Thursday, December 07, 2006

Flying Bedrooms

Sometimes during the day I listen to the local airport's Air Traffic Control Tower's transmissions from my upstairs office. I can see the aircraft taking off and landing (depending on the wind direction) so like to know what is coming next.

Maastricht-Aachen Airport (Almost inappropriately named as Durham Tees Valley Airport) is not a busy place. It has 2 passengers routes, Berlin and Amsterdam. Around 12 routes for charters during the holiday season and a steady cargo haul to places like Nairobi, Istanbul and Pskov.

It also houses a couple of aviation companies, one that paints and one that maintains and converts planes. So it is not perculiar for an arriving plane instead of taking off again after 1 hour to disappear for a few days. One such plane was a Flyjet B767 reg G-FJEC which landed on the 27th November.


G-FJEC B767 as it was

Today the plane re-emerged from the hanger of the painting company in new Silverjet colours. It is the first plane ever to display silverjet's colours. Silverjet is a new airline founded by Lawrence Hunt are looking to revolutionise the business travel sector.

When it did reveal it's new look the plane had also a new registration G-SJET. An obvious sign that Silverjet are looking to attract the business person to its seats. Personalised Mercedes owners should only travel on personalised planes.

For an hour or so the plane flew around in the CTR (control zone) of Maastricht airport whilst being photogrpahed for the marketing bods at Silverjet before leaving to land at Luton Airport.



G-SJET B767 first flown 07.12.2006 Thanks to Bjorn van Velpen for the picture

Silverjet will not start flying until the 25th January 2007. The first route is Luton Airport to New York (Newark). The plane (normally a 300 seater) will only house 100 passengers on 75" flatbed convertible seats. Check-in time will be 30 minutes through a private terminal. The price for a seat/bed around £999.


A similar seat/bed that will be onboard Silver Jets 767's

7 more planes are due to land at Maastricht to be painted in the coming months. I think Silverjet is going places. In honour of this first inaugural flight I think we should commemorate it by a short clip of the Cats UK singing the 70's hit 'Luton Airport'

1 comment:

Glynn said...

Excellent research, Mr Smog. You are a top plane spotter.