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How Airbus’s A380 Went From Wonder to Blunder

World’s largest passenger plane was hurt by misjudged market trends, internal dysfunction and production problems<p>
Airbus has sunk at least $17 billion into the A380 project yet sold fewer than half of the 750 superjumbo jetliners it promised to deliver by the end of this year. An Airbus A380 of Lufthansa airline.<p>

When Airbus launched the A380 superjumbo in 2000, it touted the two-deck plane as “the Eighth Wonder of the World.” Instead, the world’s largest passenger plane exposed dysfunction inside the European aerospace company and now offers a textbook case of a company misjudging its market and losing big.<p>

Airbus has sunk at least $17 billion into the project yet sold fewer than half of the 750 superjumbo jetliners it promised to deliver by the end of this year. On Thursday Airbus said it would cease producing the 555-seat plane at the end of 2021.<p>

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Excerpt from WSJ

Investigators Search for Black Boxes in Amazon Plane Crash

Investigators in Texas looked Sunday for cockpit voice and data recorders in the wreckage of a cargo plane flying for Amazon.com<p>
Local and federal officials gathered at a staging area for the investigation into a cargo plane crash in Trinity Bay in Anahuac, Texas, on Saturday. The Boeing 767 was carrying goods for Amazon.com.<p>

Investigators in Texas searched Sunday for cockpit voice and data recorders in the wreckage of a cargo plane flying for Amazon.com Inc. that went into a sudden nosedive and crashed over the weekend, killing the three people on board.<p>
The Boeing Co. 767 crashed into Trinity Bay near Houston around 12:45 p.m. Central time Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities on Sunday said two of the bodies had been recovered, and search teams were seeking locator signals from so-called black box recorders believed to be buried in mud.<p>

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Excerpt from WSJ

New Black Boxes Offer Ability to Send Real-Time Data From Plane Crashes

Honeywell unveils satellite-linked, in-flight devices intended to speed investigations.  After the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean, it took two years for investigators to find the black boxes.
Honeywell International Inc. is introducing a new line of aircraft cockpit and flight-data recorders that offer more data-storage capacity and the ability, for the first time, to use satellites to retrieve accident information in real time.

Honeywell officials and other proponents of the new technology said the devices, commonly called black boxes, promise major benefits for future plane crash investigations.

Such options have been debated for years by aviation industry officials, and have been championed by many safety advocates and accident investigators. The aim is to ensure vital crash data can be gathered quickly, avoiding the uncertainties of lengthy and sometimes fruitless searches for conventional recorders.

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Excerpt from WSJ

Six Ways to Improve Air Travel Instantly

Travelers love to hate on airlines. Airlines sometimes do bad things to their customers, dinging them with add-on fees, penalizing them when plans change, squeezing them into shrinking seats and bathrooms and occasionally leaving them stranded for a couple of days.

So if you could wave a magic wand and improve air travel, what would you do?

We’re not talking about fantasies like first-class seats for $10. Airlines need to be able to pay their bills. But are there practical fixes that could make flying better for people who don’t have superelite status or the cash to buy flying beds?

The question is a serious one for airlines. Airline loyalty is in decline. Henry Harteveldt, founder and analyst at Atmosphere Research Group, says his surveys show only 21% of U.S. airline passengers considered themselves loyal to any one airline last year. In 2000, that number exceeded 40%, he says.

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This is an excerpt from WSJ