Archives for October 2020

Berlin (CNN) — It’s 10 years behind schedule, 4 billion euros over budget and there’s a global pandemic crippling the aviation industry.

Happy Halloween to Berlin’s beleaguered Brandenburg Airport, which finally opens its doors this Saturday.

The massive 1,470-hectare site in the Schönefeld region southeast of Berlin aims to be the state-of-the-art transportation hub that the German capital has always lacked, and will open up connections to more long-haul destinations.

Berlin-Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport (BER) is reported to have already been granted 300 million euros in state aid, without transporting a single passenger — and while there’s no airport in the world not feeling the heat right now, Berlin’s new airport is no stranger to crisis.

Reunification dream

Plans to build a central international airport in Berlin date back to the city’s reunification era. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Germany’s leaders launched into discussions about constructing a new airport, which they believed would help establish Berlin as a new world center.

At the time, the city had three airports — Tegel “Otto Lilienthal” Airport, Schönefeld Airport and Tempelhof Airport — all of which played significant roles in Berlin’s turbulent post-war history.

So why did the new airport — officially called Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt — take so long to build? How did such a bold vision for Berlin’s future wind up as an exercise in national humiliation?

Complications from the outset

Official construction began in 2006. Efforts to privatize the project failed, leaving the airport’s board in charge, under the ownership of the federal German government, the state of Brandenburg and the city of Berlin.

The endeavor came with a rough cost assessment of 2.83 billion euros ($3.1 billion at today’s exchange rates) and serious ambition. It would be an impressive facility — touted as “the most modern” in Europe.

But a slew of technical issues delayed progress while bloating the airport’s price tag. The original cost projection became a gross underestimation.

The full range of architectural, structural and technical problems came to a head in 2011, as an elaborate opening organized for June 2012 loomed.

At the end of 2011, aviation inspectors began filing into the construction site to check alarm systems and security features. A faulty fire-protection system design first filled experts with doubts, and soon it was clear there were huge problems with major structural elements, such as escalator sizes, ceiling designs and ticket counters.

The envisioned opening, a splendid display complete with an appearance from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was canceled just weeks before and morphed into a painful embarrassment for German officials.

The opening date was pushed to 2014, then 2016. A Brandenburg State Audit completed in 2016 concluded that the usability of the airport was at less than 57%. Eventually, officials decided to stop offering an expected date and put the entire project on hold until major overhauls in management and construction could be completed.

Finally, as spending cruised past the 7.3 billion euros mark, the date was pushed to 2020.

‘Ready for takeoff’

“The most important thing for us is that we open the airport,” airport boss Engelbert Luetke Daldrup tells CNN. “After very tough years of building and testing and trials, we are ready for takeoff.”

Terminal 1, which will welcome its first passengers on November 1, has a sleek glass facade with modern furniture and polished check-in counters.

The “Magic Carpet,” an installation by US artist Pae White that hangs from the ceiling of the check-in hall, adds a splash of color.

The overall impression, however, is one of functionality. The walnut paneling feels like a failed attempt to add warmth and belongs more to the 1990s, when plans for the airport were first born. And with no greenery yet to soften the exterior, the building is dark and box-like.

The elevators and escalators feel very narrow, suggesting that not all those design glitches have been successfully ironed out.

Daldrup defends the airport against any accusations of it being already outmoded.

“We had a lot of time to implement the newest technologies at this airport,” he says. “The airport in so many aspects, the technical aspects, has undergone very severe infrastructural redevelopment.

“We are probably the safest airport of the world because we are so strictly tested, after the disaster of 2012.”

But thanks to Covid-19, it’ll be a while before the systems will be challenged by any substantial passenger traffic.

Operating at reduced capacity

Brandenburg Airport has capacity for more than 40 million passengers over Terminal 1, Terminal 5 and the upcoming Terminal 2 (which will open in spring 2021).

Thanks to the pandemic, though, it expects to only be handling about 11,000 passengers on its first day of operation on November 1, and just 24,000 a week later.

“Of course Covid times are hard times, but in one or two years we will have a lot of passengers here,” Daldrup tells CNN. “People will enjoy this new modern international airport.”

It, along with budget airline EasyJet, will be the two biggest players at BER. That role will be marked on opening day by two of the airlines’ planes ceremoniously performing a parallel landing on the two runways.

“We need help. All the big airlines need help,” says Daldrup. However, he says the airport’s owners have backed its financing for the upcoming years in order to provide the necessary assistance to cope with the crisis.

“Everyone knows the capital of Germany needs a good infrastructure for international connectivity,” he says. “We want more flights to the United States, to New York, to San Francisco, to Los Angeles, to Philadelphia, so many wonderful cities.”

