Airline Reporter » British Airways

British Airways Boeing 747 Relief Flight to East Africa

David Parker Brown — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 13:00:54 +0000

On Thursday the 3rd of November, British Airways carried 45 tonnes of life-saving UNICEF aid for people affected by the famine

British Airways donated the aircraft to UNICEF appeal, which is being backed by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, to help the 13million victims of the East Africa crisis. We are immensely proud of all our colleagues who helped to make this flight happen.

To donate to the appeal please visit www.eastafricacrisis.org.

Video: A Look at British Airway’s Aircraft

David Parker Brown — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:00:17 +0000

British Airways is really promoting a new film about their history that will show up on their Facebook on September 21st at 11am (GMT). If this preview is any indicator, this is going to be one slick video. I wanted to share the preview and I look forward to seeing the full version when it comes out. Information from their YouTube:

Take an exclusive look at the British Airways people and planes that have been at the forefront of aviation for the last 90 years. This film is about the Airco de Havilland DH.9*, de Havilland 86* DC-3, VC-10, Boeing 747 and of course the iconic Concorde.

All of the planes shown have been instrumental in the pioneering activity of British Airways from its beginnings with Aircraft Transport and Travel in the 1920′s through to the modern airline of today.

*The DH.9 and DH 86 are represented in this film by the DH.51 and DH89 respectively

VIDEO: Making of British Airways Boeing 777-300ER

David Parker Brown — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 13:00:47 +0000

If you have been to the Boeing factory you have seen how easy it looks to make a Boeing 777. However, it is a very complex process. This video follows British Airways Boeing 777 (G-STBA) from start to finish.

* Photos of British Airways G-STBA on Airliners.net

Airline Livery of the Week: Retro British Airways Boeing 757

David Parker Brown — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 11:00:09 +0000

British Airways Boeing 757-200 (G-CPET) in retro Negus & Negus colors. Click for larger.

For me, liveries seem to always look better on a Boeing 757. What better combination of a nice retro livery on a Boeing 757. Unfortunately, this livery is to commemorate the wonderful service the Boeing 757 has given British Airways, since they plan on retiring them shortly.

British Airways has received their second new Boeing 777-300ER and plan to use the additional ones on order to replace the Boeing 757 by the end of the month.

The airline was the global launch customer when the first Boeing 757 took to the skies in 1983 and grew to a fleet that was 54 strong. The aircraft became a familiar sight to customers on British Airways’ shorthaul and domestic network. Three now remain, all of which entered service in 1997.

One of them, G-CPET, has been painted in the origional livery the Boeing 757′s flew in 1983, the “Negus & Negus” livery. So where did the livery get that name? British Airways told me it came from the design house that worked on the livery.

The remaining 757′s will be sold for cargo use, so they will at least still be flying for quite some time!

More please:
* 99 Photos of G-CPET during its life on Airliners.net
* Video of the airplane landing with retro livery
* Photo of the Lockheed L1011 in the Negus & Negus livery (which is my favorite combo with British Airways)

Paine Field Photos: New British Airways Boeing 747-8F & More

David Parker Brown — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:33:14 +0000

New British Airways Boeing 747-8F at Paine Field

Late last night I got word from Jon Ostrower (aka FlightBlogger) that a nicely new painted Boeing 747-8 in British Airways colors was out in the open. So, this morning I headed over to Paine Field (KPAE) to check it out. I found her, but it wasn’t so easy. First she was parked a bit off from the rest of the Boeing 747-8′s and she is not in full British Airways livery. She is painted all white with a blue belly.

I was also able to check out the other Boeing 747-8′s sitting, waiting to take to the sky.

CHECK OUT ALL THE PICTURES

Update: BA has announced it is updating its fleet of Boeing 747-400F with new Boeing 747-8F’s and will be leasing them through Global Supply Systems, which is 49% owned by Atlas Air. On the press release BA states, “It has also been agreed that the new 747-8fs will be delivered in British Airways livery and incorporate the British Airways World Cargo logo.” Flight Global reports that they will be wet-leased for five years by GSS.

