Word: airbuses
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Lost luggage. Frustrating delays. Bad food. It's hard to get excited about flying these days. Hard, that is, unless you've just boarded the Airbus A300 owned by former Indian Airlines engineer B.C. Gupta. Take, for example, the safety demonstration. After asking for a volunteer from the 120 or so kids crammed, some two to a seat, in the plane's economy-class cabin, flight attendant Ridhi Sehgal explains how the oxygen masks work. A plastic deck chair appears, and Sehgal helps the volunteer, a worried-looking boy of 7, up onto it so that the other passengers...
...needn't worry. The Airbus isn't flying over water today. It isn't flying anywhere. Jammed into a suburban backyard near Indira Gandhi International Airport, its nose and tail jutting over the property's walls, the plane offers the adventure of air travel without the cost--or even the travel. Its passengers, most of whom have never been on a plane before, pay up to $4 each to join the jet set for a few hours. India's skies may be busier than ever these days, as a raft of budget carriers have made flying in India more affordable...
myself to this trial on your behalf, dear reader, because you may be doing likewise soon. The Singapore Airlines flight promises to be the first of an increasing number of ultra-long-haul flights on planes like the new Airbus A340-500, some using over-the-pole routing. Continental Airlines, for example, flies from Newark, N.J., to Hong Kong, a 16-hour ride, which until recently was the longest. (There are already dozens of flights in the 13-hour range.) Next up: Emirates Airlines plans to start flying nonstop from New York City to Dubai later this year...
When I boarded the Airbus for the flight to Singapore, I could see that the airline, renowned for its good service, has made some dramatic changes inside the cabin. It removed seats and even made the aisles wider to create an "executive economy" section (full fare, round trip: $1,665). Once the plane was at cruising altitude I spent the first hour or so just getting used to the surroundings--exploring the stand-up bar Singapore Airlines created at the back of the coach section, ducking into one of the two windowed rest rooms or longing for the plush seats...
...that our coach seats were cramped. The new Airbus is one of the world's longest airplanes and can typically seat 313 passengers, but the airline installed just 181 seats to allow more room. There are 117 in coach in a 2-3-2 layout. Not only is each coach seat 5 in. farther than usual from the one in front of it, it is 20 in. wide vs. the typical 17 in. Even the aisles are wider: 20 in. vs. 19 in. If these differences seem minuscule, they're not: they gave me enough space to change positions, stretch...