Plane Crazy Down Under » Shashank Nigam http://www.planecrazydownunder.com Looking at the world of aviation from an Australia / Pacific point of view Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:34:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 CreativeCommons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ planecrazydownunder@gmail.com (Steve Visscher & Grant McHerron (www.planecrazydownunder.com)) planecrazydownunder@gmail.com (Steve Visscher & Grant McHerron (www.planecrazydownunder.com)) Aviation 1440 http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/images/PCDU_RSS_Feed_Logo.jpg Plane Crazy Down Under http://www.planecrazydownunder.com 144 144 An aviation based podcast with a focus on the Australia/Pacific area aviation, australia, new, zealand, asia, pacific, flying, aircraft Steve Visscher & Grant McHerron (www.planecrazydownunder.com) Steve Visscher & Grant McHerron (www.planecrazydownunder.com) planecrazydownunder@gmail.com no no PCDU Episode 77: Qantas Crisis: After the Grounding http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2011/11/03/pcdu-episode-77-qantas-crisis-after-the-grounding/ http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2011/11/03/pcdu-episode-77-qantas-crisis-after-the-grounding/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:35:41 +0000 Grant (Falcon124) http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/?p=1388 Almost one year after the QF32 incident, Qantas is again in the news around the world and for a short time again appeared to be on the brink of a major disaster. At 5pm on Saturday the 29th of October, Alan Joyce (CEO of Qantas) announced that he & the board of directors had decided . . . → Read More: PCDU Episode 77: Qantas Crisis: After the Grounding]]> Almost one year after the QF32 incident, Qantas is again in the news around the world and for a short time again appeared to be on the brink of a major disaster. At 5pm on Saturday the 29th of October, Alan Joyce (CEO of Qantas) announced that he & the board of directors had decided to ground all of Qantas’ domestic & international flights (about 108 aircraft). This unprecedented step disrupted the travel plans of almost 70,000 passengers in order to avoid a “death by a thousand paper cuts” due to ongoing damage from industrial disputes with three unions.

The three unions represented the pilots, engineers and baggage handlers working for Qantas’ “mainline” operations. The Jetstar, QantasLink and JetConnect operations were not involved in the grounding.

We have assembled a collection of discussions with a number of people involved in the disputes or monitoring it from the outside. It is our intention that we provide you with an overview of what has happened, why it happened and where things might go from here. Unlike the commercial broadcast media, our time is not rigidly controlled so our guests are able to take their time to explain their views & concerns without being restricted to sound bites.

While we also express our own views during this episode, we have tried to present enough information for you to get a better understanding of the situation & form your own decisions.

The discussions in this episode include:

We’d also like to thank Colin Lipiatt, the Manager of Coporate Communications at Virgin Australia, for taking the time to chat with us about their ability to quickly respond with extra capacity to help affected travellers. While we couldn’t include him in the show, he provided plenty of useful information for us.

While putting this episode together we did attempt to contact Qantas’ media department to arrange a representative who could talk to us about the items raised during the discussions listed above. Unfortunately we did not hear back from them and can only assume that, like Anthony Albanese (Minister for Infrastructure & Transport), they were too busy dealing with the big issues and the mainstream media to spare any time for us.

We trust that you’ll enjoy this special episode of content specifically covering the Qantas Grounding situation. It’s been a marathon effort to arrange & record the interviews then put it all together for you. It has certainly been educational & eye opening for us as we discussed the issues with our guests, and that’s got to be a good thing :)

The Aus Air Services advert is provided courtesy of Star FM 94.3

]]> http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2011/11/03/pcdu-episode-77-qantas-crisis-after-the-grounding/feed/ 2 2:15:08 PCDU Episode 77: Qantas Crisis: After the Grounding Qantas Crisis: After the Grounding aviation, australia, new, zealand, asia, pacific, flying, aircraft www.planecrazydownunder.com no no The Jetstarisation of QANTAS is not over yet http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2010/02/22/the-jetstarisation-of-qantas-is-not-over-yet/ http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2010/02/22/the-jetstarisation-of-qantas-is-not-over-yet/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:00:49 +0000 Grant (Falcon124) http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/?p=369 Thanks to an opportunity presented by Shashank Nigam, Grant’s just had an article about the ongoing Jetstarisation of QANTAS published on Shashank’s Simpliflying site.

It provides a background on the birth of Jetstar, its growth to date and how it is destined to consume more of QANTAS’ mainline routes & aircraft. Head on over to . . . → Read More: The Jetstarisation of QANTAS is not over yet]]> Thanks to an opportunity presented by Shashank Nigam, Grant’s just had an article about the ongoing Jetstarisation of QANTAS published on Shashank’s Simpliflying site.

It provides a background on the birth of Jetstar, its growth to date and how it is destined to consume more of QANTAS’ mainline routes & aircraft. Head on over to Simpliflying and check out the article.

