As we’re about to enter 2012, I thought I’d look at some of the aviation stories we may be reading about over the coming year. These will hopefully bring good news for the aviation enthusiast, but nothing is guaranteed!

1. The Future of BMI
It was announced a week ago that Lufthansa has agreed terms with IAG – owner of British Airways and Iberia – for the sale of BMI British Midland International. What this will look like in the long term is still unclear, but by the end of March 2012 we are likely to see the brand disappearing, and more BA presence at Heathrow. What this means for domestic travel in the UK or the niche routes to the Middle East from Heathrow we just don’t know. It will be sad to see this well-loved name disappear.

2. Airport development in London
Will Boris Johnson get his Thames Estuary airport in London? Will the government back down and allow expansion to Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted’s runways? What’s certain is that a lot of people and airlines have strong opinions on this, and a solution needs to be found to keep the UK competitive and to reduce congestion at London’s airports.

3. More 787 Operations
Big news in 2011 was the start of Boeing 787 Dreamliner operations by ANA All Nippon Airways, and the initial routes. But 2012 will see Air India, China Southern Airlines and Japan Airlines all receive examples in the first half of the year. Keep an eye out for announcements of routes to be flown.

4. Berlin Brandenburg Airport opening
It’s been the biggest airport building project in Europe over recent years, and will finally open it’s doors in 2012. Berlin Brandenburg Airport, which incorporates part of the existing Schonefeld Airport, will open its doors on 3rd June. Schonefeld and Tegel airports will close the same day. There’s already and impressive line-up of airlines and routes for the modern airport.

5. Airline closures
As sad as it is, the inevitable truth is that in the current economic climate teetering above recession in many countries, and with air passenger duty an off-putting factor for many travellers, we will see airlines disappear during 2012. Which ones I can’t say, but there will no doubt be some surprises, and some which we expect.

Which stories do you think we’ll hear about in 2012? Which airlines are likely to disappear? Will we see lots of new aircraft orders?

Fancy a trip away to pursue some spotting with like minded enthusiasts in 2010? Aeroprints, one of the longest established aviation spotting tour firms in the UK, have released their 2010 brochure, listing all of the tours you’re able to book on, along with details of which aircraft/flights involved in each trip, and the day-by-day opportunities for spotting.

I’ve personally used Aeroprints for a tour a few years ago and highly recommend them.

You can download the brochure here

Bournemouth Aviation Museum will be holding a cockpit day on Saturday 19 September from 10am to 4pm for all those interested in coming along to see a variety of military and civil cockpits displayed by their owners. Anyone wishing to display a cockpit are welcome to attend (contact paul.j.rushton@btopenworld.com).

Visitors will be charged £3 entrance fee. There will be various stalls open selling memorabilia and aviation items. There will also be a display of military vehicles, and the museum’s regular collection of aircraft.

Manchester Airport’s Aviation Viewing Park now has multiple entry tickets available for those who visit regularly and want to save a bit of money on the entrance fee. The TAS Manchester site has full details.

The tickets come in batches of 25, 50 and 100. These are priced £25, £50 and £100 respectively. I’m sure you can work out that means entrance is therefore reduced to £1 per visit. You can buy tickets from the entrance kiosk, but if you present your TAS membership at the Aviation Shop on site, you’ll get 10% off the ticket cost.

There’s no mention whether the tickets are for pedestrians only, or include car entrance. Perhaps someone could comment if they know.

A new book has been released by Destinworld Publishing which is jam-packed full of information on airframes around the world and their current condition.

Out of Production List – Western Jet Airliners lists full production lists of 27 aircraft types and sub-types, all of which are no longer produced and so prove more and more difficult to find as the years pass by.

The book is right up to date as of June 2009 and lists the status of every airframe, whether it is active, stored, preserved, written off, or remaining only as a small section or parts in someone’s back yard. The importance of this to spotters’ logs is obvious, as aircraft you once thought were lost are once again unlocked to you to hunt out on your travels.

Types covered are separated by sub-type, and include older Airbus and Boeing types, such as the A300, 707, 737-200 etc., as well as types such as the Convair 880/990, HS Trident, VC-10, Caravelle, Fokker 28/70/100 and many more. Each has a summary of locations and conditions, plus a complete cross reference of previous registrations to make finding frames you’ve seen easier. Each entry has a tick box to mark off aircraf you’ve seen.

For full details on the book, and to order a copy click here, or visit your favourite aviation bookstore. It’s also available on Amazon.

As a way to combine trips to (sometimes) far-flung places, with like-minded enthusiasts for company, aviation tour companies offer a great outlet for our hobby.

Some of the better known companies operating in the UK are:
Aeroprints
Ian Allan Tours
The Aviation Society

The immediate benefits of taking one of these tours, first and foremost, include the potential quality of the aircraft you’ll see. Whilst everyone’s logbooks contain different aircraft, the beauty of aviation tours is that you can pick somewhere that will be beneficial to you.

Another big benefit is that most organisations pre-arrange access to areas that would otherwise be restricted to the enthusiast, such as airside ramp tours at airports, access to private collections and museums, or manufacturers. Having all of this takes a massive headache out of organising trips on your own, and is undoubtedly more beneficial to your logbook and photograph collections.

The biggest arguments many have for not using tours tends to be cost – tours are usually expensive, and the thrifty can usually find cheaper ways to travel by themselves. Although many of the extras wouldn’t be included.

Touching further on this, others cite not wishing to travel with a bunch of unknown people, when they can just as easily travel alone, or with their friends.

