Yes but sitting next to the emergency exit door over the wing… they’re expected to be capable of removing the door in times of emergency…the airlines should pay them $160 dollars

I have to confess, this is always my concern, if somebody pays in advance and turns up on the day and is an 80-year old frail lady, what do they do then?

Most likely the next set of results will be good resulting in Willie and his crew getting their bonuses back while the workers will have been tricked into accepting pay reductions.
Good on BALPA for calling the bluff.

Actually Mr Walsh has announced he is working for no pay in July, as are some of his other executives. I knwo it’s only one month, but to give up 1/12th of your pay isn’t a bad statement.

Looks like it’s getting rocky…

BMI majority owner launches legal action against Lufthansa
Victoria Moores, London (20May09, 21:42 GMT, 221 words)

German Star Alliance member Lufthansa’s takeover of BMI seems to be turning sour, after a company owned by BMI’s major shareholder Sir Michael Bishop launched High Court action against the German Star Alliance carrier.

In October last year BMI chairman Bishop exercised a put option, forcing Lufthansa to acquire his full shareholding of 50% plus one share in BMI, under a deal which was agreed in 1999. Bishop holds his stake through an investment vehicle called the BBW partnership. The acquisition will give existing shareholder Lufthansa 80% control of the UK carrier. SAS owns the remaining 20%.

But the pace of the takeover has been slow and, over recent days, UK business daily The Times has reported an emerging a tussle between the two sides. It claims the dispute centres on whether Bishop should be required to recapitalise BMI.

In a brief statement, Bishop’s company says: “The BBW Partnership, controlling shareholder of BMI, has today issued proceedings in the High Court to declare that BBW has fulfilled all the necessary regulatory requirements to complete the sale of BMI to Lufthansa, and seek that Lufthansa be required to complete the acquisition of the shares.”

BMI posted a huge preliminary post-tax loss of almost £100 million ($138 million) for the year ended 31 December 2008, on a slight rise in revenue to £1.04 billion.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news

Some great pics there! Hopefully someone will have some from the mid 90’s..that livery really doesn’t ring any bells!

That was the only livery used by Balkan Bulgairan at that time….and unless someone knows differently I am fairly certain there was no such other operator. The pic I posted a link for was in 1992, and was the only livery used by the Airline at that time. Note also, it is a different airline altogether to the airline shown in Future Pilots links (that airline, BH Air is still in operation)

When I was 7 I took my first flight on a Tu154 (a or b I have no idea!) from Newcastle to Bulgaria (Sofia, I think)

This would have been in 92. For some reason I remember the aircraft as having green on it??

Just curious, how long after then did Balkan continue? Is “Balkan Air” (or whatever variation of air they use..) still going?

Anybody got any pics of those particular 154s at Newcastle?

Ta 😎

No Balkan Air as was then no longer exists. It was the national carrier and operated under the official name of Balkan Bulgarian Airlines. It was 75% owned by an Isreali company called Zeevi, but went out of business because of mounting losses. Although the Government still owned 25%, they had a big argument with Zeevi about who had caused the financial position and so the company was allowed to fold.

I more mean don’t show it as yet another ridiculous charge; just literally increase the fare. I really would much rather see that than yet another charge that makes people think ‘here we go again!’ I honestly believe the constant extra charges are going to backfire on Ryanair really quite spectacularly and perhaps the time really has come for Ryanair to think very carefully about how they run themselves. It would be easy to assume they’ve very much done that but I’m really not sure. Why any airline would seemingly want to give themselves so much negative publicity I don’t know. :rolleyes:

Paul

I’m sure you’re right, there are probably some charges which don’t need to be shown as optional, i.e. anything which isn’t optional such as this.

I just did a quick search for the period outside of the current discount period, and there is no mention of it being a charge. I’m not sure if it is included within the fare or the taxes/charges, but it is simply not clear that you pay this charge, therefore for Joe Bloggs public you don’t even know you’re paying it.