Did someone chop the roo's head off?

I've always known Qantas as the "Spirit of Australia", and I've always liked the endless (albeit monotonous at times) variety of "I still call Australia home" adverts they can come up with. The recent change in marketing campaign however, leaves me doing nothing but shake my head.

The campaign starting in July, focuses on a new tagline. "Spirit of Australians", with "the tale of two letters." Two letters... they hope can change the fate of Qantas. I thought this would make a nice new change to Qantas, I agree on the underlying marketing lingo explaining the change. 

I actually thought it was going to work... That was until I read a fellow blogger's article: Qantas rewords, rephrases, repositions...

This isn't a rebranding campaign, not a change of company slogan campaign, this is just... "adding" of two letters, add "n" and "s" to the "Spirit of Australia" on the left side of the aircraft to be "Spirit of Australians"... on TWO aircraft only !

In my eyes, his is a half-hearted attempt at regurgitating Ansett Australia's "Absolutely" campaign. Perhaps they were fearful that CEO Alan Joyce might scream at the bill of changing the writing at the whole of the right side of the aircraft? (Yes, even on just two aircraft!)

This sentiment is shared by fellow blogger, Kinny Cheng who runs UXmilk.com. Over the past week we've exchanged ideas, jokes, and criticism at this recent campaign. Whilst he has other (very witty) conclusion, mine is simply, half-hearted.

But the campaign doesn't just stop there! UXmilk ran another blog article which simply made me continue shaking my head. Qantas… is going to make me famous?

So, "Spirit of Australians" will put 2 extra letters on one side of two aircraft, add the names of 2 competition winners on those two aircraft, and the rest is (nothing more than) a testimonials campaign by Australians!

One newspaper quoted a very good phrase to describe this campaign. Qantas Marketing Manager Lewis Pullen has described the change as a "leap of faith".

One hell of a half-hearted leap of faith!

A380 lands in Jakarta: Instant Experts please SHUT UP!

Singapore Airlines A380-800 9V-SKC in Jakarta on a medical diversion
earlier today. (Photo from Detik.com)

Following on from First A380 landing in Jakarta, Indonesia. 4-May-2012, the airport operator appeared to quickly have jumped on the opportunity to allay public fears and criticism that the airport cannot handle the flying behemoth.

Within hours, poorly informed critics in Indonesia are beginning to mention that the airport's pavement surfaces should be checked to ensure the A380 have left no damage that can pose safety risks.

Airbus have long maintained that runways and taxiways that can handle the Boeing 747-400, should be able to handle the A380, and the only modifications required are at the apron (due to the size) and gate airbridges (to allow use of upper deck doors for boarding/deboarding).

So, what are the facts? Well, first, it would be good to grab some facts.

According to Indonesia's official Aeronautical Information Publication, all taxiways, runways, and aprons at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK/WIII), are rated with the Pavement Classification Number (PCN) 120 R/D/W/T... Let's take the number and the first two letters, R and D (R = Rigid Pavement, D = Subclassification D = CBR 3).

A quick look at Airbus's Airplane Characteristics For Airport Planning document that is available (at http://www.airbus.com/support/maintenance-engineering/technical-data/aircraft-characteristics/). 120 R/D means that the A380 can use the airport (up to 10,000 movements a year), with weights of up to around 590 tons. The maximum design taxi weight for the aircraft is lower, at 571 tons.

Now, if someone wants to throw a fuss about the airport's pavement strength and aircraft operations, perhaps someone should raise concern about Boeing 777-300ER operations (Emirates operate the type DXB-CGK, and Garuda plans to have their 777-300ER delivered in 2nd Quarter 2013). Although it is a smaller aircraft than the A380, pavement load depends on the wheel arrangements of the aircraft. Now, 120 R/D means the 777-300ER is limited to 330 tons, which is lower than the maximum design taxi weight of 352.4 tons! (Data publicly available from Boeing).

Stop fussing! And attention-whoring-poorly-informed-instant-experts, please... SHUT UP!

First A380 landing in Jakarta, Indonesia. 4-May-2012

I was shocked to suddenly see this on my Twitter, Facebook, local forums, etc.

The A380 has landed in Jakarta 

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (WIII/CGK)

9V-SKC in CGK

Quick calls and searches, found the story to be true.

