British Airways Concorde G-BOAB at London Heathrow Airport (Image Credit: London Air Travel)
It is almost 15 years that Concorde ceased commercial operations. However, the First Lady of aviation is still held in huge affection by passengers all over the world.
Concorde may sit stationary on the airfield at London Heathrow, but its delta wings and imposing needle nose still have the ability to turn heads. Concorde more than holds its own against younger next generation aircraft in terms of presence on the tarmac.
In advance of the new Bristol Aerospace Museum opening on Tuesday 17 October which will house one of the Concorde aircraft, next week, BBC4 will take a look back at Concorde with Concorde: A Supersonic Story.
The BBC promises rare footage and a cast of engineers, frequent flyers and celebrities (including Dame Joan Collins naturally…) to tell the story of one of the most elegant and elusive aircraft ever made.
It premiers at 21:00 on Tuesday 10 October 2017. It will be also be available to stream / download for 30 days from the date of broadcast for viewers in the UK.
“Up In The Air”, the long-awaited three part behind the scenes documentary at Virgin Atlantic, will premier in the UK on ITV at 9pm Tuesday 7 July 2015.
“Up In The Air”, the long-awaited three part behind the scenes documentary at Virgin Atlantic, will premier in the UK on ITV at 9pm Tuesday 7 July 2015.
This follows recent behind the scenes series at Heathrow by both the BBC and ITV (“Airport Live” and “Britain’s Busiest Airport”) and “A Very British Airline”, a behind the scenes look at British Airways by the BBC.
The documentary will cover Virgin Atlantic’s quest to recover from four consecutive years of financial losses with the delivery of its new fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, the airline’s 30th birthday celebrations and the recruitment of new cabin crew.
Episode 1 – Tuesday 7 July 2015
In episode one we meet the team at the Virgin Atlantic base in Crawley, preparing for the airline’s 30th birthday event. Richard Branson, who founded the airline when he was just 34, is making a rare appearance.
Although the airline is celebrating its staying power in a notoriously fickle business, times have been hard recently, with finances up and down and often millions in the red. Whilst he hasn’t been involved in the day to day running of the airline for more than ten years, Richard Branson is still the face of the brand. He says: “Fortunately, I’ve been in the airline business long enough to know that you have tough years and good years. (We’ll still be around in 30 years) as long as we keep reinventing ourselves and keep ahead of the crowd.”
With a small fleet of 38, some of Virgin’s planes have been in service for around 20 years. The airline is hoping that its route back into profit lies in their five billion pound investment of new fuel efficient Dreamliner planes, which will eventually replace half its existing fleet of older gas guzzlers.
Certifying Engineer Paul, says: “This (plane’s) design is 1980s, over 25 years old. So the computing power in your smart phone is easily a match for this. If you can keep your aircraft age young, then you can always stay in the game.”
The first Dreamliner is on the production line and Customer Experience Design Manager Nik Lusardi is off on an unusual shopping trip to the Boeing factory in the States, where he will select passenger seats and most importantly – the swanky cabin loo. The pressure is on to get Nik’s upper class seats, which cost around £100,000 each, tweaked, tested and fitted into the Dreamliner in time.
After a recruitment freeze of two years, Virgin is finally hiring cabin crew again, and over 2000 people apply for a job in just 48 hours. Jonathan, part of the Cabin Crew Recruitment team, says: “The golden question, ‘What are we looking for?’ I guess it’s that natural enthusiasm, that natural warmth and friendliness. I’ve always said, you’re either naturally a Virgin Atlantic Crew Member or… maybe it’s not for you.”
The modest £12,500 starting salary hasn’t put off 58-year-old grandmother Katrine, who is hoping to fulfill her life long dream to become a ‘trolley dolly’. Katrine says: “It’s what I’ve been wanting to do for 25-30 years, and I feel the time is right. That’s why I haven’t gone for it before, I had young children so I couldn’t give 110% to the role at the time. It’s time for me now… touch wood!”
We follow the new recruits through training, styling and their eventful first flights to Cancun and Dubai. With delays, turbulence and passenger sickness, will their training have equipped the fledgling cabin crew with everything they need to make their first flights a success?
