March 10, 2008
Heathrow plane-spotting and global development
I have just spent a few days in London for work. As always, when I return from New York, it feels richer and more cosmopolitan than the place where I grew up.
One thing that struck me was the nationality of the aircraft passing overhead in west London. When I was a child, I used to gaze up at the aircraft coming in to land at Heathrow and try to identify the countries from which they came.
I remember that there used to be quite a lot of tail fins painted with the blue emblem of PanAm, which is sadly no more. There were quite a few TWA aircraft as well. In those days, a lot of the aircraft - particularly the Boeing 747s - seemed to be flying to or from the US.
This week I did not look up so much but, on the two occasions that I did, the aircraft I saw were painted in the colours of Emirates and Qatar, two Gulf airlines that have been growing rapidly. Heathrow traffic is a fair indicator of global development, it seems.
Sir,
Sure indeed it is a favorite pastime of many of us here in Delhi as well. As India’s economy goes global one fare indicator is the growth of Aviation sector in India. If you happen to be in New Delhi and just have to look skywards there are chances you can spot an airliner up in the sky approaching for landing at Delhi’s chaotic airport which is finding it defficult to handle growing air traffic resulting in nightmare airport experiences for travellers.
Posted by: Mohammad Shoaib | March 11th, 2008 at 9:11 am | Report this commentWhen I was growing up in Athens, Greece, we would mostly see Olympic Airways planes around in the old Athens airport.in my family, we used to travel Olympic -when possible, my Father being a frequent traveller , we were known and well treated by the Olympic staff.We knew the pilots and the air hostesses, it felt cosy.
Olympic airlines is now in trouble, doubtful whether it is going to survive. My airline of choice if it is going to be bought out would be Emirates, an excellent airline on all fronts , diamond service, excellent .I have been a great fan of Singapore Airlines but Emirates is catching up fast.
I guess it will be sad if we dont have our own national airline any longer , but we lost the drachma too in the temple of globalization, for better or worse..
Posted by: Marie-Athena ,lawyer | March 15th, 2008 at 1:58 am | Report this comment