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Simple Flying Aviation News Podcast
#282: Iran Aviation Crisis, United Airlines Boeing 787 Emergency At LAX
00:35:07
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- [00:05]
A
Hello, my name's Tom Boone.
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B
And I'm Channing Reed.
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A
Welcome to a brand new episode of the Simple Flying Podcast where we'll give you the lowdown on the latest news from the world of commercial aviation. Here's what we have for you this week.
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B
Coming up today, Tom will explore the latest aviation impact from the US Iran crisis. Before I talk about how operations at one of the busiest airports in the US Came to a standstill due an aircraft emergency.
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A
I'll then cover what went down at Airbus annual results a couple of weeks ago, while Channing looks at some issues American Airlines is having with serving meals on board some transatlantic flights.
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B
And finally, Tom will talk about his recent trip to Finland.
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A
So now you know what's in store. Let's get on with the show. And I know Finland sounds fascinating, but let's first talk about what's been happening in the Middle east, because from an aviation perspective, this is one of the most significant disruptions the industry has seen in years. Now, it all kicked off on the morning of Saturday, February 28, when Israel announced it had conducted what it called preemptive strikes on Iran. Both countries immediately shut their airspaces and then the US Confirmed its involvement. And within hours, the domino effect across the region was extraordinary. Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar and the UAE all followed suit, slamming their airspaces shut to all traffic. That's eight countries simultaneously gone from the map. Now, if you pulled up flight radar 24 on that morning, and apparently so many people did that the site actually crashed, you would have seen the skies above one of the world's most critical aviation corridors just go dark, empty. The contrast with a normal day is genuinely striking. Now the immediate carnage at the airports was severe. Dubai International, one of the busiest airports on the planet, saw over 1,100 flights cancelled. That's close to 90% of all traffic in and out. Emirates had 491 flights cancelled in a single day. Flydubai had 329. Etihad 220. Doha's Hamad International Airport was in a similar state, with Qatar officially shuttering its airspace and effectively trapping the Qatar Airways fleet on the ground. Across the region, Cirium data showed more than 1,500 inbound flights cancelled on the Sunday alone. Thousands of passengers were sleeping on airport floors. Dozens of flights that were already airborne had to turn around. There was an American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Doha that turned back after more than six hours in the air. An Air Canada service from Toronto to Dubai that ended up spending over 10 hours going essentially nowhere but here's the thing, and this is where it gets really interesting from a broader aviation perspective. The disruption isn't just about flights to and from the Middle East. It's about the Middle east as a free route. Before all of this, the region served as the most direct air bridge between Europe and Asia. Lose that corridor, and suddenly airlines flying between, say, London and Singapore or Paris and Mumbai have to find another way around. And there's no clear answer. You're either swinging north, but that route has been severely compromised since 2022 by the closure of Russian airspace, or you're pushing south, adding significant time and fuel. We're talking about some flights stretching from five hours to seven and a half. In fact, aviation analyst Brendan Sobey put it bluntly when he told CNN that in extreme cases, airlines might even need to add a fuel stop because the detour pushes the journey beyond the aircraft's range. Air India, for example, has said its longest North American routes to Newark and New York will now include a fuel stop in Rome. And then there's the crew duty time problem. Longer routings eat into hours, meaning airlines need extra crew, which piles on costs. On the financial side, markets opened on Monday, and the reaction was brutal. Reuters estimated that more than $22 billion was wiped from major airline stocks in a single day. United airlines dropped nearly 4%. British Airways parent IAG fell 5%. Air France KLM slid 9%. And on top of fuel costs surging oil prices up 13% in a week as conflict in the region throttled shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Now, as of Tuesday, March 3rd, as we're recording this, there are tentative signs of recovery. Etihad actually managed to resume some operations a day ahead of schedule with an A380 bound for London among the first commercial departures out of Abu Dhabi. This one routed south through Oman to avoid the worst of the conflict zone. Emirates has also begun limited operations out of Dubai, but the situation remains highly dynamic. Routes are longer and more expensive. And the question hanging over all of this is, how long does it last? Now, President Trump has suggested the strikes could continue for up to five weeks. And if that holds, we're looking at sustained structural disruption to global aviation, not just a weekend of chaos.
