That said, how about something like the late BOAC stuff? Possibly the best livery ever?MH

I totally agree with that, a really classy looking trim. Wouldn’t suit the white fuselage and billboard brigade unfortunately. Look at what can be done with a little thought by ‘branders. The current Egyptair livery is, IMO a beautiful combination of ‘billboard’ titles and national identity in the form of Horus, the god of the sky, something there to please everybody!

Personally, I think that the red, white and blue ‘lions head’ design that was used on the fin for a while looked pretty good, I think that it was on only one or two aircraft to mark some sports event or other.

Trust me, this ‘old chestnut’ of a fire doesn’t need any more fuel;)

A sad and diabolical situation, I genuinely feel for both of them, and I’m pleased that justice was done.

I worked in handling for very many years, and there was always the odd occasion when the wheelchairs were late to the aircraft. When I first got into aviation, the lift on function at STN was carried out by our airport fire service, who also provided paramedic services. In those days, our pax services were responsible for the welfare of the passenger prior to boarding. In fact our company had its own wheelchairs back then. The cost of handling the sick and less abled was factored in to the handling fees that we charged the carrier concerned. Nowadays of course, in the airline industry we are into the era of outsourcing, another ‘progressive’ way of doing business, providing that customer service is not at the top of your agenda. The wheelchair service at our local airport is provided by a subsidiary of an independent, non aviation company. A very good friend of mine got a job with this outfit, after being made redundant after 20yrs. in the air cargo industry. These people work 12 hr. shifts, inc nights, for a whisker above the national minimum wage, their overtime rate is no different from the normal pay rate, there is no shift premium for weekend and bank holidays and there is no sick pay. Another added ‘bonus’ is that they only get 12 days holiday per year. He is on a 4 on 4 off shift pattern, although he routinely has to work 2 additional shifts per week to make ends meet. Apparently, very few British people work on the shop floor, hence its mostly staffed by foreign people. It is a very physical job, and they seem to be permanently short of staff, I wonder why? A great many of his workmates make the journey from as far away as parts of London, and the ‘wilds’ of Suffolk every day. Staff shortage may very well be the reason that these passengers found themselves in the situation detailed in the article. It could simply be, that there was just not anough staff, and what there was, were too thinly spread to provide the service at that time A good illustration I guess, that there is always two sides to every story.

Looks like a flying jumble sale:p

If there is ever an airline that needs rebranding, it is BA. It’s livery has been around for a long time now and seems to me to be sorely in need of changing, as does the blue interior colour scheme.
While they are at it, some of those old B747-400’s need binning as well, as wonderful as they were in their day. I flew on one from NZ way back in 1992, and they are still flying.

Alitalia, Iberia, Lufthansa, Malev, Lot and many others such as American have been around somewhat longer. But I certainly agree that BA well do with a new face.

Wonder what it’ll be called? Briteria, sounds like an illness, Iberbrit, perhaps not, sounds like a kind of medication. Ah well, there’s bound to some very well paid, advertising ‘wizz kid’ out there, that has it all in hand….God help us:p Just please don’t let it be BaIb:eek:

My partner and I have been together for 23 years this month. I like to think that we are truly committed to each other and are truly happy. Sure we’ve been through some bad times, who hasn’t, but we’re still ‘ere. We’ve talked about making it official, but really, why spoil a good thing? Over the years I watched the marriages of my closest circle of friends turn into a living nightmare, we’ve had more than one of them booking a place in our spare room at different times! Out of the 5 of my very long term friends, only one still remains happily married. I guess it depends a lot on the individual of course, so it can be very easy to generalise. However, we totally respect those who do choose to marry. As for me and the ‘other one’?, well, we’ve decided that if we ever felt the need for a big day out with bubbly and a big cake, we’d fling open the patio doors and make it bring a bottle! Wear a silly hat and a suit if you must, oh what the hell, make it a vicar and tarts party and be done with it……..more fun than a wedding any day!

I have visited Montreux, which was where we stayed, and we then went on trips using their public transport. If you are a person that’s into trains, I’m not particularly, they are something to see and travel on. Their public transport and roads make our systems look positively archaic, and their bus services and modern clean vehicles are superb. Scenery, as others have pointed out, takes your breath away, but the whole place is very expensive, and we found that on occasion, the Swiss can be ‘snooty’. I have no children, but I think that a family hol there would be something you’d have to think about first. However, the Rhineland and the Taunus Mountains in Germany were almost as good, and a lot cheaper!

It may be true, but I’d rather learn more before libeling Boeing.

So would I. I did preface my post ‘at face value’. It certainly would be incorrect to single out Boeing in particular, as on the surface it would appear that there could, and probably are, other possible culprits involved here. As for the two women getting their careers back, I would think thats unlikely, wouldn’t you? I can well remember the guy who blew the whistle on Alaska, for alleged maintenance malpractices at the carrier, concerning their MD80s. According to an Air Crash Investigation program, screened on National Geographic, which featured the case, he said that he had been ‘assured’ that he would never work in the industry again. It would be interesting to know how he is doing today.