Travel News - Iran Air and El Al Getting Cozy

Now up in my ASK THE PILOT on Salon.com:

Has airline livery design hit rock bottom? It's another airline / culture crossover moment!

Plus, viewers weigh in on "Pan Am"


“…What makes Malaysia Airlines' new look so tragic is that it supersedes one of the classiest palettes out there. Its blue and red striping, tapered at the stern, was handsome, distinctive and dignified -- exactly what a livery should be. The only thing that saves the revised look from abomination is the retention of the indigenous Wau kite on the tail.

…True story: In 1993 I was in the city of Kota Bahru, a conservative Islamic town in northern Malaysia close to the Thai border, when we saw a group of little kids flying Wau kites. At the time I didn't realize where the airline's logo had come from, but I recognized the pattern immediately. It was one of those airline/culture crossover moments that we aerophiles get all emotional over…

...Indonesian carrier Garuda, on the other hand, has taken a tragic step backward by removing a similarly iconic logo from its tails. Gone is the abstract head of the Garuda eagle. Borrowed from ancient Sanskrit, the Garuda is common to Buddhist and Hindu mythology, and is one of Hinduism's animal-god trinity. The airline switched instead to this idiotic blue blur…

…Another of my favorite airline/culture crossover moments occurred few months ago. I was excited to spot an Iran Air 747 on the apron in Bangkok; but what really made the scene interesting is that parked directly next to it was an El Al 767. There were Israel and Iran, all cozy together at a remote parking stand…”


The full article is here:
http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/index.html?story=/tech/col/smith/2011/09/29/airline_culture_crossover



Recently in ASK THE PILOT:

Why I won’t be watching “Pan Am"
http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/index.html?story=/tech/col/smith/2011/09/25/pan_am


BAG CHECK! The two most dreaded words in air travel.
http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/2011/09/22/tsa_bag_check

Entry to ASK THE PILOT is always free. Click the links above, or visit www.askthepilot.com and look for the BLOG button.

Enjoy, and how about we get a good livery discussion going here on FT...


Patrick Smith

LOL! I knew there had to be something to this story. I feel safe in saying there will never be a partnership between those two carriers.

Well, these TV series are always idiotic. I mean, the Terminator series, simply put, apparently Skynet used up the marksman Terminators for the movie 'cos the ones in the series couldnt just freakin' kill Connor tho they had many chances. What were the chances of Pan Am being a lovingly crafted series instead of a pile of....

Link is dead.

LOL! I knew there had to be something to this story. I feel safe in saying there will never be a partnership between those two carriers.

Probably the closest that they will come is when a fighter pilot who's day job is to fly for El Al, shoots down a fighter pilot who's day job is the fly for Iran Air.

Probably the closest that they will come is when a fighter pilot who's day job is to fly for El Al, shoots down a fighter pilot who's day job is the fly for Iran Air.

Or vice versa. That's the most deadly codeshare on earth.

For many years at IST, Iran Air and El Al's ticket desks were next to eachother, hell, before 1979 El Al trained many Iran Air pilots.................

People forget that Iran and Israel had little or no animosity before 1979 and that much of the antagonism toward Israel shown by Iran is not due toi Zionism, the Palestinians, or whatever, but rather the EXTREMELY close links that the Iranian government had with Israel for many many years prior to the revolution. In fact I believe that in the 60's they effectively operated a scissor hub out of Tehran with continuing flights to JNB and fifth freedom rights to sell tickets on these routes.

People forget that Iran and Israel had little or no animosity before 1979

Or even later. The weapons that Ronald Reagan and Ollie North illegally sold to Iran in 1985 and 1986 in the Iran-Contra scandal were shipped by/through Israel with the full help if the Israeli government and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Israel had no problem shipping weapons to Iran.

I think the Malasyian Airlines Logo is supposedly that fish....(forgot the name).

Israel had no problem shipping weapons to Iran.

....and benefiting financially from it.

Not only did Iran and Israel not have animosity, they were actually good friends. In fact, Iran recently found a massive Jewish star on the roof of Iran Air's headquarters, because the Israelis built it!

Getting back on track, I enjoyed seeing EK and LY, EI and BA, and 2 other airlines (forget who) all sitting right next to each other at JFK

Reminder: political discussions need to be in OMNI/PR

cblaisd
Moderator, Travel News