CannonFodder1971
Guest
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2005
- Messages
- 439
Ah the joys of EirJet and RyanAir! Once upon a time there was an egotistical but very shrew operator called Michael O'Leary, who tried to transplant the American low costs airline template to Western Europe. Everyone laughed: there are multiple air traffic control systems, international boundaries and a host of other additional overheads to factor. But he bypassed major airports and got landing slots in small airdromes for next to nothing, or in some cases he was even subsidised by the local regional authorities for doing so. Hilariously RyanAir would then try to associate the name of a tourist city to these, e.g. Chareloi became "Brussels South", Hahn became "Frankfurt". I'm sure if he could get away with it he'd call Newcastle 'London North' or Birmingham 'London West'. But his business model was a huge success, spawning a host of imitators. Alas all the cost cutting is having its effect:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4859192.stm
Still though, I suppose it's a sign of progress in the whole peace process - a few years ago that plane would probably have been shot down or if not then the soliders meeting it wouldn't have been clicking cameras!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4859192.stm
Still though, I suppose it's a sign of progress in the whole peace process - a few years ago that plane would probably have been shot down or if not then the soliders meeting it wouldn't have been clicking cameras!