Classic British Flight Sim

speedbird591 wrote:Not to mention my World of AI set up at Heathrow

Ian

Here's me wondering about my AI at Coventry

I cought part of this story on the news either yesterday or Monday. Tis a shame it has to happen at all, but these things always seem to come along at holiday time don't you think.

Bob

dont forget, FGS did, until yesterday run the Falklands Airbridge twice a week. Last night it was cancelled

Garry Russell wrote: they had always been there and they would always be there.
Pan Am, TWA, Swissair, SABENA, British United, Cambrian.......

My parents used to work for Swissair all their lives.
My Dad as a pilot and my mum as a flying nurse and later in safety training.
Both from 1969 on till the end...

For them the collapse of Swissair was the most terrible break of their life and has left a gap you can still feel today.
I always feel somehow reminded to these grounding days when I read news like that...

Best,

Nick

Especially so as when you join a start up independant there is an element of risk, but..........

Join a national institution like Swissair and you feel you have security and a job for life if you wish.

These were the pioneers...........

That's it Garry, all shattered!!

Here's where the memory lives on:
http://www.sr692.com/home/index.htm

All the best,

Nick

Interesting link Nick

Funny....under the Twin Pioneer it says it did not carry the cross on the tail but the logo due to British registration but the pic on the right shows the cross.

speedbird591 wrote:Meanwhile Ryanair and EasyJet's business model, which nobody could understand a couple of years ago, has come into its own through this sudden change and I'm sure even Michael O'Leary is surprised by the profits that it's generating.

It's obviously the end of the full service airline and the final nail in the coffin of the romantic era of air travel. You could argue that the days of the big national airlines were already over, but until recently there was still a demand for that sort of service and people still wanted that link with the past. I think that's all been swept away now and cheap fares with a basic transport system is all the world can afford in the future.

Hi Ian,

Not wishing to contradict you for the sake of it, I have been getting the opposite impression lately. I got the feeling that the LCC business model was on its way out. A few years ago it was genuinely (stupidly!) cheap to fly with the likes of Ryanair to say Venice for example (I paid £35 rtn). But now they are adding more charges for bags, charges for a seat, charges to actually pay for the booking and considering additional charges. It gave me the impression (given the increasing fuel costs and increasing taxes levied in order to try to cut the very (too?) fast growth of aviation that perhaps the LCC times had peaked and we were heading back to more traditional forms of air travel.

The last few trips I've made, both business and pleasure, I have tried to always fly national carriers. I find the service much better and sometimes they are no more expensive than the LCCs, once you've added on the extra time spent travelling or the fact they only fly at certain times or that you have to pay more to get to and from the LCC airport than your preferred airport. I flew Easyjet a couple of times last year for business and the flights were always delayed and the whole experience wasnt very pleasant. On one occasion I was so late that my taxi driver texted me before I took off to inform me that I was too late and he wasnt coming. Getting another taxi from Luton at 00:30 home cost my employer an extra £143!

The unfortunate exception seems to be BA. They seem to rarely be the cheapest and although I havent flown with them recently, people I know do not praise the service either. I think its very sad but my own perception is its more a BA problem than a general LCC vs. national carrier type issue.

For me if any airline business model is dieing, its the charter airline/package tour model. Many of these airlines have been merging and downsizing in recent years.

Toby

The LCC do, on the whole, seem to be the ones making the money

Garry Russell wrote: Funny....under the Twin Pioneer it says it did not carry the cross on the tail but the logo due to British registration but the pic on the right shows the cross.

The aircraft was only for three months with Swissair, to check whether it would suit Swissair's demands (which it obiously didn't)

It was originally painted in Swissair colours by the manufacturer in the UK. The below article says that the Swissair arrow was painted over the cross after the aircraft had arrived in Switzerland. This picture must have been taken before the tail respray.

Here's my source for this - sorry, but it's in german only...
http://www.swissaviation.ch/aktuell/19990723/twin1.htm

In fact there was another Twin Pioneer flying Swiss skies - HB-HOX was owned by the Swiss surveying and mapping authority.

Cheers,

Nick

Cheers NIck

That all makes sense