History repeats itself

News broke last week that the 787 first delivery is again delayed (to the fourth quarter of 2010). So, at 28 months, the 787 will hold the unenviable record for the longest delay of a large aircraft first delivery. Yet the aircraft will doubtless be a huge success and the programme's troubles will eventually fade from our thoughts. Turn the clock back just a couple of years and it was the A380 delays that filled the headlines. When Singapore Airlines took delivery of their first A380 in October 2007, the aircraft was almost two years late. Consequently, most of the early deliveries of the A380 have taken place against the backdrop of the worst economic environment the airline industry has ever suffered. But if Boeing can stick to the current plan, the 787 will be delivered at the very moment the global economy will (hopefully) be climbing high again.

How different things might have been if both aircraft programmes had been on time! The impact of the global economic crisis would have been felt very differently by Airbus and Boeing, and indeed the customers of these aircraft.

Airport musical chairs

Britain's low-cost carriers are in a spat with airports yet again over fees. Firstly, Ryanair announced that it would cancel 90% of its Manchester flights and, just a few days later, easyJet followed suit by saying it would relocate from Luton to Gatwick and Stansted. Also, Ryanair is threatening to reduce its flights from Dublin and Stansted.

It's all very well to get huffy about airport fees, but changing flying patterns means shifting aircraft as well. And that means extra cost in terms of staffing changes and maybe changes in the overall efficiency of the aircraft and crew assignments. In addition, in Ryanair's case, such a substantial reduction in activity at a single airport is likely to affect their market. It all rather begs the question whether the costs of redeploying big chunks of capacity offset the reductions in fees.

And what about the strange situation where Ryanair is unhappy with Stansted's fees whereas easyJet appear happy to actually move to Stansted?

The old expression, "throwing the baby out with the bath water" springs to mind.

So, it's made of cheese after all

The Dutch are laughing off the discovery that a piece of moon rock, donated by a US Ambassador following a visit to the Netherlands of the Apollo 11 crew many moons ago, turns out to be nothing more than a piece of petrified wood. It makes you wonder how many other countries around the world were similarly fobbed off with fake moon rock.

My father was convinced that the moon landings never took place. So, maybe he was right after all......