Aviation News

Air New Zealand’s latest promotion has bombed, with the airline accused of transphobia over a “joke” suggesting disgraced female Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk has testicles.

The company launched a Christmas Cracker promotion on its Grabaseat site on Monday, giving people the chance to win prizes.

Those who don’t win a prize get a consolation joke instead – with one reading: “What large heavy ball was responsible for Valerie Adams’ gold medal? The Belarusian’s left testicle.”

The so-called joke is a reference to Ostapchuk winning – and later being stripped of – the shotput gold medal at the Olympics earlier this year after testing positive for a banned steroid.

The medal was later awarded to Kiwi shotputter Adams.

Air NZ has taken a hammering on social media, with Twitter users calling on it to apologise for the “unbelievably offensive” joke, and pledging to boycott its services.

Rather than apologise, Air NZ responded by tweeting: “not everyone likes our xmas cracker jokes so tell us your tacky kiwi jokes & we’ll add our favourites into the cracker”.

Air NZ is not the first company to face a backlash over mocking Ostapchuk’s gender and fall from grace.

Sandwich chain Habitual Fix took a hammering in August after creating a poster with a picture of Ostapchuk to sell its “manwich”, featuring the catchlines “no added hormones or steroids” and “no hidden a-genders”.

The latest Air NZ blunder comes just a month after the airline made headlines by giving spooky names to its domestic destinations for Halloween, with the South Island’s Blenheim becoming Beastheim’.

The town – where serial sex offender Stewart Murray Wilson committed crimes over 26 years that saw him dubbed “the Beast of Blenheim” – was not amused.

Air NZ axed Beastheim from the promotion.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/air-new-zealand-slammed-over-testicle-joke-20121203-2aqur.html#ixzz2E2zbBYkW

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Flying Japan Airlines in the near future? Colonel Sanders will be joining you as the airline rolls out Kentucky Fried Chicken meals onboard flights from Tokyo to the U.S. and Europe

Japan Airlines and Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan are collaborating for the seventh installment of the airline’s Air Series in-flight meal program — temporary restaurant promotions for in-flight catering. Past featured meals have included traditional Japanese fare from Taimeiken and Yoshinoya.

The fast-food meals, which will include a drumstick, boneless chicken breast, coleslaw, lettuce leaves and bread, will be served on flights from December 1 to Feb. 28, 2013. KFC’s parent is Yum! Brands [YUM  73.89  0.09  (+0.12%)   ].

KFC is widely popular in Japan, particularly during the Christmas season, according to the press release.

To be clear, the KFC option will be the second meal offered on long-haul international flights. The primary meal will consist of regularly catered cuisine and choices.

KFC’s Original Recipe two-piece chicken meal will be the second meal service for passengers traveling in premium economy and economy class from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, London, Paris and Frankfurt.

The fast-food meals will be served in a special box and tray unavailable anywhere else but onboard Japan Airlines.

This isn’t the first time fast food has been served in-flight. Back in the 1990s, United Airlines [UAL  20.18  0.04  (+0.2%)   ] served McDonald’s [MCD  86.52  0.60  (+0.7%)   ] kids meals on certain Orlando-bound flights, dubbed McDonald’s Friendly Skies Meals.

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A study of 6,000 pilots says that between 43% and 54% had nodded off "involuntarily" while flying. And one third of these claimed they had woken up to find their colleagues were also asleep.

The results of the ECA study come at a critical time, because last month, the European Aviation Safety Agency published proposals for new rules on flight and duty times and rest requirements for pilots.

Under the new rules, pilots could be expected to land commercial jets after being awake for stretches of up to 22 hours.

The proposals have been criticised by pilot organisations including the ECA, which says they will cause "significant consequences" for passengers.

The ECA is campaigning to highlight the safety issues caused by long flying hours. It says that fatigue among pilots is a common, dangerous and under-reported phenomenon in Europe.

Speaking to the Daily Express, a spokesman for the pilots' group said: "Long duty and standby hours, night flights and disruptive schedules often result in long times awake, sleep deprivation and are followed by insufficient rest and poor sleep opportunities."

In October this year a Freedom of Information request by The Sun revealed that two pilots had fallen asleep while in charge of passenger planes. In both incidents, captains who had been on breaks had returned to the cockpit to find their co-pilots slumped over the controls.

"Fatigue impairs the judgment and ability of air crews to react quickly - with potentially disastrous consequences, as demonstrated by recent accidents," said Philip von Schoppenthau, ECA general secretary.

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A German court threw out Monday a complaint by a pilot who felt he was being discriminated against by airline Lufthansa in being forced to wear a cap while on duty, while his women colleagues were not.

A labour court in Cologne found there was no sexual discrimination on Lufthansa’s part in enforcing a rule that male pilots had to wear caps in all public areas of airports, while female pilots were not obliged to.

The court, overturning an earlier ruling which had found in the pilot’s favour, accepted Lufthansa’s argument that the cap was part of the historical development of a male pilot’s uniform and not an expression of any difference in treatment of the sexes.

A pilot’s uniform differed depending on whether they were male or female and a cap was part of the male pilot’s uniform, Lufthansa argued.

Similarly, there was no discrimination in the fact that women pilots were allowed to wear skirts, but their male colleagues were not, judge Jochen Sievers argued.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/bareheaded-female-airline-pilots-not-sex-discrimination-20121030-28gmu.html#ixzz2AqdBeia9

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