Arguing that the global economy is reliant on said connectivity, he adds “the airport industry, the airports, the airlines, are the backbone of our economic recovery.”

Daldrup claims that the opening of the airport is “a sign of hope.” Lofty ambition has always been part of the Brandenburg Airport story, so it’s perhaps safer to say that it’s the close of what has been a very embarrassing chapter for a nation known for efficiency.

Daldrup confirms: “There will be no party.”

(CNN) — During commercial aviation’s pandemic downturn, countless veteran airline pilots are retiring to save the jobs of their younger cohorts. But it was during Captain Paul Holmes’ final flight for Delta Air Lines that a chance conversation with an air traffic controller brought him back to his early days with the airline.

Tipped off to Holmes’ retirement flight, Boston Center controller Ashleigh Goldberg keyed up her microphone and asked if he flew for Northwest Airlines before it merged with Delta in 2008. Goldberg said her grandfather, William Hochbrunn, was a Northwest pilot.

“Bill Hochbrunn was your grandfather?” asked a surprised Holmes.

“Affirmative,” Goldberg replied.

A few seconds of stunned silence followed until Holmes explained that Hochbrunn, who died in 2018 at the age of 96, hired him at Northwest Airlines in 1981.

“We loved your grandfather,” said Holmes over the radio. “He gave us our careers at Northwest Airlines.”

“With traffic being kind of down, there was a little bit more time for some exchange on the frequencies,” Goldberg later told CNN. “It was the perfect book-end and everything kind of came full circle for Paul.”

Since they first spoke on August 19, Holmes and Goldberg have met in person and even went on vacation together with their families. The two got a chance to trade stories about Goldberg’s grandfather and how he impacted both of their careers in aviation.

“For him, it would mean a lot,” said Goldberg of her grandfather, who began flying for Northwest in 1941. “Nobody in the family did anything aviation related except for me.”

The fortuitous in-flight friendship has earned recognition from the FAA and Goldberg’s union as well as on YouTube, where a recording of the conversation was posted by Holmes’ co-pilot on his farewell flight. “I think was the best of all the flights that I’ve had in my life,” Holmes said. “I think it shows that the world is actually still a fairly bright and shiny place. A lot of good things happen in this world, you just have to be open to it and see it.”

(CNN) — Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, house-bound travelers are trying to find ways to go on vacation without risking exposure to the virus.

The Laucala Private Island Resort has partnered with Fiji Airways, the country’s national airline, on a special itinerary.

Up to 20 guests can fly on a private chartered Fiji Airways jet from Los Angeles to Nadi, Fiji’s primary airport and main transit hub. From there, they will be transferred to Laucala, where they will have the private island resort all to themselves.

The few travelers allowed into Fiji at present are subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine, but because of Laucala’s remoteness the Department of Health has permitted the program to go forward without guests having to isolate for two weeks.

They will need three negative Covid-19 tests, though — one two weeks before traveling, one 72 hours before boarding (which will be sent to the tourism authority in order to confirm travel permits) and one upon arrival in Fiji.

On the other side of the itinerary, guests will be able to use the private Fiji Airways lounge in Nadi.

The cost? A cool $490,000 covers the jet, a minimum seven-night stay, on-island activities, food and drink and airport transfers for up to 20 people. If you don’t live in L.A., though, you’re on your own for getting there.

Laucala’s pricey proposition may not work for most tourists. But this isn’t the only way that Fiji, whose tourism industry generally comprises 40% of its gross national product (GNP), has tried to make up for lost revenue during the pandemic.

Bula means “hello” or “welcome” in Fijian.

Air Transat flight TS690 flew transatlantic from Montreal, Canada, to Athens, Greece, on Monday — a journey of 7,600 kilometers, or 4,754 miles. So far, so normal — except the eight-hour, 32-minute flight was performed in a narrowbody Airbus A321neoLR.

It was the longest commercial flight that a single-aisle aircraft has been used for.

Although most people would flinch at the idea of a transatlantic flight in a single-aisle aircraft, economy class seats are 1.5 inches wider than in Air Transat’s Airbus 310 — though the seat pitch is a standard 31 inches. Club Class — the premium economy section with recliner seats and a 38-inch pitch — has an intimate 12 seats.

A test flight went even further

While it may have broken the record, Montreal to Athens is not the furthest the A321LR has flown. In 2018 it completed a test flight from Mahé, Seychelles, to Toulouse, France — an 11-hour, 5,466-mile flight. On that occasion, however, instead of passengers, the plane was equipped with heat-emitting dummies.

Before this week, the record for a commercial flight was WOW Air’s Reykjavik to LA flight in 2018 — eight hours 40 minutes, and 6,927 kilometers (4,304 miles).

