Hakan Yilmaz is an airline management and operations consultant, and a longtime listener to the show.

He returns to the podcast to share everything relevant in aviation today, what he sees through his work and travels.

Notably, we discuss the trend of the enhancement (and increase) of the premium part of the flying experience, as opposed to an apparent worsening of flying in economy, including what is the perceived value of premium versus the actual value (including the hiccups of seat certification).
We also debate whether low cost airlines' glory years are behind them (Ryanair being the exception), whether AI is more than a buzzword for airlines (besides those pesky chat bots), how narrow bodies are creating new opportunities for medium to long haul travel (is United the de facto third Japanese carrier?! Will they ever have a Pokemon livery then??), and what is the future global outlook for air travel.

Does Finnair have the best business seat there is? Can Kirby make United an Emirates? Other good questions we touch on (plus quoting Sir Tim Clark, the Emirates Almighty, is often a good idea).

Hakan can be found on Twitter:
https://x.com/LAflyr

The Lufthansa book we mention:
https://www.amazon.com/Lufthansa-First-Years-Hartmut-Berghoff/dp/3791393898

The seat map site that is taking over the world:
https://www.aerolopa.com

Hakan appeared in episodes 124 in 2023, and 140 in 2024.
Like Bond, he will return.

Happy flying!
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A show created and hosted by Paul Papadimitriou: Instagram - LinkedIn

The show is on Instagram - Facebook - Bluesky - more links on the website

Video and audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and wherever you podcast.

Christian Nolle is a maker, designer, photographer, whose work focuses on aviation culture, the stories behind route maps, and the historical impact of flying on what ties us all together and makes us dream. He is the editor of Direction of Travel.

We discuss everything, from his obsession with Heathrow (he was testing T5 before the opening!), his collection of route maps, his beautiful print magazine, old logos and liveries, photographing air travel (we both love it), his various exploratory projects into what flying means, and why we love this all so much — we reminisce, and also look forward (even admiring Ryanair's design!).

From old timetables, freezing a network into time, to the soft power airlines held for their respective countries (Pan Am and Aeroflot!), to the promise dreamt up by looking at a big miniature aircraft at the window of an airline travel agency, it's a episode full of wonder — you'll hear (or see) that Paul could not stop his enthusiasm, from discussing his discovery of the three abandoned Olympic Airways aircraft at Ellinikon (the old Athens airport), to making Christian reveal his latest project (one you'll all love, and why the release of this episode has been delayed by a week, he needed to finish it!).

Christian can be found here:
Direction of Travel: https://directionoftravel.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/directionoftravel/

The project we discussed in episode 150, and today:
Tickets to Everywhere: https://tickets.directionoftravel.com

The new project Christian revealed during the episode (IT IS AMAZING):
Airline Atlas: https://airlineatlas.com

Also mentioned:
Old airline time tables: https://timetableimages.com/

Happy flying!
_____

A show created and hosted by Paul Papadimitriou: Instagram - LinkedIn

The show is on Instagram - Facebook - Bluesky - more links on the website

Video and audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and wherever you podcast.

Varig, VASP, Panair, the names are long gone, but they put Brazil on the map for us, alongside iconic cinema imagery and a legendary national football team that captured every kid's imagination.

Grab a caipirinha (and some black licorice) as we chart how the jet age shaped our vision of the country, before diving into our actual experiences flying in and out of SDU (that final!), GIG, CGH, GRU, POA, SSA, and IGU.

From Paulistano football derbies and missing luggage to drunken airport runs, domestic workhorses, rustic 737s, the Concorde, or 7AM beef, it's all in there.

Enjoy the World Cup, the heat, and Happy Flying!

(We had a recording issue, you won’t notice it on the audio, but there are a handful of video cuts made to correct the sync, barely noticeable!).
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A show created and hosted by Paul Papadimitriou: Instagram - LinkedIn

The show is on Instagram - Facebook - Bluesky - more links on the website

Video and audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and wherever you podcast.