Hi Fly is the first charter airline to have an A380, which is pretty darn awesome, since they’re operating flights on behalf of other airlines. Hi Fly took over this A380 from Singapore Airlines, which chose not to renew their 10 year lease on the plane.
Hi Fly’s A380 has operated charters for a few airlines so far, with the biggest being for Norwegian between New York and London (which was a bit of a mess), and now the plane is operating flights on behalf of Air Austral between Paris and Reunion (which Hi Fly claims is the world’s longest nonstop domestic flight — interesting).
Hi Fly has just been operating the route for Air Austral for a couple of weeks, and they already have a major issue.
On Friday, September 7, the Hi Fly A380 collided with a jet bridge at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Fortunately no one was hurt, and the damage doesn’t look too bad (though looks can be deceiving).
However, flights have been canceled as a result of this, and the plane has now been sitting on the ground at CDG for more than 48 hours. Hopefully they’re able to get the plane flying again soon so that people aren’t left stranded. Selfishly I also want to see the plane back in the sky so we can see what the next airline to lease it is. 😉
It’s not yet known if this error was due to Hi Fly being an “amateur A380” operator, or if this was just very bad luck, since Charles de Gaulle Airport sees tons of A380s.
Regardless, the plane is off to a rough start, between their multi-hour daily delays at JFK, and now the damage at CDG.
(Tip of the hat to Mike)
Réunion is the first place in the world to use Euro.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/news/french-island-of-reunion-is-first-to-use-new-cash-1.343917%3fmode=amp
Réunion definitely has beaches, the house we rented there had a beach at the bottom of the garden. You're usually advised to only swim in certain areas though, due to the sharks.
A lovely place and the food is fabulous.
@ Kyall
I have never been there but the island is well known for its volcanos.
There are not really beaches.
La Réunion is one of the départements of France like Normandy, Paris (a city and a département aswell at the same time) or Guadeloupe, Martinique or Guadeloupe.
And of course France shares its longest physical border with Brazil thanks to ist Guyane département.
I though that CDG-CAY was longer than CDG-RUN... I stand corrected !
I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about geography but had no idea Reunion was part of EU, runs off the Euro and is treated like the mainland. Quite interesting has anyone on here been there?
@Phize: That depends how you count "domestic". Réunion ist part of mainland France, therefore part of the European Union and the currency is the Euro. Tahiti on the other hand is a french overseas territory where France is only responsible for foreign policy, justice, defense and public order. So, a flight between Paris and Réunion could be considered more "domestic" than a flight between Paris and Tahiti. I would suppose it is the same that...
@Phize: That depends how you count "domestic". Réunion ist part of mainland France, therefore part of the European Union and the currency is the Euro. Tahiti on the other hand is a french overseas territory where France is only responsible for foreign policy, justice, defense and public order. So, a flight between Paris and Réunion could be considered more "domestic" than a flight between Paris and Tahiti. I would suppose it is the same that a flight from the US-48 to Hawaii is a domestic flight while a flight from the US to American Samoa is not.
Does anyone know when ANA tends to open up upgrades with miles? A few days before departure?
That'll buff out
PAR-RUN is the world's longest nonstop domestic flight. However, CDG-PPT (via LAX) is the world's longest direct flight, if I'm not mistaken. Shows how France has the most timezones of any country