Interflug IL-62 lands on field

DDR-SEG featured on the cover of an October 1985 Interflug publicationPerhaps it's because I'm a fan of Soviet aircraft, but I couldn't resist posting about these videos that I came across recently, which show an Ilyushin IL-62 from the now-defunct East German airline Interflug landing on a field. Apparently the story goes like this: On October 23, 1989, aircraft DDR-SEG was landed (intentionally) on a 900-meter grass runway at the Stölln-Rhinow...

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Hawaiian dumps Boeing for Airbus long-haul

photo by Ack OokHawaiian Airlines announced yesterday that it was replacing its 18-strong fleet of Boeing 767-300s with 24 new long-range airplanes from Airbus. The order, which is for six A330-200s and six A350 XWB-800s (plus six options on each kind), is worth approximately $4.4 billion at list prices and will "enable [the airline] to open new routes to more distant markets on a nonstop basis from Hawaii," said a company press release. The first...

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American to spin off Eagle

photo by caribbAmerican Airlines announced today that it will be spinning off its regional carrier American Eagle. In a press release earlier today, parent company AMR said that the spin off, which is expected to be completed by 2008, "is in the best interests of AMR and its shareholders". American Eagle could be spun off to AMR shareholders or to a third party (or in yet another way).AMR went on to say that the spin off will allow American to focus...

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SAS looks towards fleet renewal

photo by LarszATW has reported that Scandinavian carrier SAS has announced that it will be looking to replace its fleet of Bombardier Q400s (like the one pictured above) as well as its sizable fleet of MD-80s. Last month, SAS made the decision to ground its fleet of 27 Q400s after three much-publicized crash landings in a six week period. Although Bombardier has repeatedly said that the Q400 is safe, SAS CEO Mats Jansson said in a statement that...

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United's "urge to merge"

The world of airline mergers has been buzzing since last week's report that United Airlines and Delta Airlines were being pushed by Pardus Capital Management (which owns a sizable stake in both airlines) to merge. Delta CEO Richard Anderson stated that "there have been no talks with United regarding any type of consolidation transaction and there are no such ongoing discussions." In a press release, Delta said that it "will not speculate on possible...

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