Banned Airlines

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Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 7:01 pm

Next time you decide to go see your lad in Africa, please be aware that, sadly at the last minute, your chosen airline is discovered to be on this list, so your travel arrangements have been altered/delayed. Such a shame, but could he meet you in xxx instead?

The list is quite extensive and is a nice excuse as to why you couldn't make the trip as per your original plans.

dodgy airlines

There are some Russian ones as well.

Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 9:04 pm

Quote:

Gomair - Democratic Republic of Congo

Isn't that the Gomer Boy's private airline?

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 7:34 am

Can't say I've ever flown on any of those airlines.

While working out of Sydney in the 90s, we had various phrases for the acronyms by which various airlines are known.

ALITALIA - arrive late in Tokyo and luggage in Amsterdam
PAL INC (Philippines Airways) - plane always late if not cancelled
QANTAS - queers and nancies trained as stewards

Now I must admit that a workmate and I had a very entertaining night out with a bunch of QANTAS stewards in Saigon, we were able to direct them to the only gay bar in town, we frequently went there to listen to the jazz band that played there.

and finally,
PIA (Pakistan International Ailines) - pray in advance

I found it disconcerting when the Captain would come on the cabin speakers a short while before reaching our destination and say something like, "This is the Captain speaking, in ten minutes we will be landing at karachi, Insh Allah." Hey man, I don't want our landing to be at the will of God, I want your hands on the contraols and you concentrating completely on the job of getting us safely back to land.

However the most disconcerting trip I had was from Saigon to Da Nang in Viet Nam. It was in an old Tupelov 134, and when we boarded I took a window seat. My work colleague sitting beside me called the hostess and pointed out that his seat belt had no buckle on it. She reached over and tied a knot in the belt. The seats were like those in an old VW Beetle, the backs folded forward. When we landed at Da Nang, the weather was lousy, coming down the plane was angled so that I could see the length of the runway out of my window. And there lying in the grass beside the runway was yesterday's Tupolev, where it had skidded off the runway. Do you know those travel bags which are made of red, white and blue striped plastic material? They were draping sheets of that over the plane, but its high tail plane poked out of this red, white and blue mound. The Tupolev we flew on was the last one Vietnam Airways had, it crashed in Pnom Peng six months later.

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 5:15 pm

I've banned third world airlines for family travel a long time ago after I had an interesting set of flights with Varig. (Hope no one here works for Varig. Embarassed

) My boy was 18 months old and pushed in the cockpit door three times in their 747. Eventually the lock failed completely. I was looking at their airworthiness certificate and it as 747 #4. On the flight back, even though I had a ticket for my son, they would not let him have a seat. They had sold it. One steward took off not in a jump seat but sitting in the galley on the floor. Later when I was wandering around opening cubbies, I came across his feet and freaked out, as he was sleeping in the hanging item storage.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

Never had the displeaseure of flying 3rd world, luckily. Although surprisingly Thomas Cook isn't on the list.

Some of the cabin crew more than qualify for 3rd world standards.