Etihad Airways have launched an online experience that showcases the experience of flying with them.

You can see what it is like to fly in the first class suite, complete with 23” TV screen, a wardrobe for your clothes, massive seats that can extend into completely flat beds and screen doors which allow you to have complete privacy.

You can experience the tour in English, French or German, and the airline says they will soon be adding Arabic as a fourth language option.

Click here to enjoy the experience.

If you have an iPhone, Blackberry or an Android powered smart phone, you can save yourself some hassle when you next travel from Heathrow. The app is called the Heathrow Airport Guide and features terminal maps, guides for the shops and restaurants and live flight updates. The app is an official BAA guide, so you can trust the information. The flight updates will probably be the most helpful for passengers. This summer alone Heathrow expects some 13.6 million passengers to pass through their terminals. This app will allow you to avoid the crowds around the departure boards. You can sit and sip your Costa coffee and keep an eye on your flight details on your phone. You can also get notifications for flight time changes. You can get the Heathrow Airport Guide on iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

To promote their award winning cabin crew and more than 1000 flight destinations, Qatar have launched a new global TV campaign.

The campaign was launched at the Paris Air Show and it focuses on the airline’s global growth and its renowned hospitality. The advertisements will be broadcast on TV channels in Europe, the Middle East, North America and in the Asia Pacific region.

The advertisement features footage filmed around the world on the airline’s global network, showing sights and sounds tourists dream of experiencing.

To showcase Qatar’s ethnic diversity when it comes to its cabin crew, they casted flight attendants from around the world, including the US, Australia, Russia, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

The multimillion dollar campaign took six months for Singapore based advertising agency, Batey, to create.

It was not Ninja Turtles, but diamondback terrapin turtles that were to blame for a 15 minute delay for passengers at JFK airport.

The turtles (approximately 150 of them) were on a mission to cross the runway to lay their eggs on the shores of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, which lies at the border of the airport.

The spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Ron Marsico, said, "It happens every year at about this time. It's the great migration, and this is the peak of the season."

The airport simply worked around the turtles, Marsico explained, "At one point, we decided to heed Mother Nature and use other runways. This is not impacting flights"

Cabin crew, pilots and passengers must have enjoyed the site of the terrapins crossing the runway in a herd of turtles.

Cabin Crew Ready is an app for cabin crew to use as a useful knowledge trainer for airline prefixes, IATA- and airport codes. You can test yourself and compare your knowledge with cabin crew friends and aviation colleagues around the world, says the developer of the app. The app was released on the 10^th of June 2011.

The app uses short quizzes containing questions about airports and airlines to help you build your general knowledge. It asks you for the code or name of airports and airlines. Your score and ranking can be shared with friends and colleagues.

Details for the Cabin Crew app
iPhone, iPod Touch
Category: Education
Released June 10, 2011
Publisher: Extreme Projects GmbH
Version 1.0 [1.1 MB]

• Stylish, Attractive and Addictive Quizzing
• Great for Aviation enthusiasts, Pilots, Cabin Crew, Ground personal, Gate Agents, Ticket Agents and Frequent Flyers
• More than 1.000 Airports and 120 Airlines
• Share best scores and see scores from other users online
• No internet connection required

An unusual incident involving rats and a defibrillator saw a Quantas plane being grounded for a day in Sydney. When the cabin crew did their regular pre-flight check they were surprised to find rats in a medical compartment housing a defibrillator. There were no passengers on the plane at the time of the incident, so there was not much of a disturbance. A Quantas spokeswoman assured that this was a “very irregular occurrence.” Quantus is Australia’s national carrier. The airline has just started using one of the world’s longest flight routes for a Boeing 747, from Australia to Dallas, Texas.

Shortly after taking over as BA’s chief executive, Keith Williams made a phone call to end an 18 month dispute, reports the Telegraph.

It was to one of the senior officials of the Unite’s cabin crew branch, the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association.

A few weeks later the dispute, which had dragged on for 18 months was over.

There were no winners. A wave of 22 strikes last year cost BA £150 million, while Unite lost well over 1,000 members.

It had become an industrial equivalent of the Battle of the Somme, with a vast number of casualties for little gain to either side.

How many passengers deserted the airline and used alternative carriers is hard to calculate, but at the very least the dispute and the series of high court hearings did huge damage to the “BA brand”.

Read the full story.

A 48-year-old man from Kazakhstan has been arrested after an attempted hijacking on a Alitalia airlines flight from Paris to Rome, reports the Telegraph.

The man, identified by Italian media as Valeriy Tolmachev a citizen of Kazakhstan who lived in Paris, demanded the flight divert to Tripoli after holding a female flight attendant at knifepoint.

A passenger on the plane said: “I did not see anything at the beginning, I just heard a voice saying: 'Be quiet,' and then the flight attendant held by him, with something like a knife on her throat.”

Tolmachev was quickly overpowered by other attendants and the captain radioed ahead for police to meet the flight when it landed.

The air hostess was treated for minor injuries at Rome airport.

Read the full article.

Billionaire tycoon and boss of Virgin Airlines, Sir Richard Branson, is inviting bids for the honour of shaving his legs for charity. This report was issued by the UK Press Association.

The owner of Virgin Airlines is hoping to raise more than £350,000 with the stunt, part of his preparation for dressing as an air hostess on a special flight from London to Kuala Lumpur on May 1.

The image on the left shows Sir Richard Branson being measured for his air hostess outfit.

Sir Richard's cross dressing comes after losing a bet to Malaysian airline mogul Tony Fernandes. He and the AirAsia tycoon wagered their new Formula One racing teams - Virgin and Lotus - would finish ahead of each other in last year's season.

No doubt the flight will be an interesting one for passengers and the cabin crew working alongside Branson.

A Sri Lankan woman travelling from Riyadh to Colombo aboard a SriLankan Airlines plane gave birth to a baby boy during the flight.

The crew assisted in the delivery of the baby on board the SriLankan Airline Flight UL 288.

The cabin crew handled the situation with the support of a Canadian passenger, a professional midwife, without disrupting the flight which arrived in Colombo on schedule. Most passengers were unaware of what had taken place until shortly before landing, a spokesperson for SriLankan Airlines said.

“Our cabin crew is renowned for their professionalism, as well as their caring, warmth, and friendliness,” he added. After landing a medical crew was on hand at the Bandaranaike International Airport and rushed the mother and baby to hospital.