I don’t think the Pope flew easyJet. It was a promotional stunt by easyJet following news reports that the Pope’s visit to the UK was going to cost the UK tax payer in excess of 20 million pounds.

On official state visits the Pope uses Alitalia on flights from the Vatican to his destination. On the way back to the Vatican the Pope flies a local airline of the country he visited. I do not know if this has to be the flag carrier (assuming there even is a designated flag carrier), or that any one airline will do.

I do not know who the Pope flies with on unofficial flights. My guess would be the Vatican is more then able to afford a bunch of Gulfstreams or similar.

Very Nice Shot’s

Love the New Egyptair Livery

Im off to AMS soon and from viewing this post makes me wanna go there quicker

Rob
🙂

When are you going? If it’s during the weekend I might join.

The Peruvian Navy has acquired two Fokker F-60MPA maritime patrol aircraft from the Royal Dutch Air Force. The transfer was signed on 23 February 2010 and the agreement was reached after 18 months of negotiations. Delivery of the first MPA is expected in the first week of June 2010 and the aircraft will be ferried by an all Peruvian Navy crew. The maintenance support will be provided by Fokker.

Only four F60s where made before Fokker went bankrupt. All four where operated by the Royal Netherlands Air Force. The RNLAF retired them in 2007. Since then all four have been stored at the Fokker works at Woensdrecht.

There is no news yet on the remaining two F60s.

http://airnieuws.nl/fokkernieuws/FOKKERfleetlist-live%20dmt/fokkerfleetlist.html

For what it’s worth, yesterday afternoon it was due in Brazil. To fly in one day from Brazil to Doncaster seems a bit fast. Loading the ‘225 usually takes a long time due to the oversize nature of the typical cargo. Add to that one or two refueling stops, it’s range ain’t great, and it seems to me that the ETA slot is a bit early.

Having said that. It’s been 1700 GMT, no? So, is it there or not?

They’ll take-off from the taxiway? Of perhaps even from the apron saving even more time?

(someone had to say it)

Interesting article, dutch aircraft, no doubt a dutch pilot, at a dutch airport, how can he get this one wrong?

Well, for what it’s worth, the weather was crap. A lot of snow so that might have cause some disorientation. Nonetheless, someone on the flighdeck really should have noticed. The lights on the taxiway are bright blue, the lights on the runway are white. Airport design 101.

Not necessarily a Dutch pilot considering the recent merger.

In this case it was a KLM B733. Since AF do not operate the B733 (anymore) it is safe to assume that this was a genuine KLM pilot.

Am I missing something?

How can Aeroflot and various other russian carriers be allowed so many services into Germany and Austria if the national carriers of those countries have limitations placed on them if they want to fly into russia?

Surely something like this has to work both ways, no?

Traffic rights are given by the the country. So Austria can give traffic rights to airlines from Austria. The problem here is, that Austrian Airlines is not an Austrian airline. They are majority owned by Lufthansa, making Austrian technically a German airline that happens to have its main base in Austria. Russia is doing nothing wrong, short of being an ass… and that has never been illegal in any jurisdiction.