Sleep in a Grounded 747 in Stockholm in travell

Jumbo jet conversion to airport accommodation

Last January, I learned of a project to convert a 747 into an airport hostel at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport and wrote a post about it. I just read a piece on a neat blog called Airport Hotels, not surprisingly about airport hotels but also related subjects, that it has been completed and is operating. Look at the image on the right and click back to the ratty aircraft the developer started with.

Airport Hotels blogger Susan R. has a fascinating post not just about the Jumbo Hostel* at Arlanda but also other interesting aircraft, grounded and otherwise. She found a 727 that has been turned into a treehouse-height executive suite in Costa Rica and a plane once used by East Germany's iron-fisted Erich Honecker and now a luxury suite at Holland's Teuge Airport. Susan R. also found some futuristic flying machines and has images of all the once and future airborne wonders on her post.

Rail Transportation to Travel

President's proposal for rail expansion would alter US travel

I love trains. When I travel abroad, it is my favorite mode of transportation., I love the energetic bustle of big-city railroad stations and the convenience of traveling from center-city to center-city, and I certainly prefer reaching small communities by train to clogging up roadways with a costly rental car. I wish we still had decent, punctual trains in this country, and maybe it will happen in my lifetime. I was cheered by President Obama's State of the Union message last Wednesday that included the intention of awarding $8 billion in stimulus funds for development of light-rail corridors around the country and new high-speed rail in Florida. It makes sense from all perspectives -- employment, traveler convenience, the environmental benefits of mass transit.

A number of US and Canadian cities already have light rail rapid transit -- surface trains, not subways, that unclog roadways. When I changed planes in Phoenix not long ago, I saw that the city's Valley Metro rail line reaches Skyharbor Airport from both east and west. Vancouver's new SkyTrain (upper right) connects the airport with the center city. Light rail lines in Denver, Salt Lake City and Calgary do not currently reach their respective airports but hopefully will in the future. Kansas City voters rejected a north-south light rail line, but the regional transportation district is planning on using diesel-driven trains on existing tracks -- perhaps similar to the Albuquerque-Santa Fe Railrunner (lower right). We'll see.

Elsewhere in the world, a rail link from major airports to the city and from there to national and international train networks is taken for granted. Once again, the US, which pretends to be so enlightened and so advanced, lags far behind. I just hope that Washington a-ginners who were fixating on deconstructing proposed health care/insurance reform don't get their talons into rail transportation improvements too.

Japan Airlines in Bankruptcy travel

Flag carrier of the Empire of the Rising Sun sinking under crushing debt load

We're accustomed to news of failed/failing/bankrupt airlines in America and even in Europe, but Asian airlines either have held up better through economic turmoil or Asian nations, unwilling to lose face, have propped up their national carriers. Japan Airlines is now in deep financial doo-doo. Its debt load, reportedly $25.6 billion, proved too much to sustain. The airline has filed for one bankruptcy protection and is facing restructuring including cutting some 16,000 jobs, cutting routes, shifting to more efficient aircraft and reducing retirees' pensions, quite a shock in the context of the nurturing Japanese social and business environment. Government support will keep JAL planes flying during this cataclysmic makeover.

Expect JAL to retire all 37 of its Boeing 747s and 16 MD-90s and replace them with 50 smaller regional jets. This will impact the long-haul routes, cutting some of the 220 airports (59 of them domestic) in 35 countries. Delta, which recently absorbed Northwest Airliner (that originally was called Northwest Orient Airlines with service to the Far East) is courting JAL to the tune of $1 billion (including $500 million in cash) to seduce JAL from American Airlines and the OneWorld frequent flyer alliance. American Airlines and its partners promise $1.4 billion cash to the Japanese airline to stay with OneWorld. The next time I fly Delta or American and am socked with a $25 fee to check a piece of luggage, I'll think about where those dollars are going. American, BTW, just reported a $347 million fourth-quarter loss, so I'm not sure whether their planning to print $1.4 billion or whether they're going to charge even more for passengers' checked baggage.