What's it like to travel in the Prime Minister's plane?
How can you pretend the relationship is still special when you turn up in this. Apparently there were no British Airways planes available for the Prime Minister's trip to the US. Nor were their BMI or Virgin. So the head of Her Majesty's Government, with the Westminster press corps (£2,200 a seat), is tonight travelling to Washington in this - a 757 charter from a company called "Titan" based in Stans ted. It has a Euro tail fin and stars and an orange ball on the side. Mrs T would be aghast. 
Click below for a enlargement of the tailfin.
Get over it Sam. Looking at the Titan website you find that this plane is equipped with just 100 leather seats set 4 abreast - a bit more upmarket than Concorde! Add to that the food and the entertainment systems and you are probably getting value for money on your trip across the Atlantic.
Posted by: alex | 15 Apr 2008 21:33:47
"My dear, the noise, and the people."
Ernest Thesiger, having taken his embroidery to work on in the trenches, summing up the Somme experience to a friend.
We feel your pain....
Posted by: Chuck Unsworth | 15 Apr 2008 21:59:03
"My dear, the noise, and the people."
Ernest Thesiger, having taken his embroidery to work on in the trenches, summing up the Somme experience to a friend.
We feel your pain....
Posted by: Chuck Unsworth | 15 Apr 2008 21:59:12
I think the ball is actually supposed to be Titan, not the sun (although the airline is actually named after the Cessna 404 Titan they used to operate, not the moon of Saturn).
Gene Wilson would be rather annoyed at your scathing comments. At least Titan is a British airline that is impressing customers and that people want to work for. He has built it from scratch, over a short time like many current airline entrepreneurs in the UK. Thanks to the pro-business environment in Britain, a legacy of Conservatives that Labour has squandered, the British aviation business is strong and diverse.
In the meantime strong, militant trade unions have continued to trouble BA, once the most successful airline in the world thanks to Thatcher's privatisation.
Posted by: Random | 16 Apr 2008 00:51:54
Hi Sam,
Detention for you Sam! You should have done your homework before slamming the airline - a profitable UK airline!. It would be good to see if your view changes after you have experienced the flight. Constructive comments are always appreciated.
The Football Association, Royalty, a hat full of Premier League football teams, and a number of Pop Groups & Film Stars can't all be wrong can they?
Posted by: | 16 Apr 2008 09:25:28
Shame on you Sam,
Titan Airways is a rare company these days. A company that delivers quality service and looks after its staff like a good old fashioned 'mom & pop' business. Its profitable as well!!!!!
Posted by: dragon | 16 Apr 2008 16:48:15
Good grief. How sad it is that the promise of the internet, the potential for empowering the world with information, to connect the entirety of mankind with each other in a free, democratic spirit of oneness and knowledge, destroying the boundaries of class, georgraphy, race and religion, should end up with some over-fed lobby correspondent on a massive jolly to America posting utter drivel over pictures of planes.
Hail the free press!
Posted by: Matt | 17 Apr 2008 10:30:14