Thanks for your comments guys….reading my post again makes sound like a right know all but that was’nt my intention.
Bmused…I presently work in the biz jet ops field for an organization based in both LTN and STN involving Gulfstream 4 and 5 jets. Prior to this the bulk of my career was in the handling agent/ops field except for 1 yr spent in the employ of Aeroflot in 1993.
Mark, I just have severe doubts about the long term effects of the LoCos on the industry insofar as the lot of the employees has definately deteriorated over the last few years. Moral has collapsed along with the prospects of career advancement and decent wages, evidence seems to be materialising in the form of what others have posted on here ref sombre looking/indifferent crews/staff etc. And as I put in an earlier post the looming fuel price hike will be really bad for these carriers as the business model for them seems to rest on an endless supply of cheap “gas” and if not that then endless subsidies from who knows where (legal or otherwise) And as I said earlier when these carriers have driven away the full service airlines and then tossed in the towel themselves due to poor returns on their “investment” in certain regions, who picks up the pieces when areas are left with either severely degraded service or none at all? Witness the demise of Air Littoral and others. I remember well, and I’m sure others will too, the early LoCo bohemoths Air Florida and Peoples Express both unassailable success stories in their day but long gone now, in the case of People Express I understand that collapsed employee moral was a major factor in that carriers demise. I realise that Southwest in the US is a major part of that countries aviation scene but like the LoCos here they don’t do longhaul and if the full sevice guys end up so crippled by the likes of FR and Ezy in Europe then looking ahead some countries could end up with a mutilated route structure lacking a lot of direct long haul connections and I don’t see that being good for anyone inside our industry or for passengers, unless the LoCos step in and replace them on these services, but I just don’t see it. Anyway these are just personal theories based on my own experiences, if it all works out in the years ahead then I’ll be proved wrong and we’ll all be flying the globe for next to nothing. But will we?????

I don’t know how many of you on here are (or were) involved with civil aviation as a career, I’ve recently resumed a 21yr aviation career after a 2yr break. I worked alongside RYR, though thankfully not for it, for a very long time, so I’m seeing this argument from that perspective, as many more of you may be. In my own opinion its all very well to crow on about the “lurvelly cheap fares” and many of you have obviously taken advantage of them but have any of you thought about what the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet are doing to the long term viability of the industry that we all profess
to love so much? Along with the fares the standards have fallen likewise, as has been pointed out first casualty was customer service, I know this from working experience and in watching first hand the woeful lack of support given to colleagues in another company by Ryanairs “customer service supervisors” when things went wrong, as they very frequently did, the treatment of passengers with sometimes quite genuine problems was disgraceful, thankfully our company refused to get involved with RYR and I think that our careers were all the more bearable for that. I would not go so far as to label RYR as unsafe but I well remember working an Austrian registered DHC Dash7 on day at STN when an RYR 737-200 came into the apron area so fast that the aircraft was leaning around the corner, the quote from my Capt. was “My God, that guys going to kill someone!” Draw your own conclusions. On another day the pilot of a Canadian registered L10-11 complained to ATC at the way an RYR aircraft was being taxied close to him. Before I climb down off this soapbox, I saw many good people loose good careers because of these carriers so yes I’m possibly biased but we all know these fare structures are not sustainable and the antics of these carriers has in some instances been responsible for some regions losing worthwhile services, as the LoCos have driven away the incumbent full service guys and then thrown their own toys in the corner and quit when the fares and pax numbers don’t add up. Is this the real recipe for the long term survival of commercial aviation? Personally I don’t think so, so I guess its a case of enjoy it while it lasts! Thank You….Rant over.
PS. Can’t comment on easyJet as it was still “Go” during the time covered here.

Mark, Hemus Air is still very much around as an organization. Balkan Holidays are a subsidiery of Hemus and another division of the company crews and maintains the Albanian Airlines BAe146 aircraft which hopefully will be operating TIA-LGW-TIA later in the summer.

The usual qualified response to an accident involving a Soviet/Russian aircraft. How about some sympathy for the crew and their families!!!!!!

Dave, I visited DUB in connection with my work and Aer Lingus many times during 1999/2000. It was always very busy and, please don’t be offended, but it always gave me the impression of “make do and mend” But it worked and the people I worked with there were fantastic, but at certain times of the day you could hardly move. I was usually down in the Aer Lingus Commuter rotunda terminal. Aer Lingus’s staff canteen was great!, I have not seen the new terminal alterations but I think they were needed! Great times ahead for DUB I think.

Greekdude….Sorry man but the new UA scheme does’nt do it for me, clever design, just not my thing, to me the old scheme was just fine. I only make the comparison with PIA in so far as that doesn’t work for me either, in my opinion PIA is’nt even a clever design. But then beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that…………..

Great pics. I really like that Etihad A330, but that latest PIA scheme is only marginally worse than United.