Good news indeed. Proof that an airline does’nt have to imitate the dreaded Ryanair to do well, Good luck to them.

Knowing the Swiss I guess it would have to go to a national referendum anyhow.

Sorry to differ Mongu….The information that I put into my reply, ref US pilots preferences in a survey column vs joystick, was from a video interview by Boeings chief test pilot for the 777 Capt. John Cashman, therefore I have to accept that as being fairly accurate information. I doubt that it has very much at all to do with conceding anything to Airbus Industrie.

I think that in aircraft that are less than a certain size and category that we have seen the last of non glass cockpits. I understand that production of certain instrumentation for flightdecks is now cheaper in “glass” format than mechanical/analogue so that may become the governing factor. As far as Boeing and the control column marriage is concerned, In my own opinion I don’t think that will change as there is a large percentage of pilots in the US who prefer the column, this was found by Boeing from surveys prior to the finalisation of the 777 spec, as the joystick was at one point a possibility for that aircraft. But you never can tell! I have video footage from some years ago where a senior Boeing staff member stated that “Boeing sees no overwhelming customer demand for Fly by Wire and no airline is ever going to pay extra for it” The rest as they say, is history. It is interesting though to note that pilots flying joystick equiped aircraft in the US seem to prefer it over the column.

I’m really only guessing here but would I be right in thinking that only a specific percentage of the Concorde airframe would have to be white in order for any attatched decals etc to stay on the surface?