VIDEO: The Making of a British Airways Boeing 777-300ER in 3minutes

David Parker Brown — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:00:31 +0000

It just looks so easy. This video shows the making of a British Airways Boeing 777-300ER from first parts to first flight. This video is one of the best time-lapse one I have seen with stellar music and an amazing plane staring!

Airline Does Not Allow Men to Sit Next to Children

David Parker Brown — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:55:15 +0000

British Airways Boeing 747-400

Making sure children flying under the care of an airline are not preyed upon is extremely important. So is making sure that a person’s individual rights are not taken away from them and made to feel like a criminal.

Recently, passenger Mirko Fischer took British Airways to court for forcing him to move seats because he was sitting next to a young child.

Fischer originally had the window seat, but switched with his pregnant wife, so she could see out the window (what a gentleman). This changed caused him to be sitting next to a young unaccompanied minor and the flight crew made him change his seat. The airline told him that they ban male passengers from sitting next to children they do not know.

The passenger did not feel this treatment was right and left him feeling, “embarrassed, humiliated and angry.” He took British Airways to court for “loss of damage and injury to his feelings.”

“This policy is branding all men as perverts for no reason,” Fischer said. “They accuse you of being some kind of child molester just because you are sitting next to someone.”

Fischer won his case and was paid $3712.00 in costs and $1288.00 in damages. He didn’t pocket the money however. He donated his payout and $3865.00 of his own money to two different child protection charities.

British Airways is currently reviewing the policy, but still states the rule is not discriminatory.

Parents put their children into care of an airline to make sure they are kept safe during their flight. But is it ok to keep all men away from children because of this? I say no.

If the flight crew has any reason to assume that a passenger is not acting appropriately, then yes, it is their duty to move the child. However, it is not ok to discriminate against a passenger just because of a fear of inappropriate behavior. Would it be ok to not sit a child next to someone of a particular race or religion because they are more likely to molest a child?

I have heard of other airlines having similar policies. The concept of these policies is to keep children safe, which is very important, but not at the expense of discriminating against other passengers.

Source: TheAustralian Image: Bentley Smith

Guest Blog: First hand perspective on airlines in South Africa

David Parker Brown — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:45:54 +0000

Logos of different South African airlines. Image made by Kyle Hwang.

GUEST BLOG (By Kyle Hwang, intro by David): From time to time I will have guest bloggers talk about something they specialize in. Recently I was connected with Kyle who is an 18 year old student living in Pretoria, South Africa and attending University of Pretoria studying BSc Actuarial and Financial Mathematics.

He enjoys plane spotting, even though the closest major airport is OR Tambo, which is a 45 minute drive. When he has free time, he loves designing airline liveries and has quite the collection. Here are his thoughts on airlines in South Africa, in his own words:

So you might think that South Africa is a rainbow nation and not ready to host a World Cup. But either way, it has a rather rich and diverse aviation world. Here’s a quick look at the airlines

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS (SAA):

South African Airways is the national flag carrier of South Africa. SAA is one of six airlines in the world to fly to all continents of the world. Clearly the dominant airline at OR Tambo International Airport, their fortress. SAA has a 4 star Skytrax rating and is also a member of Star Alliance.

Besides the multi coloured Ndizani livery that bought the national Olympic team to Atlanta in 1996, the airline has not had a single special livery except the Star Alliance planes. Oddly enough, SAA is also not the official airline of the FIFA World Cup.

SAA is however pretty infamous on their home turf. Rivals Kulula.com have made SAA pay several anti-competitive fines. SAA was also blamed for the shut down of Nationwide Airlines.

SAA CEO’s have also not had one of the best rides. Andre Viljoen is generally a nuisance in the public’s eye, receiving many letters to retire. Viljoen was however the pioneer of SAA’s Airbus fleet refurbishment program. Khaya Ngqula, Viljoen’s predecessor had to retire because of mismanagement (fraud in my opinion!). He has also been the one taking credit for Viljoen’s Airbus program which proved to be quite successful.

Current CEO Siza Mzimela seems to bring the airline some hope. Former CEO of South African Express (SAA’s strategic partner) may restore the airline to their former glory (SAA won the best Business class seat award in 2004 and 2nd best Business class in 2005).