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B
Yeah, it definitely is just a crazy situation out there. And I can only can't help but think about the safety of everyone traveling in that area over the weekend. I was definitely looking at the situation, and I remember seeing accounts from people that were trapped in the Dubai airport and trying to get back to the United States it's just a very scary situation, I think, just to put it at that. And we can only hope that things get better. And safety is the first priority. It's the number one priority. So it's good to see that these airlines are cooperating accordingly. But with that, we have disruptions to the operation. So again, hopefully we will see this all resolve very soon, but we'll definitely have to stay tuned and watch and to see how the news will play out over the next couple of weeks. One of the stories that I wanted to talk about was back here in the States, a United Airlines flight causing a little bit of commotion here in Los Angeles yesterday. On Monday, March 2, Boeing 787, it was forced to evacuate at Los Angeles International airport just before 11:20am over reports of an engine fire. That's according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Now, this incident ended up shutting down Los Angeles International Airport briefly. Now, there were cameras. LAX has a lot of plane spotters that are around. And so as you can imagine, a lot of plane spotters and cameras were taking a look at this aircraft as it flew in and there was smoke seen on the airfield. The engine was smoking around 40 minutes after the plane had originally taken off. It departed for new work and video again showing that that engine catching fire and subsequently the evacuation slides were deployed once the aircraft had landed safely back on the ground at lax. And passengers can be seen running away from the aircraft while emergency vehicles surrounded the plane. One of those passengers, Nanette Dibb, who spoke with Eyewitness News ABC 7 in Los Angeles, they were on a different United flight that landed near the aircraft with the engine problem. They said passengers on the plane were given limited information as events unfolded. Now there was an announcement instructing passengers on the plane to close their window shades as the situation developed nearby. And as you can imagine, sitting on the plane seeing another plane, the engine smoking, passengers evacuating, it could definitely make your nerves skyrocket. For passengers who maybe are not normal flyers or even normal flyers, seeing a situation like that is definitely surprising. Now, as I said, a ground stop was issued at Los Angeles International Airport due to the emergency, but it was lifted shortly thereafter. A total of 2, 256 passengers were evacuated along with 12 crew members. One person did suffer a cut to their finger. I was looking at how these passengers were evacuating and it's very similar. I'm not sure. Tom, if you remember, we covered a American Airlines Boeing 737800 situation in Denver last year and it sparked this Whole debate of how in an emergency the flight attendants really tell passengers, make sure that you leave all belongings behind and you just exit the aircraft, you know, find your nearest exit and deplane. And so there's been a similar debate about this from this incident because some passengers were seen exiting the aircraft with their belongings, you know, but of course, everyone evacuated and they were bused to the terminal. United Airlines did release a statement saying that they were working to get passengers to their final destinations. The FAA releasing a statement that said, quote, United Airlines Flight 2127 returned safely to Los Angeles International Airport around 11:20am local time on Monday, March 2 due to a left engine issue. Passengers to plane and on a taxiway, the Boeing 7879 Dreamliner was heading to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. The FAA will investigate. Please contact the airline and airport for any additional information. So again, good thing that we're not looking at any major injuries or fatalities for that matter, but safety again first priority. And in this case, the pilots definitely needed to divert and return back to lax. Now the plane, as I mentioned, it was only in the air for about. Well, the flight itself lasted around an hour from pushback until it arrived back at LAX. It reached an altitude of around 18,000ft and then ended up descending, turning back around and then heading back to Los Angeles International Airport, again landing at around 11.20am so as you can imagine, I'm sure that it was a scary situation for those passengers. Things like this, they don't happen that often, but when they do, it definitely can be startling for both passengers on board, those who are on the ground, and everyone else who's involved in the situation. So good to see that United, those pilots decided to make that decision to return back to LAX and to put safety as the number one priority there.
