Titan Airways........

[Could be the last?]

BAe 146-300 to Operate for UK Ministry of Defence under Titan Airways Contract | Shephard Group (http://www.shephard.co.uk/news/mil-log/bae-146-300-to-operate-for-uk-ministry-of-defence-under-titan-airways-contract/4941/)

Titan wins Falklands air bridge contract | Shephard Group (http://www.shephard.co.uk/news/mil-log/titan-wins-falklands-air-bridge-contract/9881/)

If we are contracting out a lot of the routine work to Titan Airways, why are we spending £10.5B on the FSTA PFI? And if these guys are the company of choice to provide airbridge capabilities, why did they not figure in the Cyprus Trooper contract?

Just asking??

[Green Flash]

Didn't Titan have the shuttle up and down the Gulf (Ali al Salem and points south) with an ATP a few years ago?

[hello1]

Errr, no KC30s in service yet and the article doesn't say how long Titan has the contract for. Probably worth saving the feigned outrage until you know the facts.

[Rigga]

Titan's whole (main?) business is short notice and short term contracting - substituting for u/s aircraft rather than cancelling flights or running F1 teams/drivers about for their short NW Europe season. It makes good Bucks.

I'm only surprised they got their B767 into business news so late?

[brit bus driver]

Damn, if only the RAF - once upon a time - had a larger fleet of 146s at Northolt, with trained crews etc...

:ugh:

[Mandator]

Jamesdevice:

A couple of months ago BAE Systems sold the whole of its Asset Management Organisation, including around 150 white-tail 146s and Jetstreams. They now have no assests left to manage.

[jamesdevice]

just noticed the date on that first press release. Ever been had? Post deleted

[A2QFI]

MoD has requested the fitment of life-port stretchers and business class seats which will reduce capacity to 200.

There's posh for you!

[Could be the last?]

Hello1,

RTFQ - 'Just Asking'

[A2QFI]

Having been out of the RAF since 1977 and having no access to JSPs I don't know what the rules are. How anybody could be "Required" to travel business class on a predominantly trooping flight isn't quite clear to me! Will the peasant class get upgrades if the posh seats are vacant?

[Clearedtoroll]

As far as I remember (admittedly when a 747 was on the route) there was hardly ever a major shortage of pax seats. But the freight capacity was fully used... So it presumably makes no sense to have a high-density seating configuration that you don't need (or couldn't use because fuel plus max freight leaves less weight for pax). I'm sure a mover can correct that if it's rubbish...

I don't know how the seating allocation is done - I went cattle class down, and six months later got a bigger seat at the front for the trip back (which was the only advantage - not exactly 'business' class!)

[Daysleeper]

Having been out of the RAF since 1977 and having no access to JSPs I don't know what the rules are. How anybody could be "Required" to travel business class on a predominantly trooping flight isn't quite clear to me! Will the peasant class get upgrades if the posh seats are vacant?

I'm led to believe the larger legroom seats are partly there for minor leg injuries. Gives folk more room without using the aeromedical rig. They may also available be available to "sell" on to other govt departments, organisations and civilians. Thus defraying some of the cost of the airbridge.

[A2QFI]

Many thanks! That is a very clear and logical explanation.

[Just This Once...]

Sensible posts above that have described the seat fit correctly. The FI airbridge is low density and outside of RIC changeover the non-buisness seats are usually more popular as the low number of pax can routinely stretch across a number of them.

Priority for the 'business' seats goes to aeromed (if not stretcher bound), aeromed escorts/medics then fare paying civilian passengers then compassionate cases. The 'Senior Passenger' then gets his comfy seat allotted (although I, like many, offered my 'Senior Passenger' seat to the most junior chap on the manifest) before the rest are churned out.

The 747 proved very popular due to the freight space offered which was then bulked out with fresh product. For those who only remember the scurvy days fresh fruit and veg can now be found in abundance in all the messes (rather than just the WO & SNCO mess!).

[MrBernoulli]

In my experience, the posher seats always seemed to go to the 'Ruperts' with their cravats and red/green/brown corduroy trousers. :rolleyes:

[alfred_the_great]

Pass your AIB/AOSB/OASC and you too can have dodgy clothing choices and comfy seats. There are more than enough Ratings/Other Ranks who've made that decision to make your comment sound extremely chippy....

[BEagle]

Every time I travelled to the sun-soaked island paradise of the Malvinas, I either flew myself or was allocated one of the comfy seats - although on one occasion we were shunted into the back for take-off and landing as one of the male trolley tarts was ill, so they'd closed off the front to comply with the RAF regulations....

