Vietnam Airlines has taken delivery of its first Airbus A321neo in Hamburg, Germany, and will use it to launch wireless in-flight entertainment in its home market

The aircraft is the first of 20 A321neos and is part of a program the airline describes as a significant step in its narrow-body fleet renewal program.

Vietnam says it is the first Vietnamese airline o introduce wireless IFE and it intends to stream a variety of movies and music to passengers’ personal electronic devices.

It will launch the system on December 1 and says it will provide a choice previously available only on the airline’s widebody Boeing 787-9  and Airbus A350-900 aircraft.

Read: Vietnam Airlines achieves highest safety rating.

Vietnam’s president and chief executive, Duong Tri Thanh, believes the plane will bring a new level of efficiency and comfort to the airline’s single-aisle operations.

This was especially true of the wireless in-flight entertainment system, he said.

“Delivery of this aircraft is a momentous occasion that marks Vietnam Airlines’ ongoing efforts to upgrade our narrow-body fleet as well as our four-star service quality,’’ he said. “We are confident that the Airbus A321neo fleet will further offer passengers high levels of comforts on growing domestic routes of Vietnam and Asia.”

The Vietnamese carrier already operates almost 60 classic A321’s Airbus chief commercial officer Christian Scherer said the new aircraft would fit painlessly into the existing fleet while adding a competitive edge with a 15 percent reduction in fuel burn.

As well as the 58 A321ceos, other Airbus aircraft in the fleet include three A330s and 12 widebody A350-900s.

The airline is the national flag carrier and operates 94 routes to 21 to 21 domestic and 29 international destinations with an average of 400 flights per day.

It is a member of the SkyTeam alliance and connects the world’s major cities to travel destinations in Vietnam,  Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Vietnam is one the fastest growing domestic markets with a double-digit annual growth rate over the past two decades.

Beginning in the northern spring of 2019,  United Airlines intends to fly its growing Boeing 787-10 fleet between its hub at New York/Newark (EWR) and Europe.

March 30 sees the integration of 787-10s on the EWR-Frankfurt (FRA) route. The same day also sees the launch of Boeing’s biggest version of the 787 family debut between EWR and Tel Aviv (TLV).

On April 29,  it’s Paris (CDG) and Barcelona (BCN). Brussels (BRU)) and Dublin (DUB) are next, on May 22.

United believes its big Boeings are a perfect match for the trans-Atlantic.

Boeing says the -10 can fly up to 6,430 nautical miles (11,910 kilometers), all the while sipping 20 percent less jet fuel than older generation aircraft.

In step with a philosophy that goes all the way back to the then ground-breaking 707 line of the late 1950s, each variant is fine-tuned to match the mission at hand.

The 787-8 introduced us to the “seven-eight” family. It can transport 242 passengers in a two-class configuration. Its range exceeds that of the 787-10. The -8 can fly up to 7,355 nautical miles (13,620 kilometers) nonstop. The -10’s range is 6,430 nautical miles.  But it can transport 330 flyers, also in a two-class layout.

READ: World’s best airlines for 2019.

There’s a third flavor too: the 787-9. It bests both of its sister aircraft in range with a 7,635 nautical mile (14,140km) reach. The -9, in a two-class layout, can accommodate 290 flyers.

The catch, of course, is that there are few airlines that employ just two-class, long-range cabin configurations any longer. Premium economy, extra legroom and such now factor into the equation.

As this story posts, United operates 25 787-9 and 787-8 aircraft. The airline expects to take delivery of 14 Boeing 787-10s over the next couple of years.

Domestically, United intends to fly the aircraft between New York/Newark and both San Francisco and Los Angeles this coming January.

The airline also announced this week that it intends to add nearly 150 flights and more than 41,000 seats to spring break destinations across the US, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

These include flights to 12 islands in the Caribbean, seven cities in Mexico and seven destinations in Central America, including 16 flights to Costa Rica, three flights to Guatemala and three flights to Belize.

United’s spring schedule will see it serve five new cities from Denver, including Destin, Palm Beach, Pensacola and Sarasota in Florida and Brownsville/South Padre Island in Texas.

“We want our customers to know that, no matter where they want to go for spring break, United Airlines can get them there,” Ankit Gupta, United’s vice president of domestic network planning, said in a statement.

“This is the time of year when our customers start thinking about and planning the perfect getaway, and with our expanded spring schedule, we are offering more flights and more destinations than ever before.”

As 2018 draws to a close, business class is approaching forty years old, we’re approaching the third decade since business class seats started evolving into beds, and a further revolution in passenger experience is well underway.

First class continues its slide into the long, dark teatime of the soul, which is posing problems for many airlines. Those that are serious about continuing to offer a first class product need to ensure there is enough clear blue water — what Airbus’ vice president of cabin marketing Ingo calls the “comfort canyon” — between first and business.

