Who did Gordon Brown fly with to Jeddah?

[crewmeal]

Saw a clip of Gordon Brown boarding what looked like an MD83 for his trip to Saudi Arabia/

Anyone know who it belongs to?

[AlphaWhiskyRomeo]

If it's a private charter and not "borrowing" omebody's personal or corporate aircraft, then it could be Gainjet's VIP MD-83 from Greece.

[amanoffewwords]

Sudan Airways? :E:eek:

[UnderASouthernSky]

It was the French charter carrier Blueline I believe.

[kwachon]

wishfull thinking "amanoffewwords"

[barry lloyd]

If it's a private charter and not "borrowing" omebody's personal or corporate aircraft, then it could be Gainjet's VIP MD-83 from Greece.

If so, it's a strange choice. Can an MD-83 do LHR-JED (or perhaps more importantly JED-LHR) in one, even with a VIP config?

[Dan Air 87]

Just what we need; our premier in a statesman turns up in Saudi in an a/c that they managed to get off of the market.

I bet the Saudi's must have been very impressed with that. How come that BA/bmi/Virgin/ Thomas Cook/ Monarch et al could let him have one of their aircraft to do the job? Isn't that is what the Royal Flight is there for?

Mind you at least he won't be able to claim any BA air miles for the trip!

[Rainboe]

The UK head of government should certainly fly officially in a British plane, preferably an official government transport......but not President Blair, or Robber Brown. They should go airline full-fare economy, so their ticket is changeable and they can come home early, for example when the Arabs burst out laughing at The Great Pension Destroyer when he asks for increased production so oil prices can be lowered ('why? YOU'RE the one screwing from your own people with excess taxes on it!')

[angels]

Isn't that is what the Royal Flight is there for?


By definition, no.

There's a thread on the Mil Forum about the Royal Flight.

[Coleman Myers]

:D well said Rainboe. What was even more sidesplitting was the yarn he spun them about nuke power. What an a*se that guy is .. but less vomit worthy than wally before him !. Bloody deserves that sector JED - LHR in an 83 - hope its aircon packs up on ground JED !. Next time they should hire him an -8 or a SevenOh (preferably stage II :E)

[Evanelpus]

Think it had 'LU' on the nose u/c doors.

[UnderASouthernSky]

Probably F-GMLU then.

[Re-Heat]

Hot Air (his own) Balloon?

[Monkey Boy]

The Prime Ministers flights are usually arranged for Number 10 by a Gatwick based broker, you know the ones who want to be your partner in the air. They're always happy to tell you how good they are at things like that, even going to great lengths to tell you about their Royal Warrant. However when things go wrong (like when Mr Blair's DC-8 went pop in South Africa a while back) they go strangely quiet. Don't they guarantee a replacement aircraft if yours goes tech? Hmmmm.

Basically, Number 10 are asking the broker to find best value aircraft available at the time to perform the flight, which is always going to be cheaper than the Prime Minister having his own aircraft on standby "just in case". Personally, I'd rather this was how my taxes were being spent.

[6chimes]

Personally I think he should travel in a Nimrod or a Chinook, then lets see how long it takes to get the funding to make em safe for the poor sods that fly daily to fight his 'crusade' for him.

6

[Flightman]

It was a MD-83, reg FGMLU, operated by BLE.