BigDUSA

Singapore Airlines says it repaired wing cracks in 2 Airbus A38 SINGAPORE (AP) -- "Singapore Airlines says it has repaired cracks on the wings of two Airbus A380 jets and the planes are safe to fly. The carrier said in a statement Friday during the second half of last year it found cracks on "a small number of wing rib feet," which connect the rib of the wing to its skin. France's Airbus said Thursday that it had recommended to airlines that fly the A380 to check for cracks, though they did not pose a safety risk. Australia's Qantas Airways said Friday that it also found cracks in one of its 10 A380s. Singapore Airlines was the world's first carrier to fly the A380 in 2007 and has 14 of them in its fleet.

Book now. Pattaya is in full high season and the popular places fill early. Tropical Bert's and the Queen Victoria guest houses are good places to stay. I eat at both of these places when I'm in Pattaya and they serve good pub grub. I stay at the Sky-Top guest house. It's located on 2nd Road about 50 meters from Soi 6. Sky-Top is clean, well run guest house owned and run by a Thai women named Wan. Offers AC, in room safe, cable TV and wired internet. One of the many reasons I like Sky-Top it's on a major baht bus route and it's easy to get back 24/7. One block from Beach Road. Check out the Halifax Bar on Soi 6. Fun place with good looking BG when I was there last March. There is a range of prices one can pay the BG. I paid 700 ST & 1K LT for beer bar BG.

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" The above is a quote from Mark Twain.

Nothing wrong with good publicity. Way better then all the publicity Airbus received when the Rolls Royce engine exploded on the A380.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co on Saturday afternoon rolled out the first 787 Dreamliner to be delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airways , decked out with the blue and white colors of the Japanese airline. Boeing presented the plane to ANA executives and crew under clear skies at its Everett factory north of Seattle. The first domestic flights are set to start in Japan in September. "The plane is being certified to the highest FAA standards," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager, 787 program. "But the real focus of the traveling public will likely be on customer satisfaction and the elegance of the flight." The 787 Dreamliner is a lightweight airplane that promises 20 percent greater fuel efficiency to operators than similarly sized planes. Boeing says as much as 50 percent of the primary structure will be made of composite materials instead of aluminum. Aviation experts expect Boeing to apply the technology to future airplanes. The interior of the first aircraft includes 264 seats -- 12 business and 252 economy -- with personal television sets, roomier seats, an automatic toilet with a wash function, more storage, an arched entry way with a beverage bar, dimmable windows and larger lavatories. Boeing, the world's second-largest plane maker after Airbus EADS , is about three years behind schedule in delivering the first 787 largely because of snags in the unusually complex global supply chain. The 787 is almost finished with flight tests and is set for delivery to ANA in September. Boeing has taken 827 orders for the Dreamliner, a record number for a Boeing plane still in development. ANA has ordered 55 Dreamliners. The planes list for about $200 million. Boeing is developing two versions of the Dreamliner. The first version, the 787-8, will carry 210 to 250 passengers on routes of 7,650 to 8,200 nautical miles. A second version, the 787-9, will carry 250 to 290 passengers on routes of 8,000 to 8,500 nautical miles. Boeing also has been talking about a third, larger variant, the 787-10, and says it is seeing strong airline interest in the plane. QUOTE

I want to thank everyone who offered good information.

Why buy when there are so many quality homes available to rent?

I've posted more then a fair number of accommodation responses where I never mention Sky-Top.

Guy asked a question about a helmet. I rode various motorcycles for 20 years. I know good helmets from mediocre. I offered an opinion. Why risk my life driving a motorcycle when there are so many Baht buses and inexpensive car and driver available for hire?

Why not buy the best helmet on the market. Snell is the top safety rating organization. Given all the motorcycle accidents in Pattaya. I'd think twice about riding.

Interesting point. If I was coming during low season when this has a good chance of working I would. Now for guys who are unaware of what tommie's trying to do is negotiate the best price for a long stay stay three weeks or so during low season. This when the major hotels have a low occupancy rate and the hotel manager and only the hotel manager has the authority to offer deep discounts. I've used this in the past and it does work.

Buy a helmet in the US. IMHO buy a Snell approved helmet and make sure it fits. This is one piece of safety equipment where you don't want to go cheap.

Jacuzzis by the pool is fine. Cost per night is not that important. I'm looking for location and the amenities I mentioned.

Both will work equally well.

Due to ongoing health problems. I need to find a hotel with elevator service and a hot tub. I'm looking for a place between Beach Rd and 2nd Rd. Soi 2 to Walking Street.