SOUTH AFRICAN EXPRESS (SAX)

Having revamped their logo recently, SAX is having a much better independent-from-Mother-SAA feel. You can consider SAX as a Southwest/Frontier African equivalent. SAX offers their passengers meal boxes on their domestic flights but here comes the catch- your paying sky rocket fees for a LCC…

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRLINK

The Hummingbirds is what I call them. They literally crashed into a school ground last year and had 3 accidents in a time span of 4 months. With the possibility of the airline closing down, Airlink employees quickly wrote some comments on Facebook hoping that it would save their airline. As a result, more journalists pointed fingers to Airlink’s then rapidly shrinking reputation. Will The Hummingbirds ever be successful? If the day arrives when SAA brings SAX and Airlink back under their wing.

MANGO

You cannot miss Mango’s B737-800 from the ground. They are mango coloured! Mango is SAA’s response to the flood of low cost carriers (LCC) in South Africa. Mango took SAA’s cabin and put Mango logos all over it, like a real cheap LCC.

Also, their inflight magazine is called “Juice.”

1TIME.CO.ZA

If it wasn’t for their sponsor planes, you could also spot 1time from the ground. The are red, hot red! The first time I flew 1time (1time.aero back then) I flew the Nando’s plane. It was red and decorated with Nando’s chicken catch phrases. (“This plane flies at 30,000 feet and 60,000 chicken feet”). 1time’s planes now consists of the Avis, Pushkin Vodka (not for sale to persons under 18!), the Smiley Plane and Go Zanzibar. “More nice, less price,” is their slogan.

KULULA AIRLINES

Definitely one of the success stories of South African Aviation. Flying 101 has caught international attention and even on Airline Reporter. Kulula is actually a British Airways Comair initiative that has bought the spark back into the LCC industry. Kulula has also been voted best LCC to Africa.

Their liveries include Flying 101 of course, Jetsetter, Camoplane, Zippy plane, da udder plane, THIS WAY UP and 3 World cup celebrating planes sponsored by Europcar.

Kulula was asked by FIFA to remove the “Unofficial National carrier of the You-know-what” titles because for copyright infringements.

BRITISH AIRWAYS

What?! An European carrier in the midst of South African unknowns? Comair operates plenty of domestic flights for BA. The only catch is that your are bound to be flying some old 737 that makes a lot of noise.

So hopefully when you watch the soccer on TV you will remember that South Africa also has a pretty rich aviation industry!

Gibraltar Airport, Where a Road Goes Through the Runway

David Parker Brown — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:35:56 +0000

British Airways Boeing 737 G-LGTE stops traffic at Gibraltar Airport.

Gibraltar is a British territory located just south of Spain and is less than three square miles. The Gibraltar Airport is the closest airport to a city center (only about 1/3 of a mile) in the world and only five airlines currently serve the airport.

What probably makes it most unique is having the main road connecting Gibraltar to Spain, Winston Churchill Avenue, go right over the runways. Every time a plane takes off or lands, traffic must be stopped.

The airport is in the middle of being renovated. Not only will they be increasing the terminal three fold, they are also constructing a tunnel for vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Although this will make the city and airport run more efficiently, it the airport will lost a little of its unique character.

More Pictures:
* British Airways taking off
* Ariel showing the road, Giraltar Rock, and town
* Iberia Airbus A320 landing (they have stopped flying to Gibraltar as of September 2008)
* Google map satellite view

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Image: kpmarek

Six Passengers Faint on Same British Airways Flight

David Parker Brown — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:05:54 +0000

British Airways Boeing 777

One person fainting on a plane is bad enough, but six? British Airways flight BA184 from Newark to London’s Heathrow airport has six passengers faint during flight. Once the Boeing 777 landed in Heathrow, the plane was boarded by emergency personal in protective gear. All the passengers were treated onboard, no one had to go to the hospital, nothing was found hazardous, and all 216 passengers that were allowed to continue with their travels.

At this point, investigators do not know the cause of the fainting. Food and gases have been ruled out. At this time police are saying the incident is not suspicious.

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Source: Gadling Image: Eric Begin

LOST IN TIME: Will Supersonic Transport Make a Comeback?

David Parker Brown — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:59:46 +0000

British Airways Concorde landing at Heathrow in 2003.

