If airlines were like railways

[heart-of-wessex]

Here's a fun topic for a laugh, what would airlines be like if it was ran like the railways. I'd be interested to see some replies, but I'll start off with a couple of things so you get the idea:

- Service patterns: There would be routes from London to Scotland, one 'express' running non-stop to Edinburgh/Glasgow, the other a stopper service calling at all airports en-route (maybe Teeside Airport made a request stop )

- Parlimentary service: There would be a service that doesn't currently have a direct service, I can think of Bristol - Hamburg, which would have a parlimentary flight to keep the 'route' open, possibly just running one way at daft O'clock.
Anyone have any parlimentary route suggestions?

- Flights operated by Southern Airways would be made 'POO', Pilot Operated Only, who would do all of the roles, closing doors, flying, providing safety demonstration. Air Gourmet would be on board for the trolley service, though not all the time!

And of course, some airports may close of weekends for engineering work

 

[Bletchleyite]

- Service patterns: There would be routes from London to Scotland, one 'express' running non-stop to Edinburgh/Glasgow, the other a stopper service calling at all airports en-route (maybe Teeside Airport made a request stop )

- Parlimentary service: There would be a service that doesn't currently have a direct service, I can think of Bristol - Hamburg, which would have a parlimentary flight to keep the 'route' open, possibly just running one way at daft O'clock.
Anyone have any parlimentary route suggestions?

- Flights operated by Southern Airways would be made 'POO', Pilot Operated Only, who would do all of the roles, closing doors, flying, providing safety demonstration. Air Gourmet would be on board for the trolley service, though not all the time!

These kinds of flight exist - small planes in rural areas of the US and Canada where air is the only viable way of providing a local transport service because of the huge distances involved.

And I have been on a pilot-only-operated plane, too. It was a tour of Vancouver in a floatplane, but the same planes with the same staffing are also used for local passenger services. The safety demo was done using an iPad mounted in a plastic frame on the bulkhead.

 

[AlterEgo]

These kinds of flight exist - small planes in rural areas of the US and Canada where air is the only viable way of providing a local transport service because of the huge distances involved.

And I have been on a pilot-only-operated plane, too. It was a tour of Vancouver in a floatplane, but the same planes with the same staffing are also used for local passenger services. The safety demo was done using an iPad mounted in a plastic frame on the bulkhead.

Indeed, the Essential Air Service is like the USA's answer to parly services. Some of those flights are pilot operated only as well.

 

[Bletchleyite]

FWIW I missed...there is also Gate Gourmet which provides food for a good many airlines. I don't think this is now connected to Rail Gourmet but at one point I think it was...

 

[me123]

You don't really need to go all the way to America to find "Parliamentary Flights". To a huge degree, a similar set-up exists with Loganair providing short internal flights within Scotland, most notably the services within Orkney and Shetland. These are subsidised by the Scottish Government. In fact, the same could be said of Citywing's Anglesey-Cardiff flights (although it is of course the WAG that funds this).

Of course, none of these routes are parliamentary in the same way as the railways (one trip a week in one direction only), but provide low capacity and are highly subsided. And, indeed, many of them are POO.

 

[Hornet]

There are PSO services in the ROI.

"Essential Air Services Programme Public Service Obligation (PSO)

Under EU Regulations, the Government has established Public Service Obligation (PSO) air services from two airports in Ireland, on the basis that these services are considered necessary for the economic development of their regions and that they would not be provided on a commercial basis. Current contracts, which commenced on 1st February 2015, are in place for air services between Dublin and the regional airports in Kerry and Donegal.

These contracts will run for two years initially and subject to a satisfactory review after 18 months, may be extended by a maximum of one year."

 

[Butts]

If Airlines were like Railways where would all the passengers stand ?

 

[bb21]

If Airlines were like Railways where would all the passengers stand ?

You mean in the event of delays?

 

[Butts]

You mean in the event of delays?

