Expo Aviation

01/06/2024

The latest episode of the has landed, following on from the Silverjet episode this time we take a look at MAXjet, a US headquartered "low-fare" all business-class airline, which despite being from the US actually focused its operations on London Stansted. Out of the three competing airlines, the others being Silverjet and EOS, MAXjet were the largest and arguably "most successful" despite their demise...

MAXjet were a US based airline offering an all business class service on routes between London Stansted and various destinations within the United States. In...

31/05/2024

Great News! The latest episode of the lands tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 5am GMT. Following on from our previous episode, which looked at Silverjet, this episode looks at the rise and fall of MAXjet, a US headquartered business class airline and arguably the most successful of the three competing carriers...

25/05/2024

The next episode of the is still being worked on, 10 hours of editing today resulted in a "whopping" 3 minutes of video... Hopefully the episode should land next weekend :)

20/04/2024

The latest episode of the has landed, this time we look at Silverjet, a UK based all business class airline which operated 3 Boeing 767s on two routes during its short life. Despite the airline raising the bar for standards and lowering prices to make business class travel affordable to most folks it was still unable to make a success of things and folded within two years of launching operations...

Silverjet were a UK based all business-class airline operating a small fleet of 767s from London Luton, the airline tried to bring affordable business class ...

17/03/2024

Founded in 2002 Flyjet quickly established itself as a "can-do" charter airline, picking up a variety of interesting contracts which saw their small fleet of 757s operating across Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. Unfortunately they bit off more than they could chew and found themselves repeatedly looking at lengthy delays leading to the loss of contracts and even an intervention from the UK Authorities. When all looked lost Flyjet was acquired by startup airline Silverjet with a view to using Flyjet as a "pre-packaged airline startup kit" to launch their own long-haul business class services and ultimately seeing the demise of Flyjet...

Founded in 2002 Flyjet quickly established itself as a "can-do" charter airline, picking up a variety of interesting contracts which saw their small fleet of...

26/01/2024

Twenty years ago Flash Airlines ceased operations following the crash of Flash Airlines flight 604, this episode of Grounded takes a look at the history of the airline, from its origins at Heliopolis Airlines through its rebranding to Flash and what happened following the airlines collapse. This is the Flash Airlines story...

Headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, Flash Airlines operated a pair of Boeing 737s on flights to Europe in the hope of bringing European tourists to the Red Sea re...

16/12/2023

Our final episode of the for the year has landed, we are once again in Belgium as we take a look at the very short-lived VG Airlines later known as Delsey Airlines.

This episode of Grounded takes a look at the short-lived VG Airlines, later known as Delsey Airlines. A Belgian airline formed in the wake of the collapse of...

02/12/2023

There is one more episode of Grounded due to land before the year end :) My airline is currently putting me on the Egypt run every week meaning less time at home but rest assured the next episode is almost ready.
Also an extra special hello to all those new folks who've joined in the past few weeks :)

21/10/2023

The latest episode of the has landed, we are once again in Belgium to look at the rise and fall of CityBird. An airline with a beautiful livery and dreams of long-haul, CityBird found itself constantly changing direction, eventually tangling itself up and collapsing in October 2001. CityBird is the final piece of our three episode arc which looked at airlines founded by Georges Gutelman which included Trans European Airways (TEA) and EuroBelgian Airlines / Virgin Express as of course history repeated itself for a third time...

This episode of the Grounded Series looks at the Flying Dream that was CityBird, a Belgian airline with long-haul dreams which quickly descended into a night...

12/09/2023

On this day 15 years ago the XL Leisure Group collapsed into administration with XL Airways UK grounded with immediate effect. It was the largest travel company collapse in the history of the UK (at the time, since surpassed by both Monarch and Thomas Cook). This episode of the from 2018 looks at the fall of XL following their ill-fated management buy-out...

XL Airways & The XL Leisure Group imploded spectacularly on 11th September 2008, they had become the UK's third largest travel company and its collapsed caus...

