- Tiger Airways to charge for all check in baggage for bookings after 29 May 2008
- All bookings made prior to 29 May continue to receive 15kg free baggage allowance
- New charges ensure that customers travelling without checked baggage will always get the lowest of low fares.

Tiger Airways has revamped its baggage policy to ensure that its customers only pay for what they need. Unlike other airlines that hide the cost of checked baggage into tickets whether you use it or not, Tiger Airways will separate the fee from 29 May 2008. The important elements of the new policy are:

• All fares include:
- 7kg of free cabin baggage.
- One free handbag and 1 laptop computer can also be carried for free

• Charge of $5 per passenger per flight for 15kg of check in baggage. (Small, Medium and Large Upsize options are also available, giving passengers a choice of 15kg, 20kg, 25kg or 30kg allowance).

• No change for bookings made prior to 29 May 2008

Finally passengers won’t be paying extra so that others get a free ride for their bags.

Steve Burns, Chief Operating Officer of Tiger Airways said “When I take a short break I always resent having to pay for other peoples mountains of baggage. Tiger gives people the option to pay only for what they use rather than subsidising other travellers. This system brings fairness and equality to the Australian sky for the first time. Tiger already offers the lowest fares in Australia, and is now further reducing the cost of travel for customers who don’t check in baggage�

Tiger also realises that people occasionally change their minds when it comes to packing. Passengers who have not pre-booked Luggage UpsizeTM online have the option of purchasing the standard 15kgs allowance at the airport on the day of departure, albeit at a higher rate of $20.

The introduction of new charges will apply to all flights across Tiger Airways’ Australian Domestic and International network. Tiger Airways strongly encourages all passengers to think carefully about just how much luggage they pack, as all weight in excess of the amount booked will still be subject to excess baggage charges.

Source = Tiger Airways

A scientist has come up with a new formula to prevent the misery of boarding flights

You are standing in a queue to board your aircraft. The flight is full, the hour late and you are tired. Then you hear the call to board and head down the gangway, your path blocked by a crowd of other passengers.

Slowly you shuffle on to the aircraft, only to find your progress is held up by a scrum of people pushing luggage into overhead lockers, climbing over each other to reach windows and arguing over seats: a typical start to a flight.

But according to nuclear physicist Jason Steffen, based at America’s giant particle accelerator laboratory Fermilab, in Illinois, it is also unnecessary. He has calculated that there is a far better - and quicker - way to get passengers aboard an aircraft than allowing people to wander on in groups. Thanks to his knowledge of atomic and molecular behaviour, he has worked out a way to slash boarding times by a factor of seven by carefully ordering passenger access to aircraft. ‘I was heading back from a conference and I was kept waiting for almost half an hour after moving through the gate to getting to my seat,’ Steffen told The Observer. ‘I realised there had to be a better way. So I decided to find out the best method.’

Steffen used the Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. The journal Nature says it is widely used to investigate how atoms and molecules arrange themselves. Steffen employed it to discover how passengers stacked themselves inside a plane. He assumed the main cause of delay is usually aisle-blocking caused by passengers pushing luggage into lockers.

Then he ran various boarding options on his computer using the algorithm and found that one option was easily the best. This requires that each passenger is given a specific queuing position; that they board window seats first; and that they do so with an empty row between themselves and the next passenger. Thus passengers would board, if entering at the back of a 40-row aircraft, by filling up seat 40A, then 38A, then 36A and so on to the front; then they fill 39F, 37F, 35F, to the front; then 39A; 37A, 35A to the front; and so on, filling first window seats, then middle seats and finally aisle seats. If boarding from the front, they would begin at 1A, then move to 3A. The point is that people loading luggage do not block progress.

‘Sometimes you have to put families together if they have young children, but even then the system cuts down on boarding times significantly,’ adds Steffen, who has submitted his paper to the Journal of Air Transport Management. ‘This is no simple back-of-an-envelope plan. It is a real solution for a real problem.’

This last point is backed by air transport figures. Despite technical improvements in many areas, boarding times for aircraft have increased steadily for the past few decades.

Other attempts to improve boarding have been made using computer simulations with little success. Steffen, however, is sure his method is the best. ‘I have taken a patent out on the idea, so you can see I am very confident I have cracked this one,’ he said.

A spokesman for BAA, which runs Britain’s main airports, said new processes and ideas for passenger management were always of interest. ‘We are always looking at new ways to improve travellers’ experiences and we will be reading this paper very carefully.’

The newsletter is an interesting read.  Thanks.

 Heatcraft Australia Pty Ltd

The British Airways New Club World product is currently being launched in Australia. An evolution of the former Club World business product.

The new business class seats are 25% wider, offer more privacy, comfort and storage as well as moving to a fully flat bed. It can also automatically adjust to a ‘lazy z’ which allows the body to relax to a ‘ zero gravity’ position. The new cabin also offers a new “Club Kitchen” where travellers can help themselves to a range of savoury snacks. To mention but a few of the upgrades.

The new product will be available on BA flights from Australia via BKK by the end of 2007, with Singapore services added through 2008.