World’s Best Airlines for 2019

Rarely is this comfort canyon spanned by upgrading first-class soft product and service, but rather by airlines clinging on to an uncompetitive business class seat too long. Just look at Lufthansa and British Airways for examples of major airlines whose hub-based dominance and maintenance of first-class means they are still installing seats that are at least a decade out of date on their newly delivered aircraft.

Consistency yes, but impressive product no: Lufthansa may cry havoc and wish to let slip the dogs of protectionism against its Middle Eastern competitors, but the Rockwell Collins Diamond-based Lufthansa “footsie class” seat unveiled in 2012 based on a product from the previous decade is the only option on an increasing number of the German carrier’s routes. The staggered business class announced nearly a year ago — a reasonable updating to compare with products of five or six years ago — still has two more years since it even starts appearing. BA, meanwhile, has made so many U-turns that even Brexit seems better organized.

The key trend for longer-haul is the rise of the business class suite, starting with Qatar Airways’ Rockwell Collins-produced bespoke Qsuite, continuing with the Delta ONE Suite, a Thompson Aero Vantage XL+ product, and certain to appear elsewhere.

Those airlines suggesting that passengers prefer an airy non-suite cabin to privacy are either kidding themselves or trying to pull the wool over their audiences’ quite literal eyes. Passengers who don’t want to shut themselves off can leave their doors open, but a quick look at any candid midflight snap of a suite cabin on social media or one of the many review sites suggest that most doors are closed, and those that aren’t, have nobody opposite.

Yet the future for suites is unlikely to be either a Qatar-Rockwell or Delta-Thompson style door, for several reasons. One, they’re heavy. Two, they’re complex and demand inelegant emergency egress requirements. Three, they add width, and that’s an increasing issue for the smaller widebodies like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A330, whose cabin widths are already struggling to fit some of the latest products without frustrating compromises.

At last year’s Aircraft Interiors Expo — the big Hamburg show for seats, cabins, entertainment, and everything else inside the plane — most seat makers were offering a bolt-on door option. Some, like Japanese seat maker Jamco, quite literally: a magnetized demo door clipped right on to the side of their concept seat.

I’m expecting to see a marked uptick in the number of new privacy options on offer, either openly on the stands of AIX this April, or in the secret rooms behind the scenes. That might be pull-down fabric screens, next-gen slide-across privacy dividers, cleverly angled seating configurations, or something that nobody has unveiled yet.

The future for business class is strong: the rise of longer-haul narrowbodies means innovation is sorely needed for the relatively stagnant cabins of A320(neo) and 737 (MAX) fuselages, the narrower widebodies need better options, regional business class is a little lost between the rock of premium economy and the hard place of direct aisle access, new seat maker players are working hard to enter the market, passengers are better informed than ever about what they can expect, and those expectations are higher than ever.

Part 2 on Wednesday, November 21.

The list of 2018 fatal jet airliner accidents continues to grow after an  86-year-old Canadian passenger died after a Fly Jamaica Airways Boeing 757 veered off the runway in Georgetown, Guyana.

Authorities initially reported six passengers were taken to hospital with minor injuries after the plane left the runway and was severely damaged November 9.

That changed when it was revealed on November 18 that an 86-year-old Canadian woman died.

The Aviation Herald reported the crew declared an emergency and returned to Georgetown after experiencing a hydraulic failure and attempted to land on Georgetown’s runway 06.

It was initially reported the plane, with 120 passengers and eight crew, veered right off the runway.

The Aviation Herald subsequently quoted a ground observer who reported the aircraft overran the end of the runway and hit a concrete barrier that caused the right main gear to collapse and the aircraft veer off the runway.

“The aircraft subsequently slid sidewards for about 275 meters coming to a stop abeam the upcoming new threshold as part of the ongoing runway extension,” it said.

The Herald also noted it had been able to verify that the runway had already been lengthened by approximately 390 to 400 meters, the runway markings were already completed, the extension is still marked closed with crosses.

“However, none of the official documents in the AIP or NOTAMs released by Guyana’s Civil Aviation Authority makes any reference to the runway extension although crucial to make pilots aware of the possible confusion over thresholds.”

Commercial aviation recorded its safest year on record in 2017 with no jet airliner crashes and just 10 fatal commercial aircraft accidents.

The International Air Transport Association calculated a passenger on a commercial airliner in 2017 would have needed to fly every day for 6,033 years before experiencing an accident in which at least one person was killed.

READ: How often do you need to fly to be in a fatal accident.

Fatal jet crashes this year included a Saratov Airlines Antonov An-148 in Russia in February that killed 71 people, a Cubana de Aviacion Boeing 737 crash in May with 112 fatalities and October’s Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash involving 189 deaths.

The high-tech ocean search firm that conducted the second sweep for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has located a missing Argentinian submarine.

