Airport

There’s something dreadfully wrong somewhere along the line when Sydney can get a second casino, but not a second airport. While Melbourne is talking about a third major airport, Sydney can’t get its act together to build a second, let alone, third airport that’s likely to be needed soon after any second airport is built.

Do we really need a second Sydney Casino? You be the judge. Do we need more problem gamblers or are we simply going to rely on the so-called `high rollers’ from overseas to make the second casino viable?

Well, we don’t need more problem gamblers and repeated references to so-called ‘Asian high rollers’ are now getting a bit tiresome and border on the offensive. If any other cultural group was being referred to in such a potentially exploitative manner we would probably be hearing calls for an apology.

Continue reading "Due to monopoly a second airport will not pass go" »

Martin Grant is bringing back something long lost to Australian airports – glamour. The Melbourne-born, Paris-based fashion designer, known for his sophisticated style has been commissioned to whip up a new batch of uniforms for Qantas hosties.

Grants’ will be the tenth incarnation of the national airline’s uniform since 1959, following designers like Yves Saint Laurent, Emilio Pucci, George Gross and Harry Who. His brief is simple: elegance and wearability, two words that have the ability to transcend any fashion disaster.

Pity this won’t extend to all travellers, because for us normal folk airports have become a den of excess, reckless eating and drinking and shopping for stuff we don’t need. In other words they’re a playground for slobs. And spoilt slobs at that who demand massages at midnight, gamble at dawn and drink beer with every meal.

Continue reading "What a shame style got lost in transit…" »

As political leaders scramble for fresh excuses to maintain 40 years of flinching from a decision on a second Sydney airport, let’s eliminate one of them.

It is not just a Sydney issue. It is not even just a NSW issue. It is a national issue, and this entitles people outside the state’s borders to expect action within them.

The congestion at Sydney Airport adds around 25 minutes to the time it takes a scheduled airline fight to get to Melbourne.

Continue reading "Sydney’s second airport is a national issue" »

They waited for the plane to land before it happened. Given the violently bumpy landing that was definitely a good thing. But not such a good thing for the woman three rows in front with the toddler and the baby, who projectile vomited in unison all over their seats.

Mad Men ´The Carousel´ from Emilio on Vimeo.

“Great way to end a holiday,” the mother announced mostly to herself as we stared, opened mouthed, watching her and vomit-covered husband as they jostled with their kids and attempted to deplane before their fellow passengers. The rude air hostesses didn’t even offer a sympathetic smile. But that’s another story.

As we’ve seen this week, air travel can go wrong for all kinds of reasons. But what if the ash cloud never went away? What if we reverted to a world without aeroplanes and overseas holidays? Maybe this idea fills you with dread. But think of the positives…

Continue reading "What if the ash cloud never left?" »

To fly, or not to fly, that is the question/Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of disgruntled travellers/Or to take flight against a sky of troubles/And by opposing, end them?

Like Hamlet, airlines face a lose-lose situation.  Do they cancel flights at the expense of customer good will or risk planes falling out of the sky from catastrophic engine failure?  Because, let’s be honest here, there are no good plane crashes. 

In June 1982, Capt Eric Moody and his crew were flying from Kuala Lumpur to Perth when all four engines on their British Airways jumbo jet failed.  Without knowing it, they’d flown into a volcanic ash cloud.  For the next 13 minutes, the lives of the 248 passengers and 15 crew were in the balance.  Without engines, they were ditching into the sea.  That they restarted the engines and saved 268 lives is well known and dramatised on TV shows.  But what if the outcome was different?

Continue reading "It could’ve been ashes to ashes, dust to dust" »

It all started with Bob.

Sorry, I mean, “Bawb….”

“Baaawwwwwb…!”

Even if you really didn’t want to listen, there was very little choice, the American woman’s voice rang out across the terminal in a short, high pitched southern Florida squall.

Continue reading "Don’t pack your accent when you go overseas" »