When the TU-144 and Concorde first went into service in the 1970′s , it was a time of aviation excitement. Both aircraft had the promise to completely revolutionize commercial transportation, providing speeds over twice the speed of sound (around 1100 mph vs 500-600 mph for other commercial airliners). Most thought the supersonic transport (SST) would replace other aircraft, to become the norm in general aviation. It was thought the sonic boom experienced when a jet goes over the sound barrier would become part of daily life, and people would be willing to live with them to have fast transportation.

The Tupolev TU-144 was the first SST to take flight in December 1968, two months before the Concorde. The TU-144 hit a big setback when the first production aircraft crashed during the 1973 Paris Air Show, killing all six crew members aboard and 15 people on the ground. Then in 1978 another TU-144 crashed during a pre-delivery test flight, killing all aboard. The aircraft type flew 55 passenger flights with Aeroflot before it was pulled from service in June of 1978, less than ten years after its first flight.

At the time Boeing was also working on their own SST, the Boeing 2707. The US didn’t want Europe and Russia to have the monopoly on SST technology, so the US government funded a contract for Boeing to study making its own. In 1963 the National Supersonic Transport program subsidized 75% of development costs to help Boeing directly compete with the TU-144 and Concorde. Since the Concorde and TU-144 were almost twins, Boeing wanted to make something different and were aiming to make a 250 passenger SST, which would hold about twice the passengers of the other two. In March 1971, funding for the project was canned by Congress and although private funding was able to raise nearly $1 million, the entire project was shut down in May of 1971. At the time, the Boeing 2707 had 115 orders from 25 airlines and the Concorde only had 74 order from 16 customers.

The Concorde and Tu-144 might have looked similar, but Aérospatiale-BAC’s Concorde was superior in its avionics and capabilities. It has its first flight in March of 1969 and entered service in 1976. During that time, the first two prototypes traveled the world to build excitement and there were 70 orders for the plane. However, many orders were canceled after an oil crisis caused financial difficulty for the airlines, the crash of the similar TU-144, and concerns about the sonic-boom not being acceptable in populated areas. In the end, only British Airways and Air France took delivery of the Concorde. The plane was flown until 2003 when Air France flight 4590 crashed in France killing all 109 people aboard and raising questions about the safety of the aircraft. The aircraft was retired on November 26, 2003.

Supersonic Aerospace International's QSST rendering.

There was hope in the early 90′s for a resurgence of SST when a wealthy businesswoman, Judith DePaul, worked with Tupolev and NASA to use a TU-144 as a testbed for additional SST research. Over $350 million was spent on retrofitting the mothballed Tu-144 and it made a total of 27 flights through the 90′s, but was canceled in 1999 for “lack of funding.” Today, the aircraft is rusting away in storage with little hope of being used again.

It has been over 40 years since the first SST flight occurred and almost 6 years since the last SST commercial flight. It has seemed unlikely there will be a revival of the Concorde or TU-144, but there might be hope on the horizon. The biggest hurdle has been the sonic-boom heard when an aircraft passes the sound barrier. The loud and disruptive boom caused previous SST’s to be flown only over water. Scientists are currently working on ways to “shape” the boom, making it sound more like distant thunder, something that the general public could live with to allow flights over land.

Even if the technology becomes available, it is not going to be cheap. A round trip ticket from New York to London on the Concorde before its cancellation ran about $10,000.00 USD. However, history has shown new technology can be expensive at first but as it develops can become more cost effective. The Concorde didn’t have time to become less costly since the technology became stagnant.

It would be a long while before Boeing or Airbus would start seriously considering making a SST line of aircraft. But smaller business jet companies are spending good sums of money researching new technology that is being dubbed Quiet Supersonic Transport (QSST). Supersonic Aerospace International is working on creating the next generation of SST starting in the business jet realm. They are hoping to have their first aircraft flying by 2014 with first customer delivery in 2016. Even if they wouldn’t be able to make those optimistic goals, it seems like there would be a big market for business people being able to save time while in-flight around the world.

