Nice pics..

5N-FNB depd GLA 1516 and came over EMA at 1545 today. -FNC is due into GLA later tonight.

Andy

For Mash Get Smash

Guess where the idea for the head of the baby came from? 😉

Andy

Try contacting Air Salvage International at Kemble:

http://www.airsalvage.co.uk/index.asp

They may have what you want…

http://www.airsalvage.co.uk/richtext.asp?page_id=5&content_id=233

“We sale all types of flight decks removed and cut as required, in addition to selling aircr PAX doors complete with frames. We have a very large selection of redundant cabin interior parts such as trolleys, overhead luggage bins, passenger seats, side walls, oxy fall outs for your training needs or film props”

Andy

Doesn’t seem like a lot of cycles…but they do add up quickly in short haul service.

Classics are Certified for 75000 cycles I believe, but since the Aloha incident additional detailed airframe inspections are required periodically after 48000 cycles. I guess that this number might come down if this incident proves to have similar causes.

Southwest have been fined for maintenance violations and investigated by the Feds several times for maintenance irregularities in the last few years. I hope that this is not another case of oversight or omission. No point in criticising Southwest yet though, as it hasn’t been made clear whether Southwest has been doing all it should have been doing according to the maintenance schedule and the grounding of 79 737s is primarily out of concern that other members of the fleet might have similar undetected problems, or whether there has been another irregularity in the airline’s maintenance regime.

Andy

Andy

Yeah, well, it seems to me that tommyinyork has a stunning career ahead of him as an industrial relations manager! :rolleyes: NOT! 😀

Andy

And as bus and train operators don’t feed you when the service is delayed or cancelled, don’t put you up in hotels when the vehicle breaks down and in general don’t give a fiddlers naughty for your welfare, then, (oh gawd, this next piece is so difficult for me to type), then why should he!

Actually the long distance TOCs in the UK will put their customers in a taxi if necessary to get them home if the last train of the day is cancelled – as I can testify to as it has happened to me with East Midlands Trains. One of the biggest gripes I have with S…..g 😉 O’Riley and his airline is that he won’t take responsibility for his passengers when the wheels fall off. If this fee means Ryanair will genuinely take care of their punters when things go wrong (again, somehow I feel they’ll still wriggle all they can to get out of it) then they might even go up in my estimation!

Andy

I’m not sure that’s even legal!

Of course it’s legal. Ryanair’s fares can be anything they like and they are at liberty to make up / break down the fares in any way they wish. They are not calling it a tax – which would by misrepresentation – but instead are calling it a levy. Smart. Their fares will be £1.76 more expensive, just like they added a £0.50 wheelchair levy to all fares a few years ago. As long as they don’t misrepresent it as a tax, and as long as they comply with EU rules on showing the total fare rather than adding all the fees, levies and surcharges later in the booking process, they’re OK to do this.

Can’t believe I’m defending Ryanair for once… Still hate the airline and all it does and represents (including this new levy), and this new levy merely further confirms my feelings. But in reality all airlines effectively have a component already bult into their fares that covers disruption recovery (because it’s a cost that ultimately has to be funded from revenue), and all Ryanair are doing is stating what that component of their fares is.

My feeling is that the anti-EU rhetoric from Ryanair on this one might not work – I think many of their pax would pay £1.76 extra if Ryanair genuinely look after them when the wheels fall off the wagon (but will they genuinely do it now they’re openly charging for it, or will they still wriggle as much as they can to get out of paying – I suspect the latter,).

Andy