Episode 2 – Tuesday 14 July
In episode two, we follow the team launching the airline’s new Vivienne Westwood designed staff uniform. It’s the first new uniform in 15 years and Annie has the responsibility of fitting out thousands of staff from all over the business – some love the tight curves but not everyone is convinced by the new look.
Rebe, Mim and Helen, Virgin Atlantic’s very own style team, are putting together a glossy style bible for company staff, which lays down the law on everything from hair and make up, to how to wear the new uniform. They want airline staff to be the magazine’s models, so hopefuls fly in to Crawley from as far afield as India and San Francisco to compete in Virgin’s Top Model competition. Rodrigo, who admits to having a lot of ‘work’ done has flown in from a transatlantic shift to take part in the competition, but will his sharp suit and hand painted contact lenses be enough to land him a modeling spot?
Meanwhile the pressure is on to get Virgin’s new Dreamliner plane delivered on time from Boeing – any hold up could cost the airline millions in lost revenue. Designer Nik is doing the final touches to his cabin lighting which have cost more than the Blackpool illuminations to develop and install and we meet the team in Heathrow’s upper class lounge, whose job is to keep Virgin’s highest paying customers happy, whether whisking them through check in or directing them to the jacuzzi.
As ever, the warehouse boys back in Crawley offer their own down to earth insights into the airline’s fortunes and misfortunes and play their own part in the uniform launch.
Episode 3 – Tuesday 21 July
Richard Branson, who founded Virgin Atlantic when he was just 34, is still the face of the airline and we meet him in Florida as he shoots a range of adverts for the brand. It’s a chance for Meigan, the airline’s new Director of Communications, to meet her boss for the first time, and a surprise lies in store for her. As Virgin Atlantic turns 30 the company is thinking ahead to its future. But how will an airline based on youthful exuberance cope with middle age? Reuben is Head of Customer Experience, responsible for and everything to do with how the airline looks and feels. His big job is to oversee the company’s new TV ad campaign, the first in 2 years and he has the tricky job of combining Virgin’s cheeky and sexy past with its maturer years – without being boring. Nailing this idea in a new advert isn’t easy, and the ad shoot in Budapest has its ups and downs.
After seven years of waiting, the team at Virgin Atlantic are finally about to get their hands on their new Dreamliner plane. Designer Nik and cabin crew trainer Matt Whip are amongst the crew flying the new plane back to the UK. On the flight home Nik discovers that his new lighting has an unfortunate side effect on the crew blouses, while back at Heathrow Chief Exec Craig and his senior team find the welcoming party doesn’t run as smoothly as expected.
Once it has landed the team has only have a few weeks to get the plane ready for going into service. The Dreamliner flies a different altitude to their older planes, which makes food and drink taste different to the discerning passenger, so Reuben has the all important job of selecting the sparkling wine with the right amount of bubbles for the new altitude.
Also in the episode we also meet the team at the customer complaints centre in Swansea, who are dealing with customer’s increasingly high expectations – and the occasional caller who thinks Richard Branson might be available for a chat. Back in the warehouse in Crawley, Tom is thinking ahead to his own future, with possible retirement on the horizon. The team on the ground at Heathrow reveal some of the stranger things that customers have tried to bring onto a plane, and a Dreamliner launch in Atlanta keeps Richard Branson and the Virgin Atlantic team on their toes.
UK viewers will also be able to watch on catch-up on the ITV Player.
Episode 1 – Thursday 4 June
This episode follows Heathrow staff racing against the clock to process thousands of passengers arriving from 84 different countries. Airside Safety Officer Glenn and his colleagues work closely with Air Traffic Control to keep Heathrow’s two runways open and clear of debris. Meanwhile, staff from the Animal Reception Centre welcome a variety of weird and wonderful animals – from pet ferrets to a wild tiger. Inside the terminals, Heathrow staff deal with passengers including a man who is stuck living at the airport after being deported from Thailand, and a family whose young relatives have got lost in Arrivals.
