Alex Macheras Profile picture
Aviation Analyst, Consultant. Broadcasting #Aviation News @LBC @SkyNews @BBC @AlJazeera @ITV ✈️ Columnist Gulf-Times 🎧 Host of ‘On-Air’ Podcast 🎙️
T_AI Profile picture Paul Perera ⚫️ Profile picture 3 subscribed
Sep 11 11 tweets 5 min read
A few notes flying @AirCanada on a $10,000 USD Business Class (round trip) ticket, Europe-Montreal.

- Crew do not welcome passengers
- No pre-departure drinks order
- No visit from crew to any pax for a pre-departure chat (perhaps to help pax with seat features, IFE, etc?) Image - There’s *one* proper meal service for the almost 7hr flight, it’s served right after takeoff.

- The small starter, salad, & main (which was raw) served together, on a tray, at same time…handed to you from trolley

- 2 crew, with a trolley each, serving the entire biz cabin. Image
Aug 18, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Deeply concerning incident at Africa’s largest airline — Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 #ET343 was still at cruising altitude of 37,000ft by the time it reached destination Addis Ababa

Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep. avherald.com/h?article=4fd1… Air traffic controllers tried to contact the pilots numerous times without success

After overflying the runway (still at cruising altitude), the autopilot disconnected - and this chime alert woke the pilots up — who then initiated a descent and eventually made a safe landing.
Aug 18, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
Aviation & Afghanistan - one year on: airspace remains off-limits to almost all other nations/airlines ✈️🚫deemed too risky & designated as “uncontrolled”

However, air traffic control is functional - with Afghan air traffic controllers trained by Qatar, Uzbekistan and Turkey. Kabul Airport, as well as Kandahar and Herat airports, are managed by a United Arab Emirates-based consortium, after a deal was signed with the Taliban in May 2022.

Afghanistan's largest private airline, Kam Air has managed to continue to operate since the Taliban takeover
Feb 25, 2022 9 tweets 3 min read
Breaking: Russia ban all UK airlines from using its airspace, including for overflight ✈️⛔️ — a retaliation that’ll impact UK-Asia flights. #Ukraine UK airlines rely on Russian airspace for flights to the Far East, including South Korea, Japan, and China. Image below shows the usual route, via Russian airspace

Costly rerouting & extra flight times ahead for airlines as aircraft will now track south, across the Middle East.
Feb 24, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Ukraine: Airspace over Ukraine-Russia border now restricted, essentially a no-go zone for commercial aviation. ⛔️ Multiple Ukrainian airports in the East have suspended all operations tonight, including #Kharkiv. Multiple airlines, including European carriers, have tonight been informed by aviation risk management agencies that Ukraine 🇺🇦 - as a whole - is now considered a “Do Not Fly” ⛔️ area on the basis of “extreme tension and developments on Feb 23”
May 19, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
Breaking: European Union 🇪🇺 has agreed to reopen its borders to ALL travellers who are fully vaccinated (with a vaccine certified in EU). Here’s the initial announcement ✅ ✈️ #COVID19 👇🏽 More: The new travel policy for fully-vaccinated travellers to EU could go into effect as early as next week, per European officials ✈️🇪🇺

EU has confirmed it will accept travellers who have full immunization from: Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines 💉
May 7, 2021 7 tweets 2 min read
England + intl travel👇🏽

🟩 Test before/after travel to England, no quarantine: 12 countries: Portugal, Gibraltar & others

🟨 Tests before/after travel + home quarantine. Spain, France & others

🟥 Travel ban, hotel quarantine for Brits. Turkey, UAE, Maldives, S America & others As expected, majority of ‘Green List’ countries are countries banning travellers 🟩⛔️

Portugal, Israel, Gibraltar, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Brunei, Falklands, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore. Ascension Islands, Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands
May 7, 2021 7 tweets 2 min read
TODAY: UK government will reveal green/amber/red ✈️🚦list for all international travel to UK, from 17 May. A thread 👇🏽

🟩 Green: test before/after travel to UK, no quarantine
🟨 Amber: tests before/after, home quarantine
🟥 Red: ban on visitors, £1750 hotel quarantine for Brits • Remember: UK’s upcoming green/amber/red list ✈️🚦does *NOT* determine where Brits can travel to.

