The New Plane Smell

I kidded with the pilot. "Avoid flying over Iran, can you please?" And he obliged (yea, did it for me - right!) as we just skirted the northwest corner of Iran. On most trips to India we go over the Black Sea, this time we flew close to Moscow and then south over the Caspian Sea.

The flight did not exist when Tom Friedman wrote his book, but the new 14.5 hour eastbound, 16 hour west bound non-stop, 7,800 mile Delta flight on a Boeing 777-200ER from JFK to Mumbai definitely qualifies as a global "flattener". Delta also recently launched a Atlanta to Dubai non-stop and our little Southern airline is fast becoming the US ambassador to the world. Fittingly, the purser on our flight was ex-Pan Am, from its glory days. At takeoff, both the gentleman in the seat next to me and I went 'uh-oh" as the 777 engines screamed loudly at about 3,000 feet as they struggled with the load of 45,000 gallons of fuel. We both got ready for an emergency landing. But the purser remained calm, and the engines followed suit  at about 10,000 feet.

The JFK Mumbai flight is not exactly new - I have flown it 3 times already, but this was the first with the New Delta.  They still do not have flat beds, but the business class seats and extra space up front just make the flight so much easier. The crew have flat beds -  two sets of  bunks  in the cargo area for second shift of 8 pilots/attendants  - but they are hard. So the crew improvises - one told me she makes a "pillow mattress". Next time you cannot find an extra pillow, tell them to look there!

So, I arrive in India and find Barack Obama is beating up on the Clintons (and Cisco) about offshoring. I thought Barack was the next-gen, global candidate? American Airlines flies non-stop from his home town, Chicago on a similar 777 to Delhi. He ought to take that and see how home town Boeing is benefiting from a global boom.  And see why Delta, which through the 60s was a crop dusting airline, now expects to get 50% of its revenues in 2010 from international flights. And realize that global business also means having a global workforce, no matter what Lou Dobbs may say. And serving the best the world has to offer. Like a nice Australian Shiraz.