A while ago I posted about first flights and now having been updating long neglected logs have seen how much has changed over the years.
For me it was Gatwick: it’s mix of BCal, DanAir, Laker then later Britannia, Monarch, US charters (World ,TIA, ONA) plus European IT carriers provided a heady mix to a young teenager. Fast forward to pass my driving test and become a car owner saw my first trip to Manchester with Piper One and Al. Again lots of charters and many schedules from a good mix of airlines plus that stunning chandelier and SSP catering plus the viewing park and shop. Bingo! It just couldn’t be surpassed. Even today MAN is the only U.K. airport catering for enthusiasts.
Times move on and airlines merge, fail, services outsourced and state control replaced by privatisation. State owned BA never ticked any boxes for me - I was a charter boy firmly in support of Britain’s independent airlines which were privately owned. That said a private BA was used on a regular basis to BHX for Airport Timetables work, latterly being replaced by BD/Go/FlyBe to EMA which must be the UK’s worst airport - a veritable soulless dump!
Leisure and work trips to LHR saw me on BD to LHR - that wonderful Diamond Service then replaced by BA on their acquisition to the wonderful LHR T5 which is my personal favourite these days.
Overseas I recall the space age 1970s concrete and glass tubes of Paris CDG, the curving approach in Hong Kong’s old Kai Tak - now a cruise terminal. The stunning setting of Singapore Changi, it’s gardens, space and Peranakan village of T4. Bangkok with its orchid bedecked gates..... something you could never ever imagine at GLA or EDI.
Glasgow was my first ever Airport. It will always be close to my heart. I’ve worked in ABZ, EDI and PIK as well as BHX and MAN courtesy of my current employer. I’m back in to work later today at my desk in EDI and count myself fortunate to be able to work in an industry I fell in love with as a teenager living under the 23 flight path gazing longingly at those 1-11s in vivid pastel colours (Court Line) 737/757/767 of the late, great Britannia Airways, the yellow and black Britannia,720,737,757 and 320s of Monarch ..... all happy days with hopefully better to come in the future.