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And last of all, the beautiful powerful Boeing 757-200, both these were taken at Vail/Eagle airport. Anyone who has been to that airport knows just how tight of a turn these gals have to make and how much climb power is required. The 757 is a rocket!

My thoughts on the 787-

This aircraft is the replacement for the 767-200 and will be for the 767-300 and eventually the 767-400, though that is still a ways out. It has been mentioned that the 787 can serve as a replacement for the 757 as well, though I am sure most of the airlines will step down and take the 737-900 over the 787 to replace their 757s. It's a beautiful aircraft, and the orders are strong in number comming into Boeing.

Airbus vs Boeing- Both are good aircraft, but I will always take the Boeing over the Airbus. I've found that there tends to be more rattles and cheap materials on the Airbus. I've flown alot and I even worked for Delta for a time as a Ramp Agent. I love aircraft and would be a pilot today if it were not for my poor hearing and lung problems. I fly on the A-318 and 319 most often on Frontier and Jet Screw Airlines. (not very happy with Jet Blue anymore) On a new Frontier A-318 I was on (less then a year) already the tray table was broken, and buttons for the seat back and a light switch were busted. Most of my travels take me from Denver to Salt Lake or Denver to New York and often times when I fly on Delta, I will be on the MD-90 or 737s and even though the MD-90 is over 10 years old, it is very quiet, comfortable, and overall a good solid aircraft. I am very happy with Boeing and think they make a VERY NICE product.

They stopped making these didn't they?

727 stopped back in the early 80s, L-1011 stopped back in the early 80s, and the 757 stopped last year, and the 767-200 a few years ago.

The smoothest aircraft I have been on in the last few years is the Canadair Regional Jet by Bombardier. Those are so smooth and quiet. Otherwise I prefer Boeing planes over Airbus.

Skier, on May 31 2007, 05:39 PM, said:

While the CRJs are cute little jets, having flown on several, I hope I never get stuck on another one in my life! Being 6'2" and 250 lbs, there is not much leg room as well as head room! I had to crouch down a bit in fact when I was stuck on the window seat on a flight from Denver to Little Rock! UGGGH!

I had the pleasure of flying on an ERJ-170 once out of Salt Lake, now that was a smooth ride.


Now howabout a REAL SWEET RJ?

Haha, I am not very big and the flight I had on it last week was only 16 minutes so the legroom wasn't too big of a deal.

Are there any airlines that are making money? It seems like they are all losing money!

Southwest Airlines is the only airline consistently making money, while American Airlines and United Airlines have both rebounded. However, Delta is still having its issue from the last article I read in Business Week.

Has anyone heard of the new Skybus Airlines? They have a ton of capitol, already ordering 85 new Airbus A319s. They have a unique business plan, charging $10 for at least 10 tickets per flight, and going up from there as more tickets are sold for a flight. They sell advertising on the inside and outside of their planes, charge extra for everything and have no telephone number. For example, drinks are $2-5 each and food is $5-10. Checked bags cost $5, pillows cost money, etc. They do not use jetways, but airstairs and doors straight onto the tarmac. They schedule for each plane to be on the ground for only 25 minutes between flights. They fly out of secondary airports too. Most are within 30 miles of the advertized destination, like Burbank, CA marketed as LA. But for flights marketed out of Seattle, the flights are actually out of Bellingham, 94 miles away! That is much longer than most distances between their airports and their advertized destinations.

The business plan is definately ambitious, but they have more capitol than any other airline ever has at launch. Companies like Morgan Stanley seem to be confident and are investing a lot of money in it. I personally am somewhat skeptical of the plan, but I quess we'll see.

I watched the segment about Skybus the other night on television and had a hard time understanding how they could remain in business, but I guess it's possible with low overhead and 100% filled planes. But my guess is that their seat price is covering the fuel and landing costs, while selling other goods contributes to paying the salaries of the crew. However, if customers are unhappy with the service, they are more likely to tell their friends about the horrible experience than if it was a wonderful flying experience.

I've seen the revenue chart for a Boeing 737-800 and 70% of the plane has to be filled to break even while the reaming 30% is profit. Of course this figure is designed for major airlines like Alaska and United, although I believe Southwest only has to have 50% of its planes filled to break even.

Well flight attendants are paid only $9 an hour plus commission from sales and pilots $65,000 a year when other pilots get $165,000 a year.

I just looked and I think Southwest posted a quarterly loss for 1Q 2007.

Edit: nevermind i'm wrong
This post has been edited by Skier: 31 May 2007 - 10:25 PM

JustJeepIt, on May 31 2007, 07:44 PM, said:

I frequently fly on CRJs especially in and out of Colorado Springs and for me being 5-11 they are still very uncomfortable. I am by no means overweight but I do have wide shoulders and a general strong skiers build and the seats are very narrow, the head room isnt too bad and on delta's arangement the leg room is ample but the seat width is enough to make me very uncomfortable even on a flight from C Springs to Salt Lake. I just flew that route a few days ago comming from Alaska to the Springs for a friends wedding and the seats lumbar section was so badly warped that my back was twisted that I was in pain the whole flight. I know that the seat pitch, width and design are chosen by the particular airline/leasing agency flying the plane but the CRJs get my vote as one of the most uncomfortable in the sky. In contrasts the Avros as pictured above I find to be as comfortable as any mainline jet and the Embraer's as well despite their shorter cabin height.

SkiBachelor, on May 31 2007, 08:30 PM, said:

For the discount carriers Southwest seems to turn a descent profit despite some of the customer service problems I have heard of with them and their cattle car style interiors. Alaska Airlines was the only mainline airline that reported a profit last year which comes as no suprise since they stick it to us for flights to anywhere in Alaska. Ketchikan to Seattle base price is arround $480 round trip, which is less than 600 miles in the air.
This post has been edited by poloxskier: 31 May 2007 - 11:36 PM

JustJeepIt, on May 31 2007, 08:44 PM, said:

Think thats bad, trying sitting in the CRJ's flightdeck jumpseat for two to three hours.

Picture I took the other day. LAX to SEA, AS 737-800.

 as37_800_2.jpg (175.14K)
Number of downloads: 9

I love the wiglets on the 737, there damn sexy! And they save us over $150,000 bucks a year per aircraft in fuel. Best of both worlds I guess.....

Limelight, on Jun 1 2007, 08:22 AM, said:

how did you get the jumpseat? I hope they gave you a discount

SVmech17, on Jun 1 2007, 09:50 AM, said:

I work for Horizon Air, and have flightdeck jumpseat access because of my job requirements.

For those who are interested it knowing the top 10 highest ranked airlines, here's the list from the July 07 issue of Consumer Reports:

1. JetBlue (87)
2. Midwest Airlines (86)
3. Southwest Airlines (80)
4. Frontier Airlines (78)
5. Hawaiian Airlines (78)
6. Aloha Airlines (75)
7. Alaska Airlines (74)
8. Spirit Airlines (74)
9. Continental Airlines (72)
10. AirTran Airways (71)

I've never heard of Spirit Airlines or AirTran Airways before.

Business Travel magazine rated Frontier as the best Discount airline. I think they made a great choice with that one. It may be a bit cramped on their aircraft, but the staff who work for Frontier have exceeded my expectations every time I've flown with them. As much as I love Delta and United and Continental and Northwest, Frontier's customer service is tops.