Episode 2 – Thursday 11 June
This episode follows Heathrow staff trying to process 100,000 departing passengers a day, and get their flights away on time. Dispatcher Callie and Ramp Manager Steve have their plans thrown into chaos by a passenger who disappears after checking on to their flight. In Security, Sundeep and his team have to search an unusually dressed traveller, and deal with a man who is unhappy about having his bag searched. Meanwhile, Heathrow’s extradition team ensures police suspects are put on departing flights, while paparazzi photographer Kate is on the lookout for celebrities flying through the airport.
London Heathrow Terminal 5 (Image Credit: Heathrow)
The behind the scenes documentary shows no signs of running out of steam. We’ve lost count of the number of train companies, hotels and airlines that have opened themselves up to the cameras! ITV has now commissioned a three part documentary series on London Heathrow.
The documentary is being made by independent production company Raw TV. Production has been underway for some time, with the company actively seeking both frequent and nervous flyers late last year.
Of course, this is not the first time Heathrow has opened itself up to the cameras. The BBC ran “Airport Live” in 2013, as well as the long-running docusoap “Airport”.
We’ll provide an update with an expected transmission date as soon as we hear of it.
Update: Episode 1 of “Britain’s Busiest Airport” premiers on ITV at 9pm on Thursday 4 June 2015. More from the ITV Press Centre.
After shops, hotels and railways, the BBC turned to British Airways just a short time ago with A Very British Airline.
And now, Virgin Atlantic, never one to allow British Airways to have it all its own way or hog the limelight, has invited The Garden Productions to film behind the scenes at the airline for ITV.
Whilst details are scant at the moment, it is understood that the documentary will be shown later this year and likely subjects could include the launch of Boeing 787 operations.
Update May 2015: We understand that the documentary will be called “Virgin Atlantic – Up In The Air” and a transmission date is imminent.
The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on 8 March 2014 continues to be one of the greatest aviation mysteries in recent times.
In spite of the fact that more than three months have passed since the loss of the aircraft, its black box has yet to be located.
Furthermore, whilst it was thought that the aircraft was lost in the southern Indian Ocean, this has now been discounted after an extensive search operation.
On Tuesday 17 June 2014, BBC2’s Horizon tells what it claims to be the inside story of the search for flight MH370, with access to those on the frontline in the southern Indian Ocean and the British satellite engineers who tracked the plane’s final hours.
The film reveals how MH370 disappeared in a radar blind spot; what investigators believe happened to the aircraft in its last minutes; and how the area in which it could be found is still to be searched.
Horizon also examines the new technologies, like black box streaming and enhanced air traffic surveillance, that mean an airliner should never vanish without trace again.
This is one, perhaps, for readers more interested in the hardware of aviation than the “softer” aspects of flying.
Tonight, 24 April 2014, on Channel 4 (UK), “Grand Designs” presenter Kevin McCloud will challenge a team of three engineers to recycle the entire contents of an Airbus A320 aircraft into reusable consumer products in Kevin McCloud’s “Supersized Salvage” (also repeated just after midnight on 4 Seven). Continue reading “See an Airbus A320 recycled in Kevin McCloud’s “Supersized Salvage””
British Airways Boeing 747 Heathrow (Image Credit: Heathrow)
We’ve always had something of a soft spot for the Boeing 747. It’s an aircraft that, we think, is second only to Concorde in terms of presence on the tarmac.
Airport Live presenters, Dallas Campbell, Anita Rani, Dan Snow – (C) BBC – Photographer: Des Willie
The BBC has announced that it is to go behind the scenes at London Heathrow airport next month with “Airport Live”.
Over four consecutive nights from Monday 17 June 2013 to Thursday 20 June 2013, the BBC will be live from the control tower and airport terminals of London Heathrow.
This is not the first time the BBC has done such an exercise. Many readers will no doubt recall the long running fly on the wall documentary “Airport”.
Whilst “Airport” was very much focused on the work of a small number of individual staff members and passengers’ stories, it seems that “Airport Live” will lean more towards the mechanics and challenges of the daily airport operation. The BBC promises unprecedented access to air traffic control, airport terminals and airport hangars, to monitor the entire airport operation through a combination of pre-recorded segments and live footage (though I assume certain areas are bound to be off limits for security reasons).
It is understood that BA will be actively participating in the programme. This is noteworthy in itself as BA has, in the past, not been known for being willing to open itself up the media.