Indeed

They would be running Bi-Planes sauntering along at around 100mph instead of an Embraer 195 coasting at over 500mph

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Would anyone be trying to re-engine a batch of withdrawn Viscounts with small jet engines...?

 

[Drsatan]

Would anyone be trying to re-engine a batch of withdrawn Viscounts with small jet engines...?

Assuming the airframes were in their mileage limits, possibly?

I can imagine Michael McLeary saying "to provide extra capacity on our flights from Stansted to the Canary Islands over the summer, we will be chartering some ex-RAF Vickers VC10s."

They would sell out within a matter of minutes

 

[cf111]

Would anyone be trying to re-engine a batch of withdrawn Viscounts with small jet engines...?

Well, if we hooked them up to these 442s, er, 747s...

 

[heart-of-wessex]

Sorry guys, forgot to mention Southern Air would be made POO as in getting rid of the crew, so Pilot would have to handle the B737, B787 etc by him/herself

Re-engined Viscount with MTU's?

Or restore some of the preserved stuff for UKrailtous, sorry UKairtours, to run enthusiast charters inluding freight airports like Liege and Leipzig, maybe the BLS lot can take in rare taxiways for the quail

 

[Phil.]

In the first few months of Eurostar one regular passenger was Stelios Haji-Iannou. He was seeing how the service operated. He had an interesting observation - remember this was at the start of the cheap low cost airline boom.
He said words to the effect that, "I am running an airline like a railway and here you are running a railway like an airline. I am trying to run at low cost and pass it to the passenger in the form of cheap fares whilst you have lots of staff and high fares". Eurostar fares were astronomically high at the start.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

If planes were run like trains they'd be cancelled due to birds in the sky.

 

[DasLunatic]

Or restore some of the preserved stuff for UKrailtous, sorry UKairtours, to run enthusiast charters inluding freight airports like Liege and Leipzig, maybe the BLS lot can take in rare taxiways for the quail

Just nick an airport bus for that...

 

[NSEFAN]

Planes would be cancelled due to the wrong kind of snow. Oh wait that's already the case.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Airlines have been around for very many years, so are there any "grandfather rights" that can be called upon?

 

[Western Lord]

Airlines have been around for very many years, so are there any "grandfather rights" that can be called upon?

There certainly are. The Boeing 737 has grandfather rights which enable Boeing to produce new variants that do not actually meet present legislation for entirely new types (this does NOT mean that they are in any way unsafe, by the way).

 

[ainsworth74]

If planes were run like trains they'd be cancelled due to birds in the sky.

To be honest with the accidents caused by bird strikes that might not be a wholly bad thing!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

There certainly are. The Boeing 737 has grandfather rights which enable Boeing to produce new variants that do not actually meet present legislation for entirely new types (this does NOT mean that they are in any way unsafe, by the way).

Are the current 737 fuselages still the same cross section and structure as the 707 fuselage?

 

[deltic]

Airlines have been around for very many years, so are there any "grandfather rights" that can be called upon?

yes landing slots at Heathrow
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Unlike the railways strategic reserve of steam engines the airline industry makes no secret of where is strategic store is - Arizona desert - Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for US military planes

 

[Western Lord]

Are the current 737 fuselages still the same cross section and structure as the 707 fuselage?

Yes, they are exactly the same cross section and the cockpit and its window arrangements are the same as the 707, except that they eliminated the small "eyebrow" windows a few years ago. Of course what's in the cockpit is rather different today in terms of instrumentation and some structural materials will have been upgraded over the years but the basic narrow body Boeing fuselage was used on all 707s, 727s. 737s and 757s.

 

[Harbornite]

Would anyone be trying to re-engine a batch of withdrawn Viscounts with small jet engines...?

I can imagine Adrian Shooter buying one of the original square window De Havilland Comets and doing it up...

If planes were run like trains they'd be cancelled due to birds in the sky.

You say that, but birds can be a threat and planes have to land if involved in a birdstrike.