And it looks like the aircraft will be flying plenty more long-haul routes in the future — especially with demand at a historic low due to Covid, and a slow recovery predicted.

TAP Air Portugal launched flights with the aircraft from Lisbon to Maceió, Brazil, this year, as well as to Boston (via Ponta Delgada in the Azores), and Montreal. CEO Antonoaldo Neves has called the aircraft a “game-changer.” Norwegian also has 30 of the aircraft on order for its long-haul routes.

Air Transat also uses the aircraft for its Toronto — London Gatwick and Montreal — Paris routes.

The plane can carry up to 199 passengers, making it a good bet for the post-Covid recovery. Until now, the airline was using Airbus A330s on the route, which can carry up to 375 passengers.

Headwinds caused problems

The only problem: headwinds. They meant that for the return flight, the plane needed to refuel at Paris Charles de Gaulle. Winter weather conditions mean this is more likely to happen than in the summer.

This was the last flight of the season. The airline will announce which aircraft it’ll use for the 2021 season closer to the time.

So, what’s a long-haul flight like on a single-aisle plane? It depends how susceptible you are to claustrophobia and the simple feeling that crossing continents on a narrow-body plane is “wrong.”

For Kristi Clough, who’s flown from her home in Washington, DC, to Germany on a single-aisle aircraft, as well as flying home from Brazil, the narrow-body “felt too small and ‘wrong’ for those journeys.”

But another frequent flier who used to regularly fly the single-aisle Boeing 757 between Ireland and the United States, told CNN that he found the experience “perfectly acceptable in economy, especially on daytime flights.”

No doubt like the 17-hour ultra-long-haul direct flight from London Heathrow to Perth in Australia, which Qantas debuted in 2018, and Singapore Airlines’ route to JFK, flying long-haul on a single-body aircraft will soon become a test of endurance — and perhaps even a boasting point for frequent fliers.

(CNN) — Each evening, whether the Celebrity Edge cruise ship is crisscrossing the Caribbean or meandering around the Mediterranean, Captain Kate McCue writes night orders for her team.

She always includes a note of how many people are on board the ship.

It’s important, says McCue, “to understand the gravity of the responsibility.”

McCue’s job is to take charge of this enormous floating city and steer it safely around the world.

Following her early days learning the ropes with Disney Cruise Line, McCue rose through the ranks at Royal Caribbean and moved to Celebrity Cruise Line to captain Celebrity Summit in 2015 — a promotion that made her the first female US cruise ship captain.

She later moved to Celebrity Equinox and has helmed Celebrity Edge since September 2019.

Unexpected choppy waters

Covid-19 brought the cruise industry to a standstill — virus-hit ships were quarantined and passengers were denied disembarkation. Ports were closed and cruise lines spent months trying to get passengers, and later crew members, home.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a No Sail Order for ships traveling from US ports.

The weight of responsibility of captaining a cruise ship had never been more apparent.

McCue’s second stint on board Edge commenced in December 2019. The plan was she’d work three months on board, and then three months off.

The last voyage of McCue’s December-March stretch was to coincide with International Women’s Day, a special Celebrity sailing in which the ship was entirely staffed by female officers.

“That was a pinnacle moment in my career, to be able to be on a ship that was manned by what we called the ‘Oceans 27’,” says McCue.

“But that is the cruise when everything kind of came to a head with Covid.”

McCue’s reliever, supposed to arrive from Greece, never came.

“We all found out the flights from Europe were canceled,” she recalls.

McCue’s husband, who also works in the cruise industry, was on board Edge on vacation at the time.

As Covid worries heightened and uncertainty grew, he traveled back to Vegas, and McCue planned to follow.

“I said: ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be home in two weeks, no problem.’ Fast forward to seven months later, when I finally signed off earlier this month.”

McCue spent the spring, summer and first days of fall navigating the choppy waters of Covid-19’s cruise restrictions and trying to do her best by her staff.

She stayed up to speed with cruise industry updates, but says she had to limit her general news consumption to stay sane in the face of so much uncertainty.

“From regulations and closures of countries around the world and situations that were popping up — you couldn’t have written a Hollywood script that could include all of the things that were coming at us,” says McCue.

Complex negotiations between the CDC and the cruise lines, a lack of commercial flights, widespread travel bans and closed borders complicated crew disembarkation.

McCue says the crew on Edge rallied around one another, and she celebrated every time a crew member successfully disembarked the ship and reunited with their loved ones.

“It was important for me to stay as long as I could to make sure that the 1,350 crew members that we had on Celebrity Edge — and all of the crew members that we had in our fleet in the Caribbean — that we could get off, did get off.”

One of several Celebrity Cruise Line vessels anchored in the Caribbean, Celebrity Edge became the ‘mothership’ — the vessel designated to take disembarking crew members into Miami for sign off. The ship also took provisions and mail from Florida to the other ships.