Whatever your stance on the matter, the tour companies are already offering more and more elaborate and tempting tours for 2010. Here are some tasters:

Aeroprints have a Round-the-World trip at £2595, and a Japan-Korea trip at £1445 planned.

Ian Allan also have a Round-the-World trip planned at £2839 with different destinations.

The Aviation Society has not announced any 2010 trips yet, but has three main 2009 trips, to Dubai Air Show, Paris Air Show, and China.

What are your thoughts on aviation tours? Have you taken them? What were your experiences?

Mark Curran recently reported on his trip to Shanghai in which he searched out some of the aviation-related points of interest away from from city’s main airports, as well as some general comments on spotting there. Read below:

SHANGHAI AVIATION ENTHUSIAST CENTRE
To access SAEC by public transport, take Shanghai Metro line 1 to Jin Jiang Park station. Leave the station to the left, and walk past the variety of alive/dead mobile phones, computer parts and domestic animals available for sale on Humin Road. After crossing a small bus station you will come to a subway/underpass. The first entrance is for motorbikes, enter at your own risk; the second is pedestrian access.

Cross under the road. On the other side you exit next to a fair ground – continue walking south on XXXX (this will involve leaving the subway and doing a 270 degree right turn). Whilst there is a footpath it is a bit perilous due to the adjacent cycle/bicycle lane, variously also used by cars and buses, and not always in the correct correction.
Indeed the desire to shout “mentalist!” in an Alan Partridge voice betroth me several times! After about 400 yards the SAEC is on your right, there is wide gate with a large booth on the left. Pay your 8RMB (about 80p) and inspect the DC-8 (including the interior), Volks IL-14 as well as 4 MiG/Chinese copies, one helicopter and a boat.
There was apparently a DHC-2 here but it was not visible.

LONG HUA AIRPORT
The disused airport at Long Hua is now a residential area, with much of the terminal ramp having blocks of flats. The runway is fairly intact but the scene of much building / clearance work so a fair bet it will be built on soon.

Adjacent to the airport is the CAAC College, home of an AN-24, an IL-18 and an AN-2. To get here take Shanghai Metro line 3 to Long Cao station. After exiting use the circular footbridge to access Long Hua Road, follow this to the next junction with Long Hua Road West. After crossing the railway line you reach a roundabout, facing the old airport terminal. Turn left, and keep going. After about 500 yards the end of the runway is visible on your right, and on the left is a bus parking area with may be 10 buses and some huts for bus drivers, cleaners, bicycles etc. Between these the three aircraft can be seen. They are tightly packed, viewed through a double fence, so are not photographable to any standard.

Bus 864 also operates frequently between Long Hua Airport and the City Centre.

Note that the walk from Long Cao to the Airport is not the easiest due to the amount of crap the Chinese festoon their pavements with, such as bicycles and dead things. It is also not the easiest place to cross the road as traffic signals are more for decoration than any real intent – indeed I saw an elderly woman knocked over by a Chinese 4×4.

THE 737-200
I intended to go and find the ex-China Eastern 737-200 that is also in southern Shanghai. The Metro line XXX terminus at Ji Yang Road seemed quite close by. However my Chinese speaking friends couldn’t find this station on the map, and I later established the station was closed.
After looking on Google Maps for the next station (South Ying Lan Road), it all looked a bit favella-ish, so decided to not bother.

SHANGHAI DEVEOPMENTS
Instead I went to the Shanghai Council Museum for planning Projects for the Shanghai Expo 2010 (!). Shanghai is a rapidly expanding city and lacks the infrastructure to cope with the rate of expansion, so
there is a heavy building program focussing on both sustainability and volume, from everything to housing to water supply to subways. And an obsession with building very tall office buildings (the glass floor on the 210th floor of Shanghai Wold Financial Centre is very scary!).

The point of my including this is the museum had models of the plans for both Pu Dong and Hongqiao airports. At Pu Dong the intention is to build a very large ‘H’ shaped pier to the north od the existing two terminals. Hongqiao is slated for massive redevelopment in to an airport with two piers. I think this would include the demolition of the Hong Gang.

Sorry for the late warning. Dutch Spotters are hosting another Rotterdam Aviation Fair inside the terminal building on Saturday 18 April.

Parking and entrance is free. Inside you’ll find many booths and tables selling all kinds of books, DVDs, models, slides etc.

You can also take part in ramp tours of Rotterdam Airport (I did one of these a couple of years ago and it proved very fruitful!). There’s also the chance to take a sightseeing flight to Amsterdam.

The event is open from 10am to 4pm. See this link for more information.

Upstairs, Rotterdam has a great viewing gallery overlooking the apron.

Manchester Airport’s excellent Aviation Viewing Park’s entrance prices have changed. They are now:

£2 for pedestrians
£5 for cars + driver (extra cost for passengers)

Great news today. Bournemouth Aviation Museum is to re-open this Saturday (18 October 2008), 10 months since it was closed by the airport due to them requiring the land for other purposes.

Now the museum has been relocated alongside the Wonderland Family Adventure Park and the exhibits have been reassembled ready for the museum’s reopening.

In addition to this, the museum intends to erect a viewing platform from which visitors can watch and photograph the movements at Bournemouth Airport, which is very welcome.

Eventually an Aviation Heritage Centre is planned for the site, which was once home to the manufacturing plant of the BAC 1-11 amongst other aircraft.

The museum’s website is at http://www.aviation-museum.co.uk/frameset.htm