…three things that define Montreal’s winter, or a news item? Well, today it’s a single news item. We had a shot of freezing rain overnight, and now have received 30cm of snow in the past 12 hours — and it’s still snowing!
So this year March is definitely coming in like a lion? (ah, so that’s where the expression comes from!)
Snow isn’t always the only thing flying. Thirty-eight years ago today, on March 2, in 1969, the prototype Concorde flew for the first time. Of course, one of these beauties flew for the last time on November 27, 2003.
In other air news, the giant Airbus A380 is having its share of troubles…cancelled orders, delays and, earlier this week, 10,000 layoffs at the company. They flew 200 lucky reporters around in a passenger A380 in mid-February, but today UPS followed FedEx and cancelled its order for 10 planes. That means that now Airbus has no confirmed orders for the freight version of the plane! The next support-raising move is to fly two Quantas-branded A380s to the U.S. for the first time — on March 19 there will be simultaneous landings on opposite coasts, at LAX and JFK. The first passenger plane delivery is expected in October 2007 to Singapore Airlines, who may fly it in late 2007 (more likely in 2008). It will be sometime in 2008 (at the earliest) that we see Air France fly these huge planes here, on the Paris-Montreal route.