Do the hotels situated near Heathrow have free shuttles to and fro the terminals like they do in the U.S.? If so, is it feasible that I can jump onto the Renaissance shuttle as if I’m going to the hotel to check in, then just shoot on over to the centre?

Those are some great pics, Michael. What exactly is the visitors centre? Is it just a parking lot where you can go and view movements? How would a tourist, like me, get there and back from one of the terminals? Which runway is that next to? By the way, my brother and I are going to be in London from June 16th till the 21st, then off to Amsterdam for 3 more days till we come back home.

15% is a relatively significant increase. If the original number was rather large, it would be even more significant.

So these planes are in full AirTran colours, even though they’re operated by RyanINTL crews, apparantly. Perhaps AirTran have a more marketable name than does RyanINTL, even though RyanINTL has been around longer.

Why would it be “too small?” If it has the capable range, with no restrictions, size doesn’t matter.

Steve, from what I was told, there were no problems flying Eastbound, it was Westbound where the restrictions came in. 40 seats seems like a bit much. You’re talking about $80,000 Australian (@ $2,000 a piece, roundtrip) lost for those empty economy class seats. I would think you’d sacrifice cargo before you’d sacrifice a live paying cutsomer. Unless of course, a load of cargo is generating an equal or greater amount of revenue. SYD-DFW seems like a bit of a reach, even for the -400ER. They might have some restrictions on that aircraft, even, to pull of that distance.

They need to expand their customer base first, and then begin routes to Europe and Australia/New Zealand.

ANA and JAL’s 747-400D’s hold 568 and 569, respectively, in a 2 class configuration, with a very narrow seat pitch in economy class.