Bert has opened his own bar and guesthouse around the corner from soi 6. It's called Tropical Bert's. When I'm in Pattaya I eat there almost every day and Bert serves good pub grub. I haven't stayed there but I did go take a look at the rooms. Good accommodations and I've only heard positive things from guys who have stayed there.

Airbus has the EU taxpayer to pay the bills. It's easy to offer financing at a loss when the EU taxpayer is footing the bill.

I stayed at the Yensabai Condo a few years ago. I liked the place. Extra large studio with kitchen. Well worth checking out. Almost every hotel/guest house will offer a large discount for a long stay.

Given you have a bad knee. I'd recommend the Queen Vic for your first trip. You're in the middle of all the action and easy walk to Beach Road. Getting back in the middle of the night is no hassle.

I agree it's overkill but I like to keep the room COLD. My wife and daughter used to wear a sweater during the summer when the AC was on.

Ask for a discount. Hospital may be willing to negotiate a lower price. It never hurts to ask. I hope your father recovers. Good luck.

FORTUNE -- The Paris Airshow last month was a clear win for Airbus, but don't count Boeing out just yet. The record number of orders for the Airbus A320neo aircraft at Le Bourget shows the European aircraft maker's success in bringing its current airline customers back on board. But while it was an impressive showing, Airbus failed to make any meaningful inroads into Boeing's core customer base, leaving in place a deadlock between the two aircraft makers in the heavily competitive and extremely profitable single-aisle jet market. For now, it looks like Boeing's customers are waiting it out to see what the aircraft maker will do with its aging single-aisle workhorse, the Boeing 737. But Boeing shouldn't make them wait too long. Airbus, along with a new crop of foreign competitors, namely the Chinese, is aggressively pitching Boeing's anchor customers. Boeing may need to act fast or it could find that even its most loyal airline clients, like American Airlines and Europe's Ryanair, sign big multi-billion dollar contracts with a competitor. The single-aisle jet market hardly grabs the headlines, but it is the most important profit center for jet makers. So while Airbus' superjumbo A380 and Boeing's futuristic 787 are important, the truth is, they aren't the big money makers. Boeing's 737 aircraft accounts for around 40% of the jet maker's commercial aviation revenue and well over half of its profits. Meanwhile Airbus still hasn't made a profit from selling its new superjumbo A380. What keeps these aircraft industry going are the small jets that whisk people several times a day from New York to Houston or from London to Madrid -- not the big transatlantic jets. The cash flow generated by those projects allow the jet makers to splurge on research and development and roll out sexy new products. That's not to say that bigger jets aren't important to the bottom line, they just aren't the backbone of the industry. For the last few years all the attention at the Paris Airshow has focused on the sexy new projects. This year, though, it was all about the workhorse. Airbus offered up for sale its latest version of the A320, the A320neo, which stands for "new engine option." As the name suggests, the jet really isn't a major redesign, it simply has a new engine. Airbus is selling the new plane as an "efficiency improvement package," over older models with improvements including a 15% reduction in fuel consumption allowing it to go farther and hold more cargo. Airbus clearly didn't reinvent the wheel here. But Airbus customers went gaga over the new jet, which won't even be ready to enter service until the fall of 2015. There was a whopping 667 orders for the new jet at the show, worth around $60.9 billion at market-list prices. Airbus now has 1,029 orders for the new jet, making it the most popular model in civil aviation history. The sheer number of orders at the show shocked analysts, who were expecting around half that. Leading the way were several Asian airlines, like Malaysia-based AirAsia with 200 orders. Garuda, the Indonesia flag carrier, also got in on the action ordering 15 jets. Most of the other orders came from long-standing Airbus champions, like JetBlue (JBLU), which ordered 40 of the new jets. Analysts and insiders believe that the only real hit to Boeing was Garuda's 15 plane order, as the flag carrier had been staunchly Boeing for decades. A 737 tune-up? The potential loss of Garuda as a core customer doesn't seem to be worrying Boeing's management in Chicago. Nor does the fact they received just 71 new orders for its latest 737 models, the -800 and -900ER, at the air show. Boeing hasn't introduced a radically different version of its 737 in some time, so it was expected to do poorly in the final tallies. Big aircraft orders usually come when there is a new model, and Boeing hasn't rolled out a new version of its 737 workhorse in six years. That's quite a long stretch to go without a gussied up new aircraft. The company seems to have focused all its energy in the last few years in launching its much-delayed mid-sized 787 aircraft, which finally enters service at the end of the summer. Boeing understands that it is time to roll out a new 737, but it hasn't decided if it should totally redesign the aircraft, possibly constructing it from the same futuristic composite materials used in the 787, or just slap a new set of fuel-efficient engines to its old aluminum body and calling