9V-SKC was performing Singapore Airlines flight SQ232 from Sydney to Singapore when a passenger became ill, requiring a medical diversion. The aircraft landed at CGK at 0846UTC at runway 25R, and parked at taxiway WC1 between NP2 and NPW, where the passenger was evacuated. Aircraft then made a U-turn at NPW onto WC2 for NP2 and N6, where it departed runway 07L safely at 0930UTC to continue to Singapore (revised estimated arrival currently at 1130UTC).

This friend of mine was very happy to see the A380 in Jakarta
(photo by: Ignatius Suryadi)

Aircraft parked at WC1 instead of a parking stand so that it does not require pushing back to continue. However, A380 capable pushback trucks and towbar are available at the airport, to provide ground handling capability for diversions requiring a parking stand. In this occasion, a scissor lift truck (like the ones for catering) performed the passenger evacuation.

Use this chart to find where the aircraft landed, parked, and took off.
(Chart by: Gerry Soejatman)

Whilst the aircraft can be serviced at Jakarta and suitable parking spots exist for the A380, no regular A380 schedules has been made due to lack of boarding gate space capability at Terminal 2D and 2E (international terminals), and apart from the remote parking areas, only parking stand D11 (gate D1) is A380 capable  in terms of size.

Dreamers within the Indonesian aviation community have long awaited the arrival of the A380 in Indonesia. Many cite reasons as ridiculous as "airport runways cannot handle the A380" to "everyone should fly the A380 to Jakarta"... but I'm sure a lot are shocked to see the A380 finally land in Jakarta.

Unfortunately, the ill passenger had passed away. Ironically, he was an Indonesian who was likely to be flying SYD-SIN-CGK anyways. It's bittersweet congratulations to 9V-SKC as the first A380 to ever land in Indonesia. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts, it's not always a happy ending. To the wife of the ill passenger (who was travelling with him) and his family, my condolences.


Edit 1200UTC:
Pax heart attack reported over Bali, Jakarta was nearest suitable airport from Bali for the A380.

Lufthansa to serve FRA-SIN on the A380... what about Jakarta?

On 20th May, Lufthansa announced that Frankfurt-Singapore will be served by the A380 from 30th October onwards. This means that LH778/779 will no longer fly to Jakarta.

If you think this is the end of Lufthansa in Indonesia, well, don't worry... LH790/791 will serve Jakarta-Singapore-Munich instead! So from 30th of October, we'll stop seeing the Lufthansa 744s and will begin to see Lufthansa A340-300s.

It's good to see this European carrier continue to see Jakarta as a destination worth serving with their own metal!

From:

Lufthansa Press Release

20.05.11: Lufthansa’s third A380 destination in Asia – Flights to Jakarta from Munich from start of winter timetable

From 30 October, when the winter timetable goes into effect, Lufthansa will operate a daily A380 service on its Frankfurt-Singapore route. From that date, one of the eight A380s in the Lufthansa fleet will take off from Frankfurt at 22.05 hrs under flight number LH 778 bound for Singapore. On 30 October, Lufthansa will also transfer its service to Jakarta via Singapore from Frankfurt to Munich. The route will be operated with an Airbus A340-300. Passengers arriving in Singapore on the A380 flight from Frankfurt will have plenty of time to transfer to the onward flight to Indonesia.

The A380 can accommodate 526 passengers in comfort – eight in First Class, 98 in Business Class and 420 in Economy class. Meanwhile, Lufthansa’s flagship has scored top marks in terms of technology, ecological efficiency and sustainability. With a fuel burn of only 3.4 litres per 100 passenger-kilometres, it is about 30 per cent quieter than previous wide-bodied jets.

Frankfurt – Singapore (from 30 October 2011) A380 schedule (all times are local times)

• LH 778 Frankfurt 22:05 hrs – Singapore 16:55 hrs (following day)
• LH 779 Singapore 23:55 hrs – Frankfurt 05:55 hrs

Munich – Singapore – Jakarta (from 30 October 2011) A340-300 schedule (all times are local times)

• LH 790 Munich 21:30 hrs – Singapore 16:50 hrs (following day)
• LH 790 Singapore 18.00 hrs – Jakarta 18:50 hrs
• LH 791 Jakarta 20:05 hrs – Singapore 22:45 hrs
• LH 791 Singapore 23:59 hrs – Munich 06:10 hrs