Open skies photo
 

Another view appeared in BA in Airlines, Airports and Routes four days ago:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...272081&page=19

One has to admit it looks pretty good despite the politics.

It sure does, I'd be willinng to fly it with reduced t&c's

Is the paint a bit crooked? Inspired, perhaps, by someone they may have taken on? Leavesden memories...

Flag carriers' confusion
 

This aircraft carries the national flag of the USA on its rear, but NOT the national flag of British Airways- the British flag, oh no, it carries an EU flag.

I guess I am the only old fart that finds that offensive and contradictory.

Goodbye, Great Britain, hello to the EU super state - whose doucments by the way, inlcude a published map with the UK labelled as part of a zone called 'Europe West'.

If this lack of a UK Union flag, does not bother you- fair enough. It bother's me though. I thought we were still a sovereign nation. Apparently not.

It does have a large representation of the Union Flag on the tail :)

Since the aircraft will fly between the US and mainland Europe I don't think it's unreasonable to have the US and EU flags.

Goodness me - get a life. Open Skies is a EU - US arrangement so it seems reasonable to recognise that.

They are discussing the paint job of the aircraft in the BA subsidiary "Open Skies" (which most definitely is British!) not the Openskies Air Transport Agreement.

One hopes it will have the Nigels up front ! God speed BALPA.

Question regarding the two photos on the openskies site, showing before and after..

Am I right to assume the plugged windows after door L2 are for the galley or what?

Just curious!

slats stuck
 

I thought this might stir you all up.

Thanks for the humour too!

And yes, it is an EU - USA piece of legislation, but as is pointed out, this is a UK 'G' registered aircraft operated by our national carrier.

Does the thing on the tail count?

I think I will close by agreeing that I trust it has a BA trained crew up front -although a KLM or Lufty or QF trained crew would I am sure meet my training requirements.

A flag waving exercise is now over chaps. Retract the droop -but not too early...

So do the AF aircraft operating LHR-LAX have "vive Angleterre" or any concessions.

I expect they are in full AF colours!

We should be proud to take market share form the Eurocrats, not supping up!

Slats OneExcept that, we don't have a 'national' carrier. We have one carrier that is larger than all the others and is a former national airline having been privatised more than 20 years ago.

Of course, the BA Board and PR machine love it when you say that they are 'our' airline. They are majority owned British PLC that are starting a subsidiary to operate between Europe and the USA, so as to spread their operations and risk further than just the UK, hence the flags. This is not BA as such, hence the disagreements with BALPA.

Wise-up Wee Willie Wonka - someones' 'avin a larf, the Speedbird emblem at the back, ahead of "From British Airways", (enigmatic), is back to front!!

My thoughts exactly ShortfinalFred!

Looks very naff.

Erm, no its not :ugh:

It's the right way round, but shouldn't it follow the 'British Airways'?

<<the Speedbird emblem >>

In my book that thing is NOT a "Speedbird emblem". I'm old enough to remember the real Speedbird emblem.

Missing the point
 

You may not have noticed, but the concept of an airline having a 'nationality' from a commercial/legal point of view is diminishing. Within Europe, there is no such thing as a 'German' carrier, or a 'British' carrier or a 'Maltese' carrier - just an EU carrier which is defined as one majority-owned by EU nationals. So for example a German-based airline can operate UK domestics or an Irish-based airline can set up hubs here there and everywhere.

The EU-US agreement is an extension of this process. Any EU airline or any US airline can fly any EU-US route. Seems to me perfectly appropriate to carry those two flags, if you're going to show any flags at all.

Of all the main European carriers, I suspect BA is the one whose ownership structure comes closest to falling short of the limit of 'majority owned by EU nationals',

The SSK
(a European of UK descent)