A plane that goes to Belgium is probably maintained superbly well.

Bit presumpteous. Belgian officials can not control every airline. Even then, I would not be surprised if this airline is left a bit alone for political reasons. The close ties between belgium and DR Congo as was mentioned already by Mark L.

Let’s put it this way, Ostend Airport could just as well add the emergency landings in their time table! 😉 That shows a bit on Belgian aviation safety check-ups. Not that the check-ups in many other European countries is much better I believe, but that’s another story.

As far as I am aware no Hewa Bora plane has crashed. They are a young airline though. Just a few years at most?

atc is alot cheaper than being a pilot and well paid in the UK

Becoming an ATCer is fully sponsored by the government here. After you graduate they keep a bit of your wages to get back on their investment, which is reasonable. I wanted to become a ATCer but my glasses are too strong.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/2004/040509-0.htm

overran the runway, no casualties. The plane was written off though.

Flash Air 737 was this year I believe, or last year? And in Africa a 727 has crashed.

Have any of you lot ever been to the Luchtvaart Hobby Shop at AMS (not the one in the terminal!). That is bound to give you wet dreams for weeks to come!

LHR, anytime between the 26th (monday) of July and the 28th of July (thursday) will suit me.

I saw this one coming. Easyjet has taken a very risky approach with regard to buying fuel, an approach that very few airlines take.

Normally airlines “hedge” on their fuel. Basically this means that they agree with the suplier (Shell, BP etc) that over the course of ## months they will buy ### gallons at a pre-determined rate. If the oil price increases the airline saves some money, if the oil price decreases the airline ends up paying more. Cancelling such an agreement is possible at a fine, but let’s not go there.

Most airlines do that. It makes their costs easier to predict and in todays world of increasing fuel prices it saves them some money. This does not matter a lot for the oil companies. They are guaranteed of a large amount of turnover with, perhaps, a slightly smaller profit.

Easyjet does not do that though. Like you and me they just buy their fuel at market value. Anyone who has a car will tell you that the prices have been increasing a lot lately. Easyjet is now having the burden of that.