Showing posts with label cathay pacific. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cathay pacific. Show all posts

Saturday, 18 July 2009

Garuda Indonesia II (Featuring CX / SQ)

After checking the safety record of Garuda Indonesia, then, out of curiosity, I checked the safety record of Cathay Pacific. I have been their Gold member for quite a while. There was a time I took their flight every week.

The last major accident was 15-Jun-1972. I was not on this earth yet. That accident killed 81 people. It was caused by a exploded bomb under a seat when flying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathay_Pacific#Incidents_and_accidents

In wiki, it also indiciated other incidents dated from1948-1972.

Nothing really interesting, but CX awarded "This was the first hijacking of a commercial liner in the world...."...,

When I was about to sleep, "What about SQ?" popped up in my head. With all these some kind additional and duplicated, security and safety checking and even the crews claimed all these just because of our safety....

The list in aiddiaster.com was actually much shorter... only 1 major accident.

However, it was on 31-Oct-2000, it seemed to me very close... and I could probably trace what I was doing that day....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_airline#Incidents_and_accidents

31 October 2000 – Singapore Airlines Flight 006 operated by a Boeing 747-400, crashed at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport) in Taiwan killing 83 people aboard and injuring 71 people during heavy rain caused by Typhoon Xangsane. SQ006 was the first fatal crash of a Singapore Airlines aircraft and the first fatal crash of the Boeing 747-400.

The scary part was, this incident was nothing to with multiple baggage scanning (before immigration, before boarding) and duplicated document check. (counter, before boarding, boarding).

In wiki, it also contained a link to SilkAir, which is an airline based in Singapore. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines Airline... I think this is a budget version of SQ.

I clicked the link about incidents again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SilkAir#Incidents_and_accidents

On December 19, 1997, SilkAir Flight 185, operated by a Boeing 737-300 and piloted by Captain Tsu Way Ming, plunged into the Musi River in Sumatra during a routine flight from Jakarta to Singapore, killing all 104 people on board. The Indonesian NTSC ruled that the cause of the accident could not be determined, while the United States NTSB concluded that the incident was "consistent with ... intentional pilot action".

And it seems that is nothing related to the pessengers or airport security.

Finally, I checked Air India...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India#Accidents_and_incidents

There was no major accidents after 1990. The one on 1990 caused no fatalities. But their record in 80's was terrible....

If we plot a graph about number of incidents aganist time, we will get this one:



Interesting....

After talking to someone, said that to be fair, the fleet size does matter. I agree and I try to find the incident rate... I could find some reference and the result was not very suprise... According to the above.

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/rates.htm

DISCLAIMER These accident rates should not be used to provide an assessment of an airline’s safety profile or future risk of an accident. These rates are derived from past accidents and not an estimate or prediction of future risk. There are many additional factors in judging the safety of an air carrier which are not included here. These rates are not meant to endorse or condemn any particular airline or group of airlines nor are they intended to persuade or dissuade use of any particular airline. The accident rates and method of calculation of the accident rates are solely the opinion of this web site and the creator is not responsible for how this information is used and will not be held legally responsible for any consequences arising from the use of this information. There are numerous commercial organizations that provide complete and extensive safety ratings of commercial air carriers.

For the regoinal ranking in Asia, it was listed as follows. The number in the blanket after is the global ranking.
1: All Nippon Airways (8/88)
2: Japan Airlines (10/88)
3: Qantas (12/88)
4: Hanin airlines (What is it?) (24/88)
5: Air New Zealand (25/88)
6: Cathay Pacific (29/88)
7: Malaysia Airlines (36/88)
10: Air India (45/88)
11: Dragon Air (49/88)
16: Garuda Indonesian (73/88)
18: Singapore Airlines / Silkair (78/88)
19: China Eastern Airlines (79/88)
22: China Airlines (88/88)

SQ is just slightly better than 華航... oh my god!

Friday, 17 July 2009

Garuda Indonesia

As usual, I was going to Jakarta and just returned to Singapore.

The unusual was I had taken Garuda Indonesia. It was because the SQ flight so full from Sunday to Tuesday for any flights with any class code. And I was also in waiting list of Garuda in the beginning...



First time taken Garuda Indonesia, which is the national airline of Indonesia. When I needed to confirm the ticket, I was feeling a bit un-safe but then anyway. Flight was confirmed.

In the weekend before travel, I met a friend, He told me that Garuda' last accident was 2007. So he wished me a safe trip....

Actually it was not that bad when I was flying from SG to JKT. And it was just a bit bumpy when returning from JKT to SQ.

Tonight (Last nigjt), I was looking for the safety record about Garuda Indonesia. The result was actually interesting...

http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=Garuda+Indonesia

What a long list! The last accident was actually 3-July-2007. The link above only indicated 1 crew was killed. But then when I checked with google and wiki. I found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Indonesia#Incidents_and_accidents


Garuda Indonesia Flight 200, a Boeing 737-400 flying from Jakarta, crashed and burst into flames on landing at Adisucipto International Airport, Yogyakarta at 0700 hours on 7 March 2007. 21 people were killed.

Luckily, I was able to return to Singapore, in one piece.

The above was actually no suprise.

To be continued... 

By the way, there was a bomb attack in Jakarta this morning... 

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Airfare: CX vs SQ

在一個偶然的情況之下,去了 Cathay 和 Singapore Airlines 的網頁。
在現今的經濟情況下,幾乎所有的航空公司都有不錯的優惠。始終,無論個人或公務而出外的人都少了。而所有的新聞都說明航空是艱難的一年。

看看 CX 的海嘯價,注意以下貨幣是新加坡圓:
從香港人看來,沒有什麼特別之處。星加坡曼谷 S$150 (HK$ 765),星加坡台灣 S$380 (HK$1938),星加坡日本 S$480 (HK$2448),星加坡上海 S$430 (HK$2193),星加坡美國 S$950 (HK$4845)。
我只可以說,超值。星加坡日本 $2448。從前這個價錢由星加坡回香港都不夠,現在加送日本。

再看看 Singapore Airline:
從香港人看來,這一個是震憾價。
星加坡東京 S$798,星加坡上海 S$838,星加坡北京 S$938,星加坡台北 S$838。星加坡 Los Angeleus S$1498。注意的地方是,去東京是最少二人同行,所以價錢平一點。

有趣的地方是,星加坡台北 S$838,CX 是 S$380。用同樣的錢,CX 是二人同行還有錢來買免稅品。到上海也差不多差兩倍。

很有趣的現像。