I was talking to AndrewM last night, and we agreed how it was quite obvious that Ryanair were going to go down the “pay for baggage” route pretty quickly. When FlyBe announced an identical policy a few months back, Ryanair did not produce a vitriolic press release, and make a big song and dance about it in all their marketing. Given Ryanair never miss an opportunity for publicity, it was fairly clear they were going to introduce this.

Personally I think easyJet will adopt a similar policy too, particularly online checkin. I’m not sure whether they will imediatley start charging for baggage so as to give them a Unique Selling Point over Ryanair and FlyBe.

I wasnt aware that was still flying actually. Al Anwa have a 727 which spends a lot of time at Lasham. Its in an identical scheme to that Tristar, and the Gold stripe around the side of the aircraft is actual proper Gold Leaf. I wouldnt be at all surprised if it were the same on that Tristar as well.

For the first time ever I can read a thread like this and not be insulted, given I now spend 6 months in the North and 6 months in the South every year 😀

LGW North Terminal is excellent, especially when it means flying BA! However the South terminal is practically identical to Heathrow in terms of feel, Heathrow is actually better IMHO.

As for aircraft on any UK Domestic service its entirely variable. Could easily be a 319, 320, or 757, or less likely something bigger. Manchester is set to get a significant number of extra 767s on the shuttle services from the summer season as there is no longer to be a set based 767 operating the JFK route (Its been BNWH for about the last 8 years I believe). Also 767s have been required recently just for sheer capacity, so it may even become the case that the 767 even gets regularly scheduled onto a Shuttle, as opposed to just a once or twice a week random flight, again, most notably at Manchester.

Shhh we’re not allowed to say anything yet!!!

OK, an unofficial, and unannounced until this morning pilots strike! 😉

777 inbound Denver:

On the ground, with the famous bridge crossing, looking forward to using that in the summer!

Lining up 27R Heathrow, with a company 767 departing for Nice:

767 climbing out of LHR bound for Accra:

Looking out over the North Atlantic and western France as the sun sets: