traditional FFP ‘freebies’? asks Ben Sandilands.
The discovery of unexpected fatigue cracks in at least four American Airlines Boeing 767s in the last month has cast a shadow over the widely used twin aisle jet.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has destroyed the value of thousands of homes in the Port Stephens area through revised noise exposure boundaries imposed last week.
What happened to the Sundance Resources miners while flying over West Africa? Ben Sandilands looks at the shreds of evidence in reports, and the context of Africa’s dangerous aviation game.
The loss of 11 flight dispatcher jobs from Jetstar to a flight services contractor in Manila might not seem like many, but the shift of Qantas group resources overseas is a slow but determined work in progress, says Ben Sandilands.
Jetstar dispatched its flight dispatchers yesterday with a month’s notice, sending their jobs to a service provider in Manila. Dispatcher duties vary considerably between airlines and countries.
There has been more ATSB media about the light aircraft crash in suburban Sydney than incidents involving much larger scheduled airliners. Why? What will be done to make general aviation airports safer?
A deal announced between Boeing and China to evaluate a sustainable biofuels industry is part of a push to turn shit into a clear fluid that will burn exactly the same in a jet engine as aviation-grade kerosene.