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A
Yeah, I saw a couple of videos about this on Instagram this morning as I was doing my daily search for what's happening. And I mean, firstly, seeing the slides pop out on such high definition cameras was quite impressive, I must say. So thank you to the planespotters for being there. But also psa, please do not take your bags with you when you're leaving an aircraft in an emergency because at the very worst you're just looking like an idiot on social media. Sorry. At the very best, at the very worst, you could be the difference between somebody getting off in time and somebody losing their life. We saw this tragically with, I think it was the SSJ that crashed in Russia maybe five or six years ago. You could only leave the plane by the front doors and because everyone was stopping to collect their bags, people just didn't make it off in time.
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B
Right? And to your point, a life isn't replaceable, but all of your belongings are. Your laptop, your backpack, everything else, those valuable items, they can pretty much all be replaced. But yeah, saving your own life and someone else is definitely the most important.
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A
A little hack that I have is that I always put my passport and boarding pass in the seat pocket in front of me just so you can grab that quickly. And it's not going to stop people getting off, but you've still got that very basic thing. But let's shift gears now and talk Airbus, because the European manufacturer had some interesting things to say when it released its full year 2025 results last month, and not all of it was good news. So the headline numbers are strong. To be fair, revenue came in at 73.4 billion euros, up 6% year on year, and adjusted EBIT hit 7.13 billion. That's a 33% jump on the previous year on this, CEO Guillaume Fori said. It's a landmark year, and with seven hundred and ninety three aircraft deliveries and a gross order total of exactly 1,000 commercial jets, it's hard to argue with that framing. The Airbus backlog Now stands at 8,754 aircraft, which is a staggering amount of work locked in. But here's where it gets really interesting. Of the 132 words Airbus devoted to its delivery rates in its annual press release, 57 of them were specifically about the A320 family, compared to just 22 covering the entire widebody range. Now, that lopsided focus tells you something about where the real pressure is. Airbus has been working towards building 75 A320 family jets per month. That's the target that underpins a lot of airline fleet planning around the world, because the A320 family is essentially the backbone of the global narrow body market, and Airbus is now saying it won't get there until 2027. But can you guess who the culprit, according to Fori, is?
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Channing I can't.
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It's Pratt and Whitney. So in language that's notably sharp for a corporate results release, Airbus directly accused Pratt and Whitney of what it called a failure to commit to the number of engines ordered. Now that's not vague diplomatic hedging. That's a public call out. And it matters because Pratt and Whitney's leap competing GTF engine is the power plant on a significant chunk of A320neo family variants. Without engines, finished airframes can't be delivered, and Airbus now says the rate of 70 to 75 aircraft per month just won't be reachable until the end of 2027. And after that. Only after that will there be a stable rate of 75. Now, for airlines waiting on new narrowbodies, which is basically every major carrier on the planet right now, there's another delay on top of the delays we've already absorbed. It also puts the spotlight back on Pratt and Whitney, who have been dealing with the ongoing GTF issues for a couple of years now, including widespread inspections that pulled hundreds of aircraft out of service. So the relationship between these two manufacturers is clearly quite strained at the moment. I believe that Guillaume was explicitly calling out that Pratt and Whitney is preferring to help customers that already have dodgy engines rather than providing new engines to Airbus. Airbus also noted some headwinds on the A220 side, where Spirit Aerosystems integration work is still pacing the ramp up, but the tone there was a much more measured the Pratt and Whitney comments are the ones that carry the real weight. But it wasn't just Pratt and Whitney A320s. And now, on a slightly different but connected note, it's finally time for
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Tom's A380 podcast.
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There's also been some fascinating detail coming out of Airbus about what happens to the A380 next, not commercially, but technically. I directly asked Fori about the iconic Double Decker's future as a flying testbed, and the answer is worth unpacking. The plan, as previously announced, is for an A380 to fly with CFM's open rotor engine, sometimes called an open fan, as part of a joint project with cfm. This is one of the most promising propulsion technologies being developed for the next generation of commercial aircraft, and the A380 is being used because of its sheer scale. As Forey put it, it's a convenient test bed because the aircraft is so large that even big experimental engines remain proportionally manageable, giving engineers the safety margins they need for meaningful flight testing. Ground tests are underway, including wind tunnel work before the engine takes to the air. What's less clear, though, is what happens after that. Fourier was candid that no decision has been made on the A380's longer term role as a testbed platform. Airbus has already scaled back earlier ambitions to use an A380 for hydrogen propulsion testing, so the future beyond the open rotor program is genuinely open. Convenient, yes. Expensive to run, absolutely. Whether that tradeoff justifies Further testbed investment or be one to watch as the next generation of propulsion technology moves closer to reality?
