That Herc is great! Never seen a civvy herc myself.

I do like the Libyan phto a lot too, but can not help but wonder why they did not add the new livery? Has that been cancelled in favour of the old livery? I’ve seen the new livery only once no a A320 a few years back. That plane was temporarily leased from Irish operator TransAer. TransAer went bankrupt though, so the lease was terminated.

copyright: Martin Steiner via Airliners.net

If somebody gave BA billions we’d be invaded for crimes against humanity!

Have you had a meal onboard a BA jet? I am not surprised BA would be sued for crimes against humanity! 😀

What if the Greek government invest billions into OA (not that they got the money after the olympics, just a what if question) and OA got very succesfull. In fact, OA got so succesfull they could enter the UK domestic market. Since OA gets a lot of money they can sell much cheaper tickets thereby running BMI into bankruptcy….

do you still think state aid should be acceptable? Or do you think that OA should get state aid, and BMI as well to counteract the state aid given to OA? If so, you should also give state aid to BA, easyJet, Virgin…. That is going to be very expensive, and going out of your tax money!

In the past the airline industry was considered a source of national pride. It was also a necessity for many European countries with colonies in far and remote places. That’s why subsidies where given. Nowadays these links are no longer vital since there are alternatives: other airlines, telephone, fax, E-mail. Still too many airlines are stuck with the attitude that the government will cover the bill.

It is time that those airlines open their eyes. It is not impossible. TAP Air Portugal is doing quite nicely. Iberia has found itself a nice niche and even Luxair is doing very well. So it should also be possible for OA, AZ and other airlines that are facing tough times. Sacrifices will have to be made such as dropping (intercontinental) routes, hourly services to every European capital or having a brand new fleet every 5 years. But better those sacrifices, than going completely bankrupt.

BTW, it is not just the EU that bans state aid. The IMF and WTO are also against state aid.

Unfortunately I’ve never seen one of them for real. I like the looks though!

What’s the status of the ‘334? Is it still going ahead?

Although it is never nice to see a carrier go bankrupt, in particular large ones like SN, SR and possibly OA and AZ, it is quite necessary.

Nowadays the aviation industry has too many planes flying too few passengers. One way or another the number of seats offered will have to decrease. You can not expect an airline that pays its bills and does what it promises to just accept money drains like SN, SR, OA and AZ to get state money. Likewise you can’t accept states to fund healty airlines just because they are also putting money in unhealthy airlines.

For better or for worse, the right of the strongest does count here.

I’ll be the first one to admit that this is not always fair. AF was bankrupt just a few years ago, got massive state grants and has now bought KLM… one of very few (ex-)state owned airlines that actually made money during most of its existance. But to say that airlines like the old SN deserve to exist would be folly. The bankruptcy of SN was a tragedy for every employee involved as well as many passengers… but after more then 70 years SN managed to make a profit in 3 (three, T H R E E) years! In any other industry they would not have lasted more than a few months!

If AZ and OA had been a small airline you probably would not have noticed, nor cared. Last week no less than 2 Dutch airlines disappeared, VBird going bankrupt and DutchBird being taken over. No cries here. Air Alps looks very doubtfull to last another year. Various websites are running polls on the next European lo-co to go bankrupt….

Should AZ and OA survive just because they are larger? Of course it would be great for the personnel, but realistic it is most certainly not. We should let them pass. Then we should give them the opportunity to restart profitably like SN did…. with private money!

click on the photo for the full size version

KLM will keep them for at least two more years. Finnair is also very happywith them and added one more a few months back.

Good to hear the A380 is going forward. Even better to hear it is China Southern! AMS is one of their biggest European destinations. They fly here every other day with 777s (code share with KLM on the other days) and they also use the 747F to AMS. So chances are I get to see it here!