Instead, it determines what measures/testing/quarantine passengers face (including Brits, tourists, business travellers, etc) will face when they travel FROM abroad TO the UK.
Feb 14, 2021 6 tweets 2 min read
Tomorrow: UK mandatory hotel quarantine for so-called ‘red list’ arrivals begins ✈️

That’s 55 days since S African #COVID19 variant was detected in UK ⏳

1 year since “global health emergency” declared 🗓⚠️

(25+ million already arrived: no tests/screening for any passengers) There are no direct passenger flights from “red list” nations — but people are still arriving via transit airports 🔀

UK Border Force will need to check passport data, interview, & locator form to determine who’s been where. They’ve already warned this will not happen for all.
Jan 24, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
UK government is set announce mandatory hotel quarantine for passenger arrivals, one whole year into this #COVID19 crisis.

During this next phase, measures (testing, screening) must *finally* be established so that UK can manage inbound/outbound passenger flow for the long term. A year ago, I held several discussions with foreign governments, most concluded: coexistence is key. Air travel + #COVID19 can coexist if measures are in place

What UK aviation now needs 👇🏽

• Financial package to ensure there’s an aviation sector on the other side of this.
Jan 9, 2021 16 tweets 8 min read
Breaking: A passenger Boeing 737 is missing after losing contact with Indonesian authorities shortly after take off from Jakarta airport.

Sriwijaya Air flight #SJ182 is a 737-500 (classic narrow body airline jet) — the aircraft in question is 26 years old. More to follow. Sriwijaya Air is Indonesia’s third largest airline, listed as a “Category 1” airline, the country’s highest safety rating

@flightradar24’s ADS-B data from #SJ182 shows the aircraft losing “more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than 1 minute” less than 5 mins after departure
Jan 7, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
Breaking: UK will finally require ALL passengers travelling to UK to present a negative #COVID19 result (obtained 72 hrs before travel) in order to be permitted to depart to UK ✈️⚠️

Almost 1 year into the crisis, this is an easy mandate that shifts testing responsibility abroad. While UK will continue its – no testing on arrival, no checks & no health screening for any passengers – position, the new “must test before you travel to UK” means government is finally following the long-list of countries who adopted this testing mandate multiple months ago ✈️
Jan 7, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
Breaking: Saudi Arabia officially updates its NOTAMs to remove its airspace ban on Qatar, which lasted 3.5 years — a significant moment in the Middle East. #Qatar Image Latest: Qatar Airways confirm the first commercial flight to overfly Saudi Arabia (for the first time in 3.5 years) will be QR1365 from Doha to Johannesburg, now en-route. #Qatar Image
Jan 4, 2021 10 tweets 4 min read
Breaking: Saudi Arabia agree to open its airspace to Qatar (as well as its land and sea borders) - tonight - following the #GulfCrisis blockade that started back in 2017. Reminder: In June 2017, Saudi, UAE, Bahrain & Egypt imposed airspace bans on Qatari jets (as part of the wider blockade) — a violation of their signed ICAO airspace treaties.

Last year, ICJ - highest court in world - ruled in favour of Qatar in Gulf airspace blockade.
Jan 8, 2020 15 tweets 6 min read
Breaking: Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 jet has crashed in Tehran, Iran shortly after take off according to Iranian state media The aircraft involved is confirmed to be a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 (not to be confused with a 737 MAX — these are still grounded, worldwide) crashed several minutes after takeoff from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran #PS752
Jul 20, 2019 37 tweets 20 min read
Breaking: British Airways has suspended ALL flights to Cairo, Egypt for seven days "as a precaution to allow for further assessment" British Airways are citing “security reasons” for the immediate suspension of all Cairo, Egypt flights — unclear if it is in relation to tensions in nearby Gulf.
Mar 10, 2019 29 tweets 17 min read
Breaking: Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX has reportedly been involved in a fatal incident, en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. #ET302 Statement from PM