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B
Yeah, you know, well, first of all, going back to Pratt and Whitney, it's very unfortunate to see that, you know, all of these airlines are being affected by this one manufacturer and engine issues. And I know that we had covered situations with the A220 fleet, you know, worldwide fleet, a certain percentage of it, of that aircraft being grounded. You know, it's definitely a situation that is affecting airlines. And we kind of, I think we talked about this on the last podcast. You know, airlines taking up or grounding and scrapping, you know, some new planes to, you know, take those valuable parts. So it looks like airlines are doing whatever they can to upkeep their operation, their fleets running. And maybe that means you have to get rid of a couple of planes, you know, sacrifice a couple of planes.
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A
But it's interesting that you mentioned newer planes being scrapped because that's the thing that we saw with the A380 as well. Because I've got a piece of a nine year old A380 sat on my desk here and maybe even a younger one, a 10 year old one plane tag or. Yeah, a little bit of Lufthansa, Airbus A380.
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B
There you go. I love that. Yeah. Piece of history with you, or I don't know if it would be considered history right now, but in a few years, I mean.
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A
Well, what aviation tag is trying to go for is history. So, I mean, it is history is not all about age, I think, but we're going into a whole different discussion now.
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Yeah, no, but, yeah, hopefully these airlines will find the lifeline that they need per se with these engine problems. But good to see that the A380. Of course it will. Long live the A380. Tom, for you.
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Thank you.
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Yes, let's switch gears and talk about a situation that's happening on some transatlantic flights on American Airlines. I'm not sure if you've heard about this, Tom, but American Airlines has run into some catering issues once again. And I say once again because we covered a domestic catering issue just a few years ago and it seems a little bit similar to what they're experiencing on flights out of London. They're currently experiencing a significant catering disruption with passengers reporting bare bones meal service and unusual onboard conditions. That comes from live and let's fly. But all of this information was first reported by John NYC aviation watchdog and basically posted on X at the end of last week that American Airlines was dealing with this Issue. They posted first, unsure why, but until further notice, all American Airlines London Heathrow departures will be double catered from the us Bare minimum catering, including in premium cabins only protein or vegetarian option, no ice cream. Understanding is all food, all food will be flown from the U.S. john NYC went on to say that, kind of like I guess quoting someone from the airline. So it seems very confirmed, but essentially said London Heathrow has zero catering for American Airlines. Unsure if other airlines are affected. Modified service and all food being flown in from the States. Simultaneous prep for work action by creating staff and future possible vending change. Now, it's been speculated that this could be possibly from a catering strike or some type of industrial action, but none of it has been confirmed. What we can confirm though is an internal memo that was obtained by John NYC from American. This memo alerting its flight attendants of the issue. It says, as we do across the airline, we regularly evaluate our suppliers to ensure they are providing the best experience and highest levels of service for our customers and team members. As a part of this process, effective as early as Saturday, February 28, we are temporarily adjusting our catering operations at London Heathrow. We're working with our local teams and suppliers to ensure our customers in flight dining experience remains as consistent as possible. So essentially the internal memo goes on to say that they have double provision flights to use on their outbound London Heathrow departures starting as early as 28th February, which is Saturday, all flights departing the US to London Heathrow will be double provisioned through Monday, March 2nd. Now, catered items may not match what's on the printed menus. It also goes to alert flight attendants that they might have customers who have pre ordered meals on their flight out of London Heathrow that are not available due to the double provisioning from the us Both US to London Heathrow and London