As I understand it…

As I understand it the 757/767 fleets are as follows, although I am happy to be corrected. Perhaps MarkL can tell me if I’m right as he is always more up to speed on our fleet than I am.

13 757’s

BPEC
BPED
BPEE
BPEI
BPEJ
BPEK
CPEL
CPEM In the Blue Peter colour scheme.
CPEN
CPEO
CPER
CPES
CPET

10 current longhaul config 767’s

BNWH
BNWI
BNWM
BNWN
BNWO
BNWR
BNWS
BNWT
BNWU
BNWV

Once these aircraft have all been ‘dusked’ into the new longhaul config, the 4 current shorthaul config aircraft highlighted in brackets will also be dusked to join the longhaul fleet.

11 current shorthaul config 767’s

(BNWA)
(BNWB)
(BNWC)
(BNWD)
BNWW
BNWX
BNWY
BNWZ
BZHA
BZHB The only one still with a world image tail (Holland).
BZHC

There are no plans for any of these aircraft to leave the fleet in the short term, but I am sure the right offer would change that. As we always say ‘todays plan is tomorrows chip wrapper’. The plan of 319/320/321 for shorthaul and 747/777 is still the current aim, but as you probably know the powers that be are in the middle of a ‘future fleet requirement evaluation’.

I hope that answers your questions.

1L.

Sorry Adam I can’t agree with much of what you have said. I have no gripe with loco’s in general, I do agree with you that competition is good, but I think the world of aviation will be a better place without Michael O’Leary.

Don’t confuse prices coming down and more people being able to afford to fly as being the industry thriving. They are not the same thing.

he is arguably the person that has made every legacy carrier in the world take a look at themselves

The loco’s were a very small part of this. This was mainly caused by such things as SARS, 9/11, rising oil prices, etc.

he has helped many many regional airports grow and expand

He has caused most of his airports (desperate to attract a big airline deal) to get into contracts that barely cover costs and has sent some of them very close insolvency.

he is a very very good manager

He has a workforce who resent his very name, and treats his customer with absolute contempt. Not my definition of a good manager.

he’s an accountant

Anyone who works for an airline will tell you bean-counters should not be allowed to run a service company. It is widely accepted within the industry that this is what has gone wrong at bmi.

he may be annoying

Finally we agree on a point!

he has arguably sparked the revolution in low cost travel

I was always lead to believe that Southwest did this. All MO’L has done is copy what they did. How much talent does that take?

1L.

PS: Note that the Southwest 737 “Maryland One” has no eye-brow windows above the flightdeck – makes it look slightly “frowning” IMHO

Neither has the airTran 737. I agree with you about the frown. Looks a bit mean. I like it.

Nice to see so many Boeings. I was only saying to the Captain I was with yesterday that Airbus have taken over practically every shorthaul fleet flying to LHR.

1L.

Tom,

I haven’t worked at LGW for over 4 years now so I don’t know all of the flight crew by a long way. I can’t think who that Captain was but I’ll ask an F/O friend who flies at LGW if he knows who she is for you.

The pizzas served on GB flights are a BA All-Day-Deli thing, and are served on all BA mid-range (or band 3 as we call them) shorthaul flights from LHR and LGW. This would be anything from say NCE to VIE.

GB adopted the standard BA catering products in March of this year, the only exception being breakfast flights on these routes where we serve a hot french baguette but they still serve a hot breakfast. The breakfast I had on my recent LGW-PMI flight was awful though. I would rather have had our baguette.

1L.

That’s a sweet looking little aircraft, it’s a shame about that rank looking spearmint livery though

Absolutely agree Steve. That’s a seriously awful livery.

I wonder what Canadair think of the Air Canada/Embraer deal.

1L.

I’m not convinced that is for real.

The people are mostly looking at something off to the left of the picture. Even the people to the left of the picture, like the guy on the bike, are looking away from the aircraft.

If an A320 was that low over your head, surely even non-enthusiasts would be looking up, if not diving for cover.

What do you think?

1L.

I don’t know about other airports but at LHR and LGW the airport authority rules don’t allow drivers to stop to pick up bags that fall off their trucks or trailers as it causes congestion on the apron. Instead a smaller airport van runs around the picking up the bags and returning them to the appropriate handling agent.

I don’t see how a bag on the apron is any more of a security risk than when it is on the baggage truck as Dave Wilding suggests in his post.

1L.