When McCue disembarked in October, only four crew members remained on board Edge — and she says they were all working again.

“I look back on that 10-month contract as the most satisfying contract of my career,” says McCue.

“There weren’t stripes, there weren’t positions, it was — in the end — 80 people that just knew each other as family. And that was really cool.”

In fact, for McCue, disembarking and leaving the bubble of Celebrity Edge was bizarre, as excited as she was to see family again.

“I was petrified to get off,” she says.

Postcards from the Edge

She’d started the account when she first began working at Celebrity, encouraged by the PR team to show social media users a slice of seafaring life.

She’s currently got 204,000 followers and counting.

“The way I always looked at the Instagram was yes, it’s an inside look at the captain’s life, but also, it’s my digital photo album. And whether people love it or not, that wasn’t really my concern. My concern was to be able to go back and look at my memories that I’ve made since I became a captain.”

From photos of cotton candy sunrises on the horizon, to videos of dolphins dancing in the waters below to clips of crew tie-dying shirts to pass the time, McCue’s Instagram is a whirlwind look at life on board the ship.

Working as a cruise ship captain, no two days are the same — even pre-Covid — but McCue says one thing most days have in common is a wakeup call courtesy of Bug.

On sea days, it’s important to McCue to be available and accessible for the guests as they enjoy life on board.

On port days, it takes about an hour and a half to two hours for the ship to dock. Once the ship’s arrived, sometimes McCue will go out on the cruise excursions and explore the destination with the guests. If she stays on the ship, she’ll do inspections and meet with crew.

McCue eschews the tradition of captain’s dinners — she decided prioritizing time with a small group of guests wasn’t the best way to connect with passengers. Instead, she hangs out in busy areas of the ship and chats with guests as they enjoy their day.

In general, McCue says she’s been able to put her own stamp on her job.

She recalls back when she worked at Royal Caribbean, and first became staff captain — second in command on the ship. McCue had to take the mandatory psychological evaluation, which ensures staff are up for the job.

“At the end of it, I sat down with a gentleman to go through the results,” recalls McCue. “And he said: ‘Everything was perfect. But I find that you tend to smile too much.'”

When McCue started at Celebrity, she found herself returning to this feedback, and trying her best to remain poker-faced.

“I was focusing so much on that, that I couldn’t enjoy what I wanted since I was 12 years old, that had come to fruition. So, I said: ‘Throw that out the window, I’m going to be me.'”

Nowadays, McCue enjoys injecting her personality and wide smile into her role — and it’s advice she gives others: you can take your job seriously, do the job well, and be yourself.

Offering these words of wisdom and acting as a role model for other young female seafarers is important to McCue, but she hopes one day it’ll be redundant.

“I look forward to the day where, honestly, being the first female anything isn’t a thing anymore.”

McCue says that, at first, having the spotlight on her both as a captain and as the first female captain was “overwhelming.”

“I almost felt it was a bit unfair, because the men, when they were promoted, they got to do their job. And they got to do their job 100%. I felt like I had to do my job 100% but then I also had to do this representing of being a female.

“But then I realized, if I don’t do it, who else is going to do it? If I don’t do it, how will people see it?”

Right now, McCue is looking forward to the resumption of cruising and is confident the industry will bounce back from 2020.

Long term, her goal is to take a ship out of the yard in a new build.

Her ultimate dream? Becoming a ship’s godmother.

“I don’t believe any time in history has the captain of the ship also been the godmother. So, we put that out in the world. I don’t know who will hear that, but fingers crossed.”

With aviation largely halted around the world and many national borders closed, airlines have had to get creative during downtime.

On Qantas’ “flight to nowhere,” a seven-hour sightseeing tour around the country, fliers were able to get incredible views of destinations — including Uluru and Sydney Harbour — as the plane flew lower than usual. Despite some concerns about carbon emissions, the idea caught on with travelers and tickets sold out in half an hour.

The low-flying planes will be part of the “flight to somewhere,” too, with fly-bys at the beginning and end of the journey giving passengers aerial views of these famous Australian landmarks.

The flight from Sydney to Uluru, which lasts about three and a half hours, is on a route normally operated by Qantas-owned low-cost airline Jetstar. It has been on pause since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Uluru, formerly known by its colonial name of Ayers Rock, is sacred to Australia’s Indigenous people. It holds special significance for the Anangu people, who have a long historical connection to the site.

Economy-rate packages for the “flight to somewhere” experience are $2,449 AUS ($1,730 USD), and a Business Class package is $3,999 ($2,286). Travelers will earn Qantas points from the experience but cannot use points to book them.

CNN’s Hilary Whiteman contributed reporting.