Heathrow to US meals will be impacted. Customers will have two meal choices in all cabins, protein or vegetarian. And to ensure food safety while double provisioning the flights, the memo says that flight attendants may notice substitutions for items such as seafood, ice cream and other perishable options on flights in both directions. And then they are proactively reaching out to customers to inform them of the temporary adjustment. And flight attendants scheduled to work those London Heathrow flights will be met at the gate with details about the temporary menu on board over the coming days. And then at the very end of the memo it says thank you for everything that you do. Well, we did hear from one of the flight attendants who is not too happy about this situation. Their name is Heather Poole and they posted on X saying flew from London yesterday. While we were lucky to get food and drinks for an eight hour flight, we took a three hour delay to wait on the quote transport of catering. And no, the crew didn't get paid during the delay even though we were at the airport because catering issues doesn't fall under whatever code it takes to get paid. Heather went on to say my crew learned of the issue on the crew bus on the way to the airport. After we landed, employees received an official email from the company regarding double catered flights to and from London without explaining why we have this issue. It's hard for the crew to do a job without the tools we need to make passengers happy. And clearly going on to express her frustration there, someone else had commented on their X post and said something along the lines of wishing that they lived in Atlanta so they could fly Delta exclusively. But she also said doesn't Delta have their own issues? Delta has had catering issues which is something that we've covered here on simplifying before out of Detroit actually it was very high profile story. International flight from Detroit ended up having black mold on one of the passengers meals. Disgusting story there. But yeah, catering issues not limited to just American but I will say going back to American this was actually wow, this was 2024. It just seems like it was yesterday. But. But the airline experienced a domestic catering issue and it affected flights originating from its hub at Philadelphia International Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Essentially the flights were departing without beverages to serve on board and they could only offer bare basics catering which included water but no ice. So again a lot of different issues that we've covered with catering problems. One of the things that you have to keep in mind is again American doesn't necessarily have a kitchen in London Heathrow so they use third parties to be able to provide those catering services. When you deal with disagreements or a new contract or something like that that's going on, there might be some holes in the operation and and this is kind of what we're looking at right now. Personally for me I would be a little bit upset to pre order something and then have them not have that available on board. I just flew on Air Canada last week, first time on Air Canada and I'm very used to what happens here in the States, which is a lot of the airlines they offer those pre order opportunity before your flight so you know exactly what you're going to get even if it's not like you have special dietary needs for that matter. But on Air Canada, flying in first or business class, there was no pre order option. I had to search for what was going to be offered on board and then I was sitting in the second to last row of first class. So what I had decided on internally in my mind, what I wanted to order, by the time the flight attendant had got to me, it was already taken. So I had no choice but to order the second option. The pre order option is a great benefit. And on a long haul transatlantic flight, not being able to get what you ordered, I would be a little bit upset, especially considering how pricey some of those flights are.
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A
Yeah, I can definitely see that. And you've given me a nice little segue with that story because I want to talk about Finland and Finnair and part of the reason that I was. Well, the reason we couldn't do a podcast last week was because I was tied up with Finnair and part of what I did with them was visit the catering department in the kitchen in Helsinki, which was quite a fascinating thing. I don't think I've seen ever so much blueberry juice in my life. Interestingly, Finnair sells or doesn't sell. They serve, is complementary. They serve 1 million, I think it is, liters of blueberry juice on board their flights.
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B
That's a lot of blueberries.
