Quick Takes
ManSurvivesFlightinAircraftWheelWell
An Indonesian man took a free flight in the wheel well of an aircraft this week, surviving a high-altitude flight of nearly two hours in thin air and sub-zero temperatures.
Mario Stevan Ambarita, 21, was spotted staggering around the tarmac at Jakarta airport on Tuesday, shortly after the Garuda Indonesia domestic flight landed from Sumatra Island.
“The case was quite a surprise to us,” Garuda chief executive Arif Wibowo said.
The stowaway scaled a 2.5-metre fence to reach the aircraft, where he tucked himself into the rear wheel housing, media said.
He collapsed after the flight and was taken to hospital with a bleeding ear and other light injuries before spending the night in a police cell.
“He said he wanted to meet Jokowi,” E Sutrisna, a spokesman for Soekarno-Hatta Airport Police told Kompas TV, referring to Indonesian President Joko Widodo by his nickname.
According to local media reports, Ambarita had spent up to a year studying aircraft taking off and landing had learnt from the Internet how to hide in the wheel well and had made an unsuccessful attempt in the past to stowaway.
EthiopiaWinsAirlineAward
Ethiopian Airlines, has won the Airline of the Year Award for the second time in a row at MICE Magazine’s 8th Annual Industry Golden Chair Awards held in Beijing, China on April 1.
The annual Golden Chair Award is one of the most influential awards in China and ranks airlines, hotels, travel agencies and tourism destinations with the best performance.
Ethiopian Group CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, said, “We are honoured to receive this award for the second year in a row. I wish to thank MICE Magazine and, above all, our esteemed customers from China for their vote of confidence. Ethiopian has become the airline of choice for Chinese travellers between China, Africa and Brazil.
We offer the best and fastest connectivity options with a total of 28 weekly flights to f our gateways in China that are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and with immediate connection to 49 destinations in Africa and Sao Paulo in Brazil. All the flights are operated with the latest and most comfortable aircraft, the 787 and 777. Thanks to our codeshare agreement with our fellow Star Alliance partner, Air China, we avail seamless and convenient connections with one ticket and the ability to accrue and redeem frequent flyer miles on the two airlines,” he said.
He added that “Going forward, given the growing economic and people-to-people ties between Africa and China, we will expand our reach in China, Africa and Brazil with new destinations and more frequencies with a view to enhance our service to our customers from China”, Gebremariam said.
DozensofFlightsHaltedByFrenchATCStrike
Airlines cancelled dozens of flights in and out of France on Wednesday because of a two-day stoppage by air traffic controllers upset over work conditions and plans to raise their retirement age to 59 from 57.
The French civil aviation authority (DGAC) said that one in two flights would be scrapped on Thursday, the second day of the strike, Reuters reported.
easyJet cancelled 118 flights to and from France on April 8 and apologised to passengers for a strike “outside of our control”.
Ryanair posted dozens of flight cancellations on its website, not just in France but across Europe, blaming the French strike.
The state-employed air traffic controllers are threatening further two-day stoppages later in April and at the start of May -- when school breaks and public holidays boost leisure traffic -- over what they say is management refusal to take their demands seriously.
In a blog post, the SNCTA union denounced plans to raise the age that controllers are entitled to retire and highlighted other complaints, including declining staff numbers at a time of increasing national and European regulation.