Monday 28 February 2011

The disappearing Saj Ahmad and Fleetbuzz Editorial

Fleetbuzz Fact Checker is new but apparently there is an affect already. Within 48 hours of the first read in England (Ahmad lives in London), Fleetbuzz Editorial went offline "for maintenance" and Ahmad's subscriber-only sibling blog disappeared behind a Wordpress announcement that you have to be "invited" to read it. The home page was available to read before, so people could see the headlines of his articles.

Never fear. This won't stop Fact Checker. Fact Checker can access all of the past Fleetbuzz Editorials it wants to and dissect them. Then there is the rich history of Ahmad's GLG articles that were picked up by Google News.

You can run, but you can't hide, Saj.



Friday 25 February 2011

Saj Ahmad at Fleetbuzz gets his facts wrong again and again and again

There is just no end to the number of times Saj Ahmad gets his facts wrong:

Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbo Fan is a frequent target. He recently and perpetually claims Boeing has no interest in the engine. This is just flat-out wrong, wrong, wrong. Boeing is very interested in the engine and is holding close discussions with Pratt to power the replacement aeroplane for the 737.

Ahmad recently cited a Boeing executive on "Pratt & Whitney's need to address questions no one seemed to be asking." This was referring to an article in Aviation Week .However, Ahmad, per his usual M.O., didn't cite the source, probably because doing so would show how selectively he chose his quote to unfairly portray what the executive truly said.

Here is the full, relevant quote from the article:

Piasecki has her own take on maturity of engine designs. For the NEO, Airbus is offering a choice of Pratt & Whitney’s PW1100G geared turbofan (GTF) or CFM International’s Leap-X, the follow-on to the CFM56-7B that powers 737NGs. Both must prove themselves, she says, especially the PW1100G, the maintenance of which she regards as an unknown. “We love the GTF technology,” she says. “We hope to be working very closely with [Pratt] to understand the technology. But nobody seems to be asking such a fundamental question, particularly as it relates to the NEO.”

While Ahmad selectively referred to the maintenance issue, he left out that Boeing "loves" the GTF technology and that LEAP-X must also "prove itself." Ahmad, who fawns over LEAP-X, doesn't at any time mention the questions over LEAP-X.

Another topic on which Ahmad always gets his "facts" wrong concerns the Bombardier CSeries. Ahmad perpetuates his myth that the CSeries does not have US trans-continental range. Once again, wrong, wrong, wrong. Straight from Bombardier's website, the range is 1,850-2,950nm, more than enough to go across the US. Ahmad always and totally ignores the ER version offered by Bombardier with the greater range. This is just another sets of falsehoods he writes. He also conveniently ignores statements by Lufthansa's Nico Buchholz supporting the CSeries and from Virgin America's David Cush that the CSeries could perform all missions, including trans-continental routes, that Virgin needed.

More information will be forthcoming.

Monday 21 February 2011

Analysis, what analysis? No presenting all sides with Saj Ahmad

Saj Ahmad tries to portray himself as presenting praise and criticism of his subject matter. He labours under illusions that his readers fall for this pretence.

In fact, Ahmad not only isn't presenting objective analysis, but rather he routinely insert gratuitous and unnecessary cheap shots at programmes he doesn't like.

For example, his recent posting about the Boeing 747-8I roll-out. In his headlines, and right up front, he takes shots at the A380. This is completely unneeded but consistent with his well-known and long-running dislike for the A380, but rather the focusing on the 747-8I rollout, he inserts the babble about the A380.

Ahmad has often pointed out that Emirates Airlines is the largest customer for the A380 with something like 90 total orders now, out of about 300 total. In this, he is correct. But so what? Ahmad fails to acknowledge, or perhaps he does not know, or perhaps he does know but doesn't care, that the Emirates business plan expansion is built around the A380 as the key. Unless Ahmad believes that Emirates is going to go out of business, the airline is going to take all the airplanes.

He also picks on the A350 constantly. Another recent post does nothing but run down the airplane, including the claim that an A350 customer believes Airbus should drop the model. But in typical Ahmad fashion, he makes this sweeping statement with absolutely no supporting evidence and for all anyone knows he is making this up. If this were true statement, Ahmad should quote the airline and source so that readers could judge for themselves.

But Ahmad is famous for his anonymous statements. Long-time readers will see that about the only people he quotes directly as having talked to him are his buddies at Boeing. Quotes from Airbus, Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney, airlines and others are not identified as having been in an interview with him, but rather these are quotes in news articles readily available on the Internet. He weaves these quotes into his posts for credibility (and positions them as if he sourced them), but it there is no evidence to indicate he actually did any research to get them.

So as you read his writings, read them carefully to understand where he is--and is not--getting information contained in the posts. And then judge the credibility accordingly.

Sunday 20 February 2011

Welcome to the new Saj Ahmad Fleetbuzz Fact Checker

It's a good thing you found this site. It's time to be fact checking Saj Ahmad and FleetBuzz Editorial.

From time to time it will be necessary to fact-check claims, "facts" and other "information" Ahmad puts on FleetBuzz Editorial. His history demonstrates a disconnect that is mind boggling.

Be sure to check out the tabs across the top of the page. This will get you started.