Mandala is back, as a ghost of its past

Today Mandala returned to the skies. The return was celebrated in Jakarta's Terminal 3 today. While I am happy to see Mandala return, I feel something is missing... Mandala itself.

Let's look at the big board used as the stage background of the celebration. It doesn't say "return" or "comeback", but, "first flight".

"Penerbangan perdana" = maiden flight
Mandala's history seems to have been erased.
Photo by Capt D.A.

The Mandala brand itself is limited to the name only. "Book on TigerAirways.com".

As noted in the previous blog entry "Mandala returning and buries its legend", the Mandala livery is definitely gone.

The livery, Tiger Tail with Mandala titles
Photo by: Capt. D.A.

It is now confirmed that the cabin crew livery has no resemblance to the old Mandala, except for small embroidered words "Mandala".

Tiger Uniform for Mandala FAs, where are the "Mandala" lettering?

It seems that the only reason that the name Mandala is kept is for it's AOC only as the DGCA refused to accept the name change.

So, Mandala returned in name, no body, no spirit. It is a ghost remaining in this world by its AOC only. But I hope this little Tiger survive!

Innovative Cabin Concept by Alma Design

How can you have a natural aura in a business aircraft cabin mixed with the latest innovation in technology? The design concept by Portugal's Alma Design is probably the most interesting attempt. I ran into them during the conference before the Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg last week, and I found their concept so interesting, I just had to catch up with them during the Exhibition days and did an on-the-spot interview for fun, mainly aimed at my Indonesian audience to see the interesting stuff that is going around in the civil aviation industry.

The concept made it to the finals at the 2012 Crystal Cabin Awards in the Innovative Cabin Design Concept category, amongst big names such as Zodiac and Diehl Aerospace.

These guys won. They were very busy the next day with visitors and the media, but I managed to catch them for a few moments for the photo at the end of the video. 

Apologies to the award ceremony host, Mary Kirby, if I caused a delay to the start (but I think she got her revenge on my later in the day, but that's another story!).

Didn't follow my Twitter? OK, I'm still here!

I must apologize for not writing as of late. I am on my last week in my "3 weeks of hell", with the Asia Pacific Defence Expo in Jakarta on 21-23 March, then I was off to Hamburg on 24 March, to attend the Aircraft Interiors Conference on 26 March, followed by the Aircraft Interiors Expo on 27-29 March, where I flew straight back to attend a friend's wedding in Jakarta. And I still have "Indonesian Aviation Forum Series 2012 - Airlines Day" tomorrow for two days.

For those who have been following my Twitter will know what I am up to.

The Aircraft Interiors Expo this year is a lot of fun and a lot of work. I hope I will be writing more on this over the coming days and weeks, with some nice developments on the Jakarta end of my work.

The little things that matter. Example #1: PLUNA

After writing "KLM and Social Media - How to really make a difference to your passengers", I thought I'd search around the web for stuff that can really turn around someone's travel experience. Competition, social media, internet, etc, all can reduce travel into a mere means to an end. Unless airlines try to do something to make a difference on the Passenger Experience end, air travel will be nothing more than a commodity.

So, let's go to a little known almost dead state owned airline that made an amazing turnaround by throwing away ego and pride... PLUNA. From political routes and losses, it has focused on providing what passengers want... or at least their version of what they think the passengers want, and a little further.

On December 31st 2010, this is what they did:

Flight 128 from Buenos Aires to Punta del Este, the last flight of the year, and

 PLUNA decided to give something to the passengers.

Nice? Sometimes, it's the little things that matter! Gotta love the body language expression on the passengers!

Batavia A320 overran at Balikpapan Airport

On Monday 12 March 2012, a Batavia Air Airbus A320-200 PK-YVE peforming Y6-2911 from Denpasar to Hangzhou or Guangzhou (charter flight) via in Balikpapan, landed in Balikpapan and overran the runway at 11:31 local time (03:31 UTC)

It is unclear whether the aircraft was due to make a stop in Balikpapan or had diverted there. The aircraft overran after landing at runway 25. Photos showing the aircraft at the overrun area just beyond the threshold of runway 07 shows the flaps in the up position but cannot be determined if the flaps were retracted after coming to a stop.

Wheels were sunk.

No injuries or damage occured but the airport was closed for at least 2 hours because the aircraft tires had sunk in the softer overrun area asphalt. This was similar to the Lion Air occurence a few months ago, where it overran whilst landing at runway 25 and then was stuck because the wheels had also sunk.

The airport reopened with a NOTAM showing a 400 meter reduced length restriction to allow for obstacle clearance as the aircraft remained in the same position for a few hours.

Photo taken from an aircraft approaching 07 after airport reopened
but prior to removal of the aircraft, making it "interesting".

 All photos were found on the net using. Copyright holders of the photos are unknown.

Follow on Blog Update on the incident can be found HERE