Dambusters

I am sure Theo Stark will have this on his blogsite but it's worth watching this Dambusters news item just for the sound of merlin engines
hattip Telegraph TV

How many more ?

You wonder in the days of high oil price and increasing inflation, how many of the UK's smaller Regional airlines will go under ?
I note Flybe stepped in immediately........
At Southampton airport, we have seen the a similar slimming of the market with Scotair withdrawing their Amsterdam return flights and Estern airlines their Brussels routing leaving Flybe only - great for competition right !....................



Euro manx airline goes out of business
May 10 2008 by Neil Hodgson, Liverpool Echo
ONE of the main airlines connecting Liverpool with the Isle of Man has ceased trading.
EuroManx blamed rising fuel prices as one of several factors behind the business.
The Isle of Man-based airline operated five flights a day between the island and Liverpool John Lennon airport.
It started flights in 2002, taking over from Manx Airlines. Last year it carried 140,000 passengers.
Passengers learned of the company’s failure yesterday morning.
Rival Flybe, which started flying the route on March 30, stepped in and offered free replacement tickets for Euromanx passengers.
Liverpool JLA spokesman Robin Tudor said: “Thankfully, they were accommodated by Flybe who have four flights a day from Liverpool. .”
Euromanx employed 70 staff and flew to Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast and London.

Hatip - Liverpool Echo

Hold the Front page - Flybe manage 2 consecutive on time flights

Well a fairly standard week judders to the end ....literally given the standard of my last landing on Eastern Airlines tonight - but with 5 flights in 4 days it's probably worth reflecting on couple of things.
Regular readers will know I am not FlyBe's greatest fan, however they did manage 2 on-time flights this week but it was the difference in the crew's attitude - Tuesday's flight to edinburgh the crew was attentive with their service and announcements and the landing was smooth. On the flight back from Frankfurt, the attendants spent the majority of 90 minutes chatting at the back of the plane, the captain was silent and the landing was fast, furious and spine juddering.
The Lufthansa Edinburgh Frankfurt leg of the week was brutally efficient and on time, but the sandwiches in economy were unpalatable ( I was even offered a second).
And tonight's flight with eastern airlines - the less said the better let's just say a Jetstream 41 was not made for family travelling with 3 kids under 5 - the smell of baby sick is not easily dispersed on such a small plane !

Terminal 5 & BA

Had my first trip thru heathrow terminal 5 on Wednesday night.

Pretty impressive structure - check in & bag drop went well but security will be a nightmare when the terminal gets up to full capacity-

• because of the layout with domestic / foriegn flights mixing, like Manchester airport, they have to photograph all domestic passengers - the queues will be tragic when it get busy.
• The baggage x ray machines will also slow everyone - they have an automated tray return system, which failed 3 times in the 10 mins I was waiting to go thru a particular machine.

BA were awful as ever - 3 hours delayed to Newcastle - the plane was declared unservicable by the engineers as soon as it landed. It took the gate staff 45 mins to be honest with us the passengers and start looking for a new plane. The new plane was smaller than the original, so they had bump off the last 4 rows of passengers (luckily I had moved forward on check in !) and then the weather turned foul, so we had a further 45 mins on the ground.

Classic mobile phone moment

Interesting moment travelling (late again) between Paris and Frankfurt with Lufthansa. A french lady, who to be frank looked like a bit of hippie, the four decades having passed her by, turned on her mobile phone on final approach into Frankfurt. (Those of you who read the ever- informative simon calder will know even those airlines which will allow mobile phones in future, will ban them below 10000ft) .
Not surprisingly as she tried to tell her boyfriend, she was delayed and may miss her connection, the cabin crew "were having kittens", ordering her in fairly germainc terms to turn the phone off.
Her excuse - "Air France allow it" ................mmmmh

Fly(may)be- lets me down again

Top draw incompetence from my friends from Flybe - this morning went like this:
0600 check in for the 0715 Southampton to Brussels services. Offered emergency exit seat on an embraer 145.
0645 in aura restaurent with tuna wrap, cappucino and emails
0650 announcement: plane delayed by technical issues more 0730
0730 nothing - can see the engineers working on the plane problem with de-icing kit on left wing.
0745 - announcement that there will be more info at 0830 - all the early start planes to perhaps 12 locations have left....except for Brussels. - engineers have gone for breakfast
0830 nothing - engineers back from breakfast and have bits off the palne
0845 Flight delayed until 10:30 as plane is faulty and we have to wait for new plane
0915 making calls - doing emails - pilots come out after consultation with engineers get in plane and start it up i guess to fly it to Exeter for maintennace but it's a frustrating moment watching the plane you should have be on ...............fly away
0945 planes start coming in on morning return flights including embraer 145s, however no effort to try and shuffle planes to get our flight away.
1030 nothing
1045 we are going to board soon according to announcement
1050 Boarding but it's a Dash 8 - seating free for all because all our boarding passes were set up fro an embrarer 145 - how come Flybe couldn't have found us an earlier Dash 8
1105 Paperwork buggered because no doubt some people have given up & gone home
1115 still no paperwork - hold -re-opened to sort bagggage issue.
11.25 Door closed - push back
1320 (cet) land brussels
1345 in taxi to restaurent
1410 arrive 1 hour 10 minuts leate for lunch meeting with morning meeting completely blown.

Come on Flybe - How's about a spare plane at southampton or some decent ops people to shuffle planes/flights

trip to the US

Manic Trip to Houston and San Antonio lasting 10 days - here are a few travel observations:

1. Normal BA inconsistency - Crew Gat-Hou were crap, no service ethic and they even ran out salads. Crew back Hou -> Lhr first class - served everything promptly and regularly -supplied coffee and Port throughout the night trip back to LHR.
2. Recommend the martinis at Timpano
3. If you drive from Houston to San Antonio you must stop off in Luling at Luling Bar-B-Q, 709 E. Davis St.Luling, Texas.
4. Fly Continental back into Houston - it makes transfer across to international flights very easy across George Bush inetrnational airport
5. Flew back into LHR terminal 4 - Bags only took 15 mins (yes 15 mins and BA didn't lose anything) but BE WARNED - Heathrow Express doss not run to terminal 4, so it's some other service about once very 25 mins back to the main station at Terminals 1,2 &3
6. Terminal 1 is now bearable now BA has left it. BMI tried losing my bag on the last leg back to Leeds thanks to "stuck baggage belts"

Loved this quote from Castro supporting UK MP

hattip the BBC

Different rules for Passport control officers

Regular readers or should that be reader of this blog will know Passport control officers are not my favourite people. They now have smart uniforms and outwardly remain as petty and hostile as ever.
At manchester yeterday, there was a growing queue of people off my flight from frankfurt and other european locations with 2 desk officers on + a guy from security staff, making sure we queued correctly and switched our mobiles off as per the copious signage.
Suddenly a loud phone rings, everybody looks guiltly around to see one of the Passport officeers take the call, leave his desk and wander around in the space behind passport control taking I guess a personal call.
How come they don't have to turn their mobiles off ?

savings at British airways

Travelled BA on Thursday - the cuts are getting serious: Lunch last year in economy class was a wrap filled with chicken, salad etc. cut into two. This year it's half a feta cheese wrap....my guess is soon they will follow BMI, Flybe, Ryanair and sell you sandwiches.
However I am glad to report they did not lose my bag, although I had to change terminals from 1 to 4, and they had only 70 minutes to get transfer bag - had to admit I was surprised it appeared in Brussels - expectations are so low of Britain's favourite airline !