I have always found BA food tasty and its free. Better than having to fork out 3 quid for a curly sandwich or have to make do with a tub of Pringles on a 2 hour flight to Spain.

Not dirt cheap, necessarily but I dont expect to have to take out a second mortgage for a short hop on a Jetstream, ridiculous!

Olympic, new fleet every 5 years? Every 25 more like! I love Olympic, I wish them all the state aid they can get their hands on.

Frenchmen arent ugly but I doubt whether the EU would be as strong at criticising France or l’Allemange for saving their precious flag carriers.

Olympic, in particular is one of my favourite airlines. I love them for their dont care attitude, old 732s and the A300s, they are inefficient but they are an airline of character and a proud carrier.

If a goverment wants to prop up its national airline it should be allowed to do so and it should be something for that nation and its politicians to decide not the EU with its strong French/German membership who would love to see their carriers thrive at the expense of the smaller states carriers!

My other half is very high up in BT and has to fly regularly to EDI and GLA. He has an expense budget but he does have to watch what he spends on flights as the greedy airlines think all business travel is not cost-sensitive. It is, he is management but he and his collegues have seen a freeze on expenses. A few trips on Eastern Airways would wipe out his budget for air travel.

Business traveller? Who? company executives then. At those prices I think even generous expense accounts will be exceeded. Also people like me, leisure travellers should be encouraged especially to fill up the less popular lunchtime frequencies!