Using FlightAware.Com, I’ve been able to see some (but I don’t think all) of the government flights from around the world heading to Washington D.C. for the G20 Economic Summit.  So far, I have identified these:

 

The British Prime Minister on British Airways Flight 001

 

The Indian Prime Minister on Air India Flight 001

 

The Argentinian President on Aerolineas Argentinas Flight 1001

 

The President of the Indonesian Republic on Garuda Indonesian Flight 001

 

The President of South Korea on Korean Airlines Flight 63

 

The Prime Minister and his government on Japanese Air Force Flights 1 and 2

 

The Russian President and his government is on the Russian State Transport Flight 9031 and Russian State Transport Flight 9001.

 

The Saudi Arabian government is flying in on Saudi Flight 1B

 

The Chinese government is flying in on Air China Flight 17

 

The President of Mexico is arrving on Mexican Air Force Flight 001.

 

No doubt there are others that are not being tracked inbound. The mix of aircraft will include a 777, several 747 aircraft, Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft, a 757, IL 76, IL 62 and IL 96 aircraft from Russia and even a 747-SP (Saudi Arabia).

Filed under: Airline Fleets, Airline News, Airplane Spotting, Trivia by ajax
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The Milwaukee Business Journal reported that Midwest Airlines is being sued for lease payments on two jets and their engines.  Wells Fargo, Inc. is asking for some $82,000 in overdue plane lease payments and Polaris Holding Company, Inc., a GE Capital subsidiary, is asking for $14,000 in lease payments for engines. 

 

The interesting part of this is that with dollar amounts so low, these two rather large companies felt they had to sue for their money.  Midwest Airlines is backed by TPG, Texas Pacific Group, and other large minority shareholders.   The backers of Midwest Airlines aren’t exactly cash short, even in these economic times.  It makes me think that those two lessors identified something scary in Midwest and decided to get their claims in first.   It is possible that both lessors (financial giants in the credit and leasing industry) are just trying to raise as much cash as possible too.  It still seems suspicious though.

 

Midwest Airlines remains on my death watch and their prolonged viability is mostly due to vastly reduced fuel prices.

Filed under: Airline News, Death Watch by ajax
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