John Walton
Editor in chief of @theupfront.media: in-depth independent aviation journalism for the digital age. Subscribe today!
Journo, Japan travel expert, bon vivant, lover of gardens, fan of 22°C, crocheter, Champagne enthusiast.
Big 🏳️🌈 w/the 🏳️⚧️, 🇫🇷 in 🇪🇺, he/him.
- HMS Boat Royal USS Limited Liability Company HMNZS Lower Hutt
- 1. MAIN SUBBNAIL PROALE PRIOCK In the context of the EU going after TikTok about its algorithm, I present to you one of the latest bits of AI slop that my very carefully curated YouTube account — on which I primarily watch D&D campaigns and Japanese train videos — just algo-recommended to me.
- Quick: which of these USB sockets will charge your phone, how fast — and which of them is the cable that came with your current phone? I've been writing about the power and evolving USB standards on airplanes for nigh on two decades now, and it's more complicated than ever for passengers.
- Our latest Business Readout analysis: From the USB-IF to USB-PD to Type-C, with milliampere-hours, volts and watts, passengers are understandably confused about charging onboard — so it’s up to airlines, cabin designers and the supply chain to bring clarity. theupfront.media/business-rea...
- That this simile is in THE GUARDIAN, the UK's notionally left-leaning newspaper, tells you all that you need to know about British journalism. And I say this as someone who *went to boarding school*. Actually, I say this *especially* as someone who went to boarding school.
- Two headlines today that should have every Starlink airline worried: 1) Elon Musk joins his rocket and AI businesses into a single company apnews.com/article/spac... 2) "Paris prosecutors raid X offices as part of investigation into child abuse images and deepfakes" apnews.com/article/fran...
- SpaceX owned Starlink. xAI owned X/Twitter. xAI and SpaceX are now the same company. That means that Starlink and X/Twitter are now part of the same company. Which is now being investigated by Paris authorities over child sexual exploitation and nonconsensual intimate abuse material.
- *taps the sign* bsky.app/profile/that...
- "Paris prosecutors raid France offices of Elon Musk's X" www.bbc.com/news/article...
- Big news in the Japanese LCC space — looks like Qantas is divesting from Jetstar in Japan, which will then rebrand. Follows shutdown of Jetstar Asia in Singapore last year. Rather notable news issued under "Announcement of Intent for Strategic Shareholder Change in Jetstar Japan", I have to say.
- Look, I *know* English is hard and there are often multiple English words for one word in other languages. But Lufthansa is a MAJOR EUROPEAN AIRLINE. Is there not one native English speaker anywhere in this company who could instantly spot the difference between a parable and a parabola?
- Genuinely impressed by the JPA/TrendWorks cabin for Air India. It looks great both in the glossy moodlit renders from JPA and in the real-world lighting from the airline. A really great example of how CMF (colour, material and finish) can make what is really a standard (but good!) seat pop.
- OUT NOW: a full business class triad for this week's The Up Front Update! Air India wows with JPA & TrendWorks designs for Ascent on new 787s, and the Lufthansa Group takes two more variants of Thompson Vantage XL for Discover and Lufthansa itself. theupfront.media/update-31-ai...
- *strokes moustache* ah oui, vous avez fucké around, now vous are findezing out www.france24.com/en/live-news...
