Aeromexico’s flight AM006 from CDG to MEX was diverted to Montreal, Canada

Aeromexico Flight AM006 revision in Montreal. Photo by: Javier Castellón

Today, May 30th, 2010 Aeromexico’s flight 6 from Charles de Gaulle, Paris Airport bound to Mexico City was diverted to Montreal, Canada after a security incident occurred.

Aeromexico’s  767-300 was summoned to Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

According to AM006′s  passengers among which Mexican senator Francisco Javier Castellón was part of, the flight was diverted under suspicion of a technical glitch on the aircraft. Briefly after that announcement, and once the airplane had landed on Montreal, according to Sen. Castellón, the captain had informed the passengers that the plane had not been authorized to fly over Canadian or American airspace as a result of lack of planning on Aeromexico’s headquarters. The plane would refuel and take an alternate route to Mexico over international waters.

During the more than 5 hours that the passengers were not allowed to leave the aircraft, pilot and crew made several manouvres. The Captain requested that the evacuation slides be armed, which meant an eventual take off. Then the plane taxied towards the runway.

Sonn thereafter, the captain requested disarming of the slides. That meant no take off. Once the slides were disarmed, the Canadian police entered the plane and arrested the passenger on 23H. Apparently, such passenger was on United States’ no-fly list.

AM006 departed CDG at 3:31 AM Central Time bount to Mexico City non-stop. By 9:00 PM the craft was airborne once again towards Mexico City International Airport (MEX). 150 passengers left CDG and only 149 will arrive at MEX.

There is still no official comment by any authorities, US, Canadian, French, or Mexican. There is also still no comments or official statements by the Airline, however a flight attendant under off the record chat with  a passenger said that they followed routine procedures and that the manouveres were part of a stage set up in order to avoid panic or a tense situation inside the plane.

Interviewed passengers indicated that they were treated respectfully and professionally by Aeromexico’s crew and Canadian authorities.

With information from Carlos A. Bazan-Canabal

Related information:

• Bazan Blog
• Sólo Opiniones
• The Australian
• WireUpdate
• CBS News
• Topsy

Iraqui Airways to be dissolved

Iraqui Airways

According to the Associate Press, Iraq’s government has dissolved the state-owned Iraqui Airways Company. ( الخطوط الجوية العراقية‎; also known as Air Iraq).

IAW was founded 29-01-1949. It was based in Baghdad International Airport (SDA – ICAO: ORBI) and operated a total of 13 aircraft to 21 destinations (6 domestic and 15 international in 14 countries on 3 different continents). Today, May 26th, the Iraqi Government declared bankruptcy on the airline due to a 10 year old lawsuit with Kuwait.

More information:

• Story on the Associate Press
• Wikipedia – Iraqi Airways

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Hawaiian Airlines will most likely fly to Tokyo

Hawaiian Airlines

Last Friday (May 7th) the U.S. Department of Transportation granted tentative approval to Hawaiian Airlines to operate one daily flight between Honolulu and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Hawaiian Airlines initially applied for two round trips and is asking for DOT to reconsider granting Hawaiian a second daily round trip.

Hawaiian’s proposed daily flight is scheduled to depart Haneda shortly before midnight and arrive in Honolulu around noon the same day. This scheduling allows for business trips to be effective, since someone could just catch the flight from Tokyo just after a full day of work and dinner. Being a night flight, Hawaiian Airlines’ HND – HNL passengers will be able to enjoy half a day at Honolulu.

Return flights would depart Honolulu in the early evening and arrive at Haneda around 10 p.m. the next day. Hawaiian will initially service the Honolulu-Tokyo flights with its Boeing 767-300ER aircraft seating up to 264 passengers. Hawaiian might plan to use its new and larger 294-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft in this route.

External Links:

• Hawaiian Airlines Official Site

SkyTeam

SkyTeam

SkyTeam is the second largest airline alliance in the world behind Star Alliance.

SkyTeam was formed launched June 22, 2000. It currently consists of eleven carriers from four continents, with the slogan “Caring more about you”.

With the merger of Northwest Airlines with Delta Air Lines completed, SkyTeam consists of 9 full members and 2 associate members since Continental Airlines and associate member Copa Airlines left SkyTeam on 24 October 2009.

The joining of Vietnam Airlines in June 2010 will bring the total number of full member airlines in the alliance back up to 10. The entry of China Eastern Airlines is projected for mid 2011.

The alliance’s centralised management team, called SkyTeam Central, formed in 2009, is based in the World Trade Center Schiphol Airport on the grounds of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands, near Amsterdam.

SkyTeam serves 856 airports in 169 countries. Its members transport 384 million passengers per year, of which 166 million are Frequent Flyers. It has a full fleet of 1,941 air planes plus 1,199 from related carriers.

Delta Airlines plane with SkyTeam livery

Current SkyTeam members:

Founding members (2000):

Aeroméxico – www.aeromexico.com
Air France – www.airfrance.com
Delta Air Lines – www.delta.com
Korean Air – www.koreanair.com

Other members:

Czech Airlines (2001) – www.cza.cz
Alitalia (2001) – www.alitalia.com
KLM (2004) – www.klm.com
Aeroflot (2006) – www.aeroflot.ru
China Southern Airlines (2007) – www.flychinasouthern.com

Associate members:

Air Europa – www.aireuropa.com
Kenya Airways – www.kenya-airways.com

External links:
SkyTeam’s official web site