Still, I’m more amazed by the seemingly endless versatility of this 40 year old airframe design.

You aint half right!

747…….
100
200
300
SP
400
Domestic
400ER
Combi
Freighter (multi varients plus ER)
LCF
Water bomber!
VC-25A
E-4B
Space shuttle carrier
That one with the laser thing on the front :confused:
Then the 747-8

Plus any others I missed! Can’t see any other airframe topping that list!

I work part-time at Stansted and saw all of the chaos of cancelled flights last week (and the ridiculously long security queues which continue this week). Now, say you were a family going on their holiday to France or Spain (as an example) and you had booked your flights on Easyjet or Ryanair because you deemed it to be the quickest and least stressful way of reaching the continent. Then, you turn upto the airport last Thursday, to see your flight cancelled and a terminal full of un-organised and confused passengers and staff. Then say the next day you had re-booked, hoping to get on holiday asap, and flights are cancelled again. A few days later, once a majority of flights are back up and running, you finally get to travel. And then you have to go through the hassle of meeting the ever-changing security and hand-baggage requirements. You may finally get to your destinaton, that’s if you haven’t given up….

The following year, you go to book your holiday to the Continent again. And immediately you’ll think “stuff flying – lets not even bother with the difficulty we had last year” and you’ll end up driving via the Eurotunnel or the Ferry. That’s just one example out of many I could think of, which could lead to the current situation causing air passenger numbers to fall quite considerably.

Don’t mean to be cheeky, and sorry if it is, but is this scenario based on the concept that the said family never turn on the news or read a paper and hence don’t have the savvy to recognise that the first instance was due to the fact that terrorists wanted to blow them and their families up and that the following year all they had to do was listen to the news days/hours prior to see if there would be any problems at the airport.

Sorry, I see the point you’re making but I don’t agree that a justified disturbance (by security) to air travel one week would put people off flying the following year.

Im with you on this one Dan. Although I don’t have a lot of experience in the industry, I am working in it every day. Everyone is making the best of what the Government is giving them. Over the past week and especially in the first few days after that first Thursday, Airports were given ever changing information on changing regulations. One minute hundreds of passengers were let through with a certain item, then 30 minutes later a phone call would be received from the DfT saying that that item was now banned. It causes as much hassle for the staff as it does for the passengers as they are coming in after a couple of days off and are having to be briefed on new procedures.

However, I do agree with the point about the bag sizes. I’m not sure what taking away those extra 3″ is going to achieve. All I can think of is that by keeping the bags smaller, it restricts the volume and/or size of items that can go inside it and hence making the scanning process easier on security. From the onset, BAA have done all they can to make things easier for passengers. From issuing printed sheets of what was and was not allowed a couple of days after that Thursday, to bringing in more staff to help them.

Can I ask again if anyone knows what BAA did badly compared to other large airport operators, as I do not know?

Although obviously not everyone is going to have the same opinion or outlook on things, unfortunately I think this argument does have either a right or wrong answer but I can’t see how it can be decided which is which.

Thanks for the selection. Interesting to see how little LOT, Iberia and pretty much Aer Lingus have changed their c/s in 20 years!

Don’t think it is any more ugly than the Beluga. Maybe you cant help making an ultra-large cargo jet without it being ugly. Saying that, the An-124/An-225/C-5A Galaxy all look good.

I imagine this may look better in Boeing’s ‘new’ house colours. Well done to them!

Very impressive interactive tour

Does anyone know what the situation is with lighters? Obviously because its liquid I presume that they are a NO, however how are those pax who smoke able to light up once airside? Are matches allowed?

I also see that all air crews are now using the plastic carrier bags and not being allowed to take their usual ‘trolley’ style bags through.

Lighters, cigarettes and matches are still banned anywhere airside. This isn’t too much of a problem in Scotland due to the fact that you can’t smoke anywhere in the terminal due to the ban, but it does mean people can’t light up once they’ve reached their destination.

The rules for staff has now relaxed slightly and they are now able to take bags, although they too are also banned from taking any cigarrettes etc, liquids, perfumes, deoderants, lipsticks through

There are trials being carried out at several UK airports where as passengers are being screened by the basis of their behavior in the queue. This seems like a good idea and should hopefully work quite effectively, although some people can master calmness

…W h a t ?…

Well people have said business travellers will take other modes of transport, I’m saying there is a small possibility that one of those passengers maybe a terrorist i.e. suspect everyone. Therefore when people say its not safe to put laptops in the hold, you don’t know what they could be hiding in them.

Skymonster, I see what you’re saying. What I was getting at was things are getting fixed now – hence the heightened security to aid the process. It’s 9/11 again on a smaller scale. People wont fly because of the exposed ‘risk’ and people wont fly because of the hassle, but once everyone’s minds are ‘at rest’ it will return to normality.