Thanks to Shashank for giving us the opportunity to gain further exposure to the global aviation world, it’s very much appreciated :)

]]> http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2010/02/22/the-jetstarisation-of-qantas-is-not-over-yet/feed/ 2 PCDU Episode 23: Australia: A TSA free zone (for now) http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2010/01/15/episode-23-australia-a-tsa-free-zone-for-now/ http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2010/01/15/episode-23-australia-a-tsa-free-zone-for-now/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:53:35 +0000 Grant (Falcon124) http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/?p=324 Even down here in Australia we’re being impacted by the out-of-control antics of the TSA, so what the heck, we’ll have a bit of a c’est la vent moment about it. We also have our usual opinionated discussion on some other news items and chat with Shashank Nigam from SimpliFlying.

Here’s how the show proceeds:

. . . → Read More: PCDU Episode 23: Australia: A TSA free zone (for now)]]> Even down here in Australia we’re being impacted by the out-of-control antics of the TSA, so what the heck, we’ll have a bit of a c’est la vent moment about it. We also have our usual opinionated discussion on some other news items and chat with Shashank Nigam from SimpliFlying.

Here’s how the show proceeds:

As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5″ by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.

]]> http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2010/01/15/episode-23-australia-a-tsa-free-zone-for-now/feed/ 12 1:36:44 Even down here in Australia we’re being impacted by the out-of-control antics of the TSA, so what the heck, we’ll have a bit of a c’est la vent moment about it. We also have our usual opinionated discussion on some other news items[...] Even down here in Australia we’re being impacted by the out-of-control antics of the TSA, so what the heck, we’ll have a bit of a c’est la vent moment about it. We also have our usual opinionated discussion on some other news items and chat with Shashank Nigam from SimpliFlying. Here’s how the show proceeds: Prosecutors want Garuda pilot back in jail (ABC News) Farmer’s flight path message for charity (ABC News) The first aircraft taken to Antarctica has been found again: Remains of Antarctica’s first plane found (ABC News) Future of Antarctic plane undecided (ABC News) David Vanderhoof gives us an Aviation History segment Guy Menzies with his crashed Avian (image) Image of an Avian in a pprune.org story QANTAS Super Constellation Air NZ’s new cabin crew outfits like ‘drag queens’ (Greer McDonald & Kiran Chug @ Sydney Morning Herald) Phrase “elephant in the room” is most popular cliche of 2009 (The Mirror) (AirNZ’s use of the phrase “disestablished”) Tiger Airways carries 3 millionth passenger (Travel Daily News) Tiger’s flight delayed 10-hours (The Morning Bulletin) Tiger Airways advances aircraft delivery (Yahoo! Singapore) Discussion about Tiger’s callsign on our forum @ Downwind Jetstar and AirAsia form a Joint Venture: http://au.biz.yahoo.com/100105/2/2am5y.html (Yahoo! FInance) Analyst tips fruitful Jetstar-AirAsia alliance (ABC News) Two-for-one budget airlines (Stephen Bartholomeusz @ Business Spectator) Jetstar maintenance stays onshore (Geoff Easdown @ HeraldSun) Australian executives at Jetstar Pacific not allowed to leave Vietnam: Jetstar Pacific executives questioned in Vietnam (ABC News) Jetstar Pacific probe set to last months (ABC News) QANTAS are impacted by another Amadeus crash: Flights delayed after Qantas glitches (ABC News) Another computer glitch for Qantas (Australian Aviation) Qantas may be just another eyes wide victim of IT ‘lies’ (Ben Sandilands @ Plane Talking on Crikey) Passengers suffer as Qantas check-in fails (Lanai Vasek @ The Australian) We chat with Shashank Nigam from SimpliFlying  We have a c’est la vie moment about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)  Technical glitch strands Qantas passengers (ABC News)  Listener Mail: Jack Seymour’s got a blog up about his learning to fly (Student Flight Mark mentions Coronal Mass Ejections and their potential impacts on GPS systems Shout Outs: The new Mile High Flyers podcast is well worth listening to (and they refer to our show in their second episode – w00t :) Will & Dave at The Pilot’s Flight Podlog podcast have provided us with a promo piece and are joining in the fun of cross-promoting other podcasts As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5″ by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com. Podcasts Steve Visscher & Grant McHerron (www.planecrazydownunder.com) no no PCDU Episode 22: Farewell 2009 http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2009/12/31/episode-22-farewell-2009/ http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/2009/12/31/episode-22-farewell-2009/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:05:34 +0000 Grant (Falcon124) http://www.planecrazydownunder.com/?p=304 It’s the Christmas & New Year holiday period, plus down here it’s Summer so we’re totally into listening to long aviation podcasts when we’re not distracted by having fun. So, for all of our listeners who have long drives or lots of chores to do around home, we give you our longest episode yet. With . . . → Read More: PCDU Episode 22: Farewell 2009]]> It’s the Christmas & New Year holiday period, plus down here it’s Summer so we’re totally into listening to long aviation podcasts when we’re not distracted by having fun. So, for all of our listeners who have long drives or lots of chores to do around home, we give you our longest episode yet. With a bit of Christmas cheer, we produce just over two hours of PCDU goodness including an interview with Michael Gilmour from Downwind.com.au, our usual opinionated review of the news and listener mail. We also wrap up the year with a tip of the wing to the podcasts that inspire us and the guests who have helped give us some great content.

Here’s how the episode came together this time: