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Business Traveller
Canadian Ecotourism; Boeing 777 Flight; Flying Green
Aired August 18, 2006 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Strap yourself in and get ready to see the best in aviation and the best of CNN BUSINESS TRAVELER. We're flying.
Hello and welcome to CNN BUSINESS TRAVELER.
I'm Richard Quest, this month reporting from the Farnborough Air Show in England, one of the largest air shows in the world. It's a glorious summer's day, the perfect day to see the thrills and spills of aviation.
On this month's show, we are taking a moment to reflect. Another chance to see some of the best features that we've brought you on BUSINESS TRAVELER.
So, coming up, we remember the record attempt at the world's longest flight, the long way around. Those red eye blues -- we find out how all that travel really affects your body.
And the Canadian wilderness is truly the best way to relax.
This is the Boeing 777 extended range on static display here at Farnborough. In November of last year, I was lucky enough to be invited to be on board a Boeing 777 N.R. long range, a slightly smaller plane, but with greater distance, as we attempted to fly the longest flight in the world via commercial aircraft.
Did we break the world record?
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): It took months to plan. Now, the 777, Boeing Flight 002, was ready, ready to break the world record and sent on this commercial flight. With 53,000 gallons of fuel on board, I inspected the giant G engines. I wanted to make sure they could, indeed, carry us for 22 hours nonstop. Oh, the wrong way, around the globe.
Leaving Hong Kong, the take off, picture perfect.
For the eight captains flying this plane, much of the work has already been done by months of preparation.
SUZANNA DARCY-HENNEMANN, PILOT, BOEING: Our challenge is getting ready for the flights. I'd say 98 percent of the energy we put into breaking this record was in the pre-work that we did.
QUEST (on camera): So, we have been in the air for just a couple of hours and there's still 20 to go if we're going to break the record. The route is very interesting -- out to Hong Kong, over the Pacific, making landfall again at Los Angeles, out across past New York and then across the Atlantic into London.
(voice-over): It all seems to be going smoothly. Time to join the others for a bit of shut eye. There are plenty of beds in business and economy. But I opt for the mattress on the floor. Now, here's a thought - - it doesn't get much flatter than this.
A beautiful sunrise goes by. Even though we haven't officially broken the record yet, Boeing is pretty confident it's all but a done deal. And it has high hopes for the commercial success of this ultra long haul plane and its appeal to airlines.
Part of the reason for the 777 Airloft (ph) is that the competition already has a plane like this. Singapore Airlines started its direct service between New York and Singapore. The A3-4500, used on the route, flies for 18-and-a-half hours, to cover the 10,000 miles. The plane can take 301 passengers. It will open up routes like Perth to London, New York to Auckland, Miami to Taipei.
Because of the nature of this flight, we enjoy another stunning sunrise.
(on camera): We are now crossing the Atlantic, and although it hasn't yet been rubber stamped, the fact is we have broken the world record for the longest flight, more than 11,000 nautical miles; 13,000 statute miles.
(voice-over): With plenty of food, entertainment, sleep, we managed OK. For me, the 22 hours literally flew by.
As we approach London Heathrow, it was a typical gray, miserable day outside. That didn't dampen the spirits on board.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST: All our flying was quite exhausting. We need a bit of a rest, preferably in a premium class cabin. Sleep is one of the biggest issues when we're on the road, whether it's from jet lag or simple fatigue. There's no real or right answer, as I discovered last October when I went to Tokyo to discover how could we truly get better shut eye on the road.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): It's a familiar, classic scene -- sleepless in a strange and unfamiliar setting. It's my first night in Tokyo, and like every other business traveler fresh off the plane, I'm feeling stale, and the city's sights go by unnoticed.
(on camera): My first night's sleep in Tokyo, I have to say, was a good night's sleep. I was exhausted from the flight, I didn't sleep well on the plane -- oh, and yes, I took half a sleeping table.
(voice-over): I'm keeping this sleep diary and I'm wearing this "Actiwatch. Both will track all of my sleeping activity. So, five hours for my first night. What about star (ph), then?
The trouble is I've crossed 15 time zones, from London across the Atlantic to L.A. and now the Pacific to Tokyo, all in the space of six days. Crossing as little as two time zones can result in a 20 percent decrease in productivity.
A day of grueling filming quickly exposes this truth. That night, everything goes rapidly downhill.
(on camera): Well, I tried my best and I seem to have failed. According to the watch, it is five to three in the morning and I'm wide awake and it looks like there's little chance that I'm going to go back to sleep any time soon.
What to do?
