Well done to the people in the Olympics, but while they have done well, how does it benefit me? There maybe a rosy glow about the country for a few weeks, but it doesn’t really impact on the average bod in the street does it?

What does matter though, as Creaking Door says, are the NHS, pensions, education, social services etc, and we are enormously lucky and priviledged to live in a country where, despite their failings, we are so well provided for in such areas.

We are also lucky to live in the country, that has the 5th or 6th biggest GDP, is the 7/8th biggest manufacturer, the 4th biggest defence budget and is the 5th biggest donor of international aid.

This obscure little island floating off the coast of Europe punches massively above its weight in the world, and while we mustn’t pretend that everything is rosy and that there are not problems (not least the large numbers of our fellow citizens who due to failings in the educational system are unable to contribute meanigfuly to society) and challenges ahead, there is an enormous amount that we can be proud about.

I end by repeating a conversation I had the other week with a collegue who is originally from Slovakia and is shortly to have a baby. When I asked her if she was going to go back to Slovakia to have it, he said no, as she regards Britain as her future now, not Slovakia. She wants the baby to have British citizenship as she believes that the UK offers it the best chance and opportunities for the future.

A conversation that certainly made me proud to be British, and reminded me just what a great country we are fortunate enough to live in.

Some good photos of some very interesting aircraft there.

Particularly nice to see a Qantas 747 back at Manchester after so long as well!

Tommy,

You raise some interesting issues here. The only thing that is predictable about the future is its unpredictability, and I wonder how many people 10 years ago would have predicted that Easyjet would be so dominant (in numbers of flights) at airports like Gatwick, that British Midland would be no more, that Ryanair would have expanded at such a huge rate and that Air UK would have succumed at Stansted.

So having said that it is impossible to guess, here are my thoughts:-

Thomson & Thomas Cook – Thomas Cook’s problems are well documented, but however you look at it, the package holiday market isn’t what it was, and I can’t see how it can ever return. Yes, the low cost airlines have moved into the charter airlines market, but an at best stagnant economy, increasing fuel prices and continuing envionmental concerns make it difficult to see how these airlines can both prosper. I wonder if Thomas Cook will eventually get taken over by Tui and merged into Thomson.

Monarch – this is a really interesting one. Clearly they don’t see themselves as a charter airline anymore, and are trying to reinvent themselves as low cost operation focussing on Southern Euopean markets. We wait to see how sucessful this will be, lacking the economies of scale of many of their competitors, and the market awareness that they enjoy as well, it could be a difficult few years for them, but hopefully they will come through. I don’t, however, see them doing long haul flights in the future.

Jet 2 – I really like Jet2, and think that their CEO, Philip Meeson, is really underrated in view of what he did with Channel Express and then turning it around to beome Jet2. The problem they have though, is I can’t really see where they can expand now before they start to find they are treading on the toes of other airlines. If they do so, I doubt they will last long – however, if they consolidate their position where they are, they may just survive, although I reckon a merger is more likely.

Ryanair – I think Ryanair are at a very critical place in their development. As the external costs of air transport increase (notably fuel and tax) their cost advantage is decreased. In such a situation, will passengers choose to fly with a better airline (since that airline would only be slightly more expensive) or will Ryanair seek to increase their offer? Choosing the wrong solution could be fatal, but Ryanair is very well run, and if any airline is going to make the right decision, it will be them. One thinhg I don’t see them doing is getting widebodied equipment for transatlantic flights – I don’t believe their is a market for a ‘Ryanair Atlantic’ – if you look at the cheapest fares that airlines like BA offer, it is difficult to see how anyone could undercut them and make an sort of positive return.

Easyjet – I really like Easyjet, and their recent attempts to focus more on business travellers will pay dividends, so I expect a good ten years for Easyjet.

British Airways – It would be a brave person to bet against BA. They will always have the intrinsic advantage of Heathrow, and a worldwide network that will attract the top paying frwuent flyers. Yes, Heathrow has capacity issues, but all this means is that they will be able to increase their yields further by targetting only the most lucrative destinations. It would be nice to see them get some 747-8s, but the A380 order has rather lessened the chances of that.

Virgin – I fear very much for Virgin. The only solution is a take over by BA, and I have a fear this could be a BMI style ‘rescue’. Virgin are in the unfortunate position of being too big to be viewed as a niche carrier, yet too small to compete effectively against BA and some of the other mega carriers, so it is difficult to see how they can survive independently of BA.

You missed off two interesting airlines:-

Flybe – I reckon they have an interesting future. They have the domestic and near Europe market from the regions sewn pretty much up, and their growing network of services for other airlines will allow them the opportunity of diversification at much lower risk than doing it themselves.

Eastern – Eastern is very well run, and it is a clever business model to operate small aircraft on high yield routes that the larger airlines can’t serve. How sustainable is it into the future, though?

What is really interesting, though, is where are the new airlines coming from, and what are they going to be doing? There are some niches that airlines like Blue Islands / Manx 2 / Loganair and, at the larger end, Titan, are filling, but are any left?

IE

Thanks very much for your comments.

I have been into this photographing aircraft lark for 30 years, and while heavy metal (and the heavier the better) remains the first love, over the last five or six years I have started to spend more time at GA airfields. With the airports now featuring a never ending supply of Ryanair and Easyjet, I really enjoy the variety of GA and never knowing what will be next on the approach.

An interesting question.

Of course, a big issue is that ‘back in the day’ there were far fewer channels, meaning far less competition for viewers, and thus it was easier for shows to get huge viewing figures that in this multi channel environment are almost impossible to obtain.

And competition isn’t just from more channels – video means you can watch what you want when you want to (and wasn’t around when Dad’s Army was first broadcast), further competition came from television games (or Xboxes/Playstations for the new generation) and don’t forget that there are now many more leisure opportunities than even twenty years ago (not forgetting this new fangled internet thing).

Were the programmes any better? I don’t know. It is easy to jump on the ‘dumbing down’ bandwagon, but is X Factor that much worse than New Faces or Opportunity Knocks – they were both fairly mindless mass light entertainment shows in the day.

And while Dad’s Army is probably an exception to the rule (having recently watched an ephisode and still found it very funny), I think we do tend to look back on old programmes with an element of ‘rose tinted spectacles’ – I’m not sure that many of them were as good as we remember them being.

I don’t understand this obsession with ‘profit’ in the health service.

Plenty of people are making a profit from it at the moment – the drug companies, the construction companies who build the hospitals, the manufacturers of the equipment used in the hospitals and so on.

And the doctors have created a nice little earner for themselves as well.

Against such a background, so long as treatment remains free at the point of delivery, why shouldn’t private companies run hospitals?

So long as the NHS remains free, surely what really matters is that patients get the best treatement possible, not the operating structure of the organisation that treats them?