TopGun

Lol. So true.

I think you all know I am a leftie but I bloody hate union excesses as much as I dislike bad employers.

Absolutely right again. Solidarity is not the name of the game here. FF says he has spent 20 days on a picket line. I expect many BA staff are revolted.

I admit to being facetious with non-dom as a term but I don't expect the French will mind if I use Air France to commute from Manchester to my cabin starting point in Paris twice a week either...

That was another trip. Big toblarones and small kids on ferries!

Preserved in aspic...with rose tinted specs... quite excellent! I applaud you

Crap. Just because the holier than thou Enoch, Benn, Foot and Heseltine have retired or died does not make it a place for less clever people.

TDD on his usual Dune type intelligence and understanding. Bomb Iran and keep subs though!

FFS if you are going to criticise Labour spell Miliband right.

I had my first **** on a ferry from Caen to Portsmouth after a french exhange. Good memories.

Not sure if you are being facile there BTF. A good percentage of the cabin crew don't even live in the UK. They commute to work via BA. Good to see Unite standing up for non-doms etc.

Spot on.

I'm not sure it works for BA or the other few diverse routes large airlines to be beholden to one manufacturer in the long term. I think flying separate fleets on on designated runs doesn't cost that much more as you can still benefit from authorised service without having too many eggs in one basket. If you want to be a more narrow (or local route) operator like Emirates I would agree with you.

But Arizona, you can't compare BA routewise with the others. BA flys shortish, medium and long. None of the above airlines apart from BA do that. So BA needs a more versatile fleet (within age) for its stuff. And BA just has more routes full stop. Maybe they should be more core route like the others. MRO down like a shot. BA actually has hived off CityFlyer for its most short haul... and dumped its old RJs for Embraers!

Funnily enough Arizona and DP, I was writing an article for an aviation trade mag this weekend - although it was about Embraer E-jets so doesn't affect this thread. Even so, there are different issues at work here, touched on by both Arizona and Phil but in different ways IMO. Irrespective of BA's fleet it requires a UK hub that that is basically Heathrow and parts of Gatwick for its ops. These are both BAA owned at the moment and pricing elements occur there for BA obviously. Regional airports might be ok for medium and short haul but if you want to get customers to London (plus transits also) BA have to stick with these largely. Gatwick may be sold but we shall see. Arguably Manchester and Birmingham have bigger long haul London future particuarly if high speed rail ever occurs (2025 earliest). But they are not hubs so can't connect flights. Refusal of extra runways at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted by this coalition government offers opportunity to Manchester and Birmingham though. Heathrow is up against Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and now Dubai for transit flights and will have to work hard. I see that more as BAA than BA though. Rightsizing of fleets is also important but all airlines want to phase out older aircraft, for economic and enviro reasons. It's a question of investment and pay-off. EU ETS is still up in the air though. Airlines like United are still threatening to drop EU airspace flights in favour of hub links to the East like Dubai. Not sure it is an issue myself.

So the gloves are off... excellente. I bet AA is feeling the heat tonight. He clearly has been representing Chanrai rather than the other creditors all along.

Dog turds, horse ****, cow pats?

OMG - a US peril threat from Tijuana Tim... I'm gonna buy Tim an Italian passport so he can tell us about Italian football.

The men all have silly names but the women have nice ones like Natasha.

Lots of punishing hills at the end then! Sounds like a soldier's routine.

Yes, if I was narrow minded also I would stick a spanner in the work of the Polish too.

I'm not top on the Plymouth Brethen mind, and that has nothing to do with TDD.

Yeah, the Hari Krishnas give out sweets.

Around the common five times starting at the Cowherds... oh... there might be a problem there!

How about them funny Hindu ones Stu?