Andy Foster

@SimonCalder How about via Beijing or Shanghai? Chinese Airlines have been taking a lot of passengers from Australasia to UK even before the recent conflict.

As the former Gulf superhighway via Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha struggles to reopen, one-way economy fares UK-Australia have reached £2,000. Qantas is pivoting capacity from domestic and Pacific routes to Europe. An extra 400 seats a day from Paris and Rome. independent.co.uk/travel/news-an…

@PippaCrerar Surely senior political figures should use communication methods which are backed up regularly on accessible servers given the loss of phones in the Covid era which led to loss of critical messages. All too easy for them to say they are no longer able to access WhatsApp.

EXCL: Cabinet Office is understood to hold number of text and email exchanges between Peter Mandelson and Morgan McSweeney, despite theft of former chief of staff’s phone in October last year. The whereabouts of McSweeney’s messages with Mandelson has been under intense scrutiny since it was reported his work device was stolen shortly after Mandelson was sacked as US ambassador. McSweeney did not disclose he was Keir Starmer’s chief of staff when he reported the theft, according to a transcript released in highly unorthodox move by Met Police, which said it wanted to correct misreporting of the incident. But not all of the correspondence has been lost - and a tranche is expected to be publicly released as part of Mandelson files in coming weeks. I’ll talk about this more on @itvpeston tonight.

@xAviation @Cookie_and_Alan Managed to get on jump seat of a BA 747-400 into Kai Tak in early 1990s.

A 747 landing at Kai Tak Airport, 1988 flying this low over the city was normal.

@SimonCalder I was given a tour of the A319 at the 2023 Dubai Air Show the layout is more business than premium economy I would say.

Maldives in luxury: easyJet Airbus A319 now converted to all-business 44 seater, flying from Heathrow from December. But this new link from Beond requires refuelling at Dubai, which adds three hours. Tempted? Or would you prefer nonstop in premium economy? independent.co.uk/travel/news-an…

@clark_aviation No but Blackburn is!!

@Brabazon2 Beverley isn't in Lancashire😂😂😉

Some rather unusual Blackburn Beverley images, simply because I haven't posted them here before.

@JohnWil45304495 @SCP_Hughes Gibraltar Farm Barn needs to be preserved to recognise those who flew from there.

@SCP_Hughes Need to preserve the important heritage around en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Temps… Hopefully not excessively difficult

The Government has cut five of its proposed new towns but continues to plan for the remaining seven. The cut ones are Adlington (Cheshire), Heyford Park (Oxford satellite), Marlcombe (near Exeter), Plymouth (Devon) and Wychavon Town (Worcestershire). The retained ones are brownfield schemes in Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Milton Keynes and Thamesmead (in SE London), an urban extension by Enfield, and the genuinely new town at Tempsford (Bedfordshire). A few thoughts: 1. It is odd that we are still at the stage of choosing sites two years in. Wasn't that supposed to have been done last year? Couldn't it have been done while Labour was still in opposition? 2. The sites that have been cut were mostly relatively tenuous economically. All of the remaining sites are good projects that should certainly be supported. Today's announcement is thus, viewed from a certain angle, not economically insane. 3. I am gratified to see that the site I proposed at Tempsford is growing steadily in importance, and that 40,000 homes are now projected there. This might actually be the new city I proposed, not just a bit of housing development. 4. At the same time, it is interesting that Tempsford is actually the *only* new town surviving in the sense of a physically distinct settlement. In my view this reflects on the general limitations of new towns: even a government that is full of enthusiasm for them can find hardly any good sites. There *are* occasional strong cases, but they are exceptional. Growing existing cities will always do the lion's share of the work, as it has for eight hundred years. 5. Quite a few of these sites were underway anyway. Brabazon has been underway since 2020 or so. There is lots of development in central Leeds and Manchester. There may be a bit of double-counting going on here in which existing large brownfield schemes are relabelled as new projects. 6. I am a bit puzzled that they could not make e.g. a satellite town for Oxford work economically. Why not? I do rather wonder if the issue here is that they could not afford the share of social housing that they wanted, and so they have scrapped the project entirely rather than building some useful but ideologically unpalatable private housing. Or maybe it is just that MHCLG doesn't have the capacity to allow developments at twelve sites simultaneously. Either way, this seems concerning. 7. In any case, it is vital to remember what a small contribution to British housing this is. The schemes total 'up to' 191,000 homes. It will take maybe twenty years to build them out, in which time they will make up perhaps 2.5% of the houses that the Government wants, if current target levels are sustained. Probably nothing will be delivered before next election, except on the double counted schemes that were already happening. I say this not because I oppose the new towns scheme – I don't, and in fact I have actively contributed to it – but as a reminder that it should not distract from the vastly more important task of reforming planning and regulation. Overall verdict: these are still good sites, and I still support this project. But the Govt needs to get on with it, and nobody should imagine that this can be more than a minor contributor to its housing strategy. thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…