26/07/2023

The latest episode of the has landed, this time we look at the history of Virgin Express. The Belgian based low-fare airline began life as EuroBelgian Airlines, formed out of the ashes of the collapsed Trans European Airways which we covered last time. Grab a brew, settle down and get comfy, this is our longest episode yet!

This episode of Grounded takes a look at Virgin Express, formed from the ashes of the bankrupt Trans European Airways as EuroBelgian Airlines, EBA would begi...

25/03/2023

Episode 60 of the has landed, this time we take a look at TEA A.K.A, Trans European Airways. Formed in the early 1970s as a Belgian based charter airline, TEA went on to establish five subsidiary airlines across Europe before it imploded in 1991...

This episode of Grounded takes a look at TEA, also known as Trans European Airways. Formed in the early 1970s as a Belgian based charter airline, TEA went on...

05/01/2023

The special holiday episode of the has landed, celebrating the 40th birthday of the TV show which saw Skyrunner Anneka Rice chasing clues and hunting treasure throughout the 1980s.
This was planned to go live on 28th December 2022 to mark the show's 40th, however countless issues delayed it until today :)

Making it's television debut on the (then) new Channel 4 on December 28th 1982, Treasure Hunt became a ratings hit and ran until 1989. This special episode o...

28/12/2022

Happy 40th birthday to Treasure Hunt! On this day in 1982 Anneka Rice took to the skies in this helicopter as the Skyrunner following clues and searching for treasure across the UK and beyond.
I had hoped to have the Christmas special of the ready for today however it will sadly be a few days late but I didn't want to let the occasion slip by without mention :)

27/09/2022

The latest episode of the has landed, this time we take a look at Casino Express. Headquartered in Elko, Nevada, Casino Express would operate a fleet of 737-200s on gaming charter flights to bring gamblers to Elko where the airline's parent company had a few hotels. The 737s wore very distinctive liveries including the King of Diamonds and the Queen of Hearts. Eventually the gaming charters were reduced in favour of private charter flying and following a change of ownership the airline would be rebranded as Xtra Airways in 2005.

This episode of Grounded is off to Elko, Nevada where we take a look at the history of Casino Express. Founded specially to operate gaming charters taking ga...

16/07/2022

The latest episode of the has landed, this time we are off to Spain to look at the rise and fall of Futura International Airways. Futura International Airways was established in 1989, with various backers including the Irish state airline, Aer Lingus, Banco Santander and Gunnies Peat Aviation. Headquartered on the island of Mallorca Futura specialised in operating charter flights bringing tourists from across Europe to the island, later introducing flights to resort airports on the Spanish & Portuguese Mainland.

Futura also established a reputable ACMI leasing operation with aircraft placed as far away as Brazil, Indonesia and the United States. A cargo airline, FlyANT was later established too, as well as Futura Gael, an Irish operation.

Futura collapsed in September 2008, one of the many airline casualties of the global economic crisis. While FlyANT was rescued and later rebranded to Saicus Air but eventually ceased operations too.

This episode of Grounded looks at Futura, a Spanish charter airline and ACMI specialist. Founded in 1989 and headquartered on the Balearic Island of Mallorca...

05/06/2022

No this week but I have highlights from a 3 hour session at LHR's Myrtle Ave for you, packed full of heavies with the odd narrowbody thrown in for good measure it's a Heathrow Spotting video worth a watch on this quiet Sunday afternoon :)

Various aircraft landing at London Heathrow Airport on Runway 27L on Tuesday 05th April 2022, filmed over a four hour period I've condensed the video down to...

30/04/2022

After a 2 month wait the latest episode of the has landed, this one takes a look at also known as Kibris Türk Hava Yollari, the de-facto flag carrier of Turkish occupied North Cyprus.

This episode of grounded looks at KTHY, otherwise known as Kibris Türk Hava Yollari or Cyprus Turkish Airlines. The de-facto "flag carrier" of the occupied n...