it a day. It could take an estimated $15 billion or more to redesign the aircraft, Carter Copeland, the aerospace analyst at Barclays Capital, told Fortune. He argues that since the 737 is already so efficient in its current form, it may not be cost-effective for Boeing to make such a big capital expenditure to redesign the aircraft. "Frankly, there is a lot of financial and technical risk associated with doing a new airplane and Boeing need to be very comfortable with this because these are 'bet the company' type projects," Copeland says. This is at the root of why Boeing has yet to make a decision. Copeland feels that Boeing has up to a year to make the decision, but that may be too late. There are signs that some of Boeing's most loyal customers have started talking to the other side. Boeing's core customers are still the big U.S. airlines. American Airlines (AMR, Fortune 500) has been a loyal Boeing and McDonnell Douglas (acquired by Boeing in 1996) customer for decades. While it has bought non-Boeing planes for its American Eagle regional jet fleet, American, as its name suggests, prefers American-made aircrafts for its mainline fleet. The company is now moving to totally revamp its fleet as it moves to retire the dozens of old MD-80 jets it acquired in the 80s and early 90s. The airline at one point had 300 MD-80's up in the sky. But since 2008, the airline has moved to replace them with new 737s, ordering around 119 new 737-800s in 2009 and 2010. American's fleet is still in need of a major upgrade. But the Dallas-based carrier isn't just looking at Boeing. The new, more fuel-efficient A320neo, has caught the eye of management, according to a person briefed on the matter. Airbus is pushing hard, offering steep discounts to get American to sign on, this person said. American was expected to announce a large order at the Paris Airshow, but it never came. The company is reportedly in heated negotiations with both Airbus and Boeing at this time with plans to order 250 planes worth around $15 billion. Grabbing American would be a coup for Airbus and would put a seal of approval on the A320neo. That could influence other U.S. carriers to follow its lead. The other mainline U.S. carriers -- US Airways (LCC, Fortune 500), United Airlines and Delta Airlines (DAL, Fortune 500) -- already operate a mix of Airbus and Boeing jets. All of them are in need of an upgrade and finally have some money to put down a deposit -- thanks, in part, to all those new revenue streams, like baggage fees. Competition from China The biggest threat to the 737s rein may not be from Airbus, but from China. Core customer Ryanair, one of the big European discount airlines, announced in February that it was in discussions with Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, COMAC, to acquire 200 to 400 new aircraft. COMAC is a brand new entrant in the market and has the potential to break the Boeing/Airbus duopoly. Ryan Air currently operates an all Boeing fleet made up of 272 737s and has no outstanding orders for new jets after it receives its last 737 from Boeing in 2012. The airline broke off negotiations with Airbus and Boeing in 2009 because it said it was unhappy with their pricing. Ryanair, known to be frugal, needs an aircraft that fits its deep discount image. For example, the airline's colorful chief executive, Michael O'Leary, is upset with Boeing for not making an effective locking system for its onboard bathrooms that would allow the airline to start charging its customers to use the toilet. So it isn't surprising that he would be in negotiations with the Chinese to produce a cheap 200-seat airplane. Ryanair has yet to make a decision on whether or not it will abandon Boeing for COMAC, but it looks like it might just take a chance. Other discount airlines, looking to replicate Ryanair's success, may be persuaded to go with COMAC instead of the Boeing 737 when building up their fleets. Notwithstanding Ryanair's possible defection, Boeing and Airbus seem unfazed by the COMAC threat. After all, it will take years, possibly decades, for the Chinese to become a credible threat in the commercial aviation space. So far, only Chinese airlines have ordered COMAC's prototype c919 jet, with the first jet set to go into service in 2016, five years from now. While five years may seem like a long time, it's actually pretty standard lag time in the aviation business. Airlines order jets in bulk and take possession of them over several years. That is why it's critical for Boeing to nail down its core customers now, as any loss today would affect its bottom line for the next decade. While the Chinese still have to prove themselves, the Europeans have already shown that the A320 has become a formidable competitor to the 737. It's now up to Boeing to decide how it will respond to the neo threat before any of its key anchor clients decides to get adventurous and try something new. Update: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Indonesian airline Lion Air placed an order for 200 Airbus jets. In fact it was Malaysia-based airline AirAsia that placed that order. First Published: July 5, 2011: 6:41 AM ET QUOTE Aibus had one helluva show last month. Boeing had their clock cleaned.

I ordered my ribs served dry and added the sauce. The ribs without the sauce were moist and tasty.

Personally I don't mind paying more. If the driver is on time. The car is a late model car with decent tires and looks to be well maintained.

One can hope this will not happen again. I doubt software changes can overcome shoddy workmanship.