(voice-over): My third and last night in Tokyo was the same sorry story. In total, I slept 27 hours over six days, which works out as an average of about four-and-a-half hours a night.
What's crucial is how much rest one actually gets in a 24-hour period. Forget the idea of building up a reservoir of sleep. Sleep is not something you can store.
And the plane ride back isn't much better. By the time I get home to London, I've been on the go for 24 hours. I'm confused, tired, disoriented.
Sleep experts say this level of fatigue puts me over the U.K. legal alcohol limit. Effectively, I'm drunk.
My first stop getting home is the Sleep Disorder Unit at the University of Surrey. Derk-Jan Dijk and his team are to analyze the results from my Actiwatch.
This is what my graph should look like -- a normal, healthy, sleeping rhythm. Mine is clearly a mess.
DERK-JAN DIJK, SLEEP EXPERT, UNIVERSITY OF SURREY: You see that there is no regular pattern. The activity is all over the place. So we can clearly see that local time and biological time no longer match up.
QUEST: Next, I'm wired up, hooked up and then, to my great pleasure, tucked in. The test, to see how long it takes me to -- yippee -- fall asleep. It'll determine the true damage to my sleep pattern this trip has done.
Literally, 120 seconds into this experiment, it finally hits me.
DIJK: A sleep latency of two minutes indicates that you are very, very, sleepy. Under normal conditions, a normal evening, your sleep latency may be 12, 14 or 15 minutes. So that's an indication that his biological rhythms are somewhat abnormal after this heroic trip.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST: Coming up after the break, find out how much closer Airbus is to solving the problems of the A380 with our countdown to the super jumbo.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Last month, we told you all about the wiring problems and the delays of the Airbus A380.
I'm now on board MSN1, the first flight test aircraft of the super jumbo. It's the perfect place for us to continue our countdown to the super jumbo.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): Despite the problems, there was a sign of renewed confidence in the plane when Singapore Airlines announced it was ordering nine more A380s, bumping up the total order book for Airbus to 168.
Hot testing of the plane in Abu Dhabi has been completed and four passenger cabin tests will be carried out in September.
The A380 made its flying debut at Farnborough, showing what it could do.
The countdown continues and CNN BUSINESS TRAVELER will keep you updated all of the way.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST: Whether it is civil or military aviation, everyone is keen these days to ensure the limited amount of damage that can be done to the environment. And business travelers are no exception. We've come in for a lot of criticism for the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that we generate as we go around the world.
How can we reduce them further?
It was a subject we looked at last August.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST: I am about to leave on my journey to Vancouver. My carbon footprint is going to be monitored literally every step of the way by Graham Simmonds back here in London. He is going to be looking at what effect I'm having on the environment by the choices I'm making, the miles that I wrack up. And you know I don't mean air miles.
Let's go. Heathrow Airport, please.
GRAHAM SIMMONDS, TREES FOR CITIES: So here's Richard taking his journey from Central London to Heathrow Airport, taking it by cab. Not the most environmentally friendly way of doing it. He could have gone by public transport. He could have shared his cab, which meant he would halved his carbon footprint.
QUEST (voice-over): Halved it? Well, all right, then, public transport it is.
(on camera): This is the environmentally friendly way to the airport -- the Heathrow Express. It's a lot quicker and cheaper.
(voice-over): So, I'm arriving at LHR the right way. Time to check in. Ninety percent of my carbon footprint will come from my flight alone, from London round trip to Vancouver. But it's business class all the way.
Can I check in, please?
SIMMONDS: Now, if Richard is right, flying is big carbon footprint stuff. In 1999, the world's leading climate scientists estimated that 600 million tons of carbon dioxide was pumped into the Earth's atmosphere through flying.
QUEST: Graham, you will be pleased with this. A few days before my trip, guilt set in.
(on camera): This is some more (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(voice-over): And I tried my hand with a spot of gardening. Fred Russell from Trees for Cities helped me plant some saplings. It's a very popular and symbolic way to offset my carbon emissions. I'll need to plant nine trees to make up for my round trip to Vancouver.
FRED RUSSELL, TREES FOR CITIES: All right, so are you ready to back hoe?
QUEST: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. This is (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
RUSSELL: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
QUEST: Oh, lordy, lordy. I need a couple of minutes.
RUSSELL: That's it.
QUEST (voice-over): By my reckoning, I just planted sufficient from London, oh, maybe to the west coast of Ireland.
(on camera): I would say we've reached, I don't know, somewhere over the North Atlantic, maybe Iceland. Well, no, probably Oceania by now.
(voice-over): Three, number three, I would say that puts me somewhere over, oh, northern Canada.