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Yeah, it's a lot. I don't know exactly how many, but I think I did ask and was told that's not something that they can calculate, but hey. So I didn't just go to Finland to learn about blueberries and blueberry juice. So I thought I'd talk a little bit in the little time that we have left on the call about why I did go to Finland. So I flew out Monday to Wednesday last week and it was a two day trip. So the first day was really fascinating. We drove. Finnair drove us out into, as they described it, the middle of nowhere. A nature. A nature reserve. You know, it was fascinating. You know, like it's all snowy there still, but nice crisp snow, not this horrible wet snow that we've had in Germany quite a lot this year. With the lake as a viewing background, the CEO of Finnair gave us a little one hour talk on what's going well in Finnair, where the problems are right now. One of the problems is obviously still the lack of access to Russian airspace, because historically Finnair was always the shortest route from Europe to Asia. Kind of like how Montreal is the shortest route from North America to Europe, but without access to Russian airspace, Finairs had to be quite creative in getting around this, which has meant longer flight times, putting four pilots instead of three pilots on an A350 going to Japan, for example. So it's fascinating. I wonder if they're being hit by the latest issues with the airspace or if they can get around that. After that, though, there was a little panel discussion with three vice presidents from the airline and that prompted one of our weekend stories that you might have seen, which is, why Does Finnair fly 350s to London Heathrow? Because it's a two and a half hour flight. It's not really a 350 route, is it? Well, essentially it's fascinating because Finnair can make money sending the 350 to Heathrow partly through increased cargo capacity, but also through the increased passenger capacity. And then that frees up number one. It means that maybe the A350 doesn't have enough time to do another widebody rotation, long haul rotation, but it can hop to London and back. But also it frees up then an A320 that would be going to London to fly to a. A route that would not be able to financially support an A350. After we had lunch there and then after the lunch, I found it really fascinating because they kind of had a little expo of all the different departments at Finnair and what they're doing at the moment. So firstly, they had the branding department launch the new music for Finnair. Incredibly relaxing music. I was listening to it on the tube in London last week and I would definitely recommend. It's out on Spotify now. Just search Finair, have a listen. It's their new corporate identity music. It's been found on board flights from last Friday as well. And we got to try on VR headsets to walk through the A350 cabin, which was fascinating. I found it really interesting there because the guy running it could obviously see on the laptop what you're looking at. And he remarked that I was the only person who went right up to the window to look outside at what we were flying past. And, you know, there was a lot of blueberry juice, Obviously, I have never had so many blueberries in my life in such a short period of time. But it was good. And that was the first day. Then the second day was sort of all about the airport, as I said. We visited the catering facility. We got to see not just how meals were being made, but what I found really fascinating was that that by a total coincidence, we got to see my meal being prepared to go on board the Aircraft. So I was like, oh, I hope they've done that one. Well, we got to see how they're improving their processes to speed up catering and sort of avoid any delays. And, you know, it's fascinating seeing how such an airline manages all of this, not just for themselves, but also for Japan Airlines and Junyao, the Chinese airline. And we also got to go into the maintenance facility, which is always a highlight, I'm sure you can say that too. And we got to walk around an A350 to see the engines even. Have you ever seen an A350 engine open? Because that is really fascinating. On the outside you just see this smooth metal, but when they open it up, there's all sorts in there. Obviously the tyres as well. That was really fascinating. And then finally, we had a lunch with some people in the Finnair lounge at Helsinki Airport and we had a little tour of Helsinki Airport itself. And I've got a fun fact for you here. The original terminal at the Helsinki airport was built for when Helsinki was hosting the Olympics, I think, in 1952, I want to say. So they built a temporary terminal. And as a fun fact for you now, the original floor of that temporary terminal is still in today's terminal. And over the past few years, they've done a lot of modernization to create one single terminal with one security check for everything, one check in area for everything. And when I first saw it, I thought, thought, wow, this is actually quite tiny for such a major international airport. But then it works. I don't know, they've figured it out. They've got the secret juice. And, you know, it's a really nice airport. So I would recommend, if you ever get the chance, have a little look around.
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B
Yeah, I would definitely love to visit. Maybe that secret juice is blueberry juice.
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A
I don't know, maybe. No, it was. I can't remember the word right now, which is horrible, but there's a word for the sort of Finnish perseverance, which is the secret. It's four letters beginning with S. So answers on a postcard for next week's podcast, please.
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B
There you go. Love it. Well, that is going to do it for today's podcast. We hope you enjoyed it and we welcome any feedback that you might have@editorialimplifying.com
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A
for more great content, you can visit our website@simpleflying.com or find us on social media. Simply search for simple flying.
- [34:56]
B
And if you enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a rating on your favorite podcast player. Thanks for listening.
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A
Bye.