Some of the worst in-flight catering known to man though (Italian lamb...:yuk:) - and I lost count of the number of times the only available video was Pitch Black :bored:.

However, a good slug of scotch and water in the pig pen at ASI helped one sleep soundly on the leg to MPA - hopefully to be collected by the off-going QRA crew to escape 'ordeal by brief' about Argie mines etc. for the umpteenth time.

How come you got the cheap seats, MrB? Normally aircrew travelled up front - and it was always amusing playing 'spot Woopert of the Wedgiment' as you say.

[old-timer]

The way the bean counters are going these days it could become webbing seats in the back of a C130 for everyone !? :{

[engineer(retard)]

Giving the "ordeal by brief" was the best way of picking the incoming FIONA or checking out the dancing tarts when the shows came in :ok:

[Kengineer-130]

I was lucky enough to do my FI detachment when the 747 was the airbridge, why the RAF just don't buy a few of them to operate as troopers I don't know, wonderful aircraft, huge capacity & easy to maintain.. But then again that would make sense! :ok:

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

fresh fruit and veg can now be found in abundance


But there was always a stern-looking sign beside the fruit bowl in the O's Mess saying "One piece of fruit per person" - even when there was nothing in the bowl but grapes:{...

Having travelled to the FI with a variety of operators/aircraft in the course of 7 dets, I'd agree that the 747 was far and away the best - more comfortable than Air Luxor and BMI's A330s, and more reliable than Globespan's DC-10 (the one where you could still see the 'Air India' logo under the thin coat of red paint which Gobspan had sprayed on the tail). It seemed impervious to crosswinds as well - or maybe the Captain had shares in Pirelli:E.

[Wycombe]

Errr, Globespan's aircraft were 767-300's and I am pretty sure ex-Air New Zealand.

The DC10's were from Omni International.

[Could be the last?]

Titan,

Please make an unsolicited bid for the Cyprus Trooper!

Which ever agent/broker was responsible for Sunday's debacle needs lynching! And for the MOD/HQ BFC, if it was your money, would you have paid for a service like that?
:mad:

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Errr, Globespan's aircraft were 767-300's and I am pretty sure ex-Air New Zealand.

The DC10's were from Omni International.


Good point, sorry, it all merges into one after a while. Might be something to do with having a 'nightcap' before getting on the flights each time...:ok:

[Wander00]

I went to the FI in Jan 1986, staying at MPA (as it was then) to take over facilities from the contractors. For the first 10 weeks or so I lived under the contractors' rules - unlimited fruit and veg, duvets,etc. Then the services took over - they replaced my duvet with blankets and the rule became one piece of fruit a week - "it's all you need to stay "regular"". We eventually got the duvets back, after a lot of pushing. Never did get more fruit or fresh salad.

[Donna K Babbs]

Titan flew the stranded passengers from Bruce Dickinson's U/S Astraeus 757 last night!!!!!!!

[Could be the last?]

Donna,

48hrs+ to get out/home from Cyprus...............Shambolic!

[Donna K Babbs]

Check in Akrotiri: 0900L on 18th Sep
Landed Brize: 0520L on 20th Sep

AT charter style!

[Lima Juliet]

Do Titan run a shipping line as well...

http://goinggreek.info/forum/uploads/1251509552/gallery_1_1_731.jpg

:p

[Canadian Break]

No, that' simply an instruction in case you get a touch of Montezuma's Revenge from the previous evening's curry!:E

[Could be the last?]

So does Astraeus belong to Dickinson? Or is he just indulging his passion for flying?

[G-ARZG]

He's just one of their drivers, IIRC

[Green Flash]

I think that Bruce's day job is the flying and the band (some band!) is a 'hobby' :) Didn't he take 'The Trooper' into Kandahar one night?:cool:

[NTS]

But doesn't the tail art look nice.



http://i54.tinypic.com/15ouuqr.jpg

There was at least one serviceable airframe working that day I saw it depart back to Blighty.

[Ant T]

A lot of the posts here refer to "posh" seats on the Falklands airbridge - previous operators have often had these, but having arrived on the Titan 767 this morning at Brize, I can say that the current aircraft is all single class high-density seating, no posh seats to be seen. The aeromed area taking up the back section means that there are only about 220 seats though (my estimate, not verified).
Service was good, but whoever negotiated the permanent contract with Bistro Express or whoever, for the paninis and wraps still needs firing...........

[Could be the last?]

So, "The Final Frontier Tour" was exactly that!

BBC News - Astraeus Airlines in administration (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-15826951)