Who knows where the future will go for SST? Will the start of space travel help in the development in the next SST? I would think there might be some overlap. There are those that already talk about post-SST and moving to hypersonic flight , but that is going to be far out in the future. It seems it might be most beneficial for the technology to start on a smaller scale. It looks like smaller companies might create SST business jets and allow the wealthy to help pay for the development of the technology. As the technology grows, becomes more accepted and less costly, larger aircraft manufacturers could pick up the production of SST aircraft and usage would spread.

Images:
Concorde (Spencer Wilmot)
QSST (SAI)

British Airways Pilots Agree to Pay Cut

David Parker Brown — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:33:27 +0000

Two British Airway's Boing 777s

It is not often when a group of people can come together, see the big picture, and be willing to take a cut in pay to potentially save a company. The British Airline Pilots Association voted 94% to cut their salaries by 2.6% and save the company about $42million per year. No one wants to have their salary cut, but 800 other staff members already agreed to work for free and thousands more took additional pay cuts. The pilots can see the writing on the wall and realize it might be better to sacrifice short-term, to save the company in the long-term.

Image: CS Chaulk

Virgin's Owner Sir Richard Branson has Words with British Airways.

David Parker Brown — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:39:25 +0000

Virgin and British Aiways Boeing 747-400's racing for the finish (yes, I am sure this is photoshopped)

Virgin Atlantic and British Airways have had a cold war going on for years, according to Sir Branson. Now he is taking advantage of British Airways’ admission of financial difficulty by urging the British government not to financially assist the legacy carrier. He states that British Airways is, “not worth much.”

Although Sir Branson might be trying to stir up trouble, British Airways is not in the best financial shape. British Airways’ CEO Willie Walsh has a self-imposed June 30 deadline which he calls, “a fight for survival.”

He recently asked all 40,000 employees to work up to four weeks without pay in an effort to keep the airline afloat.

Sir Branson, who founded the privately held Virgin Atlantic, obviously has much invested if British Airways fails. “We and others are standing by ready to take on their routes and runway slots at Heathrow if they get into serious trouble,” Sir Branson stated re-assuring the government their nation would still have a viable transportation network.

A British Airways spokes person calls Sir Branson’s comments as “fantasy.” The airline stated, “There are no talks with the Government and there will be no talks. We have opposed state aid and our position has not changed.” Both British Airways’s CEO Walsh and finance director Keith Williams have announced they will work for free during the month of July.

Even if British Airways pulls through and Branson is just in fantasy-land, it is never a good sign having an airline (or any company for that matter) asking its employees to work for free. In this economic time, nothing is impossible and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Source: dailymail Image: SamR

Business starting to go to the back of the airBUS.

David Parker Brown — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:40:29 +0000

Virgin Atlantic's Upperclass Suite

Unless you haven’t been watching the news and this is the first time reading this blog you are well aware of this wonderful global economic mess we are in. Businesses have been looking at ways to cut back and save a few dollars.

One of their solutions is putting their frequent travellers back in coach instead of paying for Business or First class. This leaves airlines with a large hole in their revenue with premium passengers down 21% in February and almost 17% in January of 2009.

With these additional empty front seats, airlines have to start asking - is it time to re-arrange their aircraft? Will business travellers be upgraded back to the front of the plane when the economic turmoil is over or will businesses enjoy the money it saved on airline tickets and continue to only pay for economy seats?

Airlines, like British Airways, who rely heavily on long-distance premium travellers for their revenue are hoping to see more frequent travellers returning to the front of the plane soon.

Source: Guardian Image: Start Creative

A Boeing 777's afterlife…a beer can?

David Parker Brown — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:40:54 +0000

Boeing 777 not looking so great

British Airways Flight 38 crashed in Heathrow Airport in London in January 2008. Luckily no one died and only 13 of the 136 aboard had minor injuries. The flight landed 1000 feet short of the runway due to lack of thrust to the engines, probably caused from ice in the fuel lines.

Upon landing, the landing gear collapsed and caused quite a mess.

Since then, the aircraft has been kept intact while investigating the accident. Even though the investigation is not completed, permission has been given for the airframe to be “broken up” and “sent for recycling.”

It is quite interesting to think what will happen to the airframe and in what future products it might end up in.

Source: Wikipedia & FlightGlobal Image: Wikipedia