Thank God! After years of sitting here, reading about airline after airline in the US launch in-flight Wi-Fi and longing for some local airline to bring the love to Australia, Singapore Airlines has announced this week that they’ll have in-flight internet access on selected flights starting next year. More »
For those of you who read Giz’s sister site, Lifehacker, you’ll probably know that editor Angus Kidman writes a lot of stories about flying. I thought I would join his flying reporting club by putting a bit of a Giz spin on this. And I’m hoping to open this up to the community as well for opinion.
Two weeks ago I was in Japan. Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re saying to yourself, “Hold on Damo, you’re in Japan now. And you were in Japan two weeks ago? What’s the go?”. Well, true story. I was back in Sydney last week and am now back in Japan, but aside from severe jet lag and a wallet full of yen, it did give me a bit of an eye opener when it came to airline options. More »
Singapore Airlines must have had a fair bit of success when they rolled out iPod connectivity for business customers on their A340-500 aircraft last year, because they’re new Airbus A330-300 aircraft have an iPod dock for every passenger, including those bums back in economy. That means you can not only listen to your own music, but watch any videos stored on your iPod or iPhone on the big screen as well… More »
Singapore Airlines is installing iPod docks and 15.4-inch widescreen LCDs in their all-Business Class Airbus A340-500 flights between NY/LA and Singapore, ensuring that we’re going to be flying with them if we ever have to travel to that part of the world. Each business customer can dock their iPhone or iPod and watch their own movies on the included noise-cancelling headphones—which will be interrupting when the captain wants tell you to look off to your left so you can see a drunken Superman mooning your plane. Flights from Newark with this will start May 15 (today), and August for the LA ones. Maybe now business passengers won’t engage in business time while in the air.
Even though Singapore Airlines has equipped its new A380 jets with private double bed suites, company officials are saying you’d better not do the bouncy bouncy in there or you’ll meet with their stern disapproval. What are they going to do? Throw you off the plane? The first couple to book one of the double suites wasn’t too impressed with the airline’s prudish demeanor.
“So they’ll sell you a double bed, and give you privacy and endless champagne — and then say you can’t do what comes naturally?” asked Tony Elwood, a 76-year-old passenger who booked the suite with his wife, Julie. “Seems a bit strange.” More »
newVideoPlayer("a380_gawker.flv", 475, 286);The Airbus A380, the biggest commercial jetliner ever put into production, at long last took its first trip—and it didn’t hit any icebergs. Out of a possible 850 travelers, 450 were on board in this seven-hour Singapore Airlines trip from, well, Singapore all the way to Sydney. This means that, today Airbus officially steals the Sizemodo trophy from Boeing, even though, as the delayed 787 demonstrates, the future of commercial airlines may not be determined by the size of the planes. [BBC News]
AU: I was quite looking forward to seeing this sucker make a pass over the city. Damn that weird, crappy weather completely ruining any chance of a good bit of geeky plane spotting. -SB
