To be honest it all depends on the type of aircraft or the airline.

Had you flown a lowcost carrier such as Southwest then you can not expect services like on the Singapore A380 first class cabin, in your economy seat!

And as it was American carriers you had flown, it may have had something to do with the “older” series of aircraft in use the other side of the pond. Example, NW DC9s, im not aware of them being refurbished(sure they have) and if they havn’t then the interiors are like 30-40 years old!

But in an economy cabin you have to bear in mind several factors. Passengers are paying the lower fares, so why should they get top notch services? It is is usually the majority of number of seats on the aircraft, so expensive to fit out fully with 52″ PTVs!:rolleyes: And some carriers, mainly LCCs, need higher number of passengers, so they “sqweeze” in as many seats as possible. Example Ryanair with 189 seats on their 737-800s. This does mean that not everybody gets 36″ of legroom, but when travelling an airline such as Ryanair, or Southwest you dont really expect that of them. And if you do, in my opinion your crazy!

Remember, every seat makes more money for these companies. So if they can get a few more rows in by sacrificing the legroom. Then they will do it. Especially low cost airlines!

The rest all comes down to cost really. Better seats cost more money. PTVs cost alot more money. The list goes on.

Josh

Im sure that easyjet have got Tunis on the cards, and have done ever since they over took GB. It was an ex GB dest, and appears to be one of the only ones that EZY are not flying to! – I personally would like to see EZY start more routes from MAN, and from LGW to – MAN, St. Petersburgh and Stockholm.

Im sure ryanair will be starting a few more routes from LGW in the next 12 months

Flybe, hold slots for LGW-FRA and DUS. Not HAM. And rumors yesterday suggest interest in CDG. – I personally would be happy with any new BE routes, as long as they are operated by E195s:p And currently i will choose to believe the rumor that BE are going to overtake BA domestics, because i think it is cool!

Vueling/Clickair is a random one i think? Especially the routes you have said? – I personally dont see the airline flying to STN, but rather consolidating its London routes into one airport, either LHR or LGW. They have what, 4 routes from London overall, and boy i cant wait for a day to photograph a Vueling aircraft!

————-

Now things on my radar!

Aer Lingus long haul to perhaps JFK or someplace similar.

Etihad to re-instate the AUH-LGW route.

Emirates to go 4 daily on LGW-DXB. And for them to expand into the UK regions more, perhaps with BRS being next.

KLM/Cityhopper to begins 4 daily flights on AMS or RTM

Norweign Air Shuttle to begin more routes out of LGW.

And thats about it

Josh

Im very pleased about this too! Its fantastic…

I would have thought BHX or MAN would have been first England base. So for it to be LGW is awesome!

The fares look great so hopefully i am going to take advantage of them next summer!

Things are really heating up at LGW currently. With easyJet, Flybe and Ryanair all announcing new routes within the past weeks! Perhaps this will push FR to expand LGW further. easyJet may start on the VIE and ZRH routes, not sure what they would be thinking on this subject. And im sure this doesnt effect BE too much.

Josh

Will it not be the same procedures seeing as its a BAA airport? I seem to remember that people without full checks could go airside as long as they were escorted and supervised at all times.

I assume so? I was escorted so, should be fine? Is it specifically BAA you intend to be working for, if not, you could try getting it with one of the airlines

Josh

Mexicana are indeed beginning LGW operations. The start date for MEX-LGW is 17th Jan, and LGW-MEX the day after. The service is to be operated 2 weekly to start with, then in Feb it will increase to 4 weekly. It will be flown by 767-200 aircraft, recently aquired from LOT Polish Airlines.

The rumors on AM are rather interesting in my opinion. They did have slots ready to start services from 16th December, but never went through with it. They do own government rights to fly a 3 times weekly flight to London, however. If they do not begin a service during 2009, they then loose the right and this would give the opportunity for MX to go daily. AM will not want this, so i feel they are going to begin a service next year also, and it will likely be when the Summer timetables come into effect?

Hope this helps.

Josh

Good news for the airports indeed, MSE and DSA!

Tom, ive read those too, they have apparently applied for slots here there and everywhere, such as 4 daily Dusseldorf, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Amsterdam! Should be interesting to here what there plans for the place are!

Josh

Well if your operating only the LGW-CDG leg, i think your lucky!

Reports when i was at Zoom where that the pax went to the toilets in the aisles, and that are generally a pain in the rear. Depends which part of the aircraft you are, but cabin crew have it worse i believe. One of the Air Finland pilots made a joke about the cabin crew, which i wont share:D

But yeah, i believe the majority of the Pax get on in CDG, so your rather lucky in my opinion…