Word: flighting
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Even as overall premium-fare business travel has withered over the past year, superior service remains in strong demand on marathon flights from the U.S. and Europe to Asia. And long-haul routes are far cheaper to operate per passenger mile than, say, the Richmond, Va., to Memphis, Tenn., flight that domestic airlines provide. While profit margins for all Asian carriers are relatively high, SIA's has been 50% higher, according to an industry analyst, than Qantas' and double that of Japan Airlines...
...decidedly retro in certain respects, including its celebration of what it calls the Singapore Girl, selected for her beauty, grace and youth. There are male flight attendants at SIA, but they get little attention. Until a few years ago, SIA insisted flight attendants (even married ones) who became pregnant resign. Since 1996, it has rehired some for short-haul flights. Even now, though, frequent passengers notice that the female flight attendants never seem to age. Few customers complain. "I'm 55, and so are the flight attendants on American Airlines in first class, and I appreciate their ... experience," says...
Just call me an aviation lab rat. My experiment was to fly on the world's first nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Singapore: more than 18 hours, the longest regularly scheduled commercial jetliner flight ever. In coach. Could I survive such stress? Would I be stricken with deep-vein thrombosis or catch a nasty bug, confirming the health concerns about long-haul flights? Would my brain turn to mush? I submitted...
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...