What a journey. We're up at first light for a walk round town.
BA has a limited choice of flights to Asia. These war rerouted days the Tokyo flight is so long it has to carry a replacement flight crew for the last half of the journey. If the weather is bad and the list of diversion airports is limited this grows to three sets of pilots and co-pilots. If we assume a pilot is paid £200k a year then the cost of having all these crews on a flight, plus board and lodging, soon mounts up. Safety regulations mean that all the flight crews have to spend two nights in a hotel before returning. A rough calculation means that's pretty much £20k additional overhead per flight. It's much more profitable for BA and other European airlines to operate flights to the US or the Gulf where you don't have these additional embedded costs. The additional flight crews sleep in a windowless little cupboard on the right behind the cockpit. The cabin crew have their own space at the back.
We expect to sleep solidly through to seven o'clock but the jet lag demon has us up and about at three thirty. Why is it that flying East is always harder ? We change our connecting flight booking from the ten o'clock to the six fifteen. This leaves on time and takes excatly 39 minutes from London to Edinburgh. To say this is super quick would be an understatement. We are the first passengers into the London lounge ( or customers as the airline now refers to travelers ) and we're still the only guests when we leave. The layout and furnishing of airport lounges is a subject worthy of a book. The Indian gentleman who welcomes us is an accountant in a shipping company. He's putting his three daughters through university and works five hours a day at the airport lounge as a second job to 'help a little with the cash flow'. The eldest daughter is specializing in breast cancer research at Manchester. He shows us their photographs with a joy and pride that you could cut with a knife. Look around and life is full of folks celebrating small ... or not so small ... victories.
9 comments:
Welcome home, and I hope the jet lag passes quickly.
Safely home with wonderful memories. Puppy will be so pleased to see you both again. Now for your amazing sea and shore pictures!
Wendy (Wales)
What an adventure and thank you for sharing the fun. I imagine all three of the jack Russell hooligans will be happy of your return, but especially puppy.
Welcome home, after an epic journey.
So fun to experience new places but in the end, there's no place like home.
Some culture shock? Striking differences between Japan and Edinburgh. It must be lovely to stand still for a bit and soak up the comforts of home. We loved travelling with you and now look forward to catching up on all things local.
Hari Om
Safe hame. Now the unpacking... YAM xx
What a wonderful trip! Glad you're safely home.
I have enjoyed the photos of your vacation, and thank you for sharing them with us. Welcome home!
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