Travel Review 2019:
2019 marks another fun travel year with experiencing over sixteen new airlines and seven new aircraft types and flying in and out of ten new airports. I flew 150 segments covering 256,097 miles, which equal to traveling around the earth 10.28 times. As most major airlines are switching to a revenue earning frequent flyer model, there is less incentive to do any mileage runs or taking multi-stop, instead of nonstop flights. My top three airports are London Heathrow, New York JFK, and LAX, and my top three routes are San Francisco to Los Angeles (LAX), Stockholm to London Heathrow, and London Heathrow to New York JFK. My top airline in terms of number of flights are JetBlue Airways, British Airways, and Alaska Airlines, and in terms of distance, they are Singapore Airlines, British Airways, and JetBlue Airways. My top aircraft type is A320-200 in terms of number of flights, and Boeing 777-300ERs in terms of distance. I am grateful for the opportunity to fly all these interesting airlines in the past year and my highlight is definitely flying Air Tindi’s Dash 7 and flying these new generation of Airbus widebody planes, including both Airbus A330-900 NEO and Airbus A350-1000. 2020 will be a slow travel year for me, as the frequent flyer model continues to change more towards revenue based. I wish everybody a happy new year, and more safe travels in 2020.
New Airlines:
1. Alliance Airlines (Australia)
2. JetStar Pacific Airlines (Vietnam)
3. Vietjet Airlines
4. VASCO (Vietnam)
5. TAP Air Portugal
6. TAP Express/Portuagália Airlines
7. Laudamotion
8. Wizzair
9. easyJet
10. Aer Lingus Regional
11. Air Tindi
12. Air Seoul
13. Air Antwerp
14. SAS Ireland
15. Hahn Air Lines
16. Eurowings
New Airports:
1. Port Macquarie Airport
2. Da Nang International Airport
3. Miyako Airport
4. Shimojishima International Airport
5. Can Tho International Airport
6. Con Dao Airport
7. Stuttgart International Airport
8. Bristol International Airport
9. Abbotsford International Airport
10. Antwerp International Airport
New aircraft type:
1. Boeing 787-10
2. Airbus A330-900NEO
3. Airbus A350-900ULR
4. Airbus A321-200NX/LR
5. Dash 7-100
6. Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign
7. Airbus A350-1000
Inaugural Flights:
1. JetStar Japan Airlines’ Inaugural Shimojishima to Tokyo Narita Flight on March 30, 2019
[Shimojishima’s first commercial departure after reopening on March 30, 2019]
2. Japan Airlines’ Inaugural/Resumption of Service to Seattle/Tacoma on March 31, 2019
3. TAP Air Portugal’s Inaugural of San Francisco to Lisbon on June 10, 2019
4. JetBlue Airways’ Inaugural Westchester/White Plains to Nantucket Memorial on June 13, 2019 – No Ceremony
5. TAP Air Portugal’s Inaugural Washington DC Dulles to Lisbon on June 16, 2019
6. Singapore Airlines’ Inaugural Seattle/Tacoma to Singapore on September 3, 2019
7. Air Antwerp’s Inaugural London City to Antwerp Flight & first day of commercial flying on September 9, 2019
A380 Operators:
1. Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Tokyo NRT on May 20, 2008 [Inaugural]
2. Air France from London LHR to Paris CDG on July 25, 2010
3. Qantas Airways from Singapore to Melbourne on September 29, 2010
4. Emirates from Auckland to Sydney on September 30, 2010
5. China Southern Airlines A380 from Hong Kong to Beijing on March 26, 2012
6. Korean Air A380 from Seoul Incheon to Los Angeles KE 17 on September 17, 2012
7. Lufthansa A380 D-AIMI from San Francisco International to Frankfurt LH 455 on November 23, 2012
8. Thai Airways from Hong Kong to Bangkok on March 1, 2013
9. Malaysian Airlines MH 4 From Kuala Lumpur to Los Angeles International on April 20, 2013 – 9M-MNF 100th A380
10. British Airways from London Heathrow to Los Angles on January 13, 2014 G-XLEB
11. Asiana Airlines from Tokyo Narita to Seoul Incheon on July 21, 2014 HL7625
12. Etihad Airways from Sydney Kingsford Smith to Abu Dhabi International on October 12, 2015 A6-APD
13. Qatar Airways from Paris CDG to Doha Hamad International on February 22, 2016 A7-APA
New A380 Operator in 2018:
1. ANA All Nippon Airways from Tokyo Narita to Honolulu on July 2, 2019 JA381A Lani