(on camera): So the last tree, the fourth, is going to take us down the Western Seaboard, over Canada and into Vancouver.
SIMMONDS: Yes. Absolutely.
QUEST (voice-over): Putting it into perspective, roughly speaking, two trees will offset one seat on a short haul flight, while a longer flight, say London to New York, requires six trees to be planted. The rule of thumb requires the business traveler to plant four-and-a-half trees for every ton of carbon emissions.
Tree planting, though, is only one way to counter carbon emissions. Another way? Trade it.
I'm one of the first business travelers to try my hand at individual carbon trading. And here's my certificate to prove it. For a mere $10, I am now officially carbon neutral.
NEIL ECKERT, EUROPEAN CLIMATE EXCHANGE: The individual traveler can effectively purchase the carbon they use or the carbon dioxide that they cause when they travel. So, in the European Union, you've got 2.2 billion tons of permits to pollute and if the individual traveler buys some of those permits and takes them out of the system, that is gas that cannot go out the factory chimney.
QUEST: It's not been easy, but I think I've done as much as I can. My conscience is clear. I arrive in Vancouver.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST: If you're going to visit any air show, especially a big one like Farnborough, this is the best way to get around.
Coming up after the break, we answer your questions.
This month, it's when can you use a cell phone on board a plane?
And an escape to the Canadian wilderness.
BUSINESS TRAVELER back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Now to our new feature, where we are going to get the experts to answer your questions about your business travel issues.
We had an inquiry this month about when we can use our cell phones after the plane has landed. It's one of the things we've all experienced.
Can you call into (ph) between London and arriving at the terminal?
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): I'm sorry to say there's no absolute answer. It's all up to the country where the plane is registered. For instance, U.S. carriers follow the FAA rules, which permit airlines to allow cell phone use once the plane has landed and left the runway. So U.S. carriers follow the same policy when flying overseas.
European authorities are more strict. In the U.K. you can only switch on once the engines have been switched off. So British carriers must follow that rule wherever they go. And airlines, too, can adopt a more strict interpretation. Virgin Atlantic, for instance, only allows the usage of phones once you've actually left the aircraft.
So, the simple answer? There is none.
It is almost hugely inconsistent and annoying for the frequent flier. It all comes back to where the plane is registered. If they say you can't, don't.
(on camera): So, now you know.
If you've got a question, not a winge, but a question that you'd like our experts to answer, send me an e-mail at quest@cnn.com.
The ones we don't manage to answer on the program, you'll find answers on the Web site. It's at cnn.com/businesstraveler.
With planes and travel come noise and stress. So throughout the year we have tried to show you places where you could go to relax, somewhere different where you can truly switch off.
When we went to western Canada, we found peace and quiet, the perfect place for you to escape.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): My down time takes me to an ecolodge. It may look slow at first, but behind this brand of ecotourism, there are plenty of endorphins to enjoy.
I meet up with John Caton, the manager of the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort. He's eager to give me a taste of what the Canadian outdoors has to offer.
First up, giddy up.
(on camera): If you're a stressed business traveler, what do you come here for?
JOHN CATON, CLAYOQUOT WILDERNESS RESORT: You know, I think that it's a -- I think that's an individual preference. Most of the businesspeople we get here are high on endorphins anyways. They're running. They're exercising. They're bicycling. So when they actually get here, we're offering them an opportunity to go horseback riding in the morning for four hours, come in and have a lovely lunch and go out kayaking for three hours in the afternoon.
QUEST: I don't know about three hours, but I'll give it a go. Once I get the hang of it, I'm able to enjoy this scenery without interruption. Oh, did I mention, forget the phone? There is little chance your boss will find you out here.
Although this is remote, it isn't rustic. And don't get hung up on those tents. It isn't your typical camping experience.
(on camera): When all is said and done, there's only so much kayaking and fishing you can do. Time to enjoy some other outdoor pursuits. Now, here's a bear.
(voice-over): Of course, it's not as easy as that. If you wait long enough, a bear will come along -- in my case two black bears. In the early morning, they come down to the water's edge to feed.
(on camera): Oh, that was worth it. That was definitely worth it.
(voice-over): And at the end of an exhilarating, albeit exhausting day, time to enjoy that campfire spirit.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST: Rest and relaxation, peace and quiet, probably the one thing we can't guarantee on your business travels.
But that is CNN BUSINESS TRAVELER for this month.
I'm Richard Quest at the Farnborough Air Show.
Wherever your travels may take you, I hope it's profitable.
And I'll see you next month.
END
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