Air charter

Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). While the airlines specialize in selling transportation by the seat, air charter companies focus on individual private aircraft and itineraries, urgent or time-sensitive cargo, air ambulance service, and other forms of ad hoc air transportation. Some air charter companies offer a large variety of aircraft, such as helicopters and business jets. Charter jet categories include turbo props, light jets, mid-size jets, super mid-size jets, heavy jets, and airliners.

There are an estimated 15,000 business jets available for charter in the worldwide fleet. The US market is the largest and the European market is the second largest, with growing activity in the Middle East, Asia, and Central America.

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China

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a sovereign state in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.35 billion. The PRC is a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, with its seat of government in the capital city of Beijing. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces; five autonomous regions; four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing); two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau); and claims sovereignty over Taiwan.

Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, China is the world's second-largest country by land area, and either the third or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement. China's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometres (9,000 mi) long, and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas.

Flight attendant

Flight attendants or cabin crew (also known as stewards/stewardesses, air hosts/hostesses, cabin attendants) are members of an aircrew employed by airlines primarily to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers aboard commercial flights, on select business jet aircraft, and on some military aircraft.

History

The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar positions on passenger ships or passenger trains, but it has more direct involvement with passengers because of the confined quarters on aircraft. Additionally, the job of a flight attendant revolves around safety to a much greater extent than those of similar staff on other forms of transportation. Flight attendants on board a flight collectively form a cabin crew, as distinguished from pilots and engineers in the cockpit.

Heinrich Kubis was the world's first flight attendant, in 1912.

Origins of the word "steward" in transportation are reflected in the term "chief steward" as used in maritime transport terminology. The term purser and chief steward are often used interchangeably describing personnel with similar duties among seafaring occupations. This lingual derivation results from the international British maritime tradition (i.e. chief mate) dating back to the 14th century and the civilian United States Merchant Marine on which US aviation is somewhat modeled. Due to international conventions and agreements, in which all ships' personnel who sail internationally are similarly documented by their respective countries, the U.S. Merchant Marine assigns such duties to the chief steward in the overall rank and command structure of which pursers are not positionally represented or rostered.

Comac C919

The Comac C919 is a planned family of 158–174 seat narrow-body twin-engine jet airliners to be built by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac). It will be the largest commercial airliner designed and built in China since the defunct Shanghai Y-10. Its first flight is expected to take place in 2016, with first deliveries scheduled for late 2018. Roll-out ceremony was held in Shanghai on November 2, 2015.

The C919 forms part of China's long-term goal to break Airbus and Boeing's duopoly, and is intended to compete against Airbus A320neo, Boeing 737 MAX, and other next-generation single-aisle airliners.

Development

Comac applied for a type certificate for the aircraft from the Civil Aviation Authority of China on 28 October 2010. The company plans to conduct the first flight of the C919 in 2016, with deliveries beginning in 2018, whereas Marwan Lahoud, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer of Airbus Group, assumes a competition outside China around 2020.

In June 2011 COMAC and Irish low-cost airline Ryanair signed an agreement to co-operate on the development of the C919 On 24 November 2011, Comac announced the completion of the joint definition phase, marking the end of the preliminary design phase for the C919. The company said it planned to cut the first metal for the aircraft in December 2011, with estimated completion of the detailed design phase in 2012.

Cabin Crew

Cabin Crew (also known as Aviators, RobKAY and Ben Garden and others) are a dance music duo from Sydney, Australia, that consists of Ben Garden and Rob Kittler.

Career

They are best known for their song "Star to Fall" (also known as "Star2Fall"), which is a remix of the 1988 hit song "Waiting for a Star to Fall" by Boy Meets Girl, a song that was involved in a "sample battle" with Sunset Strippers. Cabin Crew originally remixed the track, but SonyBMG would not clear the sample for release. Instead, they enlisted Sunset Strippers to remix the track to try to block the Cabin Crew version. However, when Boy Meets Girl's vocalist George Merrill heard the track, he re-recorded the vocals, allowing the Cabin Crew's version to be released. In Australia, the single releases were almost simultaneous. Although Cabin Crew's version debuted higher, Sunset Strippers version stood on the chart longer. The Sunset Strippers version also gained more airplay, particularly in the United Kingdom, after BBC Radio 1's JK and Joel held an on-air vote to decide which version should be played. "Star to Fall" reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart in March 2005.