@katherinealee Musée d'Orsay share.google/ZxNCP4kv1Dn5d1…

I’ve got a day in Paris next week before some meetings that I’m there for. What should I do? Not been in years & just looking for suggestions for during the daytime, not evening events etc.

@SilenceInPolish Wuthering Heights?

@FurkanGozukara Palantir involved??

BBC confirms the US is responsible for the Minab school massacre that killed 175 people, mostly girls. The "advanced" AI targeting system used outdated coordinates to hit a base next door, ignoring satellite images showing kids playing in the courtyard. Absolute war crime.

@penandpaper1989 @Telegraph

"Two seat fighter jet? " Shame on @Telegraph for such an inexcusable mistake. The clue is in the big spinning thing on the front of the aircraft... telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/2…

@MaxK_J @BlickyIan @BrooklandsMuseu icas.org/icas_archive/I… The report acknowledges the work of the UK National High Lift Programme involving the RAE etc.

@BlickyIan And that one was designed at BAe Weybridge @BrooklandsMuseu

Bit of flap action - Airbus make great wings .... made in ...,

@clark_aviation Agreed. Powerful book.

Just got in from (unpaid) work to discover that Len Deighton has passed away. If you read just one book on RAF Bomber Command, I recommend his 'Bomber'. It may be fictional but it covers the 'night war over Germany' better than any factual book I've read. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

Was just thinking of his war books this morning having read them when I was a teenager. RIP Len.

@RAeSTimR How likely is a RIAT postponement?

Cry havoc and let loose the RIAT stepladder brigade!

@clark_aviation x.com/i/status/84966…

The Boeing SST mock-up from 1969. If this project had not been cancelled, it would certainly have been a very dramatic addition to the airline fleets of the period!

@carolecadwalla @thenerve_news @CharlieNotOld Which parliamentary committee can investigate this?

NEW: Two senior MOD whistleblowers with inside knowledge of Palantir's systems have come forward to @thenerve_news to say government ministers are ignorant of the grave national security risks the technology poses. Hugely important by @CharlieNotOld

@AviationMarlene Cranfield operated one which carried out student experience and research flights. airhistory.net/photo/565680/G…

A Paris above Paris. Derived from the MS.755 ‘Fleuret’, the Morane-Saulnier MS.760 ‘Paris’ was a four-seater jet aircraft, primarily designed for liaison or light transport missions. Following the prototype’s maiden flight in 1954, more than 150 aircraft were produced.

@floboflo @ChrisMasonBBC Top story on @bbclaurak ??

I’m very confident that @ChrisMasonBBC will be all over this for the next few weeks. He hates this kind of behaviour

@thecarolemalone Do some research and you'll understand what the process was and why they change image on banknotes regularly.

The woke Bank of England bosses dropped Churchill from our banknotes because they’re ashamed of him and our history. Shame on them express.co.uk/news/uk/218199…