Ocean Infinity confirmed Saturday that it had found the ARA San Juan, the Argentine Navy submarine November 15,  2017.

The discovery of the wreckage came two months of searching the seabed It was found in an Atlantic Ocean ravine in 920 metres of water about 600km east of the Southern Argentina port of  Comodoro Rivadavia.

The submarine with 44 crew on board was returning from a routine mission to Ushuaia at the southern end of South American when it reported a problem with its batteries.

It was ordered to cut its mission short and return to the naval base in Mar del Plata but disappeared after a last message in which the captain reported the crew was well.

Argentinian authorities searched for two weeks without finding the sub and speculation was that a “hyrdo-acoustic anomaly” detected by the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear Test-ban Treaty Organisation was the sound of the San Juan imploding.

Ocean Infinity took on the search on a “no find. no fee” basis similar to the one offered to the Malaysian government during the unsuccessful second search for MH370.

It committed to conducting the Argentinian search operation for up to 60 days using five autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) operated by about 60 crew on the Seabed Constructor, the same vessel that searched for the missing Boeing 777.

The mission was observed by three officers of the Argentinian Navy and four family members of the San Juan’s crew.

“Our thoughts are with the many families affected by this terrible tragedy,” ocean Infinity chief executive Oliver Plunkett said. “We sincerely hope that locating the resting place of the ARA San Juan will be of some comfort to them at what must be a profoundly difficult time.

“Furthermore, we hope our work will lead to their questions being answered and lessons learned which help to prevent anything similar from happening again.”

The find demonstrates the effectiveness of Ocean Infinity’s technologically advanced search capability.

This allows it to use a fleet of autonomous AUVs to sweep big swathes of seabed at depths of up to 6000m.

The AUVs are equipped with a variety of tools including side scan sonar, a multi-beam echo-sounder HD camera, and synthetic aperture sonar.

The Seabed constructor is also able to deploy two work class ROVs and heavy lifting equipment capable of retrieving objects weighing up to 45 tonnes from 6000m.

The location of the MH370 wreckage remains a mystery after Ocean Infinity’s sweep of the area thought most likely to contain it ended without success earlier this year.

The company used a fleet of eight underwater drones to sweep an area of more than 112,000 sq. km without finding the wreckage.

The failure was a disappointment to experts from agencies around the globe who had pushed scientific boundaries in an attempt to find it.

READ CSIRO scientist says MH370 unlikely to be north or south of existing search area.

However, there are competing theories about whether the aircraft was controlled or uncontrolled at the end of its flight.

Many experts, including Australian air crash investigators, believe it was uncontrolled but some pilots say a controlled crash would put the crash site beyond the area already searched.

SkyTeam says it is working closely with China Southern to minimize the disruption to customers from the Chinese carrier’s decision to leave the alliance from January 1.

China Southern on Thursday announced its intention to leave SkyTeam and strengthen its alliance with American Airlines.

American last year sealed a $US200 million deal with China Southern that included a 2.76 percent stake in the Chinese carrier. The two also launched a reciprocal codeshare agreement earlier this year.

Read: World’s Best airlines for 2019.

However, the SkyTeam membership had been a drag on the partnership and American has described the China Southern decision to leave as “a great opportunity for us to continue to expand our relationship with the largest airline in China”.

“With the opening of Beijing Daxing International Airport in 2019 and the ability to cooperate fully with China Southern, we are excited about our future in the Chinese market.”

China Southern did not provide details of plans for the American alliance.

Read: China Southern wants to deepen American relationship

“The company will explore the possibility of establishing new partnerships with advanced airlines around the world, promote bilateral and multilateral cooperation and provide quality services to passengers around the world,” it said.

SkyTeam said China Southern’s decision reflected “strategic development, the changing trends of the global aviation industry and the evolution of alliances”.

It said the two had agreed to work closely to ensure a seamless transition for all customers and partners.

“That process will run throughout 2019 and will complete by the

SkyTeam CEO Kristin Colville said China Southern had been a valued member of the SkyTeam but it respected its decision and wished it well.

A short  Q&A on SkyTeam’s site dealt with  SkyTeam benefits, earning or using frequent flyer miles, airport lounges, SkyPriority of Go Around the World passes.

It assured customers would still be able to travel on award tickets they had booked after January 1 and said there would be virtually no change to destinations serviced by the alliance, including in Greater China.

China Air, China Eastern and Xiamen Air are also members of the alliance.

“Customers are our priority,’’ it said “Things will change, but it will not happen overnight.

“SkyTeam and China Southern have agreed to work together throughout 2019 to ensure a seamless transition for all of our customers.

“We will keep you updated in the coming weeks and months.”

One airline that will be watching this closely will be Cathay Pacific. China Southern has also partnered with British Airways and there is already speculation about oneworld membership.