Mario's World

I found this very interesting chart on global airline traffic at Amadeus. It’s based on a study between airconomy and Amadeus. I’m not surprised to see the 13.4% increase in air travel between Asian countries and the Middle East. Looks like Qatar Airways and Emirates are the key players boosting air traffic to/from and via [...]

Landed in Dubai yesterday morning and was puzzled to see the aircraft taxi to a remote area of the airport for disembarking. I would understand if all the ramps were occupied but from where I was sitting, all the Terminal 3 ramps were empty!!! And ours wasn’t the only flight to disembark a few hundred [...]

This time from Kuwait to Dubai, we flew Emirates Business Class. The pic above is of their new Business Class cabin introduced on some sectors.  We reached the airport about an hour and half before take off and were greeted by a huge (and I mean huge) unorganised crowd of travellers all going to Dubai [...]

If all flight attendants were like this guy, fewer people would be worried during take off and landing Perhaps on our regional carriers like Kuwait Airways, Jazeera, Wataniya and Emirates, we could have some Arabic music and the attendants could let down their hair and shake their heads from one side to the other. Hope [...]

“Thousands of passengers on AeroMobile-equipped Emirates aircraft depart daily from Dubai to destinations across its global network. Over 350 Emirates short and long haul flights operate weekly with AeroMobile covering services to 49 countries. That’s about 1/4th of their entire fleet. The AeroMobile in-flight system allows passengers the choice of safely using their own mobile [...]

The return flight from Dubai on Emirates was great. Looked like a new 777 aircraft. And the most amazing thing was this new version of ICE coupled with wide-screen displays on every seat in economy (no, my company won’t pay for a business class ticket). The control too was new with a nice led display, [...]

I’m off to Dubai for a few days. Was amazed when I heard an announcement that we can use our regular phones in flight once we reach 37,000ft. Seems they also have on-board wifi. Had I known in advance, I would have kept my phone and laptop handy to try it out. Hope its available [...]

Back in Dubai for a very busy 2 days. Took the Emirates flight. Now this happens too often to me, but usually with touch screen kiosks. I managed to reboot ICE, which is the in-flight entertainment system on Emirates. Looks like some kind of thin-client application and it took about 5 minutes to download to [...]

I’m back in Dubai for a few days. This time I came in on Emirates and got to check out the all new Terminal 3. Its super! Love the wide spaces, indoor palm trees, reflective ceilings and not as much walking to do as the old one. I have no idea what these lights represent, [...]